are we communists. union of socialist states of america.

[inconvertible]

http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/06/real_estate/Bush_plan_is_limited/index.htm?cnn=yes

[Extra Stout]

It's a desperation tactic to prevent a credit crunch, which would require the Fed to flood the markets with liquidity, which given the weak dollar could create hyperinflation and the collapse of the American economy.

[Nbadan]

Carrot and no stick....


Of the perhaps 2 million subprime ARMS that are expected to reset through the end of 2009, only 240,000 of those would be covered by the freeze, according to an analysis made by investment bank Barclays Capital as reported in The New York Times. Other borrowers will gain relief through FHASecure and other, lender-initiated refinancing efforts.

"I think the plan is good in theory," said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com, "but, in practice, it's going to come up short. There are too many impediments to its widespread adoption by investors and servicers."

Obstacles include contractual obligations between servicers and investors as well as logistical difficulties. When loans have been sliced up and resold through the securitization process, it can be hard to determine who ultimately has the authority to decide what modifications are possible and still in the best interests of the investors.

Furthermore, said Zandi, "There's no stick in the plan; it depends on moral suasion."

[Gordon Gekko]

Bush has no business dipping into my pockets!!! :cuss If you sign the dotted line.....you better pay on time. Greed is what keeps our economy going.

[Extra Stout]

Bush has no business dipping into my pockets!!! :cuss If you sign the dotted line.....you better pay on time. Greed is what keeps our economy going.
What? You're not even retired yet? Did the dot.com bust wipe you out or something?

[PixelPusher]

What? You're not even retired yet? Did the dot.com bust wipe you out or something?
I'm pretty sure 'ol Gordo is a Hedge Fund manager these days.

[BradLohaus]

Carrot and no stick....

I was going to quote exactly what you bolded.

All they are doing is buying time. Bailouts from the Fed, bailouts from price freezes... they just buy time and make the problem that much worse in the end. They just keep kicking the can down the road.

[JoeChalupa]

I don't why people went with the ARM's in the first place.

[BradLohaus]

I don't why people went with the ARM's in the first place.

"Oh come on honey, Susie and her husband signed up for the same thing, and they're fine. The kids and I are tired of living in this tiny house." X a million

[Nbadan]

I don't why people went with the ARM's in the first place.


In Texas, because people wanted to buy more home than they could afford...in other parts of the country, like the East and West coasts, it was out of neccessity....I mean who could afford to pay $500-$1 mil for this....


http://images3.gabriels.net/SanAntonio/MLS_Photos/SABOR690460.jpg

The asking price for this house is $100k in San Antonio (http://realestate.mysanantonio.com/Sales/Listing.asp?lid=13688-690460) and that's in a shady part of town....and even that's overpriced by about $15-25K here....

[Clandestino]

yeah, it's bullshit. we need everyone foreclosed on to drop the price of homes... then we can buy them all cheap and then the price will go up back again... then the same dumbasses will buy them expensive again.

[JoeChalupa]

There are alternatives to foreclosure aren't there?

http://www.800buykwik.com/images/home-content.jpg

[scott]

I wish I had bought a house I couldn't afford

[boutons_]

short-selling is always an option, but it means the short-sale investor must be able to put house on the market at a higher price, in a period where the housing prices are supposed to have a long way to go in the next 18 months before they bottom out.

And the short-sale investor has to have the cash to buy, since lenders are not in a lending mood.

[boutons_]

Morgan Stanley's take on house prices over next 3 years nationally:



Home prices may see 3-year fall: M. Stanley

Thu Dec 6, 2007 3:51 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - There is a "substantial" risk that U.S. home prices will slide for the next three years or more, in a downturn that could be unlike anything seen before on a national level, Morgan Stanley said on Thursday in a report.

Price levels of the RPX Index, a derivative index based on home prices in 25 U.S. metropolitan residential property markets, indicate an expectation that prices will decline for the next three years, with a recovery likely to occur between three and four years from now, Morgan Stanley said.

"The property derivatives market seems to be suggesting that we are in a very different environment, on the heels of market events that could force a housing recession like none ever imagined or experienced," Morgan Stanley analysts said.

"The fundamental argument for going long housing is that history has never seen such extended periods of house price declines," Morgan Stanley said. "We think that such arguments have limited credibility because of limited periods of data and over-reliance on analysis using national level data."

While home price declines for three years or longer have not occurred in recent years on a national level, regional data demonstrates that unusual price increases often lead to sustained corrections, the report said.

