Thread: U.S. Housing

It's not nearly over yet....this could take many years.

About half of U.S. mortgages seen underwater by 2011

By Al Yoon Al Yoon – Wed Aug 5, 5:12 pm ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The percentage of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their house is worth will nearly double to 48 percent in 2011 from 26 percent at the end of March, portending another blow to the housing market, Deutsche Bank said on Wednesday.

Home price declines will have their biggest impact on prime "conforming" loans that meet underwriting and size guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bank said in a report. Prime conforming loans make up two-thirds of mortgages, and are typically less risky because of stringent requirements.


"We project the next phase of the housing decline will have a far greater impact on prime borrowers," Deutsche analysts Karen Weaver and Ying Shen said in the report.


Of prime conforming loans, 41 percent will be "underwater" by the first quarter of 2011, up from 16 percent at the end of the first quarter 2009, it said. Forty-six percent of prime jumbo loans will be larger than their properties' value, up from 29 percent, it said.

Link & Entire: About half of U.S. mortgages seen underwater by 2011 - Yahoo! News

Houses getting smaller. Over the last decades the family got smaller but houses got bigger. Leads to higher prices. "Bigger is better?" Not.

The incredible shrinking home

The size of newly built homes fell in 2008 for the first time in almost 15 years. Is the McMansion era on the wane?

By Les Christie, CNNmoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: August 11, 2009: 3:03 PM ET


Million-dollar misses

These luxury homes have been stuck on the market for months. View photos


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- For the first time in almost 15 years, the size of new homes built in the United States is shrinking.

New homes are now 7% smaller -- or the size of one average-sized room. To be precise, the median square footage of newly built homes fell to 2,065 square feet in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
This caps off 2008, when home size fell every quarter, marking first year of declines since 1994. That could indicate that the romance between Americans and morbidly obese McMansions has finally cooled.

"A new ethic is arising right now that will become commonplace -- as commonplace as is recycling today, when just a few decades ago it was rarely, if ever, done," said Sarah Susanka, author of the book, "The Not So Big House."

"As more and more people build or remodel homes that satisfy in quality rather than quantity, there will be a huge shift in what we perceive as desirable."

Link: The incredible shrinking home - Aug. 11, 2009

Another record broken. But....not for the good.

New Record for US Foreclosure Filings in July!


Miamiherald: Foreclosure filings were up 32 percent from the same month last year, RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday. More than 360,000 households nationwide, or one in every 355 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice in July.

That's the highest monthly level since the foreclosure-listing firm began publishing the data more than four years ago.

Additionally:
WSJ: Nevada had the nation's highest foreclosure rate for the 31st-straight month - with one in every 56 housing units getting a foreclosure filing in July.

Link: ECONOMICROT

Colonial Seized by Regulators in Biggest Failure Since WaMu



By Alison Vekshin and David Mildenberg
Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Colonial BancGroup Inc. was closed by regulators and taken over by BB&T Corp. in the biggest U.S. bank failure since Washington Mutual Inc. collapsed last year.

The deposits of Colonial, Alabama’s second-largest bank, was turned over to North Carolina-based BB&T in a deal brokered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the regulator said today. The failure of Montgomery-based Colonial followed a Florida expansion that saddled the lender with more than $1.7 billion in soured real-estate loans.

Colonial Seized by Regulators in Biggest Failure Since WaMu - Bloomberg.com

Another one bites the dust. The 'good' news though is that, rather than being placed in government hands, Colonial has been taken over by a stronger bank.

Still pretty grim out there in suburbia though.

Are II's leaving in droves yet?

Originally Posted by Muadib

This is the backlash of close to 15 million Americans being out of work...

"A report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says that Americans are more willing to take jobs they wouldn't otherwise do in a tough economy. With 15 million Americans out of work and nearly 7 million jobs lost in the current recession, Americans are working in slaughterhouses, on farms, or at sewage plants."

Americans Doing Jobs "Americans Won't Do" | NumbersUSA - For Lower Immigration Levels

The notion that there are jobs Americans won't do always struck me as ridiculous when it doesn't include the phrase "for slave wages."

