"Home prices may be starting to melt up. That means that fewer homeowners will have negative equity in their homes and more of them will have less of it. [...] The median existing single-family home price rose 10.9% y/y during December, the best performance since January 2006. This is happening because the supply of existing homes available for sale dropped last month to the lowest since January 2001." Continue reading →
"One key reason for the discrepancy is the legal process for foreclosing on a home, explains Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Michelle Meyer. 'Broadly, states with a non-judicial process witnessed a sharper decline in home prices at the beginning of the downturn, but are currently enjoying price appreciation,' said Meyer recently. 'This is due to a more efficient disposition of delinquent supply, leaving lean inventory in many markets. In contrast, states with a judicial process are still struggling to clear the pipeline of distressed loans. As a result, home prices in the Chicago and New York metro areas have continued to edge lower.'" Continue reading →
"Speculative bubbles often produce an 'echo boom' a few years after the bubble has burst, as the cultural/institutional memories of the asset's spectacular gains remain operative long after the initial boom/bust. Is the much-hyped housing recovery an organic, sustainable trend, or is it merely a speculation-driven echo boom that is doomed to fade?" Continue reading →
"Compare all state foreclosure timelines on this simple one-page chart and click on any state name to read about detailed foreclosure procedures for that state. Before continuing, please note that if you're currently facing or potentially facing foreclosure, you probably have a handful of foreclosure questions. We have a Frequently Asked Questions section that can help." Continue reading →
"'The housing market has been declining for something like six years now, it could go on, that’s my worry,' Shiller said in Davos, Switzerland. 'The short-term indicators are up now, it definitely looks better, but we saw that in 2009.' 'It’s a good housing market in the sense that mortgage rates are very low and prices have come down to normal levels, so yes, it’s a good time to buy if nothing bad happens,' Shiller said. 'But it’s also a very bad housing market in that most of the mortgages are being supported by the government, and we have the Fed and this buying program. It’s a very abnormal market. There’s a lot of uncertainty going forward.'" Continue reading →
"Banks are letting delinquent borrowers squat rather than foreclosing on them and booting them out. At first, it was a self-preservation measure by the banks taken out of desperation when the first wave of foreclosures caused prices to crash. However, now the banks are content to allow squatting, even for years, because squatters do not become MLS supply weighing down prices. The houses occupied by squatters are effectively removed from the market creating an artificial shortage. The lack of MLS homes for sale and high affordability is causing prices to rise, and as prices go up, banks have collateral backing on their bad loans." Continue reading →
"The 23-year-old has moved into an empty $2.5 million mansion in a posh Boca Raton neighborhood, using an obscure Florida real estate law to stake his claim on the foreclosed waterside property. The police can't move him. No one saw him breaking into the 5-bedroom house, so it's a civil matter. And representatives for the real owner, Bank of America, said they are aware of the situation and are following a legal process. Sunrise real estate lawyer Gary Singer said Barbosa is invoking a state law called 'adverse possession,' which allows someone to move into a property and claim the title — if they can stay there seven years." Continue reading →
"A California man who failed to pay his property taxes for over five years has finally come up with the money — but he made local tax office workers count nearly $15,000 worth of change and dollar bills. Larry Gasper of Redding, Calif. brought in a wheelbarrow and two buckets worth of coins and cash to the Shasta County Tax Collector’s Office on Wednesday afternoon. Gasper rolled and collected the coins and bills until he had enough to clear his debt. If Gasper had not paid the bill, his property would have been auctioned off next month. He said he lost his tree business a couple of years ago." Continue reading →
"Federal Reserve officials in August 2007 saw the beginnings of the crisis in subprime mortgages and concluded that the U.S. economy would be able to withstand it, even as some Fed members warned that it could trigger a downturn, transcripts from their 2007 meetings show. The transcripts show the committee's slow grasp of the enormity of contagion that was to spread throughout global markets as a result of billions of dollars in low-quality housing assets that had been securitized into bonds and sold to banks and investors worldwide. The FOMC focused on the economy's performance and showed reluctance to alter policy until August." Continue reading →
"Coordinated, easy monetary policy among the world’s central banks has been a key driver of asset values. That much is undeniable. I have highlighted multiple markets — from junk bonds to farmland to emerging market bonds — where bubblicious activity is rearing its ugly head again as a result, just as it did in previous periods of overly aggressive policy easing. We know this doesn’t end well. The only question is timing." Continue reading →