Today's Fresh Blogs...

• What does the A in NAR really stand for?

  Published: August 15, 2007, 4:43 pm

  Tags: Economy, Why I Hate My Industry, Real Estate Musings, Existing Home Sales, Housing Market, Lawrence Yun, Nar, National Association Of Realtors

  The National Association of Realtors released its latest existing home sales report for the second quarter of 2007 and - if you ignore the 10% year-over-year decline in sales volume and the drop in median prices - guess what? The NAR says things are improving!! Yipee. Not that they haven’t been saying that, oh, for the last year or so,

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• A Long Way Down

  Published: August 19, 2007, 11:22 am

  Tags: Economy, Real Estate Musings, Mortgage Musings, Credit Bubble, Housing Bubble, Housing Market

  income loans as the market realizes that capacity and not credit score is the true driver of loan repayment. Stay tuned, the roller coaster is just picking up speed and we’ll be in the 1st car with our hands in the air… Share At:

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• The Housing Bulls Last Horse Just Died

  Published: August 25, 2007, 7:32 pm

  Tags: Real Estate Musings, Housing Market, Median Home Price, Nar, Slowdown

  Those bullish on housing have continually called blogs such as Housing Panic, Housing Doom, Patrick.net and others chicken littles. Their shallow reasoning went something along these lines: “The median housing price is up, meaning that home values continue to increase. Ergo, the blogs calling the market a declining one are

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• How we got in to this mess - a video

  Published: September 2, 2007, 3:09 am

  Tags: Real Estate Musings, Consumer Mortgage Tips, Credit Crunch, Housing Market, Mortgage Meltdown, Subprime Mortgage

  deep economic theory, not really anything deep - just a cursory look at the problems articulated by yours truly. View the video here. While this clip is geared for the Realtors out there, consumers will surely find the overview of the problem valuable. One note of disclosure. This presentation is not mine, not the words, not the slides.

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• Guest Post: Why do traditional Realtors despise discounters?

  Published: September 5, 2007, 12:00 pm

  Tags: Real Estate Musings, Bloodhound Realty, Discount Real Estate, Greg Swann, Real Estate Commissions, Realtors, Redfin

  knee-slapper for traditional Realtors when a Redfin agent writes a contract on an IggysHouse listing, but that’s what pays the bills at law firms. You will note that in all the talk about reforming traditional real estate emanating from the new discount real estate start-ups, there is no discussion whatever of divorcing the commissions.

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• Guest Post: Predicting the unpredictable: How far will prices fall?

  Published: September 6, 2007, 11:44 am

  Tags: Real Estate Musings, Housing Market, Housing Prices, La Times, Peter Viles, Subprime Mortgages

  fall after the great 2005 real estate bubble popped?” There are too many ways to measure prices. There will be no single answer. But I’m also starting to believe the crash will not be an equal opportunity destroyer of home values. Areas and neighborhoods where sub-prime borrowers were plentiful will be hit much harder. Think it

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• Foreclosures Exploding, Surprised?

  Published: September 18, 2007, 9:41 am

  Tags: Real Estate Musings, Foreclosure Data, Foreclosures, Home Repos

  according to the most recent RealtyTrac report. Nevada and California lead the nation (shocker) and the number of repos is up as well. From a Market Watch interview with the CEO of RealtyTrac: “The jump in foreclosure filings this month might be the beginning of the next wave of increased foreclosure activity, as a large number of

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• Are Lenders Deliberately Stalling on Foreclosures?

  Published: September 23, 2007, 11:12 pm

  Tags: Real Estate Musings, Foreclosures, Loan Portfolio Performance, Loss Mitigation, Reo Property

  of folks in the mortgage and real estate industries who drank the kool aid and bought at the top - who now can’t make their house payment) who are going on 6 months with out making a mortgage payment and are NOT getting their Notice of Defaults. Typically Notice of Defaults are issued between 90 and 120 days. After 3 missed payments when

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• Terminator Asks for Fannie Loan Amount Exception for CA

  Published: September 24, 2007, 2:19 pm

  Tags: Real Estate Musings, California Housing Market, Conforming Loan Limits

  California Association of Realtors, the median price of a single family residence in July was $586,030. Again, this disparity makes these products practically irrelevant in California, As Diana Orlick of CNBC Realty Check writes: Still, when I think about California, I think about a state chock full of homes, chock full of new

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• Housing Glut, Lennar Revenue off 44%, Other Goodies

  Published: September 25, 2007, 1:14 pm

  Tags: Wall Street, Economy, Real Estate Musings, Consumer Confidence, Housing Market, Lennar Homes

  are finally starting to realize that their homes are no longer the never-ending ATMs they thought they were, as mortgage equity withdrawal fueled seemingly unsustainable consumer spending. Now that housing and job losses begin to mount consumers are not as confident as they were just two short months ago, when consumers were very confident

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• Jim Cramer Don't You Dare Buy Now You'll Lose Money

  Published: September 28, 2007, 1:41 pm

  Tags: Real Estate Musings, Housing Market, Housing Meltdown, Jim Cramer, National Association Of Realtors, Njar

  Of course a New Jersey Realtor group had to complain that Mr. Cramer was inaccurate because “It is a buyer’s market” - which just makes me laugh. Someone at these Realtor associations should put up a sign to stop and think before sending anything to the press; they just look really, really ridiculous. Most of the

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• House Sales Tank to 6 Year Low - NAR Blames Credit Crunch

  Published: October 3, 2007, 2:33 am

  Tags: Real Estate Musings, Housing Bubble, Housing Sales, Lawrence Yun, Real Estate Meltdown

  scant 3 months ago; and are realizing they probably need a real job, a smaller house, cleaner credit and some savings worth mentioning before they take a hit off the American pipe dream. A choice quote from Market Watch: “This is still absolutely awful, confirming that the existing-homes market is now in freefall,” wrote Ian

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• Realtors and home shoppers need dose of realism when looking for homes

  Published: October 5, 2007, 2:18 pm

  Tags: Real Estate Musings, 100 Financing, Home Buying, Purchase Financing, Realtor, Underwriting Guidelines

  regardless of whether the real estate market is good or not. If the above or other impetuses have driven you to brave the housing market to purchase a home there are some important financing considerations that you and your Realtor need to be aware of before you fall in love with your dream home. 100% Financing is Dead The first

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• Citi Home Equity Discontinues California Purchase Money 2nd Mortgages

  Published: October 31, 2007, 4:28 pm

  Tags: Real Estate Musings, Mortgage News Insight, 100 Financing, 2nd Mortgages, Citi, Home Purchase, No Down Home Purchase, Purchase Loans

  Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter reported that Citi Home Equity is confirming a business change which withdraws them from the California purchase market - eliminating all purchase money second mortgages offered by the division of Citi. They have taken that business decision one step further by eliminating the Citi Home Equity Correspondent 2nd

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• What Would You Do if You Were Zillow Getting into Mortgages?

  Published: October 31, 2007, 3:12 am

  Tags: Web Tech, Real Estate Musings, Lead Generation, Mortgages, Zillow

  added to that with a robust Real Estate Guide and a the new Zillow Discussions. This approach to consumer advocacy is evident in the very intentional way that information is presented and currated by the folks up in Seattle. 2. Data Masters. No matter what industry people say about the accuracy of the Zestimate the American homeowner

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