Saband:

Are II's leaving in droves yet?

You mean illegals? Yes, many have returned to Mexico and other Latin American nations because of the lack of work. Ills throughout the country. It's too slow for the jobs they do at the moment.

[b]robuzo{/b]

The notion that there are jobs Americans won't do always struck me as ridiculous when it doesn't include the phrase "for slave wages."

I think there are more and more Americans working "survival jobs" for very low wages just to have something coming in. Also called "stop-gap" jobs. Unemployment is starting to run out for those long-term unemployed. They'll take anything.

Originally Posted by robuzo

Originally Posted by Milkman

Saband:

Are II's leaving in droves yet?

You mean illegals? Yes, many have returned to Mexico and other Latin American nations because of the lack of work. Ills throughout the country. It's too slow for the jobs they do at the moment.

[b]robuzo{/b]

The notion that there are jobs Americans won't do always struck me as ridiculous when it doesn't include the phrase "for slave wages."

I think there are more and more Americans working "survival jobs" for very low wages just to have something coming in. Also called "stop-gap" jobs. Unemployment is starting to run out for those long-term unemployed. They'll take anything.

More people would low-paying jobs if they paid more than unemployment. Isn't one problem that taking a stop-gap job interferes with the search for an appropriate job. Have to wonder, how many of the jobs lost in the past couple of years are coming back?

I posted an article about this in the US economy thread (I believe) a couple of days ago.

The jobs lost in the 2001 recession never returned. From then to today, 12 million jobs disappeared, but there are 7 million more workers in the work force.

Jobs lost coming back in the coming years? I have no idea. Many predict most of the jobs won't be created/return again.

Everyone's waitin' for the Messiah to sweep his hand over their head and make their mortgage, car payments and lung cancer disappear.

Delusional idiots.

Originally Posted by Milkman

Originally Posted by robuzo

Originally Posted by Milkman

Saband:

Are II's leaving in droves yet?

You mean illegals? Yes, many have returned to Mexico and other Latin American nations because of the lack of work. Ills throughout the country. It's too slow for the jobs they do at the moment.

[b]robuzo{/b]

The notion that there are jobs Americans won't do always struck me as ridiculous when it doesn't include the phrase "for slave wages."

I think there are more and more Americans working "survival jobs" for very low wages just to have something coming in. Also called "stop-gap" jobs. Unemployment is starting to run out for those long-term unemployed. They'll take anything.

More people would low-paying jobs if they paid more than unemployment. Isn't one problem that taking a stop-gap job interferes with the search for an appropriate job. Have to wonder, how many of the jobs lost in the past couple of years are coming back?

I posted an article about this in the US economy thread (I believe) a couple of days ago.

The jobs lost in the 2001 recession never returned. From then to today, 12 million jobs disappeared, but there are 7 million more workers in the work force.

Jobs lost coming back in the coming years? I have no idea. Many predict most of the jobs won't be created/return again.

I'm kind of wondering where they'll be created- public works? Teachers? Prison guards? They count the military as employed, I think since the 80s- another big land war somewhere?

The only way many companies have been able to maintain their bottom line has been through cost-cutting measures, including mass layoffs... I would say none of the jobs that have been cut since the beginning of the recession will be coming back anytime soon...

I reckon it's time for another land war to put these folks back to work... Let's see, Burma, NK, Wales... Who could be next to benefit from US foreign policy???

A land war? You guys like the movies?

Star Wars ain't enough anymore?

Land War? Absurd.

Creating the public jobs Robuzo mentioned is happening now. Gov jobs. Robuzo seems to have changed his posting style recently.

Government jobs?

You mean like doctors and nurses and bus drivers and teachers and Politburo members and ...

Foreclosure not out of the subrime and into the prime mortgages. 2010 will be worse than this year:

Jobless spike compounds foreclosure crisis

Economists estimate 1.8 million borrowers will lose their homes this year

By Renae Merle
updated 9:36 p.m. PT, Mon., Aug 17, 2009

WASHINGTON - The country's growing unemployment is overtaking subprime mortgages as the main driver of foreclosures, according to bankers and economists, threatening to send even higher the number of borrowers who will lose their homes and making the foreclosure crisis far more complicated to unwind.

