Foreclosures Home Sales Outlook Housing Starts President Obama
Thursday, June 30, 2011
National Homeownership Month: Help Your Clients Celebrate!
June is National Homeownership Month! Housing plays a large role in helping boost the economy and create jobs. The sales of homes can generate economic activity beyond the sales transaction. We at HomeFinder.com know that the market can be tough, but rest assured, owning a home is STILL the American dream. According to NAR?s survey, [...]
Home Renovations- Where do you invest and what do you scratch?
There are a million reasons you could be considering a remodeling project; you found the perfect house, in the perfect location…but the linoleum flooring and wood paneling on the walls don’t exactly exude the tasteful, chic look you were hoping to portray. Perhaps you couldn’t imagine moving from your current home- you raised your 2.5 [...]
Mortgage Rescue Scams Real Estate Vacation Properties Loans and Mortgages
Report: Iraq, Afghanistan Wars Cost US Nearly $4 Trillion
Total is more than three times higher than President Barack Obama?s estimate in recent speech
Plant trees, cut your energy bills
Summer shade and winter windbreak will save you money all year long.
Source: http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=29103662
Luxury Home Prices Mortgage Rescue Scams Real Estate Vacation Properties
Colorado Rapids Say "Thanks" to Our Fans and Followers
Yesterday, the MLS champion Colorado Rapids visited the White House to be honored by President Obama and to host a soccer clinic for the kids of military families. While they were here, the Rapids took some time to thank you -- our fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter for supporting our troops and military families.
We asked you how you're giving back and we got some great responses:
In between coaching kids on how to up their soccer game, the Rapids thanked our facebook fans Julia Martin, Rebecca Denham and Sherry Peters and followers @whitelight71 and @HollieSeven who are doing great work. Like us facebook and follow us on Twitter and you just might get a shout-out next!
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/28/colorado-rapids-say-thanks-our-fans-and-followers
National Strategy for Counterterrorism
Here is President Obama’s National Strategy for Counterterrorism, which was presented today by John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism in a speech at SAIS named “Ensuring al-Qa’ida’s Demise”. The strategy articulates the United States’ broad, sustained and integrated campaign against al-Qa’ida, its affiliates and its adherents, consistent with the President’s enduring commitment to protect the American people.
Watch the speech or read his prepared remarks.
Learn more from the fact sheet here.
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/29/national-strategy-counterterrorism
Interest Rates Celebrity Foreclosures Most Expensive Homes Luxury Home Prices
The First Lady's Trip: Service Projects in South Africa & Botswana
The First Lady just returned from her week-long trip to Africa where she focused on youth leadership, education, health, and wellness. We are so excited to show you two more videos from her trip. The first, from Nanga Vhuthilo Community Center, in Soweto, South Africa where the First Lady joined with participants from the Young African Women Leaders Forum for a service project. The second from Baylor Center in Botswana to participate in a service project at the local teen center dedicated to combating HIV/AIDS in the community.
On Board: First Lady Michelle Obama Visits Nanga Vhuthilo Community Center
On Board: First Lady Michelle Obama Visits Baylor Center
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/28/first-ladys-trip-service-projects-south-africa-botswana
Economy Interest Rates Celebrity Foreclosures Most Expensive Homes
How To Make Change Series
Through the summer, we’ll be rolling out events based on your feedback during the “Your Future, Your Solutions” 100 Roundtables Initiative in a series called How to Make Change. We’ll update the schedule with emails and on our website with specifics on timing of the events below and for added events here at the White House, and around the country.
Kickoff Conference Call with President Obama and Administration Officials
Obama Administration Officials conference call de-briefing the President’s commitment to youth issues and initiatives. President Obama will also hop-on the call at 12 noon on Friday, July 1, 2011. Please note that capacity has been reached by those who RSVP’d, but we will provide a read-out after this call.
Civic Engagement: Youth Incarceration, Environment, and LGBT Issues
Not something we see in the mainstream media, but check out President Obama hearing real-life examples from young Americans on how specific policies he supported such as second chance programs, social work, health and human services, the environment, energy independence, national security, Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, and LGBT issues have made an impact in the lives of young Americans.
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/30/how-make-change-series
An Honest Conversation about Medicare
House Speaker John Boehner this week called for "honest conversations" about Medicare.
Fair enough. Let's begin this honest discussion by admitting no one knows for sure how to reduce Medicare costs. And that's a problem, because Medicare expenditures are projected to grow almost 6% a year for the rest of the decade.
To understand why program costs are exploding, you just have to look through the annual Medicare Trustees report on the financial condition of the program. The 2011 report comes out on Friday, but it will surely have the same analysis you can find in all the other reports. If you want to engage in this honest discussion, a good place to start is on page 45 of the 2010 report. There you will find the four trends driving Medicare costs:
- Growth in the number of beneficiaries
- Increases in the prices paid per service, which reflect both higher wages for health care workers and higher prices for the goods and services purchased by health care providers
- Increases in the average number of services per beneficiary ("utilization")
- Increases in the average complexity of services ("intensity")
Let's take these one at a time. The number of Medicare beneficiaries will soar over the next 25 years, rising from almost 49 million this year to 85 million in 2035. The only way to cut costs here is to kick people out of the program. I don't see that happening.
Wages and prices are the next cost driver. Only two things can be done here. Lower wages for doctors and nurses or make them more productive -- meaning get more work out of doctors and nurses then you get today.
Congress tried to lower wages. It capped payments to physicians using a formula. But when the formula became too tough, forcing deep cuts in wages, Congress relented. Thus the "doc fix" was born. Meaning, Congress voted to pay doctors more. I am not arguing the merits of the formula here, just pointing out that the effort failed.
