Foreclosure Freeze Had Little Impact: Report

Widespread foreclosure freezes that began in late last year and ran through the first quarter of this year appear to have done little to change the outlook for troubled borrowers — and may even have made things worse, for everyone involved. A report released recently by due diligence and surveillance specialist Clayton Holdings, Inc. highlights the [...]

SoCal Sees Sales Rise, as Foreclosures Make the Market

The old real estate mantra used to be location, location, location — but a new mantra seems to be enveloping certain markets now. Instead of the tried and true, the newest axiom might best be buy foreclosures, and shun everything else. In some of the hardest-hit local housing markets across the nation, steep discounting on [...]

First Take: Bush throws GSEs under the bus

Forget everything else about how the current financial mess could hurt everyday Americans, which it could. My jaw fell to the floor when I heard the President, attempting to explain the current mortgage/financial debacle to everyday Americans on Wednesday night, throw both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the proverbial bus. “Fannie Mac and Freddie [...]

Fed’s Move Has Some Recalling S&L Crisis

Are policymakers making the same mistakes we observed in the early days of the S&L crisis? Late Monday, the Federal Reserve revised key rules surrounding bank holding companies, loosening ownership restrictions to allow private equity firms to take a larger chunk of banks. In particular, the Fed said it will allow private equity investors to [...]

AIG on the Brink, Too

Pending doom for Lehman Brothers Holdings Corp. (LEH: 0.00 N/A) garnered plenty of headlines Sunday and heading into Monday, but it’s another possible failure that could send larger waves through financial markets: The American International Group (AIG: 35.10 -1.57%) is said to have appealed to the Federal Reserve for a $40 billion bridge loan to [...]

‘Fire Sales’ Boost Southern California Home Sales

First, the good news: The number of Southern California homes sold last month edged up to its highest level in more than a year, as bargain hunters swept up foreclosure properties in affordable neighborhoods. A total of 20,329 new and resale houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and [...]

Foreclosure Resales Boost Existing Home Sales

Sales of existing homes increased in May, beating analyst expectations, as an increasing volume of distressed real estate sales — including REO and borrower short-sales — helped resales edge up 2 percent to a 4.99 million annual rate, according to statistics released Thursday morning by the National Association of Realtors. The May estimate is still [...]

Are pending home sales really negative?

We’re not always contrarians here at HW, but some recent buzz surrounding yesterday’s pending home sales report from the NAR has caught the eye of a few industry types that we know. In particular, the Calculated Risk blog weighs in with a suggesting that home sales are in much bigger trouble than Monday’s surprisingly good [...]

A Tale of Two Housing Markets: There’s REO, and Then There’s Everything Else

Proving that even within a single local housing market, sales trends can be more complex than they might otherwise seem, new data is suggesting that distressed assets can move housing markets — when prevalent enough. A monthly housing report from real estate analytics firm Radar Logic Inc., released Monday morning, found that in March of this [...]

Foreclosures, REO Pressuring Home Prices in Many Key Markets: Report

As REO listings flood key local housing markets throughout the nation, it’s clear that the glut of bank-owned real estate is not only building up overall inventory, but also pushing down prices as well. A new report Friday from real estate analytics firm RadarLogic confirms that trend: in 25 tradeable MSAs, only three markets showed price [...]

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