From Fed Governor Kevin Warsh: It’s Greek to Me In my view, any judgment to expand the balance sheet further should be subject to strict scrutiny. I would want to be convinced that the incremental macroeconomic benefits outweighed any costs owing to erosion of market functioning, perceptions of monetizing indebtedness, crowding-out of private buyers, or loss of central bank credibility. The Fed’s institutional credibility is its most valuable asset, far more consequential to macroeconomic performance than its holdings of long-term Treasury securities or agency securities.
Posts Tagged a-few-years
Here is a theme we’ve been discussing for a few years - when a homeowner is underwater, it is difficult to make a career move … From Rana Cash at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Real estate market stalls recruiting, promotions (ht Ann) When executive Wade Ledbetter leaped at the opportunity to move up in his company, the shackles of relocation snatched him back down to earth.
Here are graphs of office, mall and lodging investment through Q1 2010 based on the underlying detail data released by the BEA today … Click on graph for larger image in new window. This graph shows investment in offices as a percent of GDP.
Earlier today S&P released the Case-Shiller house price indexes for February, see: Case-Shiller House Prices “mixed” in February Below is a comparison of real house prices and the unemployment rate using the First American Corelogic LoanPerformance national house price index (starts in 1976) and Case-Shiller Composite 10 index (starts in 1987). Both indexes are adjusted by CPI less shelter. This is an update to a post from almost a year ago
Buffett on Housing
Feb 27
Here is Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders. The following is an excerpt on housing (Buffett focuses on manufactured housing because Berkshire owns Clayton Homes): The [manufactured homes] industry is in shambles for two reasons, the first of which must be lived with if the U.S. economy is to recover
Jeff Collins, at the O.C.
Diana Olick at CNBC has an interesting story: Big Banks Accused of Short Sale Fraud [T]here appears to be yet a new mortgage fraud out there today, allegedly perpetuated by agents of, yes, the big banks. … Since many second lien holders are getting very little, they are now allegedly requesting money on the side from either real estate agents or the buyers in the short sale
From HotelNewsNow.com: Boston leads RevPAR gains in STR weekly numbers Overall, in year-over-year measurements, the industry’s occupancy fell 3.6 percent to 54.8 percent, average daily rate dropped 8.5 percent US$97.19, and RevPAR decreased 11.8 percent to US$53.29. Click on graph for larger image in new window. This graph shows the occupancy rate by week for each of the last four years (2006 through 2009 labeled by start of month).
From the WSJ: Fed Frets About Commercial Real Estate Banks in the U.S. “are slow” to take losses on their commercial real-estate loans being battered by slumping property values and rental payments, according to a Federal Reserve presentation to banking regulators last month. ….
