The Case Against Homeownership
by ilene - August 27th, 2010 4:11 pm
The Case Against Homeownership
By Barbara Kiviat, courtesy of TIME
Homeownership has let us down. For generations, Americans believed that owning a home was an axiomatic good. Our political leaders hammered home the point. Franklin Roosevelt held that a country of homeowners was "unconquerable." Homeownership could even, in the words of George H.W. Bush’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Jack Kemp, "save babies, save children, save families and save America." A house with a front lawn and a picket fence wasn’t just a nice place to live or a risk-free investment; it was a way to transform a nation. No wonder leaders of all political stripes wanted to spend more than $100 billion a year on subsidies and tax breaks to encourage people to buy.
But the dark side of homeownership is now all too apparent: foreclosures and walkaways, neighborhoods plagued by abandoned properties and plummeting home values, a nation in which families have $6 trillion less in housing wealth than they did just three years ago. Indeed, easy lending stimulated by the cult of homeownership may have triggered the financial crisis and led directly to its biggest bailout, that of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Housing remains a drag on the economy. Existing-home sales in July dropped 27% from the prior month, exacerbating fears of a double-dip. And all that is just the obvious tale of a housing bubble and what happened when it popped. The real story is deeper and darker still.
For the better part of a century, politics, industry and culture aligned to create a fetish of the idea of buying a house. Homeownership has done plenty of good over the decades; it has provided stability to tens of millions of families and anchored a labor-intensive sector of the economy. Yet by idealizing the act of buying a home, we have ignored the downsides. In the bubble years, lending standards slipped dramatically, allowing many Americans to put far too much of their income into paying for their housing. And we ignored longer-term phenomena too. Homeownership contributed to the hollowing out of cities and kept renters out of the best neighborhoods. It fed America’s overuse of energy and oil. It made it more difficult for those who had lost a job to find another. Perhaps worst of all, it helped us become casually self-deceiving: by telling ourselves that homeownership was…
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In The Year 3000: Predicting The Liability Side Of The Fed’s Balance Sheet
by ilene - January 3rd, 2010 6:09 pm
In The Year 3000: Predicting The Liability Side Of The Fed’s Balance Sheet
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
When it comes to the asset side of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, there are no secrets: with the winddown of the bulk of the Fed’s emergency liquidity programs by February 1, the majority of the Fed’s current $2.2 trillion in assets will continue being outright-held securities. And even as the emergency programs sunset, the quasi-permanent, QE remnants will be here to stay. What we know for certain is that the current $1.8 trillion in Treasuries and MBS will rise to at least $2.2 trillion, as the balance of QE round 1 is exhausted. Will this purchasing of outright securities end there? Hardly. As the Fed is the only market for MBS, and as the MBS market can not allow a dramatic rise in 30 year mortgage rates, which is precisely what will happen if the buyer of first resort disappears, we fully expect some form of QE to show up and grab the baton where QE 1.0 ends. In fact just today, Fed economist Wayne Passmore, under the aegis of Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart, stated during the annual American Economic Association meeting that GSE ABS should have an outright explicit guarantee by the Federal Reserve. Forget about QE then – this would be an onboarding of over $6 trillion in various assets of dubious worth, which currently exist in the limbo of semi-Fed guaranteed securities, yet which have an implicit guarantee. Of course, should the broader Fed listen to young master Passmore, look for John Williams’ expectation of hyperinflation as soon as 2010 to be very promptly met. The danger of the Fed’s next unpredictable step is so great that it is even causing insomnia for none other than BlackRock big man Larry Fink, who asks rhetorically "Are they going to kill the housing market?" Well Larry, unless the Wall Street lobby hustles, and the Fed isn’t forced to print another cool trillion under the guise of Mutual Assured Destruction, they very well might.
So now that we (don’t) know about the assets, what about that much less discussed topic: the Fed’s liabilities?
As it stands now, and as we have often pointed out, the liabilities of the Federal Reserve are rather straightforward: the major items are currency in circulation (about a $800 billion, and excess…
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Home Values: Confusion Reigns
by ilene - November 19th, 2009 12:20 pm
Zillow reports on the actual changes in home values, as well as the perception/misperception of changes, in different regions over the last year. (My yellow highlighting) – Ilene
Confusion Reigns as Home Values Fluctuate Regionally; Northeastern Homeowners Overly Cynical About Home Values, But Western Homeowners Are Too Confident
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Homeowners Across the Country Predict a Full Recovery in Next Six Months, According to Zillow(R) Q3 Homeowner Confidence Survey
SEATTLE, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ — Homeowner confidence was all over the map in the third quarter, as home values in some parts of the country stabilized while other areas saw continuing declines. Homeowners in the Northeast were the most cynical about their own homes’ values over the past 12 months, although the region posted the highest percentage of homes increasing in value during that same time period, according to the Zillow Q3 Homeowner Confidence Survey(1) and the Zillow Q3 Real Estate Market Reports.
One in five (20 percent) Northeastern homeowners believes their own home gained value in the past 12 months, according to the survey. But in reality, 31 percent of homes in the region increased in value, according to the Zillow Q3 Real Estate Market Reports.
That translates to a Zillow Home Value Misperception Index(2) of -6, which means Northeastern homeowners believe values performed worse than they did in reality – a first in Homeowner Confidence Survey(3) history. A Misperception Index of 0 would mean homeowners’ perceptions were in line with reality.
Homeowners in the West were the least realistic in the country, with 28 percent believing their own homes’ values increased in the past 12 months. According to Zillow, 17 percent of homes in the region actually increased, resulting in a Misperception Index of 17.
The Midwest had a Misperception Index of 8, while the South had an Index of 15.
Nationally, 25 percent of homeowners believe their own home’s value increased in the last 12 months. In reality, 22 percent of U.S. homes gained value. But fewer than half (49 percent) believe their home’s value decreased over the past 12 months, while 72 percent actually decreased. That discrepancy between perception and reality resulted in a Misperception Index of 10.
U.S. homeowners were also more optimistic about the future of their own homes’ values than at any time in the past six quarters. Two in five (41 percent) say their own home’s value will increase in the next six months.…
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BERNANKE’S REAL REPORT CARD
by ilene - August 28th, 2009 1:06 pm
BERNANKE’S REAL REPORT CARD
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist , citing David Rosenberg:
Courtesy of David Rosenberg:
BERNANKE’S REAL REPORT CARD
• 4 million lost jobs
• 4.6 percentage point surge in the unemployment rate
• 20% decline in the S&P 500
• 30% plunge in house values
• A 3.5% reduction in real GDP per capita
• 11% decline in the trade-weighed dollar
• 109 failed banks (almost matching the total from the prior 13 years combined)…At least now, post-reappointment, we’ll see what he does for an encore.
Source: Gluskin Sheff
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the site