What about productivity? No surprise, it is harder to measure productivity in a hospital than it is in an auto plant. The hospital's product is good health and an outcome like that is hard to quantify. There is no dispute though that if you could accurately measure health care productivity, it would be low and perhaps even negative!
Some studies found as much as one-third of the spending in our health care system does not improve health, adding up to a staggering waste of more than $700 billion.
What can be done about this? The President has created a panel of experts to study ways to use new payment systems to reward innovation and more efficient treatment of disease.
A worthy goal, but as the Trustees Report points out, efforts to eliminate waste and increase productivity through payment and delivery system reforms:
"These outcomes are far from certain . . . . Many experts doubt the feasibility of such sustained improvements and anticipate that over time the Medicare price constraints would become unworkable and that Congress would likely override them, much as they have done to prevent the reductions in physician payment rates otherwise required by the sustainable growth rate formula in current law."
Republicans want to give consumers more power to choose efficient plans on the theory that this will reward innovation and efficiency. But what happens when the "premium support" payments that Republican propose fail to keep up with the cost of health care? The same thing that happened to physician payments. Congress would likely override them too.
The real problem in Medicare comes when we get to cost drivers three and four. Health care costs are driven by people using more services and more complicated services -- utilization and intensity. In other words, Medicare beneficiaries see health care providers more often and those health care providers are performing more expensive tests and surgeries using new technologies.
Now we are at the heart of the Medicare cost problem. If we're being honest, we must change the way we deliver and consume health care. This is not something that happens overnight or because a bill is written in Washington. It will require constant innovation and reform. We will have to get better at determining which treatments improve health and which do not.
The Brookings Institution's Barry Bosworth put it well in an email: "I think the basic problem is that we cannot say no."
Are we willing to change that? And if not, are we willing to pay for Medicare's rapid growth?
You can having an honest conversation on Medicare means confronting some very difficult questions.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/nbr/blog/2011/05/an_honest_discussion_on_medica.html
Vacation Properties Loans and Mortgages Household Moving House Plans
Landscaping on a Budget
Spring has finally arrived, trees are sprouting leaves and the grass is beginning to look green again! Now is the time to give life back to your front lawn or garden.� Gardening not only adds life to your home but can also be a favorite hobby, providing quiet time, away from the hustle and bustle [...]
Source: http://www.homefinder.com/news/opening-doors/2011/06/09/landscaping-on-a-budget/
WNBA Champion Seattle Storm Visits White House, Shoots Hoops with Local Kids
Today President Obama welcomed the WNBA Champion Seattle Storm to the White House. He congratulated the team on its 2010 season and its championship title. The President took the opportunity to pay tribute to the WNBA, which in just fifteen years has become the most successful women’s professional sports league in the world. He also observed that the Storm’s championship was a historic victory: “Three years ago, when this team’s future in Seattle was uncertain, four season ticket holders joined forces to become co-owners. Now they’re also the first all-female ownership group in American history to win a championship.”
In addition to winning basketball games, the Storm is active in a wide variety of service projects. These include promoting childhood literacy, as well as encouraging local organizations to work toward reducing their environmental footprint. During the Storm’s visit to DC, the team held a clinic for young people on the White House basketball court. As the President said today, “the Storm family understands that being a champion doesn’t stop when you step off the court.”
President Barack Obama shows the championship ring he received as a gift with Seattle Storm?s Sue Bird, left, and Swin Cash, right, during a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House to honor the team?s 2010 championship season, June 29, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Kyle Lierman is White House Liaison to the Sports Community.
What is "Premium Support" for Medicare?
The House Republican budget presented by Rep. Paul Ryan calls for Medicare to be transformed from a fee-for-service plan into a "premium support" program. Alice Rivlin, a good Democrat, was OMB Director under Bill Clinton. She also worked with Ryan to refine the premium support concept. I asked her to describe how the ideas works. Here's what she said:
"Under premium support, the beneficiary gets a choice of plans. you go to an exchange and you choose a plan and then the government pays the plan. They don't pay you, they pay the plan. And they pay a risk adjusted amount -- adjusted for your age and how healthy you are. So if you are older and sicker, the plan gets paid more for taking care of you. . . . And you would hope that in such a marketplace, the more efficient, the more effective plans would get more people."
Does this sound familiar? It should. It bears more than a passing resemblance to "Obamacare."
Source: http://www.pbs.org/nbr/blog/2011/04/what_is_premium_support_for_me.html
President Obama Tours Alcoa and Talks Manufacturing in Iowa
Today, the President traveled to Bettendorf, Iowa to tour the Alcoa Davenport Works plant and deliver remarks on the critical role the manufacturing sector plays in the American economy. The Davenport factory serves as the manufacturing hub for Alcoa's $3 billion aerospace business, producing an aluminum-lithium alloy that makes Airbus and Boeing airplanes lighter and more corrosion resistant at a lower cost.
Alcoa, as a leader in manufacturing innovation, is participating in the President’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) announced last week in Pittsburgh, PA. The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership is national effort to bring together industry, universities and the federal government to invest in emerging technologies that will create high quality manufacturing jobs and enhance our global competitiveness.
In his remarks, the President stressed the importance of having a strong and growing manufacturing sector as part of the continuing economic recovery:
A big part of our future has to be a robust and growing manufacturing sector. We’ve got to make things right here in America. We’ve always made things here in America. It’s in our blood. This plant has been in operation for 60 years. And what you’ve learned is that if you want to beat the competition, then you’ve got to innovate. You’ve got to invest in new skills, you’ve got to invest in new processes, and you’ve got to invest in new products. I was just learning that some of the equipment right behind us -- this was a huge investment. How much did you guys -- $90 million. Think about that. That’s what made you guys competitive, having the best workers but also having the best equipment. You had to up your game. And that’s what we’ve got to do as a country as a whole. I want the cars and planes and wind turbines of the future to bear the proud stamp that says “Made in America.” That’s what I want.
