Housing Doom

Your Taxes At Work– Defending Former Fannie/Freddie Execs

twist — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:32:33 +0000

If you are frustrated because taxpayer money is bailing out the GSEs due to mortgages losses, how do you feel about taxpayer money defending former Fannie/Freddie execs? [Thanks L!] A watchdog agency said Wednesday that the legal tab for former leaders of mortgage finance giantsFannie Mae and Freddie Mac is at least $110 million. And taxpayers have paid at least $47 million of it, according to an Office of Inspector General of theFederal Housing Finance Agency report. And the total bill could...

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Have A Nice Ash Wednesday

John M. — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:01:29 +0000

The establishment of a false religion may be part of the natural process of a society destroying itself. Looks like, anyway. Last year IHOP jerked Shrove Tuesday back a week, this time they’ve yanked it forward seven days. What’s next, a Thursday? in August? Meanwhile Google News Search’s completion algorithm has embargoed Ash Wednesday and Lent, although the terms both complete in general Google Search. Traditional Christian congregations are dying like flies and although...

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Crack of Doom: Last Few Free

John M. — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:51:01 +0000

Advances in tease-ware succeeded in sucking a lot of the fun out of online browsing over the weekend. Google News brings up a promising candidate for a link to Doom’s sidebar and I click-through and start on the article. Eleven seconds in (that eleven courtesy of $millions of research by a psychology profession industry that surely has better things to do) I get something a bit unexpected: PAYWALL PUBS HOPES YOU HAVE ENJOYED READING YOUR LAST FEW FREE PREMIUM CONTENT ARTICLES —...

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Foreign Cenbank Holdings to February 15, 2012

John M. — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:31:09 +0000

Bloomberg (2/17 ’12): “Record $6 Trillion of Fake U.S. Bonds Seized” Italian anti-mafia prosecutors said they seized a record $6 trillion of allegedly fake U.S. Treasury bonds, an amount that’s almost half of the U.S.’s public debt. OK, enough fun, as Doom returns to the real fake bonds The “Fred” wolfed down $11.776 billion of new MBS holdings and foreign central banks in the aggregate consumed lots of new US obligations. Weird. This week’s Reuters report1...

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Housing Answers From 1935

twist — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:10:05 +0000

Earlier this month the Obama administration released their latest plan to speed the housing recovery by allowing underwater borrowers to refinance. While this will undoubtedly help a few people, in the long run, it will do nothing more than make it look like the administration is doing “something”. After all the schemes we see coming out of Washington, I thought it interesting that the best housing economic theory I’ve seen in print recently comes from a cartoon that was...

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Crack of Doom: What Was Stephen Thinking?

John M. — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:23:20 +0000

Doom North is having a hard time getting its head around this one (cute picture, but we hope that’s a clip-on tie!): CBC (2/13 ’12): “Community reaction to Harper’s China visit and panda pact” Prime Minister Stephen Harper has completed his relationship-building trip to China, during which he brokered agreements worth an estimated $3 billion dollars and secured the loan of two giant pandas. Here’s the other shoe: CBC “The Current” (2/13...

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Need Help With The Mortgage? Make Your House A Billboard

twist — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:45:22 +0000

With a bad economy and sinking home values, there are folks desperate to pay the mortgage. Desperate enough, in fact, to turn their home into a billboard: In return for allowing the front of their four-bedroom house to become a garish advertisement, the Hostetlers are getting their nearly $2,000 monthly mortgage paid by the marketing company behind the project, Brainiacs From Mars. In a residential neighborhood without heavy traffic, cars passing by the house slowed and drivers gawked at the...

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Foreign Cenbank Holdings to February 8, 2012

John M. — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:54:05 +0000

Reuters’ weather report is finally back for the first time since December, although the anonymous reporter has again lost the link to the NY Fed tables. Fed’s own MBS holdings grew a tiny $0.013 billion and foreign central banks’ holdings of agencies were flat. On the other hand, the treasuries number surged, leading Igor to wonder idly how much of the buy might have come out of Iranian official assets This week’s Reuters report1 is, as semi-usual, based on the weekly...

