Homebuilder Hovnanian to SLASH prices next week - even though their CEO illegally pleaded for other homebuilders to RAISE prices just two months ago

Ah, what a class act. Ara Hovnanian, CEO of one of the failing homebuilders, stood up in front of other homebuilders two months ago and illegally and blatantly encouraged price fixing and racketeering. Of course, since the US doesn't have a functioning Justice Department anymore, this illegal price fixing attempt won't even be investigated. You're on your own Americans.

But since homebuilder CEOs are generally lying deceptive snakes, instead of raising prices like he told his peers they should do, well, get this HP'ers, in a desperate attempt to avoid bankruptcy, Hovnanian is now gonna SLASH PRICES.

Here's what Hovnanian said two months ago, to his fellow builders:

"Raise prices," he said. "Buyers aren't buying because they think you're going to lower prices again. There's interest but there's fear. Raise prices 3-4 percent. And quit giving discounts.''

And here's what's Hovnanian is planning now:

The company also said it would slash prices on homes across the country beginning late next week to try to sell off excess inventory.

So, HP renews its call for an Justice Department investigation of Ara Hovnanian for attempted price fixing. And I hope Hovnanian's fellow desperate homebuilders learn from this, and start slashing their prices too, versus trying to move dead inventory (while distorting the median price data) with free TVs, Hawaiian vacations and pools.

It's the price stupid. It will always be the price stupid.

PIMCO's Bill Gross calls for taxpayers to bail out failed housing gamblers. HousingPANIC calls for Bill Gross to pull his head out of his ass

Some days, I can't believe what I read from our "leaders".

For respected bond trader Bill Gross to be calling for a federal housing gambler bailout with taxpayer money is not only pathetic, reckless and wrong, it's actually immoral. Either Gross knows how bad it's gonna get and is in panic stage, or there's some way he'll make money off of a government bailout.

Why should taxpayers who go to work, pay their bills, read fine print, live within their means and make rational financial choices send their hard earned income to others who gamble, live beyond their means and make poor financial choices?

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HAVE PEOPLE GONE INSANE?

Sign the online petition against this crap here. We can help defeat this stupid thinking, just like the immigration law mess.

If the US government bails out failed flippers and housing gamblers in ANY way, then it will officially be over. Rome will have burned. And the US government will no longer be deserving of your support. But I have faith. Even George Bush and Congress aren't this stupid, reckless and corrupt. Right? If Bush or Congress try to increase their record-low ratings with a housing gambler bailout, my prediction is that it'll backfire worse than Schiavo.

Here's Gross and his "wisdom". I need to go puke now. And I'll also try to figure out how Gross's bailout call might directly financially benefit PIMCO and Bill Gross.

The ultimate solution, it seems to me, must not emanate from the bowels of Fed headquarters on Constitution Avenue, but from the West Wing of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Why is it possible to rescue corrupt S&L buccaneers in the early 1990s and provide guidance to levered Wall Street investment bankers during the 1998 LTCM crisis, yet throw 2,000,000 homeowners to the wolves in 2007?

If we can bail out Chrysler, why can’t we support the American homeowner?

This rescue, which admittedly might bail out speculators who deserve much worse, would support millions of hard working Americans whose recent hours have become ones of frantic desperation.

Now here's someone sane on Gross being a doof:

More Bailouts Could Bring Disaster Down the Road

In my humble opinion Mr. Gross is right about only one thing: that Mr. Bernanke is unable to eventually stop a destructive housing deflation.

At least now the pundits are admitting that a housing deflation is at the heart of the economic problems. That is a watershed event.

But for the “government”, which I thought was using taxpayer money (except for the $9 trln in debt it has borrowed), to bail out malinvestment is only to increase the problem. If you don’t punish your child for playing with matches, he may one day burn the house down.

Of course Mr. Gross, being worth $500 mln plus, really doesn’t worry about how much of his tax dollars are going into the abyss; he just wants to keep earning his fees.

Discredited REIC hack Nicholas Retsinas of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies gets slapped with cold hard housing reality

I guess now that the checks (and cash?) he was receiving from his failing REIC masters (homebuilders, lenders, etc) are bouncing, he feels like he should try to gain back some credibility and admit to the crash underway. Nick - nice try. Too late.

