From Bloomberg:
The Obama administration plans to set up an emergency loan program for the unemployed and a government refinancing effort in the next few weeks to help homeowners pay their mortgages after home sales dropped in July, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said.
“The July numbers were worse than we expected, worse than the general market expected, and we are concerned,” Donovan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “That’s why we are taking additional steps to move forward.” The administration will begin a Federal Housing Authority refinancing effort to help borrowers who are struggling to pay their home mortgages, and will start an emergency homeowners’ loan program for unemployed borrowers so they can stay in their homes, Donovan said.
“We’re going to continue to make sure folks have access to home ownership,” he said.
Sales of U.S. new homes unexpectedly dropped in July to the lowest level on record, signaling that even with cheaper prices and reduced borrowing costs the housing market is retreating. Purchases fell 12 percent from June to an annual pace of 276,000, the weakest since the data began in 1963.
U.S. home prices fell 1.6 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier as record foreclosures added to the inventory of properties for sale. The annual drop followed a 3.2 percent decline in the first quarter, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said last week in a report.
Donovan said on CNN today that it is too soon to say whether the administration’s $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit tax credit, which expired April 30, will be revived. “All I can tell you is that we are watching very carefully,” Donovan said. “We’re going to be focused like a laser on where the housing market is moving going forward, and we are going to go everywhere we can to make sure this market stabilizes and recovers.”
Reviving the tax credit would “help enormously” in the effort to fight foreclosures and revive the economy, Florida Governor Charlie Crist said on the same CNN program. Florida has the third highest home foreclosure rate in the country, with one in every 171 Florida housing units receiving a foreclosure filing this year.
(EDIT: 1 out of 171? Or 170 out of 171 didn’t get a foreclosure notice this year? That sounds pretty healthy to me!)
“We’re going to continue to make sure folks have access to home ownership,” he said.
They’re confusing “having” with “wanting”.
“The Obama administration plans to set up an emergency loan program for the unemployed”
Niiiice. Why bother trying to create jobs, when you can simply throw money at people without them?
Why bother trying to create jobs, when you can simply throw money at people without them?
They’re not throwing money, they’re throwing debt.
Detached sales in North SD County Coastal are probably as healthy as anywhere in USA?
If so, then expect more cheese soon.
August Y-O-Y Sales/PPSF in NSDCC, with two days to go:
2009: 215/$373 psf
2010: 159/$376 psf
Who better to loan money to then the unemployed… BRILLIANT!
Printing more Monopoly money and giving it away. Very original idea. If the economy revives, it will be in spite of government and Fed actions, not because of them.
I’ve tried three times to type something in response, but I end up just shaking my head! I guess that’s my comment…
WE need to start putting lithium in the DC water supply,now.
This is exactly why I pulled from my home from the market and became a landlord. If the government is trying to sustain/increase prices at all costs, isn’t it better to go with the flow? Do I want to pay for all this “stimulus” with my taxes? Of course not, I’m fuming!! But since I do not have a choice in paying the inevitablly huge future taxes, I’m going to make damned sure that I have a piece of real estate. Why sell at a huge loss now when all I’ll get are dollars that are going to be worth a lot less later? When bread reaches $1000 a loaf, what difference will a fixed rate mortgage make?
Another stupid moves by government. Now who is going to buy available houses as all are artificially propped up. All may fall after the incentives.
Has common sense being declared outlaw in this country?
Should have titled the story: More government economic ignorance and election year corruption.
Here’s an interesting article:
http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/175_165/foreclosures-modifications-california-1024663-1.html
Procrastination on Foreclosures, Now ‘Blatant,’ May Backfire
bunch of random stuff we already know
Stagnant foreclosures likely contributed to the abysmal July home sales, since banks are putting fewer homes for sale at market-clearing prices.
Moreover, Freddie says a good 14% of homes that are seriously delinquent are vacant. In such circumstances, eventual recovery values rapidly deteriorate.
Defaulted borrowers were spending an average of 469 days in their home after ceasing to make payments as of July 31, so the financial attraction of strategic defaults increases.
One possible way banks are dealing with that last threat is through what O’Toole calls “foreclosure roulette,” in which banks maintain a large pool of borrowers in foreclosure but foreclose on a small number at random.
O’Toole said the resulting confusion would make it harder for borrowers to evaluate the costs and benefits of defaulting and fan fears that foreclosure was imminent.
Can’t wait until November.
Herbert Hoover on line two. Something about making sure the knife is sharp when you cut off your own noses…
Spite has zero value in the marketplace.
Save our jobs…at all costs.
In an answer to RC (#11)…yes, I have. And I thought the movie Idiocracy was supposed to be funny…
The level of incompetence and ignorance among our policy makers is truly frightening.
30 years of globalism coming home to roost.
You wonder what the stimulus is supposed to do? Make a bunch of heavy construction guys rich?
Won’t do anything for the “services” people.
I guess the road paving guys might stumble into one of the hundreds if not thousands of casinos that have sprung up everywhere like weeds. Even those guys have eliminated all the change workers with coin-less slots.
How far is that Harrah’s Rin-Con place from the land of Jim?
It’s time for a ‘Where’s My Cheese?’ rally in DC.