It is funny how people don’t really want to know things. I have been laughing that the media, and thus the majority of the general public, has been calling the real estate financing problem “Sub-Prime.”  The reality is, sub-prime mortgages were simply the catalyst or the first cards to drop in the house of cards. [...]

I was just reading the latest housing market commentary on the National Association of Realtors website. I had to chuckle a bit as the NAR commentary tries to paint the best picture of the housing market possible. I guess my perspective, knowing the financing/debt markets better than most average people, allows me to see through [...]

Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight Director James B. Lockhart announced yesterday that the maximum 2008 conforming loan limit for single-family mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) will remain at the 2007 level of $417,000 for one-unit properties for most of the U.S.
The conforming loan limit determines the [...]

FOMC Chairman, Ben Bernanke, is scheduled to speak on the Fed’s new talking points in just over an hour and a half.  I would expect the Chairman to say something like inflation is their primary concern (duh) and that they are slightly concerned still with revelations in the credit markets. At some point we will [...]

This is the first item I have read that is written by someone (well two people actually) that knows what they are talking about.  Most people today think that lowering the discount rate or the fed funds rate is going to save the US real estate markets….guess again Beavis. The only thing that should do, [...]

The Fed will be making an announcement tomorrow and the media as well as everyone else who doesn’t know what they are talking about, are hoping that they will announce a rate cut of some sort. While this will bring increased liquidity into the financial markets, it doesn’t mean the housing market will improve or [...]

According to the TBWS.com daily update:
Washington Mutual is to stop providing warehouse lending lines (ouch)
Option One (Sub Prime) is to cut 575 jobs
First Horizon to cut 1,500 jobs in their secondary division
Countrywide funded ~$34Billion in loans in August of 2007, off 17% from August of 2006
[tags]Mortgage, Market, Economy, Loans, Residential[/tags]

Rumors this morning that Citibank re-packager Lown Home (catchy name right?) is not funding loans anymore. This is just a rumor at this point, but I would suspect that their time in the market may be numbered based on what I have heard and read from a number of different sources.
[tags]sub prime, mortgage, economy, financing, [...]

What is seldom reported by our amazingly accurate media is that the NEW home sales figures do not include cancellations…which is what has been hurting big home developers recently.  The new home sales figures are bloated simply because they decide not to include deals that are no longer in contract…that makes sense.
Today, the National Association [...]

Well, I can smell blood in the water, and apparently B of A could as well. Yesterday’s late announcement that B of A would pick up $2B of Countrywide’s preferred stock (that means that if Countrywide goes under, preferred stock holders have access to assets) and the deal funded today.  Good pick up for BofA [...]