Category Archives: housing

Are you stressed out about your mortgage payments? Do you have little or no equity in your home? Is your home sinking under the waves of the real estate crash? What if you could live payment free for up to … Continue reading →

I’m a little bit confused about all the pessimism surrounding today’s housing starts figures. Yes, they’re low – but remember we’re talking about starts here: people and businesses brave or foolhardy enough to start building brand-new homes in an economic … Continue reading →

I got some very interesting responses to my blog entry yesterday on mortgage brokers, in which I basically said that they were parasites on their way out who wouldn’t be missed. Ken Houghton reckons that there must be some good … Continue reading →

Ruth Simon has a huge piece in today’s WSJ on second liens: home equity loans and lines of credit which are junior to primary mortgages. These things can cause a lot of trouble for homeowners: "The people in the first … Continue reading →

"The broker model is broken," says Calculated Risk today, citing comments from Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan saying that delinquencies on broker-originated loans are three times higher than on loans originated in-house. What’s more, says Peter Paul Jackson of Housing … Continue reading →

Barry Ritholtz, econoblogger extraordinaire, fired harshly at Tyler Cowen, econoblogger extraordinaire, on Sunday, with a blog entry originally entitled "Tyler Cowen, Apologist for Fraud?". Ritholtz has since toned down the headline, but the substance of his criticism stands, and it’s … Continue reading →

I’m going to be on Fox Business this afternoon at 4pm, talking about the Countrywide acquisition. Befitting the channel’s "Wall Street meets Main Street" concept, I’m sure they’re going to ask me less about the finances of the deal and … Continue reading →

This is the worst website I’ve seen in a very long time. For one thing, it’s one of those websites which starts talking at you the minute you load it: turn your speakers off before you go there, if you … Continue reading →

A textbook case of jingle mail: I got an agreement of sale today from a realtor looking for a prequal on a shortsale , the buyer lives next door , he has a current mortgage for $800,000 on a home … Continue reading →

The Edge Annual Question this year asks a group of (mostly) scientists what they have changed their mind about and why. I’m no scientist, but this is as good an opportunity as any to make explicit two things, both mortgage-related, … Continue reading →

Have I mentioned of late how much I love my commenters? Many thanks to James Moore, who adds a very interesting twist to my obsession over the proportion of mortgages which are non-recourse. Moore gets straight to the heart of … Continue reading →

John Berry dedicates his Bloomberg column today to debunking exaggerated estimates of the magnitude of the subprime crisis. $300 billion, he asks? $400 billion? Pshaw. A more realistic amount is probably half or less than those exaggerated projections — say … Continue reading →

Paul Krugman, today: The explosion of “innovative” home lending that took place in the middle years of this decade was an unmitigated disaster… I use the words “unmitigated disaster” advisedly. Krugman says that the explosion in subprime lending did not … Continue reading →

Amidst all the breaking news today, you could be forgiven for not having time to notice the big WSJ article on kickbacks from property sellers to buyers – kickbacks which serve to overstate house-price indices and severely damage the balance … Continue reading →

I had some harsh words last week for Peter Schiff, which prompted a comment from Jack: Taking on Schiff? Get ready for a barrage of hate mail from him and his lackeys! In fact, I got no hate mail at … Continue reading →