September 02, 2008

HousingPANIC Quote of the Day

"Housing prices have gone down 15 percent, so that even if you didn't lose your home, you're seeing your wealth, your equity that you've built up, diminished under this president, partly because nobody was minding the store when the financial institutions were giving out predatory loans and teaser interest rates that shot up, and people couldn't afford to pay."

- Barack Obama, not understanding that home prices coming down is the GOOD thing, while home prices going up was the BAD thing, August 2008

42 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I can understand it, and you can understand it, I am sure Obama understands it. But to say it, in a convention speech would be politcal suicide.

Anonymous said...

No...

This is political suicide.

http://tinyurl.com/6f6neu

Palin disclosures raise questions about vetting
Alaskans say no one from McCain camp asked them about eventual VP pick

Anonymous said...

Not to mention that Obama is flat out wrong here. Housing prices have gone up 60%, then dropped 15% under this administration.

Anonymous said...

When my wife and I were looking to purchase a home back in 2000, we were pre-qualified for a loan of up to $800K. I told the guy at Wamu that he was insane and that we wanted to be able to eat.

We purchased a nice townhome in a location we liked for ~$177K and watched the equity increase by $60K over the next six years. Over the last year we've seen our equity go down about $10K (and still dropping) because of the housing crisis. Note: We bought our home as a place to live and not an investment.

I'm not complaining about the $10K our equity dropped. Obama has a good point about loosing wealth/equity, even if you were prudent about purchasing a home priced well within your means, due to the dishonesty of the mortgage industry. When you have problems of the magnitude we are seeing, everyone is affected.

Anonymous said...

does it really matter what he says?
Obama rhymes with Osama and that means no way McCain can lose.

I'm not kidding here, this is the sad state of America in 2008

Anonymous said...

.

Regardless of political policies or laws or new 'programs' that may delay the inevitable -housing prices WILL DROP and continue to do so like a ROCK until PRICES are near 3X median incomes. When median home prices are near 3X median incomes we'll be near the bottom.

When inventories of unsold homes approach 3-4 months of supply, we'll begin to see increases in some of those areas. Until then prices will go DOWN.

Why delay the inevitable with policy?

Just because the average sheep's ability to BORROW increased 3X over the last few years doesn't mean their INCOME or ability to PAY increased 3X. Reality bites.

.

Anonymous said...

i cannot in good conscious vote for either one of these candidates.

it will be the first time in my life i did not "fall in line" with either political party.

i am not a sheep.

Anonymous said...

This quote displays an almost incomprehensible ignorance of economics but, heck, the guy gives a good speech so lets all support him...

Anonymous said...

How many people do you actually know that would consider Obama to have made an error with that statement?

Maybe people who read Housingpanic?

Who else?

House prices crashing are only going to be considered a positive thing for people that don't have a house.

Obama is well aware that the percentage of people that aren't saddled with a mortgage, sitting on cash for a down payment or better, with assets, a job, good credit, little if any debt, and patiently waiting for house prices to make sense again is a tiny, tiny, sampling of the voting pool.

Anonymous said...

This is the closest thing to a criticism of Obamessiah on this blog.

Both major parties screw us over and only one gets at best, slight criticism.

Devestment said...

I too will say anything to get the deal.

Anonymous said...

"Housing prices have gone down 15 percent, so that even if you didn't lose your home, you're seeing your wealth, your equity that you've built up, diminished under this president, partly because nobody was minding the store when the financial institutions were giving out predatory loans and teaser interest rates that shot up, and people couldn't afford to pay."

This is your brain on marxism...any questions?

Anonymous said...

Wow, I am actually seeing negative comments about your boy - it is kind of refreshing for a change.

Doesn't he realize that the "equity" that these people "built" was all phantom and based on nothing but the lending practices he now lambastes?

Markus Arelius said...

Obama is asking for change everywhere, yet he is clinging to the same archaic blame game in order to win votes.

While America needs someone to tell them how it is and a "reality check", this has already happened. Ron Paul has spoken many times on the malfeasance of Washington politics and the Fed. America's response? Ignore him. It's not important. We'll do something about it tomorrow.

The fact is, Obama is an eloquent communicator. But he is not demonstrating any larger cajones than the NAR and Bank-paid representatives in Washington.

You can't blame Bush and then act like the Democrats weren't equally guilty in allow the nation to be run into the ground.

Obama is not President yet. He has to address the fact that he is part of a Congress with the lowest approval rating in recorded American history.

Anonymous said...

Keith,

I think your analysis of his statement is totally wrong here.

He states "no one was minding the store" essentially saying that prices and the loans that backed them should never have shot up the way they did.

Anonymous said...

It's a bad thing for many because the house is their only source of wealth and many thought it was their retirement.

Anonymous said...

You should take a new Palin "drop-out poll" on Halloweeeeeeen.

(If she's not in prison by then)

Just another Bush regime member.

Anonymous said...

Look at what's happening in the UK. Same story, the government is trying to artificially keep housing prices high. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hOuoYAXSqgcpHFPxB-845wrJkE8QD92UKCF82

Anonymous said...