That’s why two years ago, we stood by the auto industry and kept some of our nation’s largest automakers from being sold for parts. And today, for the first time in years, the Big Three automakers are adding jobs and turning a profit and putting steel workers to work.
That’s also why I announced last week a new partnership between our top engineering schools, our most innovative manufacturers, and the federal government to get American products from the drawing board to the factory floor to the marketplace as quickly as possible. And today, I’m proud to announce that Alcoa is joining that partnership. The idea is to create jobs now, and to make sure America stays on the cutting edge of manufacturing for years to come.
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/28/president-obama-tours-alcoa-and-talks-manufacturing-iowa
Groupon, other big 'group buy' sites slow to embrace real estate
HouseTipper hopes to make headway promoting industry deals
Commercial & Investment Homes Foreclosures Home Sales Outlook
Venezuelan TV Airs New Video of Chavez
President's prolonged stay in Cuba after June 10 emergency surgery triggered speculation about his health
Source: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/americas/Venezuelan-TV-Airs-New-Video-of-Chavez--124765529.html
Freddie Mac Mortgage Crisis Real Estate Agents Housing Market
A Good Jobs Report with Some Noise in the Number
Let's start out with this: Economists were expecting a soft jobs number for April. Somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 jobs. We got 268,000 private sector jobs and hiring for previous months was revised upwards. Hours were up, a good sign that employers might have some incentive to bring on new workers.
But! There are two sides to an employment report. The government surveys employers to figure out how many people are hiring. And then the government surveys people to figure out how many are looking for work, how have given up looking for work, and how many say they have a job. Divide the number of people who say they are unemployed by the number of people in the labor force and you get the unemployment rate.
If the economy is creating jobs, why did the unemployment rate tick up to 9%? Some of this appears to be statistical noise. Here's what I got back from Daiwa Capital Markets' Michael Moran when I asked him about this:
"I view it as just a random shift. To me, the surprise was how fast unemployment was declining given the growth of the economy. The economy grew only moderately in Q4 and Q1, yet the unemployment fell a full percentage point from November. The quick decline was probably an aberration, and now we are coming back to reality."
The Household Survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found the number of jobs in the economy fell by 190,000 last month. Unemployment went up by 205,000 jobs. Should we believe it? Well, consider that the Labor Department surveys about 50,000 households, but 400,000 employers.
There is a lot more information in the April employment report from employers. Which is why Mark Zandi at Moody's Analytics is taking this view:
"The Household survey results are very volatile month to month due to the small number of households that participate in the survey. Since the job recovery began at the start of 2010, the job gains in the household and payroll surveys are very similar."
Bottom line: Don't worry, be happy -- a little. We still are in a deep hole and there are still 5.8 million people who have been unemployed for more than six months. We need to dig out faster, but we are digging.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/nbr/blog/2011/05/a_good_jobs_report_with_some_n.html
On Board the USS RAMAGE: Dr. Jill Biden Visits with Sailors in Greece
Last week Dr. Biden traveled to Greece to lead the Presidential delegation to the Special Olympics World Summer Games. On her first day in Greece, she had the opportunity to join Navy Secretary Mabus for a visit with deployed sailors on board the USS RAMAGE off the coast of Athens.
While on board, Dr. Biden and Secretary Mabus visited with all 300 sailors on the flight deck. Following a reenlistment ceremony for 4 sailors on board who have committed to another tour in the Navy, they met sailors from all over the country – including those from their home states of Delaware and Mississippi. They shook hands and took photos until the very last Sailor departed the flight deck.
(Photo by MC1 Kevin O?Brien)
After leaving the flight deck, Dr. Biden and the Secretary had lunch with Sailors on the mess deck. They talked with several of them about their families back home, including a sailor who became a new dad just days before the visit. It can be a struggle to miss out on those special family moments while deployed. But the Sailors never complained.
RAMAGE sailors are unique. They have deployed multiple times in the past 5 years, and they have endured long and frequent separations from their families. But they are resilient, and they are proud of what they do. Each and every one of them has the same dedication to our country as those that we have had the honor of visiting at military bases across the country and throughout the world.
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/28/board-uss-ramage-dr-jill-biden-visits-sailors-greece
Trulia Releases Whitepaper, ?Syndication: Identifying and Eliminating Inaccurate Listing Data?
One of the most common complaints we hear from consumers about searching for homes online is that many online property listings have the wrong price or status.� On March 3rd we announced Trulia Direct Reference (TDR), a quality assurance system which allows local Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) and agents to find out and [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TruliaBlog/~3/-j8ZTeYTHco/
54% of American Adults Now Believe Housing Recovery Remains Unlikely Until 2014 Or Later
Today, we released the latest results of an ongoing survey about American attitudes toward foreclosed homes that we’ve been teaming up with RealtyTrac on since 2008. Lately, we’ve been hearing a lot about falling home values and the flood of foreclosures that are still on the market.
Given these market factors, we wanted to see how [...]
Given these market factors, we wanted to see how [...]
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Private Capital at Work in Affordable Rental Housing
While they aren't a new concept, the second issue of the HUD publication Evidence Matters highlights the growing importance of multibank efforts in financing affordable housing developments. This "consortia" of private banks share the risk, reduce the cost of lending, and pool together their expertise to meet affordable housing needs in their respective communities.
"Consortia" came about as a result of the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program in 1986. Private commercial banks, accustomed to working primarily with short-term capital, were asked to provide long-term capital, permanent mortgages, and related services to affordable housing projects and, in response, formed the first multibank consortia in the early 1990s.
