KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Wednesday May 11 Housing and Economic stories

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TOP STORIES:

House Prices in 20 US Cities Drop Most in More Than Year on Foreclosures - (www.bloomberg.com) Residential real-estate prices dropped in the 12 months to February by the most in more than a year, putting the market on the verge of eclipsing the nadir reached during the U.S. recession. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities fell 3.3 percent from February 2010, the biggest year-over-year decline since November 2009, the group said today in New York. At 139.27, the gauge was just shy of the six-year low of 139.26 in April 2009, two months before the economic slump ended. Values will probably keep falling as foreclosures swell the supply of unsold homes, which means the construction industry will take time to recover. Another report showed consumer confidence climbed more than forecast this month, making it more likely that spending will keep growing as the economic expansion creates jobs and stock prices advance.\

Banks borrowed billions from Fed then loaned it to government for huge profit - (sanders.senate.gov) The Federal Reserve propped up banks with big infusions of cash during the depths of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Banks that took billions of dollars from the Fed then turned around and loaned money back to the federal government. It was a sweet deal for the bankers. They received interest payments on the government securities that were up to 12 times greater than the Fed's rock bottom rates, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis conducted for Sen. Bernie Sanders. "This report confirms that ultra-low interest loans provided by the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis turned out to be direct corporate welfare to big banks," Sanders said. "Instead of using the Fed loans to reinvest in the economy, some of the largest financial institutions in this country appear to have lent this money back to the federal government at a higher rate of interest by purchasing U.S. government securities." At the time, the Fed claimed banks needed the emergency loans to provide credit to small- and medium-sized businesses that desperately needed money to create jobs or to prevent layoffs.

Deutsche Bank predicting 40% DROP in NY RE prices - (www.zerohedge.com) After the good folks in the Deutsche Bank securitization group anticipated a 47% drop in NY housing prices in March, they have released an updated report discussing the future pain in the top 10 MSA, and the biggest outlier by a big margin, once again, is the New York-White Plains-Wayne NY-NJ MSAD. With a 40% drop in prices still to come, if in the market to sell some real estate, you may want to do it as soon as possible before potential buyers realize how much cheaper they can get that 2 bedroom TriBeCa loft for. Summary from the DB report:

(1) while home sales activity has picked up in some regions, much of it reflects clearing of distressed inventory and is accompanied by falling prices. Over the last several months, many MSAs reached their all time highs in affordability, helped by low mortgage rates. Unfortunately, affordability is no longer the driving issue in the housing market and we believe prices still have a ways to fall in many areas before home prices reach their trough. The bottom is closer but we are not there yet.

(2) For the US we are now projection a further 14% decline from 1Q09 this compares to the 16.5% current to trough decline we published our last outlook in March '09.

Wealthy Leaving Las Vegas Mansions as Pain of Foreclosure Crisis Spreads - (www.bloomberg.com) Nicolas Cage, the Oscar-winning star of “Leaving Las Vegas,” bought a seven-bedroom home with a panoramic view of the city’s casino-lined Strip in 2006 for $8.5 million. By January 2010, it was in foreclosure. The next owner, who property records show paid $4.2 million, has put the house on the market for $7.9 million -- an “unrealistic” price, according to Zar Zanganeh, the broker handling the listing. “It’s sad,” Zanganeh said, his high-heeled boots clacking on the marble floor as he gave a tour of the 14,000-square-foot (1,300-square-meter) mansion featuring a six-person steam shower and a closet the size of a small apartment. “There’s a lot of inventory, a lot of homes like this waiting for an owner.” A growing number of high-end homes are selling at a loss or facing repossession by lenders in Las Vegas, which already has the highest rate of foreclosure filings among large U.S. cities. The wave of defaults that began with subprime borrowers and the unemployed has spread to upscale homeowners who see no point of staying even if they can afford to.

Household debt contracting while Fed juices banking sector with more debt - (www.mybudget360.com) At the dark heart of our financial dilemma is debt. Too much debt was used to bolster households during the real estate bubble and now too much debt is being used by the government to bail out the financial sector. Is there a tipping point in the amount of debt the American economy can shoulder? I believe there is and looking at the data carefully we begin to see unusual patterns not seen in a generation. The mosaic of tools used for this financial crisis would have worked if the problems we faced were merely issues of confidence. Of course the problems were very real and dealt with more than just perception and instead of confronting the reality of an over leveraged debt addicted machine we have only stepped on the accelerator. Yet this time instead of credit flowing to households for added game rooms or a trip to Hawaii credit is being extended to Wall Street courtesy of the Federal Reserve. Total credit market debt owed jumped from $28 trillion in 2001 to over $52 trillion today.