Economists estimate that 1.8 million borrowers will lose their homes this year, up from 1.4 million last year, according to Moody's Economy.com. And the government, which has already committed billions of dollars to foreclosure-prevention efforts, has found it far more difficult to help people who have lost their paychecks than those whose mortgage payments became unaffordable because of an interest-rate increase.

"It's a much harder nut to crack, unemployment," said Mark A. Calabria, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute. "It's much easier to bash lenders than to create jobs."

Link & Entire: Jobless spike compounds foreclosure crisis - Washington Post- msnbc.com

Originally Posted by Milkman

Land War? Absurd.

Creating the public jobs Robuzo mentioned is happening now. Gov jobs. Robuzo seems to have changed his posting style recently.

Yes, the war bit was an off the cuff attempt at a joke. And you are correct, I have stopped trying to take conversations on TD seriously, if that is what you meant, although I appreciate that you still make the attempt.

Sure, everybody gets a job run by the government. Gee, I think China tried that.

Some good news out today,………..

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. housing market is rebounding faster than expected. The question is, can it last? Home resales in July posted the largest monthly increase in at least 10 years as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of a tax credit that expires Nov. 30. Sales jumped 7.2 percent and beat expectations, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.


"We've got tens of thousands of homes perfect for the first-time homebuyer and we've taken advantage of that," said George Hackett, president of Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Pittsburgh.


Sales hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.24 million in July, from a pace of 4.89 million in June. It was the fourth-straight monthly increase and the strongest month since August 2007. Sales had been expected to rise to an annual pace of 5 million, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.


Link: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20090821/D9A7E9D00.html


And from back home………maybe you could find a good buy here (but maybe not, because they are still over priced)

Florida leads nation in rate of mortgage troubles

``Florida deserves special mention as the worst state in the country,'' said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association that released the numbers Thursday. ``Nevada is a close second, but everyone else is far behind.''

Florida's problems, along with California, Arizona, and Nevada -- states that saw some of the headiest home price increases during the boom -- represented 44 percent of the total number of loans in foreclosure nationally.

Twelve percent of all Florida loans were in some stage of the foreclosure process as of June 30, with 10.8 percent past due by a month or more.

Link: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/1194973.html

^ good news? Perhaps.

Here's some....diffrent news:

Mounting joblessness fuels US housing crisis

By Saskia Scholtes in New York

August 20 2009

More than one in every eight homeowners with a mortgage was behind on home loan payments or in some stage of foreclosure at the end of the second quarter, as mounting unemployment aggravated the housing crisis, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday.

The percentage of loans that were in foreclosure or at least one payment past due rose to 13.16 per cent, the highest increase since the MBA began keeping records in 1972 and a jump of more than a percentage point since the first quarter.

Link: FT.com / US / Economy & Fed - Mounting joblessness fuels US housing crisis

Foreclosures still happening, and strapped and resentful foreclosees are stripping things to the bone.

^The Today Show was too kind, when it aired this video shot in South Florida. A while back while in Miami I watched a local newscast about people (not necessarily the home owner) stripping homes of everything of value from abandoned/foreclosed homes.

The Today Show video shows open electrical outlets and junction boxes with wire still in them (I guess they are stealing the fixtures/outlets). Some people go as far as pulling the copper wiring from the homes (and electrical panels which can be expensive).

It is just awful. Kind of embarrassing,.the video being shot in South Florida,..but I don’t think we (Floridians) were the innovators.

Worst of all-time. Has a ring to it.

Recovery? Started? Tripe.

Special Report The Rescue Foreclosures: 'Worst three months of all time'

Despite signs of broader economic recovery, number of foreclosure filings hit a record high in

The number of homes receiving foreclosure filings is skyrocketing across the country.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite concerted government-led and lender-supported efforts to prevent foreclosures, the number of filings hit a record high in the third quarter, according to a report issued Thursday.
"They were the worst three months of all time," said Rick Sharga, spokesman for RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes.

Link & Entire: Foreclosures hit record in third quarter 2009 - Oct. 15, 2009