Here is an interesting piece of information about the US housing market: The high-end market, in particular, is under tremendous pressure. In fact, it is becoming non-existent. Guess how many homes prices above $750k managed to sell in July. Answer — zero, nada, rien; and for the second month in [...]

The black hole of government marches on. Both Fannie and Freddie, now effectively owned by the government, continue to struggle.  Alan Zibel reports on their recent performance: Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have both lost tens of billions of dollars during the past two years and both are asking [...]

Mish has written a disconcerting piece on China’s lending bubble as it relates to real estate. China’s housing market valuations are much worse than ours were at the peak. In Beijing, housing values are 22 times incomes. A quote from one of Mish’s sources states: A 90-square-metre (968-square-foot) apartment in [...]

The pollyannas continue to claim there is an economic recovery underway. Hapless Joe Biden shamelessly tells us how many jobs were saved by the Administration. Apparently he and others of his ilk believe that people are unable to see or think. Certainly that impression is consistent with their desire to [...]

The rich may get richer, but not always. It also seems that the rich or near-rich have overextended themselves in the housing markets. Housing problems have definitely moved up into higher value homes. From Michael David White comes the following: A quiet revolution has hit wealthy neighborhoods: financial failure. The [...]

Jim Sinclair describes the recovery cheerleading: It seems every day I watch mainstream media there is a discussion about the ongoing so- called “recovery.”  Yesterday was no exception.  I was watching an anchor on MSNBC ask a guest why the “recovery” is so uneven and why it was hard to [...]

The Law of Unintended Consequences is omnipresent but seems to be hyperactive with respect to government programs. Calculated Risk deals with the effects of intervention in the housing market. When the government stepped into the housing crisis, it was inevitable that perverse incentives would be created: One of unintended consequences [...]

We are totally lost with leadership like this. Everyone of these fools should be voted out (or tarred and feathered). It is time to wake up and realize that we are insolvent and that the welfare state has failed. It must be (and will be) rolled back and the entire [...]

Whether or not you believe the economy has turned the corner might depend upon your views on how distorting the Hamp and other housing programs have been on economic behavior. The issue is discussed from both sides in this post at  The Washington Independent. The issue is how much the [...]

Is this the reason why the Fed requires secrecy? So now we know that Greenspan and Bernanke are not idiots. The Fed knew about the housing bubble as early as March 2004 and deliberately hid it from citizens. Never mind all the BS that came from Greenspan and Bernanke. The organization [...]

Fannie Mae Loses $18 BILLION, Needs $15 BILLION More In Aid from The Business Insider by Joe Weisenthal Just to be clear, Fannie Mae (FNM) is still a total sinkhole.————- WASHINGTON (AP) — Fannie Mae is asking for an additional $15 billion in government aid after posting another big loss [...]

A recent post on The Housing Recovery dealt with the problems of foreclosures and their effects on housing. Specifically, the homes in foreclosure and expected to soon be in foreclosure represent almost nine years supply at the current rate of sales transactions. Not counted in the above calculation are the [...]

For anyone believing that the housing crisis is past or that housing prices have bottomed, the following from Financial Armageddon should wake you up: Economic theory has it that prices tend to rise when demand exceeds supply. But when the potential inventory of homes for sale by banks — which [...]

To understand just how serious (and hopeless) the attempt to cover up the housing crisis, read “The Government’s Loan Mod Bizarro World“. It reflects both the desperation and the futility of the government to design programs to “extend and pretend” the inevitable. Even after the HAMP adjustments to mortgages, the [...]

The distribution of wealth in the US has both shrunk and changed dramatically as a result of the economic crisis. The middle class, with much of their accumulated wealth in equity in their homes, has become substantially poorer. The following chart from “Housing and the End of Upward Mobility in the [...]

Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia Obama announced his new budget, which exceeded most people’s expectations regarding spending. The deficit is likely to be worse than projected because of rosy revenue assumptions. Today WaPo announces that serious problems are developing in the FHA: The share of borrowers who are falling [...]

Corruption, Ineptness and Duplicity — The Description of  Washington, DC For anyone still under the delusion that the government is actually a neutral referee or that we will get out of this crisis in any reasonable time or manner, the following is an absolute must-read. The financial sector has been [...]

Just another example of how good intentions mean nothing! When people speak of “good intentions” they are talking about a failed program. Almost every government program, upon evaluation, includes the phrase “good intentions” or its equivalent. A reasonable rule of thumb regarding government programs is to identify the objective and [...]

Kicking the Can Down the Road If you believe that the housing market is improving, it might be understandable given the “pumping” provided by main-stream media, CNBC, government officials and Federal Reserve statements. However, you might want to look at government actions rather than propaganda. On Christmas eve, after the [...]

FDIC Fire Sale! 11 Homes For Under $10,000 (PHOTOS) From the Huffington Post: “But for our readers with a slightly tighter budget, we’ve compiled a list of some of the cheapest homes — all $10,000 or less — across the country. One Chicago house, sold for $280,000 two years ago, [...]

This post is older, but classical in its approach to the housing crisis. It sheds light on how the crisis started and grew, and why government intervention will hurt rather than help. It is a good, elementary exercise in understanding economics. Government Intervention Is Needed to Solve the Housing Crisis? [...]

Here is a perfect description of our housing crisis. The only thing missing is a reference to “liar loans.” The author should be forgiven for the absence of this minor detail because the quote is over sixty years old. Given the character and integrity of Henry Hazlitt, it was probably [...]

The Fed balance sheet continues to weaken as it attempts, in vain, to support the housing market. No exit strategy will appear until the economy collapses. The Fed will stop, or rather be stopped, only when the country is so hopelessly in debt that no one will buy Treasuries. The [...]

There is little doubt in my mind that we are heading for a train wreck. The timing and catalyst that trigger this reaction are much more difficult to determine. The potential catalysts are many, any one of which would trigger the wreck. A dollar crisis or a Treasury fund-raising crisis [...]