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Tiny
house fans seek change in zoning codes
In
San Francisco you can now get a bunk bed for $1800 a month
How housing prices really change
Home ownership at lowest level
in a half century
The depth of our housing problem
There are 1.6 million American
households -
about one percent - that do not have a flush toilet.
Poor spending far too much on
housing
Shared housing grows
60,000 New Yorkers sign up for
micro-apartments
A house inside a greenhouse
DC's public housing joins in the
gentrification surge
Saving rowhouses to fight gentrification
Rising prices spurs rent control
movement
The housing recovery is entirely
due to rentals
Corporados move to take over rental industry
The return of American slums
Lego style replacement homes for
disasters
The significance of the court's
housing ruling
How to increase urban density
without building up
2014
How the Democrats helped to kill
low cost housing
People moving towards cities with
affordable housing
Miami and LA take on JP Morgan
like the feds were afraid to do
Chinese buying up American real
estate
Minimum wage has failed badly
to keep up with rent
California town using eminent
domain to save homeowners from banks
Banks find new way to cheat homeowners
Urban apartheid: DC man has everything
taken by city for owing $134 in property taxes
Obama wants to trash government's
role in housing
Feds badly bully town over its
mortgage rescue plan
How Obama's secret trade deal
will hurt housing and healthcare
The housing crisis the media ignores
The housing cost of squestration
Court decision could force banks
to pay much more for mortgage cons
Some reality about the housing market
Another give away to the banks
Chaos as 5,000 seek 1,000 housing vouchers
The changing city: Granny flats
and corner stores
2012...
Housing vacancy rate drops substantially
Why American Express got more
bailout help then all homeowners in trouble
ACLU sues JP Morgan for treatment
of black homeowners
The importance of the Federal
Housing Administration
Student debt crisis hurting housing
market
Time to go back to small housing?
Planning an eco-friendly house
One in ten reverse mortgagaged
senior in deep financial trouble
Shiller: Maybe no housing rebound
for a generation
Why we can't deal rationally with
the housing crisis
Some Fed economists wanted major
different approach to mortgages
Developers betting on apartments
as their construction soars
U.S. cities violate UN standards
in dealing with homelessness
Urban accessory housing is catching
on
How house purchase tax credit
ended up costing buyers
The best & worst counties
in which to hold a mortgage
The median new house size in America has dropped ten percent
in three years. . .And front porches are back
2010
More state judges getting tough
with banks
But not in Florida where high speed rubber stamping
of foreclosure is underway.
LOCAL JUDGES
LOCAL HEROES IN FORECLOSURE CASES
- OVERSIGHT PANEL PANS OBAMA'S HOUSING
EFFORTS
-
- SOME MCSECTION 8 HOUSING INCLUDES
SWIMMING POOLS AND GRILLS
-
- THE ELEPHANT IN THE FORECLOSURE
ROOM: SECOND LIENS
-
- TIME TO FILE CRIMINAL CHARGES
IN FORECLOSURE SCANDAL
NEARLY 50% LEAVE OBAMA FORECLOSURE
PROGRAM
FHA TO HELP ECONOMY MAKE IT HARDER
TO BUY A HOUSE
THE SCAM THAT CREATED THE FORECLOSURE
CRISIS
LOCAL HEROES: A STATE ATTORNEY
GENERAL SHOWS THE FEDS HOW TO TAKE ON WALL STREET
FORECLOSURE SCANDAL FAR MORE SERIOUS
THAN MEDIA IS LETTING ON
BANKS MAY HAVE FORGED A HUGE NUMBER
OF FORECLOSURE DOCUMENTS
BANKS SUSPEND FORECLOSURES AS
HOMEOWNERS SUE OVER PROCEDURES
BANKS IGNORING LAW ON FORECLOSURES
ONE THIRD OF HOMEOWNERS SAY HOUSE
IS WORTH LESS THEN THEIR DEBT ON IT
WALL STREET'S VICIOUS BACK DOOR
ATTACK ON HOME BUYERS
HOMEOWNERS SET RECORD FOR BEING
BEHIND ON MORTGAGE
HOME LOAN MODIFICATION PROGRAM
A HUGE FLOP
OBAMA'S FORECLOSURE PLAN HELPS
BANKS MORE THAN HOMEOWNERS
HOW TO DEAL WITH THE FORECLOSURE
DISASTER
RECORD NUMBER OF FORECLOSURES
PREDICTED IN 2010 AS GOVERNMENT RENEGOTIATES ONLY ONE PERCENT
OF PROBLEM CASES
2009
ABOUT A QUARTER OF MODIFIED HOME
LOANS STILL FALLING BEHIND
ANOTHER HUD SCANDAL: DEPARTMENT
TURNED FORECLOSURE WORKOUTS OVER TO WALL STREET PREDATORS
HOMEOWNERS FORCED INTO BEING LANDLORDS
LOCAL HEROES: SOMEONE IN GOVERNMENT
WHO ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT FORECLOSURES
OBAMA'S FORECLOSURE PROGRAM SUBSIDIZING
SUBPRIME LENDERS
OBAMA'S PLAN TO HELP HOMEOWNERS
IS A BUST
THE HOUSING BUBBLE TOLD IN THE
TALE OF ONE HOUSE
THE ULTIMATE FORECLOSURE: CITY
BOARDS MAN UP IN HOUSE HE LOST
COURT OKAYS FORECLOSURE ON GOTTI
ESTATE . . . BUT NOT UNTIL DELINQUENCY HIT $650K
HOMELESSNESS UP A THIRD
FBI WARNED OF MORTGAGE FRAUD EPIDEMIC
FIVE YEARS AGO
WHAT A REAL STIMULUS
MIGHT LOOK LIKE
Sam Smith
- Reduce credit card interest.