The consortia helps banks meet Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) requirements while satisfying local affordable rental housing needs. These consortia are able to expand their funding resources by qualifying with the Treasury as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). This allows member banks to apply for more funds to be used specifically for economic revitalization and community development works.
The consortia can be flexible in their approach to development activity as long as it profits the public and includes low and middle income members of the community. Their activities might include forming community development corporations or forming partnerships with community-based organizations; creating loan pools to finance affordable housing development, revitalizing low-moderate income areas or underserved rural areas and participating in tax credit programs. The member banks must determine what credit issues need to be addressed in their community and decide how to contribute to solving those problems.
The bank consortia provide services that generally fall into two categories; capital-based backing of loans or knowledge-based services such as the provision of technical assistance, guidance in underwriting, loan services, and asset management.
Member banks determine their own geographic coverage area. This is a crucial decision that must take into account the ability to provide adequate coverage, the potential to expand and diversity borrowers, and the need to spread out risk. Members also decide on the lending products they offer and the appropriate operational structures to adopt.
The Spring 2011 Evidence Matters article features the Network for Oregon Affordable Housing or NOAH, a 22-member non-profit consortium operating in one of the country's least affordable rental markets as an example of the consortia's operations and potential.
More than 63 percent of Oregon's renter households are low, very low, or extremely low-income and one quarter of the renter households spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing. Federally subsidized housing is shrinking at an alarming rate with 8.1 out of 10 privately owned subsidized units scheduled to disappear within the next five years. An additional 2,700 households were displaced between 1999 and 2008 as manufactured home parks closed.
NOAH was established by the Oregon Bankers Association in 1990 and uses various financing and technical assistance tools to help developers build and renovate affordable housing throughout the state. The member banks contribute to a blind loan pool where the banks participate in any loan that the 12 member board and its loan committee approve. The committee is composed of bankers and two public-sector representatives charged with evaluating the public benefit of any loan under consideration. NOAH's professional staff works out the details of each loan.
NOAH also has a permanent loan program which, as of last June, had financed 6,445 units of housing with 139 permanent loans. The loans, totaling more than $158 million, were used to leverage $726 million in project costs. NOAH also offers predevelopment loans and staffs a statewide initiative to preserve at-risk federally subsidized rental properties. This initiative had preserved 416 units of subsidized housing by the end of last year.
These investments are not without return. A model developed by the Association of Oregon Community Development Organizations with the assistance of the National Association of Home builders attempted to measure the economic impact of the affordable housing developed by the Associations' members between 1990 and 2002. It concluded that the $94 million invested in 7,562 affordable housing units had helped generate 12,212 jobs, $393 million in wages, and $23 million in income taxes. In addition, the original investment leveraged $408 million from private and federal sources.
The most important impact: Renters in the units constructed by these organizations paid about $267 less per month in rent than if they lived in market rate units and the increased purchasing power (a total of $24 million) of these families supported 833 ongoing jobs
"In light of these outcomes," the article concludes, "bank consortia like NOAH, which stimulate the available supply of affordable rental housing with capital loans, are an integral part of safeguarding the future well-being of American communities and building community capacity for sustainable, long-term growth."
Related MND Content....
READ MORE: Builder Report Offers Reminder. Affordable Rental Units Needed
READ MORE: HUD Focused on Rebuilding America's Dilapidated Housing Inventory
READ MORE: Affordable Housing Units Needed for Low Income Renters
READ MORE: The Dearth of Affordable Rental Housing
READ MORE: Gimme Shelter: Homelessness Rate Climbing. Low Income Rental Units Needed
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Source: http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/06232011_rental_housing.asp
Home Sales Outlook Housing Starts President Obama Hope for home owners
'Shelf-pod' downsizes McMansion trend
Japanese architect builds compact home for wall-to-wall books
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/inmannews/~3/A0-Fzshwl2A/shelf-pod-downsizes-mcmansion-trend
Home Sales Outlook Housing Starts President Obama Hope for home owners
President Obama Launches Advanced Manufacturing Partnership
President Barack Obama delivers remarks following a tour of the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., June 24, 2011. The President spoke on the need to focus on cross-cutting technologies that will enhance the global competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing and speed up ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Today, President Obama visited Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he toured Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) and delivered remarks to 150 leading manufacturing CEOs, university presidents, CMU students and faculty, senior leaders from federal agencies and a broad range of employers involved in manufacturing.
In his remarks he announced the launch of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), a national effort that brings together industry, universities and the federal government to invest in emerging technologies that will create high quality manufacturing jobs and enhance our global competitiveness.
We’ve launched an all-hands-on-deck effort between our brightest academic minds, some of our boldest business leaders, and our most dedicated public servants from science and technology agencies, all with one big goal, and that is a renaissance of American manufacturing.
Throughout our history, our greatest breakthroughs have often come from partnerships just like this one. American innovation has always been sparked by individual scientists and entrepreneurs, often at universities like Carnegie Mellon or Georgia Tech or Berkeley or Stanford. But a lot of companies don’t invest in early ideas because it won’t pay off right away. And that’s where government can step in. That’s how we ended up with some of the world-changing innovations that fueled our growth and prosperity and created countless jobs -- the mobile phone, the Internet, GPS, more than 150 drugs and vaccines over the last 40 years was all because we were able to, in strategic ways, bring people together and make some critical investments.
