Casey Mulligan, a University of Chicago economist, writes over at The New York Times’ Economix: “Adjusted for inflation, residential property values were still higher at the end of 2009 than 10 years ago. This fact raises the possibility that at least part of the housing boom was an efficient More…
Over at the excellent Atlantic Business Channel, Daniel Indiviglio runs through the three major overlooked issues in Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform bill that economists and market-watchers flagged for The New York Times. The folks quoted cite credit runs in the shadow-banking sector (in English: old-fashioned More…
Black homeowners are roughly 50 percent less likely than whites to receive help under the largest of the administration’s anti-foreclosure programs, according to a new survey of qualified families.
The findings have raised questions on Capitol Hill about the fairness of the program, led housing advocates to reiterate calls More…
Given that President Obama’s recently announced mortgage assistance program is only 2 percent of what he gave to banks for the mostly unsuccessful mortgage modification program, one might be forgiven for thinking that the housing market is on an upward trajectory. If JPMorgan Chase’s recent SEC More…
It is with great fanfare that President Obama will roll out his new plan to help keep struggling homeowners from going into foreclosure. His $1.5 billion program will provide block grants to states in which housing prices have dropped 20 percent from their all-time highs. Thus, More…
An ambitious plan to update the Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act that supporters hope to see signed into law in 2010 comes amid charges that this legislation was responsible for nothing less than the subprime crisis and the resulting collapse of the residential real estate market.
The plan, sponsored by More…
It was last December when Julio Angulo ignored the bitter cold and sat on a rusted patio chair in the front yard of his foreclosed home in suburban Manassas, Va. He sighed, resting his hand on his knee. He stared despondently at the sky. His lender had foreclosed on his More…
As the housing market began booming in the mid-2000s, Wells Fargo & Co. teamed up with prominent African American commentator and PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley and financial author Kelvin Boston, the host of “Moneywise,” a multicultural financial More…
Anyone who’s ever purchased a home knows that the appraisal is a key component. Buyers rely on the appraisal to ensure that they’re not overpaying for their prospective home, while lenders need to make sure they’re not lending more than the home is worth.
But these days, getting an appraisal More…
Are we really going to go through this again? Immediately after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development finished putting the final touches on a controversial plan to allow first-time homebuyers to use an $8,000 tax credit as a downpayment on a new home, some in the Senate More…
rss