Arizona Real Estate Notebook

I think government policies were a top cause of the real estate boom, bust and the family tragedies that followed. [T]he political response to rising inequality—whether carefully planned or the path of least resistance—was to expand lending to households, especially low-income households. The benefits—growing consumption and more jobs—were immediate, whereas paying the inevitable bill could [...]

Wall Street Journal. … an investment fund managed by veteran mortgage-bond trader Lewis Ranieri, acquired the loan at a deep discount and renegotiated the terms with the Reynolds. The balance due was cut to $243,182 from $421,731, and the interest rate was lowered. That reduced the monthly payment to $1,573 from $3,464, allowing the family [...]

After you get that house under contract, don’t go out and buy a lot of furniture. Big purchases done on credit could push your total borrowings so high that you no longer qualify to get that previously approved home loan! Yep, your mortgage company will check your credit again right before closing. Next, try not [...]

This article is so true, Can We Please Be Honest About Fannie And Freddie? They Now Exist To Make Houses More Expensive. The goal of Fannie and Freddie was to make home ownership more affordable. Now their goal is to prevent homes from becoming more affordable. It’s the perfect self-perpetuating government program!

My Realtor friend Chris Butterworth has a nice and quick analysis of the U.S. mortgage loan delinquency trends on this blog, The Phoenix Real Estate Agents.

Arizona Real Estate Notebook, December 2008 FWIW, I think it’s a very real possibility that by the time the government and/or banks hit upon a good program and then gear up to implement that program, that the housing bust will be long over. That holds up pretty well nearly two years later.

Whew! I was starting to wonder if I was too optimistic in this post discussing the Arizona Republic‘s pessimistic front page article on Phoenix home prices. In conclusion, the latest data from the local MLS shows prices are expected to be pretty similar to where they were last year at this time for metro Phoenix [...]

They didn’t touch Fannie and Freddie reform during the Financial Regulatory Reform debate so why would they bring up this a hot potato right before the election? In my opinion, this meeting is just political kabuki to show they are “working hard” and “making tough decisions” but they won’t actually do anything until the next [...]

I gotta go look at the raw data at The Cromford Report, but this looks worse than I expected. I thought Phoenix home prices would likely fall July through January but I didn’t think we would test the April 2009 lows. From my July post; I worry about two things; 1) the $8,000 first-time home [...]

Economic geeks should watch it all. It’s the most cogent analysis I’ve heard of the current U.S. and global economic situation. Just keep in mind that Roubini is a perma-bear and he was much too pessimistic in the spring and early summer of 2009. Nevertheless, he has been right about a lot of things too. [...]

I’m surprised it took so long to repossess Ten Wine Lofts in Scottsdale. Last I saw them they were on a Realtor tour in 2007 or 2008 but were still not quite finished (that’s a very bad sign for a luxury project) and seemed shockingly expensive even to us Realtors. Here’s a quote from my [...]

I don’t see how they can forecast 8,500 single-family home building permits for all of 2010 when only 4,118 permits were issued in the first half of 2010, that’s the $8,000-first-time-home-buyer-tax-credit half of 2010. But I don’t follow building permits so maybe I’m being too picky. Nevertheless, 2010 will be “the slowest year for housing [...]