Trulia Joined by Colorado Governor Hickenlooper to Officially Open Denver Office
On Monday, we were honored to be joined by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper to officially open the newest Trulia office in the Denver area. It was an exciting and festive day. The Governor and other local notables were able to tour the office and get a sense for the fun and exciting Trulia culture. In [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TruliaBlog/~3/_fTiafHVJMQ/
Home Sales Outlook Housing Starts President Obama Hope for home owners
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Home Construction Market Faces All Sorts of Headwinds: NAHB
The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) today reported that its Housing Market Index (HMI) fell to 13 after standing at 16 for six out of the last 7 months seven months. The HMI is a measure of builder confidence gleaned from homebuilders' responses to a monthly survey that has been conducted by NAHB for over 20 years.
"Builders are being squeezed by the continuing weakness in existing-home prices - against which they must compete -- as well as rising material costs," said NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen, a home builder from Reno, Nevada. "In addition to the ongoing impacts of distressed property sales on home prices, appraisal values and consumer confidence, rising costs for materials such as roofing, copper, wallboard, vinyl siding and other components have made it extremely difficult to construct a new home and sell it at a price that covers the costs."
The NAHB/Wells Fargo survey asks homebuilders to gauge both current single-family home sales and their expectations for those sales over the next six months as "good," "fair," or "poor." They are also asked to rate current traffic of perspective buyers as "high to very high," "average" or "low to very low." In addition to the composit HMI, a component index is constructed for each of the three sets of responses. A score over 50 on any index indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good rather than as poor. The index has not had a score over 50 since late in 2006.
Every component of the HMI fell in June. The component measuring buyer traffic decreased 2 points to 12 after last month's reading of 14 was the highest since May 2010. Current Sales Conditions also fell 2 points, bringing that component of the index to 13. Sales Expectations fell from 19 to 15, matching record lows from February and March of 2009.
"Builder confidence has waned even further as economic growth has stalled, foreclosures have continued to hit the market and the cost of building a home has risen," agreed NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "Meanwhile, potential new-home buyers are being constrained by difficulty selling their existing homes, stringent lending requirements, and general uncertainty about the economy. Economic growth must pick up in order for housing to gain the momentum it needs to get back on track."
Regionally, the HMI results were mixed, with the Northeast actually rising 2 points while the West represented the other end of the spectrum, falling 4 points. The midwest and south dropped 3 and 2 points respectively.
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Source: http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/06152011_nahb_hmi.asp
Confessions of a Real Estate Junkie/Data Feed Landscape
With the recent acquisition of ListHuB by Move, Inc, the possibility and in fact likelihood that the landscape for moving real estate listing content...
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Loans and Mortgages Household Moving House Plans Home Warranties
DIY: Upping Your Home?s Curb Appeal
The saying “don?t judge a book by its cover? certainly applies to real estate because the first thing we do when we pull up in front [...]
Source: http://www.zillow.com/blog/2011-06-24/diy-upping-your-homes-curb-appeal/
Gardens get vertical
Add life and value to your home with living walls.
Source: http://realestate.msn.com/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=29214808
Vacation Properties Loans and Mortgages Household Moving House Plans
National Association of REALTORS 2010 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers Reveals Winning Trends.
What are the winning qualities home buyers and sellers look for in a real estate professional? �The recent release of the National Association of...
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Just How Are Those Inflation Expectations Set?
Consumer and investor expectations for inflation are so important that Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke mentioned them 17 times at his first-ever news conference. Congress has charged
the Fed with maintaining price stability, so it is understandable that the Fed Chairman would
watch inflation expectations closely.
The problem is that economists are not certain how inflation expectations are formed, which
stymies efforts to influence those expectations.
Research by Harvard Economics Professor Greg Mankiw found that consumers and investors
often have widely different expectations for inflation and often base those expectations on only
narrow aspects of economic news. Even with these limitations, many experts contend that these
expectations cannot be ignored
In an email, Mankiw writes, "[Inflation expectations] matter because they affect behavior, even
if people are not fully rational in forming their expectations. But it is surely a topic about which
reasonable economists can disagree."
One of those disagreeing economists is Wrightson ICAP's Lou Crandall. Crandall says, "One of
the biggest criticisms of the way the Fed talks about its policies is that it seems to have this very
rigid, unrealistic notion of what inflation expectations are and how they operate. I don't think
they are inflation expectations, I think they are only inflation anxieties."
Crandall says Bernanke and others should factor inflation expectations into their decisions in "a
general way," rather than relying on a specific number derived from a survey.
However inflation expectations are set, Chairman Bernanke is determined to see that they
remain "well anchored," even if it is not always clear what they are anchored in.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/nbr/blog/2011/05/just_how_are_those_inflation_e_2.html
Push-ups with the Archbishop and More of Cape Town with the First Lady
On Thursday, June 23 the First Lady spent the day in Cape Town, South Africa — where she toured a local museum, talked with students at the University of Cape Town, and met with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Because of inclement weather the First Lady was unable to visit Robben Island, and while we were all hoping to see this historic prison we were fortunate to visit the District Six Museum instead. The museum offers insight into the racial segregation during the 1970s, chronicles Cape Town's complex history, and celebrates the diverse culture of the area. After touring the exhibits, the First Lady and her family met with Ahmed Kathrada, an anti-apartheid icon and former Member of Parliament, who brought to life many of the exhibits and illuminated what life during apartheid was like for those striving for freedom. Mr. Kathrada’s story was so inspiring, and all of us were touched by his courage and determination to strengthen his country.
The First Lady then visited the University of Cape Town where she spoke with high school students from nearby townships. She talked with them about the importance of working hard in school, knowing they each have the ability to achieve their dreams, and how each of us is connected. She said, “I can see the same promise in all of you as I do in my own girls. That's what keeps me motivated. When I see you, I see them. When I see them, I see you. And I see it in the students that I’ve met all across my country in America, and in all of the young men and women I see as I travel around the world.”
