Housing Intelligence

 

It’s Monday, Fannie and Freddie have both been rebranded as "Feddie" and housing is going to the dogs, I mean cats: [Thanks M!]

Cats on a bank-owned roof: Bobcats claim foreclosed house

The foreclosure market is getting wild in Lake Elsinore: "Taking advantage of a slump in local real estate, a family of bobcats has moved into a foreclosed Lake Elsinore home, lolling about on fences and walls...

In my ramblings around the web I ran across this "Phoenix Foreclosure Flip Case Study".  The agent who posted it said:

This is a case study of some of the real estate investment opportunities in the Phoenix Metro Area. This home was purchased in Gilbert Arizona in foreclosure and was fixed up and flipped for a profit.

 

I was curious and decided to see if I could figure out what kind of pr...

The WSJ’s Real-Time Economics blog posted copies of internal emails distributed to Freddie Mac employees by former CEO Richard Syron and new CEO David Moffett. Moffett’s best points: I can only imagine the pressure you have been under, and the frustrations you must have felt in recent weeks. This has been a difficult and draining period for [...]

In three parts (all about 10 minutes each). "Our economy and our markets will not recover until the bulk of this housing correction is behind us." Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Sept 7, 2008 (see part 2)

The Real Deal magazine’s New Development Forum at Lincoln Center was sold out at the 3,000 capacity venue last year. For lack of a better description, it was fun.

So this year, I was more than happy to help spread the word (all 3 seconds worth). The ad is running hourly on CNBC on Time Warner Cable and on NY1.

Since Publisher Amir Korangy knows how to pack content into his magazine, there’s no doubt he’ll pack ‘em into Lincoln Center for another sell out. He lined up a group of interesting guests and with the housing and credit markets in turmoil, this event will prove especially informative.

To buy tickets

From the WSJ: Washington Mutual Forces Out CEO [CEO Kerry] Killinger's departure after 18 years of running the nation's largest savings and loan is scheduled to be announced Monday morning before the market opens.

You would think after seeing the reports that the housing market in California has gone to the dogs. But now we know that instead the cats have taken over. Bobcats that is.

A Tuscany Hills home in the foothills of Lake Elsinore that has been sitting vacant for the past 6 months have a new family of bobcats squatting. I bet the neighbors are thrilled.

Residents of the development got their first...

When the Paulson Plan was announced in mid-July, my initial reaction was: It seems the plan is bad for equity holders, but good for debt holders ... and potentially bad for taxpayers ...Nothing has changed. Although the common shares will continue to trade, they are further behind with new senior preferred shares being issued to the Treasury. And even if the common is worth something again

Just how bad is the Fannie/Freddie situation? Back in July, according to a CNN.com article, Ben Bernanke assured us that these two GSEs were just fine:

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday that troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in "no danger of failing."

The two mortgage giants are "adequately capitalized," Bernanke said. How...

September 7 will now be remembered as the day the U.S. government took over the mortgage market. What that means for financial markets going forward has never been less certain. This is no longer the worst mortgage crisis since the Great Depression; this is the worst mortgage crisis, period. It’s also the end of an era. [...]