AP -- MEXICO CITY --
The amount of money Mexicans sent home suffered its sharpest drop on record in July as the U.S. economy slowed and the dollar fell, Mexico's central bank reported Monday.

Remittances -- Mexico's second-largest legal source of foreign income after oil -- dropped by 6.9 percent in July compared with the year before.

''This is the sharpest drop we have seen,'' said Jesus Cervantes, director of economic measurement for Mexico's central bank. The worst previous year-over-year monthly decline was 6.3 percent in January.

Cervantes said that over 20 percent of Mexican migrants work in construction in the United States, a sector hit particularly hard by the U.S. mortgage crisis. ''Basically, the job situation for Mexican migrants in the United States has become complicated,'' he said.

Records dating back to 1995 on the central bank's website showed no greater monthly fall, and records kept before then are considered unreliable.

Mexicans who depend on money sent home are also suffering from an 8 percent drop in the value of the U.S. dollar against the Mexican peso this year.

The bank said remittances for the first seven months of the year are 2.9 percent below what they were in 2007.


Geez, and Michelle Obama was asking, on her convention speech, for amnesty to millions of illegals who send their dollars to their country of origin, instead of investing back into our economy or helping to pay for all the expensive infrastructure and welfare consumed. No wonder bridges and levees are collapsing; millions of people who use and abuse those services daily don't pay a dime for them.

Now that it's working, that these parasites are being reduced, the Democrats want to change and give amnesty to them...just because of votes, nothing else.

Frank R said...

Here we go again - it's the president's fault that people "bought" $800k homes with $40k salaries.

The problem behind it all is exactly the entitlement mentality crap that Obama himself promotes.

Frank R said...

It's a bad thing for many because the house is their only source of wealth and many thought it was their retirement.

Yeah well that's precisely why the house of cards came down. A house should NEVER be depended upon for wealth and NEVER used for retirement. Anyone who gambled on their house for retirement instead of maxing out a 401k or IRA or other retirement account is irresponsible.

Explain to me how you use a house for retirement. It's a place to live - nothing else. What did these people plan to do - take out a HELOC in old age to live in, knowing they wouldn't have to pay it back after death???

Anonymous said...

If I can understand it, and you can understand it, I am sure Obama understands it. But to say it, in a convention speech would be politcal suicide.

Double standards R US. When a Republican say anything, the corrupt MSM and Hussein cultists take it word by word. However, when Hussein speaks absurd on any subject: "oh no, he's just saying that because otherwise it would be political suicide". Nice BS disclaimer for any BS that fake Messiah says, you bunch of retarded cultists.

Anonymous said...

I never heard complaining like this when NASDAQ crashed.

FlyingMonkeyWarrior said...

Doesn't he realize that the "equity" that these people "built" was all phantom and based on nothing but the lending practices he now lambastes?
***********************
Look, everyone has already pulled out their equity with a cash out re-fi or cash back at closing.
So, it really dosent matter now. Time for the banks to get the home back and the taxpayer to pay the banks bad debt off. Nuff said.

Anonymous said...

If you read Obama's web site, his intention is to enforce the law and address the root causes of the bubble, which is what the first part of the statement is about. I agree the second part, sympathy for people losing paper wealth that was never really there, is way off. But will some of the foreclosed people become homeless? Otherwise face financial ruin? Propping up house prices is not the answer, but something is probably going to have to be done with the massive numbers of people clobbered by this who were not speculating.

Anonymous said...

What f*ckin equity? This equity crap was was an ellusion. These structures of sticks and dry wall were never worth more in 2006 than they were in 2000. This was all marketing and hypw by the industry.

My wife and I purchased a condo in San Diego for 187,000 in 2002. in 2005 to 2006 it topped at close to 375,000. People told us you want a new car or boat, take out an equity loan and it is yours. We said no. This whole idea of equity and creating funds out of mid air does not ever sound like a good idea. For a few years the industry said oh you have so much money you don't know what to do with it. Now they say well you really don't have it. It was never there. Mow we have the condo more than affordable and is rented for profit. And note to the renters who say you don't pay the property tax because you rent, you do. And my renters do. I get enough rent to cover it. The condo ownership cost me nothing and is considered a long term as in 30 year small investment.

Now I live in a nice but modest 2100 square foot house.

Hmm. I stayed away from the subprime mortgages on my properties. I bought not for the idea of getting a couple hundred in equity in a couple of years for nothing. I don't feel like I have lost anything from watching my condo go from 187,000 to 375,000 back to about 225,000 now. I didn't creat a false wealth out of it.

Equity loans were a loop hole way to rob money out of the system and now I get to pay it back. If this was 150 years ago we would see blood on the streets already over this.

Anonymous said...

How can Gov. Palin claim to be such a pro-American when she was a member of the Alaska Independence Party? They want Alaska to be an independent country! Go to their web site and check out her video- www.akip.org
So McCain really didn't check into her background!

Anonymous said...

"nobody was minding the store when the financial institutions were giving out predatory loans"

BULL - SHIT!