Later in the afternoon, the First Lady and her family met with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Mrs. Obama was briefed on HIV/AIDS education, prevention, and support programs. The briefing included a discussion on how grassroots organizations use soccer as a convening mechanism, to draw young people together to learn about making healthy choices. At Cape Town Stadium, Mrs. Obama and Archbishop Tutu spoke with young people about this, and the importance of staying healthy. They then got everyone up and moving by participating in soccer skill stations, and the First Lady and Archbishop Tutu even did push-ups together!
As we continue this journey, we are all continually inspired by the spirit and energy of the young Africans we are meeting with and we are looking forward to what tomorrow brings.
Kristina Schake is Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the First Lady.
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/24/push-ups-archbishop-and-more-cape-town-first-lady
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International courts use Facebook to serve distressed homeowners with foreclosure notices
Big Brother really is watching. And his name is Mark Zuckerberg Facebook. If you think you can just go off the grid and escape your mortgage obligations, or at least make such an effort to the delay the inevitable, then you better completely disconnect. No longer are phone calls, emails and random site visits the [...]
Real Estate Vacation Properties Loans and Mortgages Household Moving
See Homes from Notable Periods in U.S. History
Happy Birthday, America! As Independence Day approaches, we contemplated how homes in America have evolved. From longhouses and Colonials, to mid-century modern, split-level and dome homes, [...]
Source: http://www.zillow.com/blog/2011-06-28/see-homes-from-notable-periods-in-u-s-history/
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N.Y. Homes with Notable Pools
From an infinity pool overlooking the Long Island Sound to a Chelsea townhouse with an indoor pool in the living room, this week we highlighted homes with notable pools in the New York region. Source:
http://online.wsj.com/video/ny-homes-with-notable-pools/CFA069C6-C5E6-4250-87C0-795DFDCB7B3F.html
Credit score needed to buy a house
If your credit score seems like a great big mystery, we’re here to help you crack the code once and for all. Potential real estate buyers who plan to apply for mortgages to finance their home purchases must have pristine credit reports … or as close as possible. Especially in today’s credit�conscious�environment — big banks [...]
Source: http://blog.foreclosure.com/2011/06/credit-score-needed-to-buy-a-house/
The Million Dollar Question: Have Home Prices Bottomed?
Woohoo! The April S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices showed a monthly increase* in home prices for the first time in eight months today.
On a month-over-month basis, the 10- and 20-City Composites were up 0.8% and 0.7% in April versus March. The chart below illustrates the annualized returns of the 10-City and the 20-City Composite Home Price Indices. In April 2011, the 10-City and 20-City Composites recorded annual declines of -3.1% and -4.0%, respectively.
Oh wait a minute, there is an asterisk* to address before we can get excited about positive news in housing.
“In a welcome shift from recent months, this month is better than last - April’s numbers beat March,” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices. “However, the seasonally adjusted numbers show that much of the improvement reflects the beginning of the Spring-Summer home buying season. It is much too early to tell if this is a turning point or simply due to some warmer weather."
Ugh. Mr. Blitzer is a bucket of cold water (rightfully so). Why does distinguishing between seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted data matter? Because Case-Shiller recommends using non-seasonally adjusted data, citing it as the more reliable indicator. This is the last guidance S&P shared on the topic:
"Economic data which are affected by the time of the year, or the seasons, are often adjusted to remove these effects to make it easier to identify underlying changes in the economy. Seasonal adjustment increases the unadjusted values in weak months and decreases the unadjusted values in strong months to eliminate regular seasonal patterns while leaving the underlying trend unaffected. For the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, S&P reports two data sets – before seasonal adjustment and seasonally-adjusted. In some recent reports the two series have given conflicting signals, with the seasonally-adjusted series rising month-over-month and the unadjusted series declining. After reviewing the data, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index Committee believes that, for the present, the unadjusted series is a more reliable indicator and, thus, reports should focus on the year-over-year changes where seasonal shifts are not a factor. Additionally, if monthly changes are considered, the unadjusted series should be used."
Plain and Simple: The headline many news editors will write, "Home Prices See First Increase in Eight Months", is based off the monthly, non-seasonally adjusted data. That seems like a glimmer of good news for housing, especially after one remembers that S&P told us to focus on the non-seasonally adjusted data, but Mr. Blitzer wants us to contain our excitement until a new trend develops that confirms a home price stabilization. We need to see progress on a monthly basis and we need it to show up in annual comparisons as well. This is because seasonal adjustments tend to decrease unadjusted values in strong months to eliminate regular seasonal patterns, such as nice weather. So what Mr. Blitzer is basically telling us is, "This is a step in the right direction but we don't know if it's gonna last. More positive data is needed to confirm a potential stabilization".
A summary of the monthly changes using the seasonally adjusted (SA) and non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) data can be found in the table below. Looking closer, one can see why Mr.Blitzer is skeptical of the month-over-month improvement. In both the 10- and 20- city indexes, there is a 0.8% difference between non-seasonally adjusted data and seasonally adjusted data. In only 5 metro areas did the seasonally adjusted figure outperform the non-seasonally adjusted figure. This makes it clear that seasonal adjustments do tend to decrease the unadjusted index values in strong months.
Of course we're discussing the Composite Indexes when we should be breaking down the data by individual locations.
Excerpts taken from the release..
- As of April 2011, 19 of the 20 MSAs and both Composites are down compared to April 2010.
- From their 2006/2007 peaks, six of the 20 MSAs showed new index lows in April: Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami and Tampa.
- Thirteen of the markets rose in April over March, with six of them increasing by more than 1.0%.
- While 13 markets rose on a monthly basis, 16 markets saw their annual rates of change fall deeper into negative territory.
