The Big Whopper season is already upon us, in the form of presidential aspirants telling egregious lies about their track records. The Wall Street Journal tonight covers a section from Kamala Harris’ new book, in which she touts what a great deal she got for California homeowners in the so-called Federal-49 state National Mortgage Settlement […]
Realtors Urge Fed to Stop Hiking as Existing Home Sales Slump Most Since 2014…
Despite a modestly better than expected 1.4% MoM rise (after September’s 3.4% slump), existing home sales slumped 5.1% year-over-year – the biggest drop since 2014. Regionally, The West is suffering the most:Existing-home sales in the Northeast increased 1.5% to an annual rate of 690,000, 6.8% below a year ago. The median price in the Northeast […]
Here’s How a Major Western Bank Enabled a Suspected Russian Money Launderer…
A Western financial institution loaned millions of dollars to a Russian-owned real estate company in 2012, despite the fact that its owner had been fined after an Israeli money laundering investigation and suspicions that the company was a beneficiary of the largest tax fraud in Russian history. To combat financial crimes, banks are supposed to […]
Silicon Valley’s Housing Market Is So Dire, a Burned-Out Home Just Sold for $938k…
It’s no secret that buying a home for under US$1 million in the San Francisco Bay Area is a nearly impossible task. Case in point: Somebody has paid over US$900,000 for a burned-out home. The one-story, single-family house at 1375 Bird Avenue in San Jose, California, was ravaged by fire two years ago. In photos, […]
Housing Confidence Hits Record High…
Supply is tight, prices are soaring and mortgage rates are rising. That shouldn’t exactly add up to a happy housing market, and yet, it does. Consumer confidence in housing jumped to its highest level on record in April, according to a monthly sentiment index from Fannie Mae. Of the index’s six components, only the share […]
This Rare Bear Who Called the Crash Warns Housing Is Too Hot Again…
When real estate investors get this confident, money manager James Stack gets nervous. U.S. home prices are surging to new records. Homebuilder stocks last year outperformed all other groups. And bears? They’re now an endangered species. Stack, 66, who manages $1.3 billion for people with a high net worth, predicted the housing crash in 2005, […]
Fannie and Freddie Finally Wake Up…
Spring is in the air signaling the start of homebuying season. But here in Las Vegas, buyers “are aplenty,” 1st Realty Group owner Thomas Blanchard tells the Las Vegas Review Journal, but “we just don’t have the properties to sell them.” It hardly seems possible, not enough homes for sale. After all, squatting in bank-owned […]
The Obama ‘Recovery’: Number Of Millennials Living At Home With Mom Reaches 75-Year High…
Millennials finally get to claim a trophy for an achievement they actually earned (no participation medals here)…that’s right, Millennials have officially set a 75-year record for highest percentage of young adults living at home with mom…
“If You Own a Home in Palo Alto, CA, Sell it Now”…
But if I were out there giving financial advice and charging an arm and a leg for it, it would sound like this: “If you own a home in Palo Alto, sell it now”…