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Home affordability took a slight hit this week after the Federal Reserve’s release of its August 10 meeting minutes.
The “Fed Minutes” is a lengthy, detailed recap of a Federal Open Market Committee meeting, not unlike the minutes published after a corporate conference, or condo association gathering. The Federal Reserve publishes its meeting minutes 3 weeks [...]

Never have so few, done so little, and made so much, while screwing so many.

Don’t get too excited yet, homebuyers. There will no doubt be more Government “extend and pretend” tinkering before many of these homes actually hit the market for sale.

In other words, the Government will continue to prop up home prices as long as they have to. Proving, yet again, that the consensus continues to confuse the cure and the disease.

Today’s Existing Home Sales figure could push Months-of-Supply over that 11.2 level, an ominous sign for housing going forward.

If there were just 4 million home sold (SAAR) and inventory held steady at 4 million units, we would have a record 12 Months of Supply.

Money tied up in housing puts a roof over your head, but it doesn’t do much else to stimulate the economy. You’ve got to wonder how many new businesses never happened because cash was tied up or even destroyed by the housing bubble.

Policymakers openly judged HAMP to be a qualified success because it helped banks muddle through what might have been a fatal shock.

The shadow inventory is now estimated to be around 7 million homes. But nobody can really say because, if home prices begin to spiral downwards again, the number cold balloon much higher. Home prices, and possibly our entire economy, will not hit bottom until we undo all of the real estate transactions that never should have happened.

So, after 5 years, how much progress have we made?

My best guess, to use a baseball analogy, is that we’re in the third inning. At this rate, it could be decades before this housing mess is behind us.The shadow inventory is now estimated to be around 7 million homes. But nobody can really say because, if home prices begin to spiral downwards again, the number cold balloon much higher. Home prices, and possibly our entire economy, will not hit bottom until we undo all of the real estate transactions that never should have happened.

So, after 5 years, how much progress have we made?

My best guess, to use a baseball analogy, is that we’re in the third inning. At this rate, it could be decades before this housing mess is behind us.

About 51 percent of Shanghai apartments, 66 percent of Beijing flats and more than 70 percent of units in Hainan are vacant, according to the survey, based on counting the number of apartments observed to have no lights on at night. It was conducted on more than 1,000 real-estate projects and was organized by news website Sina.com., according to the report.

Nothing of any importance has changed. The engine of Empire is lugging a bit as the load increases, but the Empire’s army of high-caste technocrats are hard at work, securing their perquisites and fat paychecks by keeping the sprawling global machine running.

all the government programs geared towards helping struggling homeowners were, and are, nothing more than a dog & pony show to give some lip service to the American public while simultaneously funneling more of their money into the hands of the super wealthy bankers who caused this mess in the first place.

The age of the high-end short sale is upon us.

An artist’s rendering of Ben Bernanke’s Facebook Page

A recent Bloomberg article suggested that the FHA had made a special arrangement to offer mortgages of up to $3 million on luxury Manhattan condos. This is not true. FHA loan limits of $729,750 are still in place.