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States Negotiate Big Bucks Settlement With Banks– That Will Benefit Few Homeowners

twist — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:26:04 +0000

According to the New York Times, states have finally negotiated a settlement with large lenders over alleged foreclosure abuses: After months of painstaking talks, government authorities and five of the nation’s biggest banks have agreed to a $26 billion settlement that could provide relief to nearly two million current and former American homeowners harmed by the bursting of the housing bubble, state and federal officials said. It is part of a broad national settlement aimed at halting the...

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Deceased Man’s Body Lies In Vacant Home Four Years Before It Is Foreclosed On

twist — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:01:12 +0000

Unpaid mortgages aren’t the only reason homes are foreclosed on, they can also be foreclosed on for unpaid taxes. West Allis, Wisconsin was in no hurry to foreclose on a vacant home, leaving a deceased man undiscovered for four years. [Thanks L!] The body of a Wisconsin man was discovered inside his home more than four years after he reportedly killed himself with a handgun. The “nearly skeletonized body” of David Carter was discovered inside his home in January by a real...

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Zell: Government “Help” Has Hurt The Housing Market

twist — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:05:16 +0000

Here’s a great CNBC interview with Sam Zell on CNBC on what government “assistance” has done for the housing market. [Thanks L!] As sales languish and prices continue to fall, the head of Equity Group Investments and numerous other ventures pinned the blame on policies that refused to allow market forces to take hold. “Rather than let the elements of the business world take care of the problems, we basically stopped the process of creating market clearing,” Zell...

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Crack of Doom: Reinventing Scarcity?

John M. — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:01:19 +0000

CBC TV’s Sunday 10PM news package The National featured problems with libraries transitioning to e-readers, a dark contrast to the breathless promotion of this technology in today’s local fibre-based paper: Halifax Chronicle-Herald (2/5 ’12): “Of books and e-readers” The compelling question right now is which e-reader to buy — the Kindle or the Kobo? It’s not whether to make the leap, but choosing which to make the leap with … Well, there are lots of other...

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I had some financial problems. When Can I Buy A House?

twist — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:07:52 +0000

Poor L gets all kinds of real estate related spam, but he graciously sorts through it and sends the more interesting stuff. I did think that the following chart on “When Can I Buy A House”, sent out by an Arizona mortgage broker, might be interesting to some of our readers: If you go to the webpage, there’s info on how long after Chapter 13 as well. Of course, if you aren’t buying a house because you are still waiting for that job to come through (and...

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Foreign Cenbank Holdings to February 1, 2012

John M. — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:11:34 +0000

Oh dear, somebody tell Oda’s people to break out the crank-o-sign machine. Looks like we’re going to need a few more back-dated permissions, and it’s not just Kenney running amok this time. Wowsers, hadn’t been following the antics of the Thirteenth District / FRBO (you can say that again ) for a while, but yesterday the amero gap closed to just -4 bips. And you thought Keystone was dead, Igor: bwahaha! Fed’s own MBS holdings grew a meaningless $0.388 billion while...

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Crack of Doom: Last Tuesday?

John M. — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:01:30 +0000

Anonymous blogger Lexington wants tomorrow to be the last shot. Somewhere, Parker is starting to wonder why he even bothered. Related posts:Twist is off until Tuesday Chelsey B. Sullenberger III should sit really near Obama next Tuesday Crack of Doom: It's Dead, Jim Related posts:Twist is off until Tuesday Chelsey B. Sullenberger III should sit really near Obama next Tuesday Crack of Doom: It's Dead, Jim

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DEPART MEN ICE WASH

John M. — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:58:44 +0000

Sometimes the camera doesn’t lie (Onion-ready pic from the article, I’m so tempted to make it my desktop background): NYT (1/27 ’12): “New Fraud Investigation Group Issues Subpoenas to Financial Companies” Mr. Donovan said that a separate settlement being worked out between state attorneys general and mortgage servicing companies would not thwart the new group’s investigations, even if the settlement released companies from further law enforcement efforts related...

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Foreign Cenbank Holdings to January 25, 2012

John M. — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:17:40 +0000

News reader Peter Armstrong’s efforts this morning on CBC Radio 1 were most instructive. Someone important needs the GOP nomination process to come to a conclusion. Now. Well, the Fed’s own MBS holdings swung to a strong $11.810 billion reduction, but that might have simply been a few re-po’d chickens going back to roost at some banks that didn’t want to admit to owning the stuff during year-end reporting season Except for that it was a pretty dull week, with small...