But still good progress since just a few months ago, when this discredited hack was calling HP'ers "Chicken Littles" and "Cassandras", and telling anyone who'd listen that the housing market would be A-OK.

Here's the hack a few months ago, perhaps at REIC gunpoint:

The headline hints of catastrophe: a dot-com repeat, a bubble bursting, an economic apocalypse. Cassandra, though, can stop wailing: the expected price corrections mark a slowing in the rate of increase - not a precipitous decline. This will not spark a chain reaction that will devastate homeowners, builders and communities. Contradicting another gloomy seer, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling.

Idiot. Guess Econ 101 wasn't part of his education.

Now here's Retsinas and his new post-crash spin:

"The housing market faced a series of body blows over the past year: overbuilding, overappreciation, investors, tightening credit and the subprime-loan implosion," said Nicholas Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. "No question, the last shoe to drop is going to be foreclosures."

Welcome to HP Retsinas. And oh, we're still waiting for an apology...

FLASH: Hilariously, and for the umpteenth straight month, the monkey-run NAR lowers its housing sales and pricing forecast

Ya gotta love the little guys.. the gift that keeps on giving

Why the media still reports anything these lying corrupt jokers say as news is beyond me. And guess what folks - next month, the monkeys will lower the forecast again. And the month after that? The monkeys will lower their forecast again.

And the month after that?

And the month after that?

And the month after that?

And the month after that?

Realtors Pare Back Forecast Again,But Project Rebound Next Year

WASHINGTON -- The National Association of Realtors continued to pare back its forecast for existing U.S. home sales in 2007, while projecting a modest rebound for the struggling housing market in 2008.

In its latest forecast for the real estate market, NAR on Wednesday projected that existing home sales will fall 5.6% this year to 6.11 million, compared with its previous forecast of a 4.6% decline.

New-home sales are also expected to be soft this year. The NAR said new home sales are likely to fall 17.7% to 865,000, compared with the prior forecast of a 18.2% drop.

Lawrence Yun, NAR's senior economist, said a good buyer's market had developed, amid falling prices and swelling housing inventories.

WARNING: The US Government does not want you to see these numbers

Proceed at your own risk, as ignorance is bliss... And get ready...

Here's M3 Money Supply reconstructed. Yes, the M3 that the Fed stopped publishing last year. Why did they stop publishing it? You need to ask?

And here's inflation based on the components that used to measure inflation as recently as 1990, before the government decided to change things around to hide what was really happening.

Remember, they base benefits payouts and raises based on inflation, so it's in their (and our) best interests (to avoid going insolvent, raising taxes or printing more money) to keep the "official" inflation reading low, even though we all know damn well things are WAY more expensive now than they were a year or two ago. Watch for inflation to remain tame as rents plummet with the oversupply of housing and economy softening.

How stupid are Treasury Secretary Walter Paulson's comments on housing looking now?

This quote will be one for the ages. Kinda like "we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators" and "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"

Here's Paulson in all of his laughable, bizarre, corrupt, misguided, lying glory:

WASHINGTON - The major slump in the housing market is nearing an end and should not have a significant impact on the overall economy, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday.

"We have had a major housing correction in this country," Paulson said in an interview with a small group of reporters at the Treasury Department. "I do believe we are at or near the bottom."

"It doesn't pose a risk to the economy overall," he said.

HP REPOST: A&E Programming Note: "Flip This House" name change. Now "Scam This Country"

I've gotten tons of email and posts today about the A&E Flip This House scam, because yahoo and the AP finally ran a story (weeks later). So here's the repost. HP also got mentioned in the Kansas City Star on this subject. Nice to see the MSM chasing their tail (and the blogs).

____________________________

I'm sorry. I thought today was May 16. I didn't realize it was HousingPANIC Christmas! The gifts just keep coming!

Fox News Breaks "Flip This House" Case

If you ever wanted to know whether the real estate investors who say they make a lot of money are telling the truth or not, don't expect to learn it by watching A&E's "Flip This House."

