Clipmarks | ericskiff's 'housing' clips

Home prices drop 15.3% year over year

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:41:09 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: I began watching this whole mess play out in about 2004, and was aghast as prices continued to fly out of control. By the end of 2005, the housing fever was breaking and the "housing boom" was being seen for the bubble it was.

Now, to look at the chart of prices even for the so-far relatively insulated New York, there's no mistaking which direction prices are headed. Not only that, it's heading ever faster in that direction.

This "record" of 15.3% year over year drop won't stand very long. I'd be very surprised if we don't break it next month.

Clip Source: money.cnn.com

Prices in 20 cities fall for 21st month in a row. One sign of hope: Pace of decline eased in many areas.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. home prices posted record declines in April, extending a painful losing streak for U.S. home prices.

"In the bubble markets, we continue to see very rapid rates of price declines," said Baker. "If anything, it may be accelerating."

Clip Source: www.flickr.com

Tags: economy, home prices, housing, bubble, chart, money

Housing Price data

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:18:52 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: I didn't realize this data was made publicly available. Very interesting to see exactly how the market is performing in various cities.

Clip Source: www2.standardandpoors.com

S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices

Home Price Values

March 2008 (published May 27)
February 2008 (published Apr. 29)
January 2008 (published Mar. 25)
December 2007 (published Feb. 26)
November 2007 (published Jan. 29)
October 2007 (published Dec. 26)
September 2007 (published Nov. 27)

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are calculated monthly using a three-month moving average and published with a two month lag.

Tags: housing, market, bubble, data, economy

Housing troubles go global

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:53:25 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: The boom went around the world, it's no surprise that the bubble is following it. What surprises me is that it seems to catch everyone off-guard.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

DUBLIN — The collapse of the housing bubble in the United States is mutating into a global phenomenon, with real estate prices swooning from the Irish countryside and the Spanish coast to Baltic seaports and even parts of northern India.

“We know we’re already in negative equity,” said Emma Linnane, a 31-year-old university administrator.

Matt Simmons on Bloomberg - Oil to $300?

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 05:22:56 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: I have two financial regrets - one, that I didn't short housing builders like TOL the day after Katrina hit (I could practically hear the housing bubble pop and told many people the same that day), and two, that I don't have the funds to get into oil futures and precious metals today.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: oil, finance, commodities, peak oil, commodity

Housing is falling much faster than reported

Fri, 18 May 2007 20:42:30 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Even as a little as a few months ago, the deniers were still out in full force, saying that everything was going to be just fine. Now even the NAR is owning up to the trouble they've helped cause, and it's probably a lot worse than they're saying.

Clip Source: bigpicture.typepad.com

Real Estate Consultant John Burns has looked at the housing data and reached a rather interesting conclusion: "The housing market has softened much more than is being reported.

Given all the negative news coverage, that's almost hard to believe. But John does a good job dissecting the data, and he is now concerned that both the publicly disseminated New and Existing Home Sales information is misleading. Even worse, he fears, is that policy makers are relying on this bad data to conclude that the housing market correction has not been too severe.

• Closing Data: Sales have actually fallen 22% year-over-year, based on comparing trailing 12 month periods. If you compare year over year sales, the decline is even more severe.

• Builder Data: D.R. Horton and Lennar have reported that orders have declined 27% to 37%, year-over-year -- even as they have dropped prices significantly. These are the nation's two largest homebuilders.

The entire piece, and all of its sourcing, is well worth a read

Tags: real estate, housing bubble, housing, economy, money

Upstate NY feels the foreclosure crunch

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 18:41:28 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: I've talked with many people upstate over the past few years who said "it won't happen here." Risky lending practices are biting both the borrowers and the lenders in Upstate NY hard.

Clip Source: timesunion.com

Home foreclosure filings in the Capital Region surged in the year's first three months

Foreclosures in Albany County jumped 109 percent, while filings in Rensselaer County spiked a staggering 218 percent. Rensselaer County, in fact, had more foreclosures filings in 2007's first three months (54) than it had all of last year (51).

"We're getting more and more calls from people in a panic,"

Attorneys and counselors blamed much of the foreclosure rise on adjustable-rate mortgages that offer low payments at first, then rise sharply and sometimes take homeowners by surprise.

many are couples with combined incomes of over $100,000 who still can't make mortgage payments.

"It's not just the low-end homes that are going into foreclosure," James Saccacio, the company's CEO, said in a statement. "We're seeing a rising percentage of foreclosures with an estimated market value of more than $750,000."

Tags: housing, housing bubble, ny, upstate, foreclosure

Existing home sales fall fastest since '89

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:52:13 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: I don't think we're anywhere near the bottom of this drop yet.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Sales of previously owned homes suffered their biggest drop in nearly two decades last month, raising concerns that a rebound in the housing market is still far off.

