HousingStorm.com

Looking At Mortgage Delinquencies – The Big Picture, Barry Ritholtz

Fitch Projects More RMBS Re-Defaults as HAMP Disappoints – Housingwire

The Shoddy Statistics of Super Freakonomics – The Washington Post

…The problem with Super Freakonomics is it prefers an interesting story to an accurate one. This is evident from the very first story on the very first page of the book.

An Orwellian “Free Market” Economy – The Housing Bubble Blog

Safety Nets for the Rich – The New York Times, Bob Herbert

Housing and the Economy - Calculated Risk, CR

Those expecting a “V-shaped” or immaculate recovery – with unemployment falling sharply in 2010 – are clearly expecting single family housing starts to rebound quickly to a rate significantly above 1 million units per year.

Not. Gonna. Happen.

There are just too many excess housing units for a rapid recovery in new home sales and single family housing starts. Yes, new home inventory has declined significantly, and existing home inventory has also decreased (although still very high). But there are also a record number of vacant rental units – with the vacancy rate approaching 11% – and the housing inventory includes these units too.

Related posts:

1. December Existing Home Sales Fall Economists were expecting a 11.6% drop in existing home sales, to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 5.78 million. This large drop...
2. Data Points: Housing Starts and Mortgage Applications From The Mortgage Bankers Association: Weekly Application Survey The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased...
3. 754,000 new housing starts by 4Q 2010? At the 2010 International Builders Show this week in Las Vegas, the NAHB's chief economist David Crowe is predicting a...