A plan to jumpstart the mortgage market
Continue Reading Add comment July 17th, 2008
A group representing the buyers and sellers of mortgage backed securities unveiled a plan on Wednesday to recharge the moribund mortgage securitization market.
Archive for July 17th, 2008
New home construction report — worse than it looks
Continue Reading Add comment July 17th, 2008
A survey of builders released yesterday indicated that builder confidence in the new-home market in July hit a new low for the third-month in a row.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index in July dropped to the lowest level since the series measuring builder confidence began in 1985.
Today, a report on June housing starts seemed — at first — to make the builders seem like an overly pessimistic lot. U.S. housing starts surprised analysts by jumping 9.1% to an annual rate of 1.066 million in June.
But the Commerce Department made clear Thursday that the jump in permits and starts was caused by a change in the New York City’s building code. Builders were rushing in June to apply for building permits before more strict construction codes were put in place.
So, it makes more sense to look at the single-family home construction data. Single-family housing starts in June dropped 5.3% and permits fell 3.5%.
Patrick Newport, U.S. Economist for Global Insight, said the figures are pretty dismal but not surprising. Single-family permits were falling by 5% a month six months ago. So a 3.5% drop is a bit of an improvement.
It will likely be some time before builders have something to cheer about. Newport points out that builders are having more problems financing projects with the tight credit market and the looming collapse of some regional banks.
“They will have problems getting credit to put up new homes and that may delay any recovery,” Newport said. “The recovery could come late this year or early next year but it may be further out than that.”
Ben Bernanke’s new nickname: Bernie Mac
Continue Reading Add comment July 17th, 2008
At first glance it’s hard to see much resemblance between Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Bernie Mac, the comedian. Bernanke is an economist from Princeton University, while Bernie Mac is a television and movie actor whose character in The Bernie Mac Show was ranked #47 in TV Guide’s list of the “50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time.” Ben Bernanke will occasionally offer a mildly humorous aside in, say, semiannual congressional testimony, but I think he would get trounced in an open mike contest by Bernie Mac, who is #72 on Comedy Central’s list of the 100 greatest standups of all time.
So given the considerable differences between them, why do I think Ben Bernanke should be nicknamed Bernie Mac? Simple. Under Bernanke, the Federal Reserve agreed July 13 to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the twin mortgage-finance giants, borrow from the Fed if need be in an emergency. In essence, then, the Fed is standing behind the obligations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in the same way that Fannie and Freddie guarantee to stand behind the mortgage-backed securities they issue. There is some kind of iron law in Washington that once you get into the loan backing business, you get a silly nickname: Not just Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but Ginnie Mae, Sallie Mae, Farmer Mac, etc., etc.
Earlier this year, after the Fed helped finance the takeover of Bear, Stearns & Co., some people, like James Pethokoukis at U.S. News & World Report, campaigned to nickname the Fed “Feddie.”
But with “Bernie Mac,” you get much more: the spin on Bernanke’s last name, plus the Mac from Freddie Mac, plus the association with the 72nd greatest standup of all time. Bernie Mac it is!
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P.S. After I wrote this but before I posted it I trolled the Web to see if anyone had the idea before I did. Here are the closest things I found, a fake news story (hat tip to Daily Kos) and a column, both about Ben Bernanke bailing out the comedian.
Brooklyn Land Parcel Sells for $22M
Continue Reading Add comment July 17th, 2008
In a transaction valued at $22M, Kalmon Dolgin Affiliates arranged the sale of a 42,000-square-foot development site on North 3rd Street in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. Read more »
Mortgage rates fall for second week in a row
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Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages fell for the second week in a row on increased speculation that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates before the end of the year, according to mortgage backer Freddie Mac.
Marcus & Millichap Lists Anaheim M-F Community for $56M
Continue Reading Add comment July 17th, 2008
Representing the seller, Kennedy Wilson, Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services has retained the exclusive listing for Mariposa, a 286-unit multi-family community in Anaheim, Calif. Read more »
Marcus & Millichap Lists Anaheim M-F Community for $56M
Continue Reading Add comment July 17th, 2008
Representing the seller, Kennedy Wilson, Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services has retained the exclusive listing for Mariposa, a 286-unit multi-family community in Anaheim, Calif. Read more »