The National Association of Realtors said today that sales of existing homes, which account for about 80 percent of all home sales, fell 8.4 percent in March. That was the steepest decline since 1989.

The realtors’ association report reflected a housing market that is becoming increasingly unfriendly to anyone looking to sell their home. While the number of unsold existing homes for sale fell 1.6 percent in March, to 3,745,000, the time it took to sell a home increased. There was a 7.3-month supply of unsold properties on the market last month, up from a 6.8-month supply in February.

Economists said that if home prices continued to fall, potential buyers would be discouraged from acting while they waited for the bottom of the market to hit.

Tags: housing bubble, economy, housing, nytimes

Another subprime lender bites the dust

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:05:41 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Another in what I'm betting will be a long, long list of subprime (and other) lenders who now have to pay the piper for risky lending practices. The fed had to remind lenders recently to actually verify that borrowers could repay their loans.

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

New Century Financial Corp., once the largest independent maker of mortgages to high-risk borrowers, sank into bankruptcy proceedings today, swamped by demands that it buy back defaulted loans.

The Irvine company also said it would eliminate 3,200 jobs, or about half of its workforce.

Its fall epitomizes the collapse of the sub-prime lending business, which made $1.3 trillion in higher-cost mortgages over the past two years to shaky borrowers. In recent months, forced sales and outright shutdowns of lenders have plagued the industry -- woes that threaten to depress the entire housing market.

"They were big, strong, gigantic -- and arrogant too, cocky," said analyst Matthew Howlett at the investment firm Fox-Pitt, Kelton.

Tags: housing, housing bubble, finance, subprime, lending

Skyrocketing foreclosures and their collateral damage

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 20:04:03 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: To echo what many are now saying - subprime is just the beginning.

Adjustable rate mortgages, no-money-down, and other loans made to folks hoping to "invest" in a home have left many people holding properties that are quickly losing their value - as their mortgage payments continue to grow.

Clip Source: thehousingbubbleblog.com

“Seeing The Tip Of The Iceberg As The Iceberg”

From ABC News in Illinois. “On Aberdeen Street, on Chicago’s South Side, there is a new and unwelcome neighbor as home foreclosures alter the neighborhoods.

“‘Here’s a nice bungalow that’s boarded up,’ says Deborah Moore. ‘So that’s two on this block.’”

Mark Hill is already feeling the impact at his South Side residence

He said he wonders what the value of his house is, after a year in which five homes were boarded up right next to his home.

“Josh Rosner, managing director at investment research firm Graham Fisher & Co., says the growing numbers of foreclosures outside the subprime market is just the start. ‘To define the problem as a subprime problem is short-sighted,’ Rosner said. ‘It’s really seeing the tip of the iceberg as the iceberg.’”

Tags: housing bubble, housing, finance, business, home, home prices, foreclosure, foreclosures

Home values in San Diego - zillow

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 19:56:08 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Graphs like this are actually surprising to me., If you believe this graph (which shows data on one particular house, as well as from all of San Diego), the decline even in this overheated market has been fairly linear.

Of course, losing $50k on your house a year is not exactly comforting, but the measured decline is nothing compared to the almost exponential growth from 2004-2006

Clip Source: www.zillow.com

Historical Value Trends display options

Historical Value Trends Show as: % $ % annualized

Past:	This home	92173	San Diego	San Diego	CA	US
30 days	1.3%	1.5%	0.3%	0.0%	-0.5%	-0.5%
1 year	1.7%	-6.3%	-6.7%	-5.7%	-2.2%	-0.9%
5 years	161.1%	143.3%	114.6%	115.5%	145.1%	70.3%
10 years	334.3%	311.8%	251.9%	209.1%	253.4%	122.6%
Since last sale (04/29/2004)	66.2%	55.1%	42.6%	50.6%	64.8%	39.1%
30 days	$7,472	$6,583	$1,538	$96	-$2,469	-$1,209
1 year	$10,253	-$30,015	-$35,753	-$30,763	-$11,821	-$2,259
5 years	$370,845	$262,400	$267,312	$275,228	$304,630	$105,014
10 years	$462,641	$337,305	$358,349	$347,305	$368,967	$140,089
Since last sale (04/29/2004)	$239,345	$158,352	$149,602	$172,422	$202,312	$71,474
30 days	16.4%	19.9%	3.8%	0.2%	-5.7%	-5.6%
1 year	1.7%	-6.3%	-6.7%	-5.7%	-2.2%	-0.9%
5 years	21.2%	19.5%	16.5%	16.6%	19.6%	11.2%
10 years	15.8%	15.2%	13.4%	11.9%	13.5%	8.3%
Since last sale (04/29/2004)	19.0%	16.3%	13.0%	15.1%	18.7%	12.0%

Tags: housing, housing bubble, finance, zillow, homes, data, economy

HSBC loses $10.6 billion in US Mortgage lending, still makes record profit.