Morgan Stanley used data from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight going back to 1979, which show that home prices did not post yearly declines on a national basis between 1979 and 2006.

"It is the lack of historical downturns which investors are using to argue that things could not be as bad as the market implies," Morgan Stanley said.

Data from individual metropolitan areas, however, show that regional housing downturns occurred in around 11 percent of the years analyzed, and the average negative streak lasted 1.5 years, the bank said. In 53 episodes of downturns in local markets, seven lasted for three years or more, "which does not appear to be such a small frequency to us," Morgan Stanley said.

Higher-than-normal price increases over three-year periods have historically resulted in price declines in metropolitan areas. In 23 of the 25 metropolitan areas in the index, returns in 2006 were slowing compared with 2004 to 2005, and "this may also be an indication of a pronounced downturn," the report said.

"We believe that the regional behaviors of the past can serve as guides on a larger scale," Morgan Stanley said.

"There is always a chance that things can change quickly, but given the tremendous overhang of subprime pressures, risk of recession, and the higher cross-regional correlations, we think the probability of a three-plus-year downturn is substantial," the bank said.

(Reporting by Karen Brettell; editing by Leslie Adler)

[Wild Cobra]

Morgan Stanley's take on house prices over next 3 years nationally:

Duh...

I said such a thing some time back. This isn't any news to those of us who understand the basics of the markets.

Watch, Gold will be next, sometime after the dollar stabilizes from the fall it is taking.

Oil will still slowly rise, primarily as the dollar falls, but with increased demand as China’s use continues to increase.

Corn futures will also increase unless we stop with the ethanol fad.

Remember who you heard it from first!

[xrayzebra]

Duh...

I said such a thing some time back. This isn't any news to those of us who understand the basics of the markets.

Watch, Gold will be next, sometime after the dollar stabilizes from the fall it is taking.

Oil will still slowly rise, primarily as the dollar falls, but with increased demand as China’s use continues to increase.

Corn futures will also increase unless we stop with the ethanol fad.

Remember who you heard it from first!

WC I heard a so-called expert say that the price of oil
would drop about 15 dollars a barrel in the next few
weeks..............

Corn prices will come down next spring as farmers
plant more because of the increase in demand.
(Then finally maybe we can get a decent ear of corn to
eat instead of the puny ones we had this last summer)

Housing will do as it always has, prices will drop, but
slowly increase if the prime stays low and interest
rates continue to be low. Talk is that the prime will
go down maybe a full point down. It is what boosted the
stock market, the talk.

Gold prices will remain high for some time.

The talk that the Euro will be the currency of the ME
is, I think, just that, talk. Europeans currency has
always fluctuated wildly. The Canadian dollar will
once again fall, some of you may be old enough to
remember that during the last 50's and early 60's
the Canadian Dollar was higher than ours by about
10 cents. I know the Irans would like for them to
go to the Euro, but to many are invested in the Dollar
to abandoned it.

My predicitions.

[Wild Cobra]

WC I heard a so-called expert say that the price of oil
would drop about 15 dollars a barrel in the next few
weeks..............

It might, but as long as China grows like it does, and as long as the dollar drops... The long term trend will be an increase.



Corn prices will come down next spring as farmers
plant more because of the increase in demand.
(Then finally maybe we can get a decent ear of corn to
eat instead of the puny ones we had this last summer)

I hope so, but I think they already have buyers for ethanol production. With the increased push for ethanol, I don't see it as enough to meet demand.



Housing will do as it always has, prices will drop, but
slowly increase if the prime stays low and interest
rates continue to be low. Talk is that the prime will
go down maybe a full point down. It is what boosted the
stock market, the talk.

Still, the correction must take place. The market isn't sluggish because of the rates as much as because the "house flipping" and other get rich quick schemes have created an artificial demand. Therefore prices are artificially high, and need to become reasonable again before the market returns to normal. I think artificially lowering interest rates will cause more trouble than good.



Gold prices will remain high for some time.

Yes they will, but they will fall again. I don't have a prediction of when, except the dollar must stabilize first.



The talk that the Euro will be the currency of the ME
is, I think, just that, talk. Europeans currency has
always fluctuated wildly. The Canadian dollar will
once again fall, some of you may be old enough to
remember that during the last 50's and early 60's
the Canadian Dollar was higher than ours by about
10 cents. I know the Irans would like for them to
go to the Euro, but to many are invested in the Dollar
to abandoned it.

My predicitions.

What I think is in their best interest is to value oil in a currency that tracks theirs the best. Maybe that is the Euro for them. It just might be since they do major purchases from European countries.