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David Hasselhoff Puts his Home Up For Sale
Tweet Share on Facebook January 16, 2009 Comment (23)Fans of the original Knight Rider or Lt. Mitch Buchannon should get their lenders on the horn pronto: David Hasselhoff has put his Encino, Calif. home on the market for a little under $6 million.
From the Los Angeles Times, via The Wall Street Journal:
Hasselhoff, 56, has listed his 9,770-square-foot home that has five bedrooms and 5 1/2 bathrooms. The private estate is entered through double gates. There's a two-story living room with high ceilings, lavish dining room, gourmet kitchen and a master bedroom suite with a fireplace and mahogany floors. There are his-and-her bathrooms and walk-in closets.
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Low Mortgage Rates Boost Refinancing Applications, but There's a Catch
Tweet Share on Facebook January 15, 2009 Comment (8)The government's efforts to revive the housing market by engineering lower mortgage rates are producing some concrete results: more refinancing applications. The Mortgage Bankers Association said yesterday that its refinancing index jumped 26 percent from the previous week and now sits at its highest level since the summer of 2003.
Why so much interest? "The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.89 percent from 5.07 percent," the trade group said in the release. "The contract rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages is the lowest recorded in the survey. The previous low was 4.99 percent for the week ending June 13, 2003."
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America's Top 25 Home-Foreclosure Cities
Tweet Share on Facebook January 15, 2009 Comment (4)RealtyTrac has released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for 2008:
A total of 3,157,806 foreclosure filings—default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions—were reported on 2,330,483 U.S. properties during the year, an 81 percent increase in total properties from 2007 and a 225 percent increase in total properties from 2006. The report also shows that 1.84 percent of all U.S. housing units (one in 54) received at least one foreclosure filing during the year, up from 1.03 percent in 2007.
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A Million Homes Lost to Foreclosure Last Year
Tweet Share on Facebook January 14, 2009 Comment (6)A report issued today by ForeclosureS.com shows that roughly a million homes were lost to foreclosure last year, an increase of more than 60 percent from 2007:
Month to month, foreclosed properties repossessed by lenders spiked in December, up 19.3 percent to 97,841 from November, when 82,033 properties were foreclosed. The December increase followed two months of steady declines, but December still was 6.1 percent below the peak foreclosure month of September. Pre-foreclosures, which had been slowing until December, also climbed to 190,467 in December, up 11.9 percent from November.
All regions of the country showed increases in lender-owned properties and pre-foreclosure filings in December, ForeclosureS.com analysis shows.
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How Hank Paulson Ducked the Real Estate Crash
Tweet Share on Facebook January 14, 2009 Comment (3)As homeowners everywhere watch their properties lose value by the day, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's investment in an exotic bird-watching island is reportedly holding up quite well.
From Bloomberg:
Paulson and his wife, Wendy, paid $32.65 million to accrue a majority stake in Little St. Simons Island since 2003, county records show. Property values in the area have risen about 10 percent in five years, said Ann McCann of Sea Palms Realty Inc.
The island has five cabins that rent for $600 to $1,200 a night. Occupancy remains about 70 percent, even with the recession, said Joel Meyer, general manager.
The island, located off the Georgia coast near Savannah, is apparently accessible only by boat. It can be rented out for $8,000 a night, and cabins are often booked solid months in advance, Bloomberg reports. Eagles, roseate spoonbills, oystercatchers, and painted buntings are among the birds that can be found there.
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Kenneth Rosen: Housing Will Bottom Out This Year
Tweet Share on Facebook January 13, 2009 Comment (20)While many economists don't see housing hitting bottom until 2010, Kenneth Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California-Berkeley, expects the market to stabilize sooner. In a recent interview with U.S. News, Rosen explained why he's optimistic about a real estate rebound, identified where the Bush administration's housing-crisis response fell short, and argued that Americans should stop looking at their homes as investments. Excerpts:
What's your outlook for the housing market in 2009?
I think that [housing prices] will be down a little bit more this year, another 5 or 6 percent nationally. So the cumulative decline from the peak—which was late 2005 or early 2006—will be about 22 percent. We expect this year to be less of a decline than last year. Now we still have prices declining, but it is going to be a slower rate of descent. And I think 2009 will be the bottom year for the housing market.That seems pretty optimistic.
That's true. Everyone else is talking about another big decline this year, but let me give you a reasoning [behind my forecast.] The negative side is, of course, we have these foreclosures hitting the marketplace, and, of course, we have lots of job losses. And those are big negatives—no question about it. On the positive side, we have the lowest interest rates we've seen in a long time. And for someone who can get credit—and put down 20 percent—a fixed-rate mortgage is quite low. And then the last thing, which is what we are counting on, is that there is going to be a big policy initiative coming out of the new administration that is going to try its best to put more demand in the marketplace and stabilize the foreclosure problem. And we are thinking that those are going to be partly successful. -
Ben Bernanke: Fiscal Stimulus Alone Won't Be Enough
Tweet Share on Facebook January 13, 2009 Comment (2)In a speech at the London School of Economics, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said that fiscal stimulus—like the huge package being considered by President-elect Barack Obama—won't be enough to resolve the economic crisis all by itself. Instead, aggressive steps to bolster the financial system are needed as well. Here's a look at what some of those steps might look like.
From Bernanke's speech:
1. Plugging more cash into banks: "More capital injections and guarantees may become necessary to ensure stability and the normalization of credit markets."
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David Lereah's Greatest Housing-Market Hits
Tweet Share on Facebook January 12, 2009 Comment (3)To get a sense of where the animosity toward David Lereah is coming from, here's a look at some of the former NAR economist's now-infamous musings:
From MarketWatch, via The Wall Street Journal:
January 2007
Lereah's forecast: "The good news is that the steady improvement in sales will support price appreciation moving forward."
Actual sales: Fourth-quarter sales fell at an annual rate of 2.3% to 6.24 million.
Lereah's post-mortem: "It appears we have established a bottom."
See the rest here.
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The Steep Fall of the Housing Boom's Top Bull
Tweet Share on Facebook January 12, 2009 Comment (5)The Wall Street Journal has a sobering look at the post-housing bust life of Ex-National Association of Realtors chief economist David Lereah:
Once one of the world's most-visible housing experts, Mr. Lereah is disconnected from his old life. The former chief economist for the National Association of Realtors says the group's top executives won't return his phone calls. He says he wasn't invited to the association's 100th birthday bash last May.
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Fannie, Freddie Extend Foreclosure Suspension
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2009 CommentLooks like government-controlled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are extending their foreclosure suspension initiative beyond the holidays (it was supposed to end Friday). The effort, it seems, is designed to give the companies additional breathing room to see if they can help troubled borrowers keep their homes through a new loan modification program.
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