In The New York Times, University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan offers some housing-market optimism:
Recent reports on housing starts, new home sales and housing prices show that the housing recovery continues….
Although the housing inventory exceeded the demand in 2007 and 2008, we have known for a while
Calculated Risk has a smart analysis — with graphs! — on the first-quarter housing and rental vacancy rates released by the Census Bureau this morning. The rate of homeownership fell to 67.1 percent, its lowest level in more than a decade.
Bloomberg News’ Caroline Baum has a tart piece on strategic defaults and consumer spending — invoking the theory, first put forward by HousingWire’s Paul Jackson, that underwater homeowners are purposefully defaulting on their mortgages and using the funds to buy regular goods. That would explain why consumer spending More…
Housing sales should rise a strong 5 percent in March, housing economists say, with the rush fueled by the end-of-the-month expiry of the first time homebuyer’s tax credit. All in all, 5.3 million Americans will purchase a new home. But The Associated Press story injects a note of caution: More…
Today, New York Times economics writer David Leonhardt has a good column on why it might be a good time to buy a home in some unlikely parts of the United States.
Leonhardt shows that the rent ratio — the price of the home divided by the estimated annual More…
Blogging at Naked Capitalism, Edward Harrison provides a persuasive argument for why retail sales and consumption are increasing, despite persistent joblessness and a lack of income growth. He posits that homeowners in foreclosure or struggling with mortgage payments are deciding to stop sending checks to the bank, letting their More…
With the Home Affordable Modification Program faltering in its effort to stem the foreclosure crisis, Dean Baker, the co-chair of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, argues for a simple and free way for Congress to aid banks and underwater homeowners.
Testifying before the House Subcommittee on Housing More…
Tomorrow, the House Financial Services Committee, headed by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), starts a series of hearings on mortgage modification and the housing market. The schedule is as follows:
Megan pointed this out more than a week ago, but today the editorialists at The New York Times are also highlighting the central flaw of the updated foreclosure prevention program announced by the White House last month: While the government offers financial More…
To much fanfare, the Obama administration a year ago launched a $75 billion program designed to prevent foreclosures by providing financial incentives to lenders and servicers who modified mortgages to keep them affordable. The program, the White House said, would reach between 3 and 4 million struggling homeowners. More…
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