RSS feedhouse prices
’Hamp, what is it good for?
In addition to the difficulty of converting temporary mortgage modifications into permanent ones, one of the big question marks hanging over the US Treasury’s Home Affordable Modification Plan is the redefault rate.
A merry Halifax Christmas to you!
Just in time for the holiday shopping rush, the Halifax reported on Tuesday that UK house prices increased by 1.4 per cent in November — meaning homeowners can all feel a bit richer and spend freely on go-go hamsters,
Hamp-ing it up
Swat teams, shaming and sanctions are just a few of the incentives now in place to force financial companies to make more mortgage modifications.
But why are such drastic measures needed?
First a quick recap:
Latvian house prices fall 59.7% in Q3 (y/y)
The Global Property Guide’s quarterly house price report was published on Wednesday offering some sobering statistics on global real-estate prices in the third quarter.
To wit, the fact that “price falls in several countries have been much larger than house price rises anywhere and include unprecedentedly severe falls in Latvia (-59.7% year to date),
Option ARMageddon rears its ugly head
We haven’t heard about Option Arms — Adjustable Rate Mortgages — for a while, so we thought the below was worth reproducing.
From US bond blogger, Across the Curve’s John Jansen:
This was in a morning note from [Arohan] Kohli of RBS and I thought it worthy of reproduction here.
More than you probably ever wanted to know about the Hamp
The Federal Reserve Board had just released a working paper on the Home Affordable Modification Plan — the Hamp.
The paper is fantastic for details on just how the programme — which is aimed at making mortgages more affordable by reducing interest payments — came about and feeds into the wider financial system.
Goldman says US gov’t boosted home prices by 5%
According to a Goldman Sachs analysis, interventions by the US government in the housing market added an average of 5 per cent to home prices nationally.
As the WSJ’s Developments blog noted over the weekend,
Hamp-ered
Fannie Mae chief credit officer Edward Pinto has some strong words on the US government’s Home Affordable Modification Plan — Hamp.
From Clusterstock:
Based on comments being made by industry participants and program results to date,
Anatomy of a Hamp modification
Did you ever want to see what a mortgage modification from the US government’s Home Affordable Modification Plan (Hamp) looks like?
Here’s your chance. Calculated Risk has got hold of some loan modification documents from Wells Fargo.
Urban (commentary) combat in China
Is China urbanised or not?
It’s a question of more economic importance than you might think, given that it’s still widely believed that China will lead the world economy into recovery. A low urbanisation ratio — the proportion of people living in urban areas — would suggest that it still has lots of growth to get through.
That carpe diem (property) rally
JP Morgan property analysts Harm Meijer and Osmaan Malik give good notes, and their latest piece of research is no exception.
The two are now even more convinced that UK property values are recovering,
China’s liquid real estate bubble
That is the building which houses the most expensive apartment in Hong Kong. The five-bedroom apartment sold for $56.6m on Wednesday, sparking further speculation that the city — and the rest of China — might be in the grips of a real estate market bubble.
Fitch: False dawn for the UK housing market
One for the (housing market) bears, this.
Fresh from ratings agency Fitch, with our highlights:
Fitch Ratings-London-07 October 2009: Fitch Ratings says today that it expects the recent gains in the main UK house price indices to be a temporary respite.
The sting in Nationwide’s house price survey
The September house price survey from the Nationwide Building Society has no doubt caused jubilation for Daily Mail readers around the UK, on Friday.
According to the report, not only did house prices rise for the fifth month in a row,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Friday,
- UK house prices back to September 2008 level — Nationwide.
- Anglo American notes Takeover Panel deadline for Xstrata deal — statement.
- EU bank losses could be €400bn in deeper slump — Bloomberg.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday,
- UK house prices increase most in two years, Hometrack says — Bloomberg.
- Deutsche Bank lent Sal Oppenheim €350m — Reuters.
- Johnson & Johnson to buy 18% holding in Crucell — statement.
Land of the distressed buyer
Nationwide figures showed a 1.6 per cent rise in UK house prices in August. The market consensus was for a rise of 0.5 per cent – so that makes for a significant positive surprise.
As Julian Callow at Barcap remarked,
US commercial and residential real estate datapoints still dismal
It has been a poor weak for economic data in the US: retail sales were disappointing, while jobless claims ticked up. Is it any wonder US consumers still aren’t feeling particularly confident?
In a word,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Wednesday,
- Lloyds interim proforma loss widens to £4bn — statement.
- Allied Irish Banks posts interim loss of €786m — statement.
- Halifax UK house prices rise 1.1 per cent in July — statement.
Lex: UK house prices
Positive signs from the UK housing market do not translate into a recovery.
It would be remarkable if the British housing market really had stabilised, given that the economy is some six months into the steepest recession experienced since World War II.
Those cheery US housing numbers, reconsidered
A debate is brewing between über housing blogger Calculated Risk and the equally anonymous Free exchange blog. The crux of the debate is whether the May numbers for US house prices, as represented by the Case Shiller index,
UK house sales rise as market improves
Inquiries by would-be homebuyers at estate agents are translating more frequently into purchases, according to figures published on Tuesday. Newly agreed sales are rising more widely across the market than at any point since data were first collected in 1999,
UK house prices fall
That’s right, 0.5 per cent in June, according to the latest Halifax House Price index.
However, analysts had forecasts a fall of 0.7 per cent and Martin Ellis, Halifax’s housing economist, reckons this decline is further evidence of ‘bottoming out’.
House price slide hits recovery hopes
European house prices fell more quickly in the first three months of this year than even in the fourth quarter of 2008 when global recession struck, a trend that looks set to dim the region’s hopes for economic recovery.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Nationwide says house prices rose by 0.9 per cent in June — statement.
- Yell Group starts refinancing, Q1 revenue to be 20 per cent lower — statement.
- Aminex announces placing to raise $11.5m and open offer to raise $3m — statement.
Negative equity hot spots
Inspired by Tuesday’s report on prime RMBS from Fitch.
Click to get the enlarged FT.com version.
Related links:
Fitch report highlights negative equity woe – FT
Se Vende
MADRID, June 16 (Reuters) – The number of houses sold in Spain fell by 47.6 percent in April compared to a year earlier, marking the largest percentage fall in 16-straight months of decline, the National Statistics Institute said on Tuesday.
Lex: UK housing
Set aside the nonsense about the return of gazumping. Ignore the men and women driving green minis telling homebuyers they’ll have to move fast to snap up the bargain that’s languished unsold since last summer.
The US foreclosure ticker
Sounds a bit 2008, for sure, but the numbers still have the ability to shock.
According to the Center for Responsible Lending in the US, the number of home foreclosures so far in 2009 has just topped 1m.
Demand applies brakes to plummeting house prices
A shortage of new homes for sale has ended house price falls, the Times reported, citing figures published on Monday by Hometrack. The housing market analyst said that the average house price stayed the same from April to May at £155,600,