Strib’s Buchta Dissects ForeclosuresThe Star Tribune’s Jim Buchta has a nice piece in Wednesday’s paper titled “Foreclosures Not Dwindling” (Star Tribune; 11/12/08). Interestingly, the same piece online today is titled, “Bits of Good News Surface for Twin Cities Housing Market.” http://www.startribune.com/homes/34308234.html?elr=KArksUUUU Buchta notes many of the points I made in my Oct. 30 post, “A...Read More
Only One Bird in the Bush — or None?Floyd Norris notes in his blog today that Intel shares are now back to where they were twelve years ago (“Approaching New Lows”; The New York Times, 11/13/08). Tell me about it. Here’s what I posted on his blog in response: Intel shares I purchased in the...Read More
Financial “Reptiles” vs. “Mammals”(Guess which Goldman Sachs is)American Express’ hastily approved move to turn itself into a bank holding company, like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley before it, appears to be about two things: 1) positioning itself for federal largesse, current and prospective; and 2) insulating itself from the vicissitudes of the short-term credit markets...Read More
Realtors, like Politicians, Also Have “Capital”When an elected official is said to have a lot of political capital, what do they mean? That they have a big store of accumulated authority and goodwill to advance their legislative agenda, whatever it is. Similarly, realtors also have capital. The difference is that their “agenda” is to sell...Read More
Stricter Underwriting Standards:Dotting “i’s” — lots and lots of “i’s” Until recently, once the appraisal was completed and the amount supported the purchase price, it was very unusual to hear more from the underwriter. But that’s clearly changed. One of the biggest consequences of spiking mortgage defaults is tighter lending and underwriting standards. For home...Read More
Next: Defusing the Option-ARM Time Bomb As if enough shoes hadn’t already fallen on the beleaguered national housing market, there is still one, very big one left: the option-ARM bomb, er, shoe. To recap, first came the now-infamous, sub-prime “Liar Loans”: low or no-doc loans to borrowers with poor credit, putting nothing down, to buy...Read More
