The Revised Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP2)
housing market
HARP and Ideas For A Mortgage Principal Program
I like to clarify some misconceptions about the revised home affordable refinance program talked about in my prior post. Although the operational details are not scheduled to be released until November 15th. It’s clear that this program does not reduce the principal loan balance.
With that cleared up, it still my opinion that when the cost of administration is considered, I am very dubious that this will be a cost-effective program. Sure, it will help out some homeowners and the fact that it is a much more sensible program by having one of the qualification criteria as not being behind on your mortgage payments in the prior six months and only one late payment in the past year, for once, directs benefits to the responsible homeowners. Read more 
Jobless Claims Up – Fed Admits Cash For Clunkers A Failure
San Diego housing market – Today’s video is about a rise in initial jobless claims. How does that affect the San Diego housing market? Actually, in two ways: #1, for the real estate market to build any kind of meaningful base, the unemployment numbers must improve; #2, watch this video carefully, and you’ll see where the government admits that its’ cash for clunkers program was a failure. It has been my contention that the government’s home buyer credit of $8000, which was modeled after the cash for clunkers program, was also a dismal failure. I believe it’s just a matter of time before one of the regional Fed branches admits this fact like they did today with their cash for clunkers program.
In my June 2, 2011 post: Existing Home Sales Take Huge Drop I said “The problem is there was never any real recovery in the US economy or the US housing market. Both were boosted by artificial governmental stimulus. The $8,000 Federal housing rebate was nice for many San Diego home buyers. But, if that was their main impetus to purchase a San Diego home last year, they may now be sad to know that the value of their home has subsequently gone down well more that the amount of the tax rebate they received.” Read more
Housing Market – We’ve Been Down This Road Before
Housing Bust
I’ve said it many times before: My opinion on the root cause of our current housing bust started back with the Clinton administration. The thinking was to make housing more affordable for the masses. A noble idea, but as usual, the government’s implementation was based on easing of the traditional mortgage qualifying rules. Read more
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – Walking Dead
Goodbye and good riddance says Rep. Barney Frank to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In his opinion, both mortgage agencies need to be closed for good. Once that’s accomplished, the housing finance system can be rebuilt right.