Housing and jobs: these are the two keys to the economic recovery really taking off, and while we’ve gotten some positive news on the jobs front recently, real estate prices have more or less continued to decline steadily since …
housing
Mixed Bag of Housing Data Shows Recovery — Except in Areas with High Foreclosures
In housing, there may be a rising tide, but it isn’t lifting all boats. According to data released today by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, prices were up 0.3% in February from the month before on a seasonally adjusted basis. …
Building a Better Bailout: Can Fannie and Freddie Help American Homeowners?
Since the financial crisis, American taxpayers have collectively made all sorts of investments that would have been unthinkable ten years ago. We bought stakes in the auto and insurance industries and, perhaps most significantly, …
7 Tax Breaks You Probably Overlooked
Most people know that they get tax breaks on their kids and on the mortgage interest they pay on their homes, but experts say many taxpayers leave a slew of other deductions and credits on the table that could potentially save …
Is Fannie and Freddie Honcho Ed DeMarco “America’s Most Dangerous Man?”
Ed DeMarco, acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), doesn’t have the look of a comic-book super-villain, but if you listen to some of the barbs his critics hurl at him, DeMarco is more dastardly than The Joker …
Housing Prices Fall to 2003 Levels, But Demand May Be Building
It’s now officially a lost decade for home prices. With the release of the January data for the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes, prices in a national composite dropped 3.8% from a year before, rolling back to …
An Early Spring for Housing, Too?
Solutions to 9 Puzzling Financial Frustrations
Housing Bail-Out Arrives for One Group of Americans: Soldiers and Vets
Call it a war on foreclosure wrongs. The $25 billion foreclosure abuse settlement announced last month between a group of state governments and the largest mortgage banks in the country is meant to help homeowners everywhere who …
Housing Prices Dip For the Fourth Time in Three Years
After the Great Recession, there were some pundits who theorized that real estate would make a “W-shaped” recovery. With the S&P/Case-Shiller housing prices out this morning, it’s now clear that there are not one, but two “Ws” in the chart — and that’snot a good thing. Index prices fell 1.1% from November to December. In …
Housing Prices Dip for the Fourth Time in Three Years
After the Great Recession, there were some pundits who theorized that real estate would make a W-shaped recovery. With the S&P/Case-Shiller housing prices out this morning, it’s now clear that there are not one but two W’s in the chart — and that’s not a good thing. Index prices fell 1.1% from November to December. In other words, …
Plotting the Future of Fannie and Freddie
One of the many cans being kicked down Washington’s boulevards these days is the government conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, Congress and the Bush administration …