Posts Tagged ‘underwater mortgages’
Posted by Larry Doyle on June 20th, 2011 8:07 AM |

Over the last few years I have highlighted the fact that the deflationary impact of declining wages and home values gave cover to the Federal Reserve for maintaining an excessively easy monetary policy and pumping up asset prices via quantitative easing. That party would now seem to be over. Why?
There is no doubt that Fed chair Bernanke’s easy money has played an integral role in the inflation we are experiencing at the pump, in the supermarket, and across a number of other commodities.
As we continue to navigate the U.S. economic landscape circa 2011 and beyond, the ongoing decline in home values in many regions of our nation now would seem to be setting the table for an inflationary spike in housing costs. How so? What is going on here? (more…)
Tags: Ben Bernanke's party on Wall Street, benefits of purchasing vs renting, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Capital Economics forecast for US rental market he, Case-Shiller Index, Consumer price index, cost of purchasing vs renting, cost of renting, deflation vs inflation, easy monetary policy, easy money, Falling House Prices Mysteriously Fuel Inflation, fed's party, Federal Reserve monetary policy, foreclosures fueling inflation, future federal reserve policy, future monetary policy, hom eprices decline rents move higher, housing deflation vs housing inflation, how is housing inflation measured, how will Federal Reserve set monetary policy going forward, is housing in a Depression, is the fed's party over, measuring cost of housing, measuring CPI, measuring inflation, NAHB sentiment index, no more quantitative easing, owning vs renting, price of shelter, purchasing vs renting, quantitative easing, the end of easy money, underwater mortgages, what will Federal Reserve do, what will the Federal Reserve do with future policy, where are we getting inflation, where will people live, why might the Fed's party be over, will there be a QE3
Posted in Federal Reserve, General, Housing Crisis, quantitative easing | 10 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on June 1st, 2011 9:30 AM |

While various and sundry soothsayers have been touting the relative merits of our housing market for the last few years, I did not have a constructive comment about housing until just six weeks ago when I wrote, Is It Getting Time To Buy a House?. Housing price data released yesterday confirmed that our nations’ housing market has, in fact, suffered a double dip.
Is my positive commentary on housing premature and akin to ‘catching a falling knife’? Why was I negative for so long? Why do I think the bottoming process will be prolonged? What do I see as a compelling reason why homeownership is becoming increasingly attractive? Let’s navigate.
1. Why was I negative for so long? (more…)
Tags: Capital Economics, cooking the books, factors supporting homeownership, factors to consider before purchasing a home, HAMP, home equity, homeownership, housing double dip, housing overhang, how long will it take housing to bottom, is it time to buy a home, liquidity of owning a home, median mortgage payments, mortgage debt, mortgage finance, Nothing Going Up But The Rent, owning vs renting, renting vs buying, should I buy a home now, size of shadow housing inventory, U.S. housing market, underwater mortgages, when will housing rebound
Posted in General, Housing Crisis, Mortgage Cram-Down, Mortgage Crisis, Mortgages | 4 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on September 21st, 2010 12:02 PM |
What is holding back our economy? Why isn’t there more credit available in our banking system?

I have answered these questions numerous times over the last two years BUT many in Washington pretend not to know the answer and pander to their constituencies in the process. Regular readers of Sense on Cents are well aware that the books of our banks–especially our largest money center banks–remain chock-filled with loans that are being valued far in excess of what they are truly worth. Let’s navigate.
I first addressed issues within the second mortgage and HELOC (home equity line of credit) space in Fall of 2008 (Sense on Cents/Second Mortgages). Here we are a full two years later and America still has not received a straight answer and a full accounting by the banks or their regulators as to this “sinkhole” on their books and in our economy.
Let’s dive into this hole, get a little dirty, and again expose the issues within this sector. (more…)
Tags: 12th Street Capital, American Banker, Anthony Sanders, Anthony Sanders of George Mason University, bank regulators, Bryan Hubbard, Catch-22, cooking the books, CoreLogic, ginat elephant in the room, helocs, home prices, housing, Housing Crisis, Jerry Dubrowski, Kevin Doyle of 12th Street Capital, Larry Doyle, Michael Cavanagh of JP Morgan, Mortgage Crisis, mortgage delinquencies, mortgage foreclosures, OCC, Rebel Cole of Depaul University, second liens, second mortgages, Sense on Cents, strategic defaults, underwater mortgages, Why Writedowns on Second Mortgages Are So Scarce
Posted in General | 10 Comments »