The Irvine Housing Blog has an example of the squatter stimulus (homeowners living in their homes and not paying the mortgage): One Defaulting Owner’s Free Ride: Three Years and Counting (ht ghostfaceinvestah) Freeloaders enjoying the entitled life are not confined to subprime areas. Today's featured property may be the worst case of housing entitlement […]
From Alana Semuels at the LA Times: More homeowners are opting for 'strategic defaults'Joseph Shull, a 68-year-old marketing professor, said he's planning to walk away from the town house he bought in Moorpark in June 2006."I'm angry, and there are a lot of people like me who are angry," he said.He purchased the home for $410,00 […]
The MBA reports: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly SurveyThe Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 1.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. ...The Refinance Index decreased 1.7 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 2.3 percent f […]
Feb PPI fell .6% headline vs expectations of a drop of .2% but the core gain of .1% was right in line with forecasts. The headline figure was led lower by a 2.9% fall in energy prices (led by gasoline) while food prices rose .4%. Energy prices have since reversed, with gasoline in particular at [...] […]
The BoJ and FOMC, BFF. Overnight, the BoJ held hands with the FOMC in keeping rates at virtually zero. They also expanded its 3 month credit program to 20t yen from 10t. Japanese stocks rallied and the yen is down but 10 yr JGB’s are little changed. Commodity prices are rallying in response. Chinese stocks [...] […]
One of the things I hate about a secular bull market — especially towards its rampaging tail end — is how everyone and everything gets silly. Money and champagne flows, conspicuous consumption is on full display. I recall people — literally — dancing on bars during the late 90s in NYC. To be sure, [...] […]
How about this for a new and ingenious real estate money machine? Every time a house sells during the next 99 years, 1 percent of the price goes back to the original developer or is shared among investor partners. Ka-ching! […]