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 |
More Videos
#DIANAOLICK ON TWITTER
- As Mortgage Refinancings Surge, Banks Struggle
- Forty States Sign On to Foreclosure ‘Robo’ Settlement
- Running Robo-Settlement Numbers
- Own vs. Rent Riles Government Housing Policy
- Obama's Mortgage Refi Plan to Go Through FHA
- Housing Demand Defies Fundamentals
- US Treasury Forcing Mortgage Principal Forgiveness
- Robo-Reality: Final Foreclosures Fall as Pipeline Swells
- New Financial Crimes Unit Could Throw Wrench in ‘Robo’ Settlement
- President Obama Proposes Mortgage Refinances for 'Responsible Borrowers'
MOST SHARED
- As Mortgage Refinancings Surge, Banks Struggle
- W Hotels 'Fashion Next' Partnership to Hit the Runway
- Forget the Earnings, Disney’s Issue Is the Multiple: Analyst
- How to Date a Wall Street Man
- Global Markets Update: Cisco & Groupon Later Today
- Christakos: Getting Ready to Retire? Start by Rightsizing Your Home
- How Low Can Natural Gas Prices Go?
- Can Anybody Be an Entrepreneur?
- If The Federal Reserve Is Abolished, What Then?
- ECB to Leave Rates Unchanged Ahead of More Loans
- Forget the Earnings, Disney’s Issue Is the Multiple: Analyst
- W Hotels 'Fashion Next' Partnership to Hit the Runway
- Drug Stocks Do Well in ‘Gloom and Doom’ Market: Analyst
- US Auto Industry Made Stronger by Increase in Exports
- Christakos: Getting Ready to Retire? Start by Rightsizing Your Home
- Stocks on the Move Now: Caesars Entertainment Soars
- 6 Stocks Unworthy of Biotech Bull Market
- Morici: Curb Trade Deficit, Rev Up Oil to Engineer More Growth and Jobs
- Disney’s Earnings Beat; CEO Bob Iger Talks Piracy, Parks
- Stock Market's Three-Year Rally Has Fed to Thank
- Greece Keeps Promising Reform, But Few Believe It
- As Mortgage Refinancings Surge, Banks Struggle
- Government Bailout Actually Hurt Housing Recovery: Zell
- What the New 401(k) Rules Mean for Your Savings
- 12 Unique Dating Sites
- Companies Finding Older Workers to Be More Reliable
- New York Housing Market Could Still Collapse: Analyst
- College for Free? There's One Place Where You Can
RSS FEED
Realty Check
Text Size 
Behind All The Problems, It's Still About Foreclosures
 |
Hope for Homeowners gives the FHA the authority to back 300 billion dollars worth of restructured loans, if, among other things, the lenders voluntarily agree to drop the value of the principal to 90 percent of the home's current value.
But with the 700 billion dollar bailout also in gear, which includes the government buying whole loans and bundles of loans owned by banks, I’m hearing that many banks and lenders are choosing to hold off on modifying or restructuring loans--thinking they might get a better deal from the bailout.
Banks are also holding off on selling foreclosed properties and doing short sales, again hoping to get a better deal on those as well (short sales are when the bank agrees to let the owner sell the home for less than the value of the mortgage, which can cost less than foreclosure).
On top of all that, mortgage rates are climbing, which could make things even tougher for those troubled borrowers still trying to get help on their loans. Why are they rising? All has to do with fear and treasury spreads. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense since the government is selling all these treasuries, causing the spread between Fannie and Freddie, but Fannie and Freddie are now owned by the government, mostly. Ah, the new landscape.
Someday, someone is going to realize that behind all these credit woes and credit bailouts and emergency international liquidity bonanzas are still a whole lot of foreclosure signs, and they don’t seem to be coming down any time soon.
The Fed's trying to create liquidity everywhere, but somehow not into mortgages.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
