The Foundation of the Housing Market has Begun to Collapse
[The Agonist - thoughtful, global, timely]
Did Fannie and Freddie cause the mortgage crisis?
[Econbrowser]
Some thoughts about the role played by the GSEs in the run-up in mortgage debt and house prices.
Cool Tool: Housing + Transportation Affordability Index
[The Big Picture]
Center for Neighborhood Technology has a very cool interactive site going: Housing + Transportation Affordability Index. It covers 52 metropolitan areas in the US, looking at median income, housing costs for renting and owning, and transportation expenses.
NARcasting The Future: July 2008
[Paper Economy - A US Real Estate Bubble Blog]
Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) provided their latest estimate of annual existing home sales for 2008 lowering their total year sales forecast to 5.31 million units.
As usual, the latest forecast comes with another dose of truly ridiculous spin.
Why Barron's Housing Cover Story Got It So Wrong
[The Big Picture]
Roubini: Restructure Fannie, Freddie Debt, Skip "Mother of All Bailouts"
[naked capitalism]
Nouriel Roubini has consistently been accurate in predicting the course of our snowballing credit crisis, and has also made some important intellectual contributions to the discussion. such as how the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system has lessons for the future of our Bretton Woods 2 currency program.
Examining The Fed’s New Mortgage Loan Rules
[Housing Sector News and Analysis from Seeking Alpha]
The new rules show that the Fed makes a clear distinction between owner-occupied homes and investor/second homes in that all of the rules only apply to owner-occupied homes. The implication is that purchasers of investment properties and/or second homes are smart enough to watch out for their own good. The Fed appears not to consider them consumers in need of protection. The housing boom and bust has shown us that speculators are really not that sophisticated.