- Minneapolis was the only city that demonstrated a double-digit annual decline, -11.1%.
- Washington D.C. continues to be the only market to post a year-over-year gain, at +4.0%. Plus D.C. saw a +3.0% monthly increase
- With respective index levels of 100.36 and 101.95, Phoenix and Atlanta are two markets that are close to losing any value gained since January 2000.
- As of April 2011, Cleveland, Detroit and Las Vegas are the three markets where average home prices are lower than where they were 11 years ago.
The table below summarizes the results for April 2011...
Mr. Blitzer summed up the findings of the report nicely when he said, "For a real recovery we would need to see several months of increasing home prices, large enough to shift the annual momentum to the positive side. In short, better news, but still a lot of questions and a long way to go.”
That leaves us to ponder over the million dollar question: Have home prices finally hit bottom?
Nationally, housing faces a long road to recovery, but not all markets are equal. While areas with a high concentration of distressed properties are clearly stuck in a deflating environment, some communities will see price stability. It's all based on local and regional economies. Where are jobs being created? Where are the best schools? Where is value being created by the community? Where do buyers want to live? This is where the housing recovery can build momentum. Of course you need to be in the right financial situation to even be asking these questions. That's another problem all together. Tight credit demands from lenders combined with damaged borrower credit profiles (and a lack of reserves) implies buyer demand will lag the broader economic recovery, which is lagging itself. Finding a bottom in the hardest hit areas is another story. Here, the GSEs, FHA, and major banks must manage their REO inventory carefully. In these areas, home prices remain highly-sensitive to even the smallest of shocks in buyer sentiment, such as the premature release of shadow inventory. It's gonna be a tight-rope walk. Step 1 is stopping the negative feedback loop.
ABOUT: The indices, which are billed by S&P as the leading measure of U.S. home prices, are constructed to track the price path of typical single-family homes in a number of metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). The study uses matched price pairs of individual houses to construct a 20-City Composite Index and a 10-City Composite Index which are updated monthly. The indices have a base value of 100 which was set in January 2000. Thus a current index value of 150 indicates there has been a 50% appreciation since that date for a typical home in the subject market. To be eligible to be included in the home price indices, a house must be a single-family dwelling. Condominiums and co-ops are specifically excluded. S&P Indices does publish some separate, supplemental indices for condominiums. Houses included in the indices must also have two or more recorded arms-length sale transactions. New construction is excluded.
Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
Source: http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/06282011_april_case_shiller.asp
Katharine Hepburn?s Former Family Estate Listed for $18M
Katharine Hepburn’s former home, an expansive estate that was built by her family, has hit Connecticut’s Fenwick real estate market for $18 million. Hepburn is considered [...]
Source: http://www.zillow.com/blog/2011-06-27/katharine-hepburns-former-family-estate-listed-for-18m/
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An Honest Conversation about Medicare
House Speaker John Boehner this week called for "honest conversations" about Medicare.
Fair enough. Let's begin this honest discussion by admitting no one knows for sure how to reduce Medicare costs. And that's a problem, because Medicare expenditures are projected to grow almost 6% a year for the rest of the decade.
To understand why program costs are exploding, you just have to look through the annual Medicare Trustees report on the financial condition of the program. The 2011 report comes out on Friday, but it will surely have the same analysis you can find in all the other reports. If you want to engage in this honest discussion, a good place to start is on page 45 of the 2010 report. There you will find the four trends driving Medicare costs:
- Growth in the number of beneficiaries
- Increases in the prices paid per service, which reflect both higher wages for health care workers and higher prices for the goods and services purchased by health care providers
- Increases in the average number of services per beneficiary ("utilization")
- Increases in the average complexity of services ("intensity")
Let's take these one at a time. The number of Medicare beneficiaries will soar over the next 25 years, rising from almost 49 million this year to 85 million in 2035. The only way to cut costs here is to kick people out of the program. I don't see that happening.
Wages and prices are the next cost driver. Only two things can be done here. Lower wages for doctors and nurses or make them more productive -- meaning get more work out of doctors and nurses then you get today.
Congress tried to lower wages. It capped payments to physicians using a formula. But when the formula became too tough, forcing deep cuts in wages, Congress relented. Thus the "doc fix" was born. Meaning, Congress voted to pay doctors more. I am not arguing the merits of the formula here, just pointing out that the effort failed.
What about productivity? No surprise, it is harder to measure productivity in a hospital than it is in an auto plant. The hospital's product is good health and an outcome like that is hard to quantify. There is no dispute though that if you could accurately measure health care productivity, it would be low and perhaps even negative!
Some studies found as much as one-third of the spending in our health care system does not improve health, adding up to a staggering waste of more than $700 billion.
What can be done about this? The President has created a panel of experts to study ways to use new payment systems to reward innovation and more efficient treatment of disease.
A worthy goal, but as the Trustees Report points out, efforts to eliminate waste and increase productivity through payment and delivery system reforms:
"These outcomes are far from certain . . . . Many experts doubt the feasibility of such sustained improvements and anticipate that over time the Medicare price constraints would become unworkable and that Congress would likely override them, much as they have done to prevent the reductions in physician payment rates otherwise required by the sustainable growth rate formula in current law."
Republicans want to give consumers more power to choose efficient plans on the theory that this will reward innovation and efficiency. But what happens when the "premium support" payments that Republican propose fail to keep up with the cost of health care? The same thing that happened to physician payments. Congress would likely override them too.
The real problem in Medicare comes when we get to cost drivers three and four. Health care costs are driven by people using more services and more complicated services -- utilization and intensity. In other words, Medicare beneficiaries see health care providers more often and those health care providers are performing more expensive tests and surgeries using new technologies.