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State Of The Union: Fannie and Freddie To Pick Up 2 to 3 Million Mortgages?

twist — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:26:23 +0000

I confess that I didn’t watch the State of the Union address last night. I don’t even like baloney in my sandwiches– I can’t take it in large quantities. I did however, read the summaries this morning, particularly the housing proposals. This is the one that stood out to me: Obama proposed that “every responsible homeowner” be able to refinance. The existing refinancing program (HARP) lets borrowers who are current on their mortgages refinance even if...

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Crack of Doom: Mayan Countdown

John M. — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:06:11 +0000

Here at Housing Doom blog we’re always on the lookout for really worst case scenarios, especially the ones where grownups, the MSM and recognized authorities all get together and say: “Why are we even bothering to debunk something that dumb?” Which is why we’ve got a soft spot in our heart (hearts for pet dragon Igor, head for yours truly) concerning the idea that a tidal wave is supposed to engulf Mt Everest at the next Winter solstice But on the other hand …...

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Foreign Cenbank Holdings to January 18, 2012

John M. — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:55:10 +0000

Following up on yesterday’s episode of the new reality TV show “Who Wants To Lead The World Through Years 5, 6, 7 and 8 Of The Present Long Depression” here is tomorrow’s skill testing question … Please Choose The Best Candidate: A) Pompous B) Wooden C) Fluffy D) Gone Igor thinks there’s a good chance “D” finishes better than fifth (sic), at least that’s how he’s voting At “the Fred”, America’s most solvent housing...

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New Decade — Tighter Standards?

John M. — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:15:20 +0000

Sometimes these guys are way too smart for their own good … Economist (1/19 ’12): “Perry exits” … You have to wonder why a man of such towering ignorance ever thought he had the right to aspire to the White House. Meanwhile, Igor credits WaPo with the most dangerous 51 seconds of MSM coverage yet in the present primary cycle. Plus 10 for [candidate's name redacted] if SC ever sees that one Related posts:CNBC Freudian Slip of the Decade Crack of Doom: The...

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Homeowner’s Loan Isn’t Modified, But Their Wallet Is Now Lighter

twist — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:01:43 +0000

Worried about losing your home to foreclosure? There are a number of companies out there that are willing to help you, or rather, help themselves to your money. [Thanks L!] If you want to try and modify your loan, pick up the phone and call your lender. You might be an amateur, but at least the price is right, and you can be confident that you have your best interests at heart. Related posts:And Now On a Lighter Note… Things Going From Bad To Worse For Zombie Homeowners Will Obama Force...

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Crack of Doom: What’s a Palmetto Anyway?

John M. — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:01:34 +0000

I’m not a US person, or at least not anymore, so Housing Doom’s pet dragon Igor had to clue me in about this plant that’s been in the news so much recently. It grows in South Carolina, and Igor also tells me that it’s there, over the next six days, that most of the juice of this year’s presidential election will be squeezed. Pollsters predict primary election or caucus outcomes by measuring the intentions of likely participants / voters, but this week’s...

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Foreign Cenbank Holdings to January 11, 2012

John M. — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 02:47:13 +0000

So Thursday the radio is carrying a promo for the new David Cronenberg film and today the library’s e-mail notification comes for Timothy Findey’s Pilgrim and I spend the afternoon reading the first few chapters. Oops! Just reviewed the comments under twist’s old post “Pheonix Realtors: Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Weird, especially considering the date. I’ve learned to appreciate that these co-incidence clusters (aka synchronicity, which given the context...

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Canada? Boring?

John M. — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:48:13 +0000

A headline worthy of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald’s Bill Smith, circa 1975 … CBC News (1/12 ’12): “Same-sex divorce options explored by Harper government” The mind boggles. Meanwhile, the foreign central banks continue to steadily reduce their holdings of US obligations … more on this in due course Related posts:Canada Crisis: the Sovereigns do Lunch Ground Zero Canada: Ottawa to Detoxify Original World Seed-Crisis by Monday — OR ELSE 1933-style Power...

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