In a stunning investigative report, Fox News Atlanta actually did their homework and found out that Sam Leccima, one of the 'stars' of the popular Fix/Flip weekly show had been involved in staging phony transactions, performing shoddy renovations, and, in the most bizarre bit of fakery, planting and un-planting landscaping for the cameras.

Mr. Leccima, when asked about the allegations, responded, "It's a television show."

Fox Atlanta also poked fun at A&E for not even bothering to check that Mr. Leccima had recently had his real estate license revoked by the Georgia real estate commission, before the show began airing, and now may be under investigation by the Georgia Attorney General for securities issues.

Pretend you're a realtor or the new Chief Economist of the NAR and tell us why there's no housing crash underway

Oh, man this will be good.

Have at it.

The Corrupt David Lereah's lies and distortion blamed on his sunny personality

The excuse Blanche Evans, Realty Times Deceiver in Chief, gave for TCDL's lies are especially galling, blaming his distortions on his having a "sunny personality". For all I know TCDL is a nice sunny guy. But that doesn't excuse the lies and deception, and doesn't excuse the horrific mess he personally helped create. TCDL helped ruin lives folks. What TCDL did was evil.

And Miss Evans, a note for your reference, REAL economists don't lie, distort and deceive. They use theories and evidence to try to come to understandings and the truth.

FAKE economists, like whoever the NAR employs, are paid liars who manipulate data to fool the American people into thinking it's always a great time to pay a real estate clerk a commission.

Have you no shame?

Meanwhile, nice to see Reuters pick up on David at davidlereahwatch. I'm tellin' ya, the NAR and realtors around the country probably have "how can we silence the bubble blogs" meetings. And they know their days are up, because they can't.

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - The economist who prodded investors into the U.S. housing boom and has been skewered by bloggers during the bust is leaving a top real estate trade association, the group said Monday.

Still, others excoriate the former bank regulator and economist with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for maintaining a rosy outlook on the home market even while the demand for homes has evaporated.


One blog, David Lereah Watch, cites passages from Lereah's books and his encouraging words about the housing market and asks him to "admit he cheerleaded this destructive housing bubble."


In October, Lereah said that he expected "sales activity to pick up early next year." In recent months, Lereah has pushed his expectations for recovery deeper into 2007 and has trimmed his forecast for home sales for the year

Blanche Evans, the editor of Realty Times, an online magazine for real estate professionals, said Lereah's outlook for the market is a reflection of his sunny disposition.

"That is part of his personality. He is one of the most bright and energetic people but that does not mean that he's a Pollyanna," said Evans, author of "Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money in ANY Real Estate Market."

The Corrupt David Lereah (finally) gets the boot from the NAR. Good f*cking riddance!

Hey, MOVE's stock is only down 95% from the peak. How much damage can a completely discredited carnival barker do? Want a tip? Short MOVE...

Here's a special HousingPANIC going away message for our old friend, The Corrupt David Lereah (please feel free to add your own HP'ers):

TCDL, we'll sure miss you around here. Yes, you may have been doing the bidding of your evil masters at the NAR these past few years with your lies, deception and spin. And yes, you may have blood on your hands, someone who'll go down in history as enriching himself at the expense of others.

But it sure was one heck of a ride.

Bon Voyage TCDL. And good fu*king riddance.

Economist Lereah to leave Realtors for Move Inc.

David Lereah, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, is leaving NAR to join Move Inc. as chairman and partner of a new business entity next month, NAR said Monday.

Lereah has directed NAR's research division, regulatory and industry relations division and other activities. He will leave the association in mid-May, NAR said.

As chief economist and senior vice president, Lereah is the NAR's spokesman on the U.S. economy and the housing and real estate markets.

California based Move Inc. provides homebuyers and renters with information about real estate and communities before, during and after moves, according to its Web site. Move Inc. operates NAR's Web site, Realtor.com.

Neither NAR nor Move Inc. offered details about the new entity, but a Move Inc. spokeswoman said more information would be forthcoming in the third quarter. The entity is "expected to be transformational for both consumers and real estate professionals," according to a Move Inc. news release.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson goes on record, calls housing crash bottom

Ha.

Ha ha ha ha.

Ha ha.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Ha.