Now we are at the heart of the Medicare cost problem. If we're being honest, we must change the way we deliver and consume health care. This is not something that happens overnight or because a bill is written in Washington. It will require constant innovation and reform. We will have to get better at determining which treatments improve health and which do not.
The Brookings Institution's Barry Bosworth put it well in an email: "I think the basic problem is that we cannot say no."
Are we willing to change that? And if not, are we willing to pay for Medicare's rapid growth?
You can having an honest conversation on Medicare means confronting some very difficult questions.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/nbr/blog/2011/05/an_honest_discussion_on_medica.html
Freddie Mac Mortgage Crisis Real Estate Agents Housing Market
10 best places to start over
In these cities, jobs are growing and home prices are relatively low.
Source: http://realestate.msn.com/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=29099636
Home Sales Outlook Housing Starts President Obama Hope for home owners
Getting Familiar With?.CardMunch
Save Time Turning Business Cards Into Contacts You probably take pride in your business card designs and photos. It?s not just a contact reference but also a marketing tool. That being said, after a successful day of work at a broker?s conference or networking night, it?s a hassle to input all of those cards you [...]
Source: http://www.homefinder.com/news/opening-doors/2011/06/08/getting-familiar-with-cardmunch/
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Libya Dismisses International Court Warrants for Gadhafi, 2 Top Aides
ICC issues warrants against Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam and head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi
The Dollar Diet
The Obama administration has jumped into the never-ending debate between parents, children, and eyes that are too big for tummies. It is clear we are a nation of over-eaters. It begins in childhood, which is why the President wants to limit advertising of unhealthy foods to kids, putting at risk the job security of many an animated cereal mascot.
We live in an age of cut backs. Drive less, spend less, and now, with luck, our kids will eat less too.
To anyone following the debate over kids and food advertising, the discussion about the value of the dollar will sound familiar. For decades, our economic eyes have been too big for our collective tummies. Our trade deficits over the last 18 years total an obscene $7 trillion dollars.
What this means is that we have been living way beyond our means, buying from the rest of the world far more than we can afford. Just as those sugary cereal bowls adds up, so do the debts we have accumulated overseas.
Since things that can't go on forever stop, this too has to stop. But how? One way to stop our foreign buying binge is through protectionism. We can stop trading with the rest of the world. That's not in the cards considering how global markets are now, though polls show Americans are not eager to expand free trade deals. Another way to stop buying more than we can afford is to let our currency depreciate.
A weak dollar acts like a spending diet. The price of consuming foreign goods goes up. An instant economic diet. No advertising censorship needed. That's what is happening now.
The Federal Reserve gets a lot of heat for keeping interest rates low, a policy which discourages investment in the U.S. and weakens the dollar. But the latest readings on the economy show that we are not growing strongly enough now to tolerate higher rates.
The only choice is to go on a dollar diet. We have to live within our means again. That applies to cereal and sugar snacks as well as foreign vacations and fancy imports.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/nbr/blog/2011/04/the_dollar_diet.html
News Hub: Sydney Pollack's Home, Yours for $7.9M
The Los Angeles home of the late Hollywood director Sydney Pollack is on the market for $7.9 million. Juliet Chung has details.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Khmer Rouge UN Tribunal Centers on Controversial Amnesty
Defendants deny committing array of offenses including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity
Open for Questions: Live Chat on the Way Forward in Afghanistan
The White House Office of Public Engagement invites you to participate in a live chat on Tuesday, June 28th, at 4:00 PM EST with Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, and Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, on President Obama’s plan for implementing his strategy to draw down troops in Afghanistan and our plan to focus on investments here at home.
This week, President Obama addressed the nation from the East Room of the White House about the way forward in Afghanistan and his plan to remove 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, and a total of 33,000 by next summer. President Obama also discussed the importance of focusing on nation building here at home, unleashing innovation that creates new jobs and industry, while living within our means, and investing in America’s greatest resource - our people.
Here's how you can participate:
- Ask us questions now through a form on WhiteHouse.gov
- Ask questions in advance on the White House facebook wall
- Join us live on Tuesday, June 28th, at 4:00 PM EST on WhiteHouse.gov or through the White House facebook app
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/24/open-questions-live-chat-way-forward-afghanistan
Pioneering New Frontiers in Technology and Innovation
Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.
Earlier this year, I had the privilege of traveling to Florida’s ‘Space Coast,’ home of Cape Canaveral and the legendary Kennedy Space Center, to meet with industry and business leaders whose work is at the cutting edge of space exploration and technology. I was there as part of the Administration’s Champions of Change Series, to highlight the work people are doing every day to win the future through innovation and education.
I had a very lively discussion with nearly 20 area residents about their work. These are visionary leaders both within the government and the private sector who are working to tap the exceptional skills and resources of the Space Coast to ensure the area’s economy continues to prosper and diversify, as NASA ends the Space Shuttle program and proceeds with efforts to develop new crew transportation and space exploration systems. We discussed creative, hands-on learning programs for young students inspired by NASA’s missions. We met business owners who are transforming technology and capabilities developed for the Shuttle program into good jobs for Florida workers. We met an entrepreneur who is hiring former NASA engineers and trying to revolutionize how we build cars in America. We met NASA contractors and private launch companies, who all are doing incredible work to adapt and grow their businesses in an uncertain environment.
We also heard really good ideas about how government and industry can work together to utilize the immense brain-power, and unique capabilities and infrastructure that exists across the I-4 corridor to spur further development and growth of this important economy.
If my one hour conversation with one room of people is any indication of the creativity and potential of the space industry to continue to pioneer new frontiers in technology and innovation, I can’t wait to see what they’ll come up with next.
Carlos Monje is Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff of the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/28/pioneering-new-frontiers-technology-and-innovation
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