Mortgage Markets II

Pimco's Gross: Fannie, Freddie Mortgages 'Excellent'
[The Big Picture]
Bill Gross, who manages the world's biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., talks about Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the outlook for U.S. home prices, Federal Reserve monetary policy and the bond market.

Fannie, Freddie Rescue Could Cost $25 Billion
[Housing Wire]
In a letter sent to Senate Budget Commitee chairman John Spratt (D-SC), as well as other Congressional leaders, CBO director Peter R. Orszag pegged the expected value of the rescue at $25 billion through 2010, saying that “there is a significant chance—probably better than 50 percent—that the proposed new Treasury authority would not be used before it expired at the end of December 2009.”

The Future for the Mortgage GSEs
[Housing Sector News and Analysis from Seeking Alpha]

Now that the guarantee of the mortgage GSEs' obligation has gone from merely being implied to being a reality, it’s time to start discussing ways of fixing the larger problem of the risks the mortgage GSEs pose to the economy and preventing the problem from occurring in the future.

US Home Sales & Prices

Home Sales & Price

U.S. MONTHLY HOUSE PRICE INDEX DECLINES 0.3 PERCENT FROM APRIL TO MAY [Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight]

Interactive Map: Home Prices in US Urban Centers (20 year graph)

New York Times

Homebuilders in the News

US builders forced to sell off holdings
[FT.com - Property]
Demand for new homes on the outskirts of US towns has fallen spectacularly in the last three years, while foreclosures and speculative building have created a far greater supply of homes than there are buyers. At the same time, soaring fuel costs have made the long commute to work that much less attractive.

Homebuilder Blues: NAHB/Wells Fargo Home Builder Ratings July 2008
[Paper Economy - A US Real Estate Bubble Blog]

Late July Blog Roundup

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.