As one politician once put it, "I'd frankly like to see
credit cards rates down. I believe that would help stimulate
the consumer and get consumer confidence moving again.'' Another
politician responded by offering a bill in the Senate to cap
credit card interest at 14%. The Senate voted for it 74-19. The
first politician was that radical president, George Bush, in
1991. The other politician was that well known progressive, Alfonze
D'Amato. Why are Obama and the Democrats more conservative than
Daddy Bush and D'Amato?
- Start a movement to
nationalize banks. Progressives led by Robert LaFollette did
this in the 1930s, giving FDR cover for his more moderate solutions.
Today, all the political pressure is coming from Wall Street,
which tilts policies in that direction.
- All measures must put
the interest of the ordinary citizen first. Neither the GOP nor
the Democrats are doing that.
- Deemphasize tax cuts.
They are far less effective than many think.
- Emphasize programs that
will cheer people up and where they can see things changing for
the better. Among the Wall Street bailout scam's many faults
was that no one could tell what was happening as a result. Good
economies need optimism.
- Use revenue sharing.
It's a quick way to get money down to the states and cities and
to the people who live there. Sure, some of it will get corrupted
but far less than is already happening with the phony stimulus
packages. The upside is that citizens have a better idea of what
is being done on their behalf and have some say in how it is
done.
- Fund public works project
that have large spin-off benefits and which will be heavy in
blue collar employment. These would include new mass transit
service and a massive growth of America's rail system. It would
deemphasize fixing up existing systems because the spin off benefits
are far less. Would it include the much discussed new energy
projects? We haven't seen any serious discussion of this. What
is the blue collar employment potential of such projects?
- Institute a shared equity
program for homeowners in distress under which the federal government
buys a portion of the mortgage, renegotiates interest rates with
the lenders and then gets its part of the equity back when the
house is sold. A similar program could be used for building new
homes.
- Decentralize decisions
and negotiations on foreclosures and real estate interest rates,
using local courts and similar bodies as was done in the 1930s.
- Give the government
preferred stock in companies it aids. At one point in the New
Deal, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation owned bank shares
that would be worth at least $20 billion today.
2008
WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THE MIDDLE
CLASS
Americans have been slowly
transferring ownership of their homes to the banking system over
the last 50+ years. These figures would look much worse if the
roughly 1/3 of homes owned "free and clear" (mostly
by seniors) were removed from the data, but you can see the trend
is toward less equity and more debt. This is not a sign of a
prospering middle-class.
ETHICAL SUBPRIME LENDING
WHY YOU CAN'T BLAME THE HOUSING CRISIS ON
POOR HOMEOWNERS
TRASHING OUT ON FORECLOSURE ALLEY
NEARLY ONE THIRD OF HOME OWNERS
OWE MORE THAN HOUSE IS WORTH
CLINTON-BUSH HOUSING
BUBBLE BIGGEST IN A CENTURY
Sam Smith, Progressive
Review - According to a study by Yale economist Robert J Shiller
cited in his book, "Irrational Exuberance," between
1890 and 1990 the sale of the average existing house (not new
construction) rose no more that 25% over the inflation corrected
value for 1890. In the 1990s, beginning in the Clinton years,
that changed dramatically. Between 1997 and 2006 the typical
house doubled in value of over the 1890 average. In other words,
the Clinton-Bush housing bubble was greatest in over a hundred
years. The bright side is that if the average house drops by
50% we'll be right back where we were in 1997.
