It is hard not to get dispirited by data from the housing world. The national median housing price is down an unprecedented 16% from the second quarter of 2006 through the 1st Quarter of 2008. Not since the Great Depression have we seen declines of this magnitude. (more...)
Angelo Mozilo, CEO and founder of Countrywide Financial, is probably in for a bad year. Among his other worries, he has just been sued by the State of Illinois, which was then joined by the State of California. I have not seen the Complaint (civil) but according to a New York Times article the Illinois Attorney General "asked that Mr. Mozilo
This morning President Bush signed into law the American Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 – our Government's attempt to address the housing and credit crisis. The centerpiece of the new law is a $300 billion authorization to the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to guarantee new first mortgage loans if and when: (i) an existing
It is really tough to be a real estate commentator these days. I have been writing about real estate issues for almost thirty years and rarely have I experienced periods of such turmoil and chaos: 1. A magnitude of housing price declines unlike anything we have seen since the Great Depression. (more...)
The Market: Needless to say, the residential real estate market has gotten a tremendous amount of press lately. After a decade of rising prices, the media began to ask (over and over and over) whether price increases could continue, and eventually created anxiety in the minds of buyers. As a result, a self-fulfilling prophecy: sales got sluggish
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