Used to be not long ago that banks did not lend to poor people who couldn't pay back the loans. Those poor people often tended to be black. Then Jesse Jackson and the rest got angry and demanded banks lend to anyone. The banks didn't wan to be accused of racism and acquiesced.

Fast forward 10 years and here we are.

Frank R said...

And note to the renters who say you don't pay the property tax because you rent, you do.

When we say that buying is stupid, we mean buying today, not in 2002.

Sure, I may be paying property taxes indirectly, but when I added up the owner's total monthly payment in mortgage, tax, HOA and insurance, I'm still paying less than half in rent since he bought in 2004.

Anonymous said...

"How can Gov. Palin claim to be such a pro-American when she was a member of the Alaska Independence Party?"

yeah...yeah...and obama is butt buddies with a guy who blew up the capitol building.

damn i wished boths sides would just shut the frack up. they sound like fracking 2 year olds.

Anonymous said...

"Here we go again - it's the president's fault that people "bought" $800k homes with $40k salaries."

nahh...he didn't make them. he just told us to go spend and consume after 9-11.

how you and i had the analytical ability to look at our earnings and compare our needs and wants and make rational decisions and the rest of the citizenry were somehow hypnotized by bush's eloquent speaking ability into spending beyond their means...well that will have to be explained by the libs on the blog.

Anonymous said...

In fact, Obama, in a CNBC interview a few months back, said, and I quote:

"The Government needs to put a FLOOR under house prices".

Don't think that's possible? The UK is attempting to do it as we speak.

Anybody who is under the age of 30, and has yet to buy a home, would be absolutely insane to vote for Obama.

He is determined to keep home prices at nosebleed levels. You can forget about ever seeing 2-3X income again in the US if Obama gets elected.

He (and Hillary) were both invited to the Bilderberg Conference last Spring. The invite list was in the Washington Post (?). McCain was NOT invited!

The Dems are firmly FIRMLY in the pocket of the big Banks and Wall Street.

I've voted Dem for 4 decades- FOUR!

NOT THIS YEAR.

Anybody who wants the government to put a floor under homes at 5-15X income is saying "F**k You" to us all.

Devestment said...

AP -- MEXICO CITY --
The amount of money Mexicans sent home suffered its sharpest drop on record in July as the U.S. economy slowed and the dollar fell, Mexico's central bank reported Monday.


http://tinyurl.com/2gpnes

Refuse to buy overpriced said...

If your home went up 300% in 8 years, then back down 15% in the following 2 years, you're still waaaay ahead of the game.

Unless you took out money via HELOC to live the high life.

In which case, don't expect future buyers to pay for it.

Anonymous said...

Well the statement is just so back **sward.

From Obama's statement you'd almost get that noone minding the store was the cause of housing prices going down. No true. Noone minding the store was the cause of them going UP so much. The bubble bursting (as all bubbles do) was the cause of them going down.

So yes I guess his statement is technically true. As you could make the case that if there was no bubble in the first place, it woudln't have burst. Houses would have just gone up around the rate of inflation every year. But it's such a muddled way of phrasing it.

Why does he twist the language that way? Oh because he wants to pretend that only housing prices going down are bad and not the fact that they shot through the moon in the first place.

Anonymous said...

"
how you and i had the analytical ability to look at our earnings and compare our needs and wants and make rational decisions and the rest of the citizenry were somehow hypnotized by bush's eloquent speaking ability into spending beyond their means...well that will have to be explained by the libs on the blog."

Actually if the interest rate is held below the rate of inflation it becomes economically RATIONAL to borrow and economically irrational to save. That's how. Not magic, but rather ECONOMICS.

Anonymous said...

You moron thats what free market is. Its comsumers and suppliers that determine the price. Not what you think in your idiot brain or government.
If people make take irrational risks, they pay for it. You are looking for government to save your little pathetic ass, go live in China, Pakistan, Middle east.

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Anonymous said...

no one seems to understand that real estate follows a cycle. It will all come back around

Anonymous said...

because nobody was minding the store when the financial institutions were giving out predatory loans and teaser interest rates that shot up, and people couldn't afford to pay."

Including McCain and Obama Right??????

Anonymous said...

Myrtle Beach Condos said...
no one seems to understand that real estate follows a cycle. It will all come back around


I just wanted to say in response to this statement, congratulations you have completely missed the point.

Anonymous said...

"If you read Obama's web site, his intention is to enforce the law and address the root causes of the bubble, which is what the first part of the statement is about."

No, the root cause of the fiasco is government meddling in housing and mortgage lending. If companies make bad loans are allowed to fail, they will never dare to make bad loans again. Barney Frank was accusing the free market innovation in the last couple decades of coming up with mortgage securitization thereby removing the originating bank's risk in making loans . . . hmm, what is Fannie if it is not a mortgage securitization insitution designed to removing risks from mortgage originating banks? Fannie was invented by the Federal Government for the express purpose of reducing bank risks in making mortgages available at too low an interest rate. It was founded in 1938!

Why was Fannie founded? Because the wasteful government policies under FDR was destroying capital and dirving market interest rate sky high. Goes to show that government cures are worse than disease, especially for diseases that are born of previous government cures to begin with.