Housing

Whose Capital Will Get Destroyed? Wall Street Tries To Cash Out Of Newfangled “Asset Class”

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Whose Capital Will Get Destroyed? Wall Street Tries To Cash Out Of Newfangled “Asset Class”

Oaktree Capital and Carrington Mortgage are trying to dump a portfolio of 500 single-family homes they’d bought out of foreclosure. They’re trying to get the heck out of the once hot buy-to-rent trade. Blackstone, which gobbled up 32,000 of these homes, is trying to get its money out. They all are. That trade is turning sour. Trouble in the housing market!

Was The Fed Scared Of This Graph?

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Was The Fed Scared Of This Graph?

When the Fed shied away from tapering its $85 billion a month in asset purchases, while simultaneously downgrading the economy for the third time this year, it gave the impression of being mired in fear. It has many reasons to be afraid. But one in particular.

Housing Bubble In Full Bloom, Zany Price Increases, And Now A Sudden Slowdown

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Housing Bubble In Full Bloom, Zany Price Increases, And Now A Sudden Slowdown

Dizzying home-price increases fused with pandemic hype and trillions from the Fed into a self-propagating force. It’s now accepted that housing will recover all the way to where it was in 2006, a sign the Fed has done its job, that it cured the ill that has dogged this economy for so long. Prices of 2006 are no longer “the peak of the housing bubble” but a goal.

The New Housing Market “Recovery” – Fact V. Fiction

by Lee Adler •  • Comments Off on The New Housing Market “Recovery” – Fact V. Fiction

By Lee Adler, The Wall Street Examiner: There’s been a lot of talk over the past year about the housing “recovery.” But the fact of the matter is that in terms of new single-family homes, there’s no genuine recovery, but there’s certainly a bubble in prices.

This is What Mucks Up Housing, Costs Homeowners Dearly

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on This is What Mucks Up Housing, Costs Homeowners Dearly

Home prices have jumped around the country, in some cities over 20% on an annual basis. “Recovery of the housing market,” is what this phenomenon is called. Everyone from President Obama on down has taken credit for it, particularly the Fed, whose handiwork this is. But there is a very ugly fly in this illusory ointment.

In Last 12 Months: Fed SOMA Up 27%, Housing Prices Up 13.5%, Stock Market Up 22%, Jobs Up 1.7%

by Contributor •  • Comments Off on In Last 12 Months: Fed SOMA Up 27%, Housing Prices Up 13.5%, Stock Market Up 22%, Jobs Up 1.7%

By Lee Adler, of The Wall Street Examiner: By now it’s clear to everybody, even the Fed, that QE does absolutely nothing to stimulate economic growth while fomenting bubbles in housing and stock prices. The Fed will disingenuously use steady job growth as an excuse to begin cutting back on QE soon. But its real reason lies elsewhere.

Wall Street Engineers Newest Frankenstein’s Monster For Housing

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Wall Street Engineers Newest Frankenstein’s Monster For Housing

Wall Street engineering is back in the housing market. Its newest product is one heck of a contraption, a synthetic structured security of the type that helped blow up the financial system back in 2008. It’s like those triple-A rated mortgage-backed securities that became toxic waste in your “money-market-equivalent” bond fund – only worse.

Mother Of All Bubbles Pops, Mess Ensues

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Mother Of All Bubbles Pops, Mess Ensues

The asset bubbles the Fed’s money-printing and bond-buying binge has created are spectacular, the risk-taking on Wall Street with other people’s money a sight to behold. Big winners were mortgage Real Estate Investment Trusts – and those who got fat on extracting fees. But now the pendulum is swinging back, and the bloodletting has started.

US Housing Bubble II: Euphoria And Other Shenanigans

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on US Housing Bubble II: Euphoria And Other Shenanigans

The good old days are back. Those days when money grew on trees: home prices jumped 10.9% year over year, based on data through March 2013. The usual suspects: Phoenix soared 22.5%, San Francisco 22.2%, Las Vegas 20.6%. You can’t lose money in real estate. I’m already hearing it again.

Japan’s Vacant Houses: Visions of Detroit

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Japan’s Vacant Houses: Visions of Detroit

Unlike Detroit, which will run out of cash next month, Japan prints its own money, so bankruptcy in the Detroit sense is not in the cards. But they do have two things in common: depopulation and a ballooning stock of abandoned houses. For Japan, it’s an issue that even the most prodigious money-printing binge cannot resolve.