Current Housing Indicators |
| CURRENT | PREVIOUS | ||
| Existing Home Sales | 4.49m | ▼ | 4.74m |
| New Home Sales | 309,000 | ▼ | 344,000 |
| Housing Starts | 583,000 | ▲ | 477,000 |
| Building Permits | 547,000 | ▲ | 531,000 |
| HMI | 9 | UNCH | 9 |
| Existing Home Prices | $170,300 | ▼ (annually) | $199,800 |
| New Home Prices | $201,100 | ▼ (annually) | $232,400 |
- Underwater Mortgages Could Sink Even Deeper
- First Time Buyers Rescue Housing: Realtors
- Housing Recovery 'Still In Uncharted Territory': HUD Secretary
- Shadow Inventory Dwarfs Loan Mods
- The Battered Businesses Behind Housing
- Watch Foreclosures, Seriously
- Home Buyer Tax Credit Expansion Heads to Obama
- Congratulations America, We're All Landlords Now
- Wells Fargo Bets on Housing Recovery
- Home Buyer Tax Credit Done: Does it Matter?
MOST SHARED
- Stocks Overvalued, Recession Will Return: Meredith Whitney
- Has Twitter's Finest Hours (Seconds) Come and Gone?
- Fed Likely to Keep Rates Low Despite Dollar's Fall: Bernanke
- U.S. May Wind Up Green With Envy
- BofA Ex-Counsel: I Was 'Stunned' When I Got Fired
- Bernanke Offers Something For Everyone
- U.S. Cities With The Most Underwater Mortgages
- What's Kept the Rally Going? Investor Fear, Not Confidence
- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Almost Doubles Wal-Mart Holdings During Summer
- Stanford Receiver to Release Funds Of Frozen Acounts
- 5 Ways to Play the Chinese Markets: Analyst
- Meredith Whitney: Turns Bearish
- 3 Stock Plays on Rising College Costs
- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Almost Doubles Wal-Mart Holdings During Summer
- Nov. 16: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Getting to the Heart of the Merck-Abbott Embargo Break
- What MGM's Sale Could Say About Value of Content
- My Ratings on Lowe's & Home Depot: Analyst
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- Gates Boosts Waste Management, Coca Cola Stakes
- Stocks Overvalued; Recession to Return: Whitney
- What's Kept Stock Rally Going? Fear, Not Confidence
- Fed to Keep Rates Low Despite Dollar's Fall: Bernanke
- Millions Could Have to Repay Part of Obama's Tax Credit
- Hollywood Turns to Porn as Unemployment Rises
- Slideshow: US Cities With Most Underwater Mortgages
- Solar Energy Emerges From a Dark Period
- Gold Is in a 'Bubble' And Will Keep Going Higher: Gartman
RSS FEED
Realty Check
![]() |
AP Henry Paulson |
Today’s “Project Lifeline” (who names this stuff?) gives borrowers who are about to lose their homes thirty more days to try to work something out. My question is why did we need a press conference and a title to do something that lenders should probably be doing in the first place.
I’ve been hearing from a lot of folks on the front lines of so-called “modifications” and “workouts” that one of the biggest impediments to success is the sheer volume of people requesting help and the lack of resources and time. So now they get 30 more days. Ok.
But then I have this other problem, and that is the moral limit to all this. It seems like every day we hear about a new plan to “help” more borrowers stay in homes that are far above their economic means.
I was a little taken aback today when I put the question to the Secy. Paulson:
Me: Where in your mind is the moral limit to all this?
Paulson: We’ve never argued that this will help everyone or that it should. You’ve heard me describe the fast track modification process as a way to prevent a market failure.
Yep, in all that talk about saving the “silent suffering” the fact is, that this is a way to save the housing market and all the investors who bought into mortgage-backed securities.
I’m not arguing whether that’s right or wrong, I’d just like everyone to start saying what this actually is: a mortgage market that invented some dicey, dare I say, faulty products and a whole bunch of borrowers who bought into those products, some knowingly and some unknowingly, without choosing to look at all the “what ifs” involved.
Questions? Comments?








