Tom Ferguson on America for Sale. Tom Ferguson is my favorite curmudgeon and if you listen to this podcast from Radio Free Dylan [Ratigan], you are likely to join his fan club.
Ferguson is a political scientist who is both a serious archivist (which means he has found how the official accounts have been doctored to flatter the victors) and is an astute observer of national and state politics. An excerpt from the transcript of the podcast: Tom: They stuck posted prices on their committee assignments and the slots on those committees, like committee chairs and party leaderships posts. You want the job, you write the cash and buy it at the price. You know, my memory on this is that in 2008, the Democrats wanted for major committee chairs, they wanted $400,000 in contributions and another $200,000 in promises to fundraise.
Tom: Well, look, that’s hard to tell from the outside, usually. Why Home Prices Have Much Further To Fall. Why Home Prices Have Much Further To Fall By Lance Roberts of Streettalk Live January 25, 2012.
Glaeser: Don’t Count on Housing Market to Lead Recovery. What will the New Year bring for housing markets?
Prediction is a perilous business, but history and basic housing economics suggest that price changes will stay modest, and that construction will increase only slowly. The best that can be said about the current market is that it offers abundant affordability and that the broader economic recovery doesn’t depend on a big housing rebound.
The most recent S&P/Case-Shiller housing-price data show a second month of seasonally adjusted price declines. The overall 20-city index dropped about 3.4 percent from October 2010 to October 2011, after falling less than one percentage point during the previous year. In nominal terms, the 20-city index is at the lowest point since March 2003, and in real terms, we’re below where we were in October 2001. When it comes to housing prices, it hasn’t just been a lost decade: Many metropolitan areas have had two lost decades. Price Gains Anemic Growth. Why Home Prices Have Much Further To Fall. Housing Is Not Affordable. The media has been replete with commentary lately about the bottom in housing and the coming recovery in 2012.
Of course, this is the same siren's song that we heard in 2010 and 2011 and many a soul were dashed against the rocks of further declines. Real Estate 4 Ransom documentary trailer. Bank Delays May Push 1 Million U.S. Foreclosure Filings to 2012. Lender delays in processing home- loan defaults will push as many as 1 million U.S. foreclosure filings from this year to 2012 or beyond, casting an “ominous shadow” on the housing market, according to RealtyTrac Inc.
The number of properties receiving a notice of default, auction or repossession plunged 29 percent in the first half of 2011 from the same period last year, the Irvine, California- based data seller said today in a report. About 1.17 million homes got a filing, or one out of every 111 households. Procedural delays caused by a probe into bank documentation errors, combined with weak consumer sentiment and a jobless rate above 9 percent, are weighing on a property recovery by adding to a backlog of distressed homes, RealtyTrac said. A clogged foreclosure pipeline may prevent real estate prices from finding a bottom as the housing slump enters its sixth year. 3.2 Million Forecast. Quelle Surprise! The Banks Lied and Robosigning Lives! We’ve heard numerous bank executives swear piously before Congressional hearings that those “paperwork problems” that led major servicers to halt or slow foreclosures on a widespread basis last year were “mistakes”.
That was already a really big lies, since “mistake” means the practice was not deliberate and was presumably isolated, when in fact robosigning was a widespread, institutionalized practice. 14 major servicers then swore in consent orders earlier this year that they’d stop doing all that bad stuff. But with compliance weak (the banks get to hire the overseers!) , they appear to have decided they don’t need to change their ways all that much. Indeed, the record of consent orders is underwhelming; for instance, both Nevada and Arizona are suing Countrywide for violations of past agreements. Two stories were published yesterday, one a long form Reuters investigation (hat tip April Charney), the other a shorter report by AP (hat tip Lisa Epstein and Daniel Pennell).
20 Startling Facts About the US Housing Market. Priced In Gold, Is Housing A Buy? Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds Priced in Gold, Is Housing a Buy?
What is the relative value of housing if we price it in ounces of gold? My basic point of view is that nominal prices and broad terms such as deflation, inflation and growth should be viewed with extreme skepticism. The more useful approach is to examine the purchasing power of various assets and the the purchasing power of the income streams generated by those assets. Put another way: to value housing, let's compare the price of a house priced in loaves of bread, or ounces of gold, or barrels of oil to historical norms.