Throughout the preceding
century, houses varied from 85-125 percent of the 1890 average
value with the exception of the depression, which for housing
actually began during World War I. By 1920,housing prices were
down to about 65% of 1890 levels and then began to slowly rise.
By 1940 they were back to the 1890 figure. In other words, housing
devaluation can be a harbinger of worse to come
FACING THE HOUSING CRISIS
HOUSING CRASH DISASTROUS FOR RETIREMENT
SAVINGS
CALIFORNIA FORECLOSURES UP 327%
IMF SAYS MORTGAGE CRISIS IS LARGEST
FINANCIAL SHOCK SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION
OREGONIAN FINDS JPMORGAN CHASE
MEMO ON HOW TO SNEAK IN SUBPRIME LOANS
HOME EQUITY LOANS NEXT CRISIS?
BEN BERNANKE THREE YEARS AGO:
HOUSING MARKET NO PROBLEM
SUBPRIME SCANDAL AN OLD STORY
IN STOCKTON, CA
SUBPRIME LENDERS TARGETED BLACKS
& LATINOS
SUBPRIME CRISIS HELPED BY SUBPRIME
POLITICS. . . AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
MORTGAGE LENDERS PREFER FORECLOSURE
TO HELPING HOME BUYERS PAY OFF LOAN
PRIMING THE SUBPRIME
CRISIS
JAMES MCCUSKER, EVERETT
HERALD, WA - In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash and the
subsequent global economic depression, Congress, among other
actions, passed the Glass-Steagall Act which prohibited banks
from engaging in securities underwriting. There was money to
be made in securities, though, and after a suitable period of
penance for their contributions to the crash and depression banks
began to agitate for relief from this restrictive law.
The banking industry's
whining about Glass-Steagall eventually paid off. . . Few people
spoke out against the idea, which was endorsed by America's top
banking regulator, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. It
is tempting to say that his enthusiasm for the idea, and Congress'
action, made sense at the time, but that was not so. In fact,
it made no sense then, and makes none now. . .
Banks eagerly bought up
low-quality mortgage loans, packaged them up and sold them as
securities -- all the while using "three-card Monte"
accounting constructs to keep the transactions off their balance
sheets. . .
The Federal Reserve, the
president and Congress have their hands full at this time. Their
first priority is damage control, and that is as it should be.
Eventually, though, the economy will right itself, with or without
Washington's help, and the president, the Federal Reserve and
Congress will have time to consider what got us into this fix
in the first place.
If we had to pick a single
event that set off this economic stink bomb, it would have to
be Alan Greenspan's decision to support the expansion of bank
activities into securities underwriting. While the Congress has
a mind of its own, it is extremely doubtful that they would have
approved this expansion in the face of his objections. He was
at the height of his powers then, and his support for the idea
made it bullet-proof, politically.
As soon as possible, Congress
should extend its damage control operations to put banking back
on solid ground, and reconstruct the wall between banking and
stock-market gaming.
2006
43%
OF FIRST TIME HOMEOWNERS LAST YEAR PUT NO MONEY DOWN
NOELLE KNOX, USA TODAY - As housing
prices soared last year, an eye-popping 43% of first-time home
buyers purchased their homes with no-money-down loans, according
to a study released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors.
The trend is potentially ominous. The real estate market is cooling
in some areas, and rates on adjustable-rate loans are creeping
up. As a result, some no-money-down buyers could owe more than
their homes are worth. The median first-time home buyer scraped
together a down payment of only 2% on a $150,000 home in 2005,
the NAR found. Already, home prices in many areas are declining,
and the "For Sale" signs are hanging in front yards
longer. There's now at least a 50% risk that prices will decline
within two years in 11 major metro areas, including San Diego;
Boston; Long Island, N.Y.; Los Angeles; and San Francisco, according
to PMI Mortgage Insurance's latest U.S. Market Risk Index. .
.
Dean Baker
of the Center for Economic and Policy Research says that if housing
prices fall at least 10%, it could be even more damaging than
the collapse of the high-tech stock bubble in 2000. . . Baker
and other economists are concerned that many lenders have pushed
a series of creative but potentially dangerous loans to help
more Americans afford a home. |
