Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is determined to push mortgage rates to record low levels and he is encouraging the banks that the Fed regulates to make home loans more freely. Wait a second – isn’t that exactly what caused the last housing bubble? After 9/11, the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates and this caused mortgage rates to steadily fall. Financial institutions were urged to help “expand home ownership” in America, and many of them started making home loans to people who never, ever should have gotten home loans. When mortgage rates started to go back up, millions of families with adjustable rate mortgages discovered that they could not make their monthly payments. Mortgage delinquencies absolutely soared and large numbers of mortgage-backed securities suddenly turned into garbage. So what is the Fed doing about it? The Fed recently announced another round of quantitative easing in which it will buy 40 billion dollars worth of these mortgage-backed securities a month. Essentially the Fed is clearing the bad financial paper out of the system and is creating the conditions for another housing bubble. But will we really fix our problems by going back and doing the same things that got us into trouble in the first place? (Read More...)
Home Loans
27 Amazing Statistics About The Real Estate Crash That Never Seems To End: More Foreclosures, More Underwater Mortgages And More Home Price Declines
The real estate crash that never seems to end appears to be getting even worse. Home prices continue to go down, the number of underwater mortgages is soaring and the number of foreclosures set an all-time record in 2010. The peak of the housing market was in 2005 and the subprime mortgage crisis erupted in 2008. Shouldn’t things be getting better by now? How many years is this real estate crash going to go on for? Home builders and those that work in the construction industry are deeply suffering because new home sales continue to hover around record lows. Mortgage professionals are having a really hard time because very few people are seeking home loans and many of those that are seeking loans cannot get approved. Real estate agents all over the country are pulling their hair out in frustration and large numbers of them have left the industry completely. The United States has never had such a prolonged real estate slump in the post-World War 2 era. Unfortunately, there are a whole lot of indications that the real estate crash is going to get even worse. (Read More...)
Will 2011 Be A Nightmarish Year For The U.S. Housing Market?
As we come to the end of 2010, there seems to be very few reasons to be optimistic about the U.S. housing market as we enter 2011. Home prices have fallen for several months in a row, mortgage rates are going up, mortgage delinquencies are increasing again, the mortgage industry is mired in horrific legal problems and the underlying economy is still extremely sluggish. During 2009 and throughout the first half of 2010 the U.S. housing market experienced a time of stabilization and it looked like the housing industry might recover, but when the tax breaks expired things started to get bad once again. Now many analysts are publicly using the term “double-dip” when speaking about prospects for the U.S. housing market in 2011. (Read More...)
Home Sales Drop Once Again
Existing home sales in the U.S. are down again. New home sales in the U.S. are down again. What else is new? The U.S. housing industry just cannot seem to bounce back. Mortgage lenders have really, really tightened up lending standards and so now there are a lot fewer qualified buyers than there used to be. It is as if the big financial institutions have nearly shut off the flow of credit. But without credit, the vast majority of American families don’t have a prayer of achieving the American Dream of owning a home. Even with mortgage rates close to record lows the housing market is still languishing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how low mortgage rates are if American families can’t get home loans approved. With unemployment still staggeringly high and with incomes still declining, it appears that the U.S. housing market is going to continue to suffer for some time to come. (Read More...)
Bank Of America, JPMorgan Chase And GMAC Suspend Foreclosures Due To Serious Concerns About Foreclosure Procedures
In an absolutely stunning development, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and GMAC Mortgage have all suspended foreclosures in many U.S. states due to serious concerns about foreclosure procedures. There has been an absolutely massive tsunami of foreclosures in recent years and it turns out that mortgage company officials dealing with foreclosure paperwork have not always taken the time to process each foreclosure properly. Things have gotten so bad that a number of U.S. states have actually opened up official investigations that are looking into some of these foreclosure practices. But what did everyone expect? There has been such a dramatic surge in foreclosures over the past several years that it was almost inevitable that shortcuts would start to be taken. Back in 2005, there were only about 100,000 home repossessions in the United States. Last year there were about 1 million home repossessions in the U.S. and RealtyTrac is projecting that there will be a record 1.2 million home repossessions this year. Needless to say, this has created a paperwork headache for mortgage companies of unprecedented magnitude. (Read More...)
15 Bone Chilling Signs That Part Two Of The Double Dip Housing Crash Has Begun
These are harrowing times for anyone trying to sell a home or for anyone who is trying to make a living in the housing industry. But unfortunately, there are a whole lot of signs that things are about to get quite a bit worse. U.S. home sales have hit record lows in recent months. An increasing number of sellers have started to reduce their asking prices, and there are signs that home prices are already starting to slip substantially in many areas of the country. Meanwhile, the inventory of unsold homes in the United States continues to rapidly increase. Home foreclosures and bank repossessions of homes continue to set all-time records. What this all means is that the U.S. housing market is being absolutely flooded with homes for sale at a time when there are very few buyers. There is way too much supply and not nearly enough demand and as a result home prices are being pressured downward. The home buyer tax credits that the U.S. government was bribing home buyers with helped stabilize the U.S. housing market for a while, but now the tax credits have expired and things are getting scary out there. (Read More...)
The ABC’s Of The Great American Housing Crisis
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that a horrific housing crisis in unfolding right in front of our eyes. Yesterday it was announced that existing home sales plummeted 27 percent in the month of July. Today it was announced that new homes sales dropped to the lowest level ever recorded in July. But why is this happening? Why is the American Dream still dying for millions of American families? Wasn’t the recession supposed to be over by now? Weren’t home prices supposed to be moving back up by this time? Well, in this article we will attempt to succinctly break down the ABC’s of the Great American Housing Crisis. Hopefully this will help people understand why all of this is happening. (Read More...)
15 Signs That The U.S. Housing Market Is Headed For Complete And Total Collapse
The U.S. housing market is dying. You will only hear hints of this on the mainstream news and from the politicians in Washington D.C., but as statistic after statistic continues to roll in, the reality of what is happening is becoming very difficult to deny. Up until the end of April, the giant tax credit that the U.S. government was bribing home buyers with helped stabilize the real estate market, but now that the tax credit has expired the decline of the U.S. housing market has resumed. Mortgage defaults continue to set new records. Foreclosures continue to set new records. Home repossessions by banks continue to set new records. The number of homes being constructed and the number of Americans applying for home loans is at stunningly low levels. For decades, owning a home has been touted as the very heart of “the American Dream”, but today that dream is out of reach for an increasing number of Americans. Why? It is because there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone. Without a jobs recovery, there simply is not going to be a housing recovery. Unfortunately, as the U.S. economy continues to come apart like a 20 dollar suit, even more Americans are going to lose their jobs and the U.S. housing industry will continue to experience a very painful decline. (Read More...)