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:45:56 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Smaller lenders are being crushed by risky mortgage lending practices, but it appears that the big players like HSBC are still making out just fine overall.

Clip Source: money.cnn.com

HSBC Holdings, Europe's biggest bank, reported a 5 percent rise in 2006 pretax profit to a record $22.1 billion Monday but it suffered a $10.6 billion hit for bad debts after problems in its U.S. mortgage lending.

Flint said he was confident the impairment problems would not spread wider. "There is no additional concern elsewhere in the world in relation to abnormal credit trends. The abnormal credit trends are all in the mortgage services business," he said.

"There is some more (bad debt) pain to come, but not as bad as what the market has factored into the share price," he said.

Tags: money, finance, hsbc, lending, mortgage, housing, housingbubble

"There's a new plague" of bedbugs in NYC

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:47:44 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: We dealt with a lot of these at my old job (providing supportive housing for the formerly homeless).

Beware shopping at thrift stores and traveling abroad!

Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

New York City apartment dwellers lodged 4,638 bedbug complaints in fiscal 2006, up from none three years earlier. Complaints ballooned 67% in the first half of this year from their pace a year earlier.

"There's a new plague," said Dini Miller, an entomologist at Virginia Tech University.

Tags: bedbug, gross, insect, insects, nyc, newyork, new york, new york city, bedbugs

Music benefit for Common Ground in Brooklyn this friday

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 18:01:29 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: I'm still a huge supporter of Common Ground's mission of solving homelessness (I worked there before coming here to Clipmarks), and will be attending this benefit show Friday. It's also going to be a great show of up and coming independent musicians!

If you're in or near Brooklyn, please come out and join me at this event. The cover goes towards a great cause, and it should be a great night!

Clip Source: www.jezebelmusic.com

SPECIAL: THE SECOND ANNUAL JEZEBEL MUSIC BENEFIT SHOW FOR COMMON GROUND
Friday January 19th at North Six

66 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, NY
$15.00 -

For the second year, Jezebel Music presents a Benefit Show to support Common Ground’s work to end homelessness. This year’s event will support Common Ground’s new green initiative, which will incorporate eco-friendly design elements in its affordable housing residences. The benefit showcases past Jezebel Music Monthly Features, bands who have achieved acclaim as an independent act.

8:00:
Via Audio

8:45:
Black Bunny

9 :30:
Leah Siegel

10:15:
Jaymay

11:00:
Lowry

11:45:
The Black Spoons

12 :30:
Proton Proton

1:15:
Sexy Champions (Dynasty Electric)

Jaymay

Lowry

The Black Spoons

Proton Proton

Tags: homeless, homelessness, nyc, commonground, music, brooklyn, jezebel, jezebelmusic

What Statistics on Home Sales Aren't Saying

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 22:14:08 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: The hard truth is coming to light. The real estate bubble popped, and even the best spinmeisters in real estate are having trouble making this look good.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Down in Naples, Fla., a fast-growing city on the Gulf of Mexico, there was an auction of houses about a month ago.

Based on the official housing statistics, you might have guessed that the sellers would have made out just fine, despite all the talk of a real estate slump. According to one widely followed real estate index — tabulated by the government agency that regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the average house in Naples sold for 20 percent more this summer than it would have a year earlier.

But that wasn’t what happened at the auction. In fact, if you were at the beach club that Saturday, you could have been excused for thinking that the real estate market was crashing.

One three-bedroom ranch house with a pool sold for $671,000. In 2005, the same house sold for $809,000. Another house, just steps from Naples Bay, sold for $880,000 at the auction., compared with $1.35 million a year earlier. On average, the houses that changed hands at the auction had fallen about 25 percent in value since 2005, according to Thomas Lawler, a real estate consultant who analyzed the auction’s results.

Tags: nytimes, housing, bubble, market, crash, economics, economy, housingbubble, florida, realestate, real estate

Housing flippers are upside-down

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 23:00:28 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: As the market turns sour, many folks are left with mortgages for more than what they can sell their house for... if they can sell it at all! This blog tracks houses on the market and how much the flippers would lose at their current asking price.

Ouch!

Clip Source: flippersintrouble.blogspot.com

Welcome to the Flippers in Trouble Gallery. I'll update this blog once a week or so with the latest Flippers In Trouble listings.

Total Loss: $158,500

Percent Loss: 30.6%

Asking Price: $360,000
Bedrooms:3 Baths: 1 Sq. feet:1262

Previous Sales:

Sold on 2005-12-02 for $518,500

MLS# 60112107 Google Maps
Assessed Value Property Tax Bill

Total Loss: $140,500

Percent Loss: 31.2%

Asking Price: $310,000
Bedrooms:3 Baths: 3 Sq. feet:1986

Asking Price Changes:
Down 22.3% from $399,000 On 09-09
Down 13.9% from $360,000 On 10-14
Down 11.4% from $350,000 On 10-21