Ha ha.

Ha ha ha.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson delivered an upbeat assessment of the economy, saying growth was healthy and the housing market was nearing a turnaround.

"All the signs I look at" show "the housing market is at or near the bottom," Paulson said in a speech to a business group in New York. The U.S. economy is "very healthy" and "robust," Paulson said

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Is the REALTOR® profession now totally and forever DISCREDITED®?

FLASH: NAR finally admits housing prices to fall. Related story: Hell freezes over

The Corrupt David Lereah and NAR were confirmed today as liars for all to see. And HP and the bubble blogs are confirmed today (by the NAR) as beacons of truth.

God, I have no idea how TCDL keeps his job. And I have no idea why anyone in the MSM would give that man or the NAR any credence ever again. Nice to see Motley Fool and DavidLereahWatch both hit TCDL good today too... At least someone's awake.

Liars I say. Bald face, corrupt, discredited liars.

Realtors group: Median home prices will decline for first time in 4 decades

WASHINGTON -- The National Association of Realtors on Wednesday said it expects the national median price for existing homes to drop this year for the first time since the trade group began keeping records in the late 1960s.

The group also lowered its 2007 sales forecast for new and existing homes. Tighter lending standards and the continued fallout from the subprime mortgage market are to blame, NAR spokesman Walter Molony said in an interview.

What was it about Phoenix?

The biggest housing mania (followed by the biggest collapse)

Rampant cash-back mortgage fraud

Rings of corrupt realtors, mortgage brokers and appraisers

Out of control homebuilders now stuck with massive dead inventory

Home of get-rich-quick con-men and liars

A fake economy propped up short-term by scummy REIC

And the inspiration behind three of the most popular bubble blogs

So, what was it about Phoenix?

Asking prices in the Phoenix area have dropped about 25% this year, says David Khalaj, an agent at Realty Executives.

Existing single-family home sales tumbled 34% in the first nine months of the year compared with the same period last year, and condo sales were off 24%.

Construction permits for single-family homes were down 23% through August.

The declines appear so dramatic because Phoenix's housing market last year (and for the past several years) was so hyperinflated.

"Last year was just one of those atrocities that happens rarely," in terms of bidding wars and soaring prices, says Camille Sullivan, also an agent at Realty Executives. "I've never seen it before, and I've been doing this for 25 years. It was a very difficult time."

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Do real estate clerks now (finally) understand what is happening to the housing market, and to their jobs and future prospects?

Or are they really as dumb, clueless and naive as they seem to be?

At least 2.1 million vacant homes for sale in America, millions more on the way, and people are still calling "bottom"

Highest number of vacancies every recorded (goes back 40 years). More unwanted unneeded homes being added to inventory everyday by builders and desperate homedebtors. Demand cratering just as supply overwhelms.

Yup, looks like a bottom to me.

Not.

I don't get people who keep calling bottoms. Sure, you have The Corrupt David Lereah - he's paid to lie. But then you get the Lowes CEO this week saying that even though retail sales at his chain are plummeting, "We are encouraged by indications that our sales trends have bottomed."

Man, talk about missing the memo.

Even Bob Toll isn't calling bottom anymore, realizing he not only looked the fool last time he did that, but that there's this little thing called the SEC, and this little policy called Sarbanes Oxley, and you can't go out and just tell bald-face lies when you're the company's largest shareholder and CEO. No matter how much you want to pop your stock so you can keep unloading.

And finally, with those 2.1 million vacant homes, with millions more on the way, with nobody interested in buying them, my only questions are....

How fricking ugly will this get? And what year will we truly bottom?

Vacant Homes For Sale Cloud Economic Hopes

Amid brightening hopes that the U.S. housing market is stabilizing, some economists are zeroing in on a piece of data that could augur badly for the consensus view: the homeowner vacancy rate.

That figure, an often-overlooked measure of how many homes for sale in the country are empty, has climbed to its highest level since the Census Bureau began tracking it four decades ago. Last week, the bureau said that in the final three months of 2006 there were about 2.1 million vacant homes for sale.

That brought the national homeowner vacancy rate to 2.7%, up from 2.0% a year ago.

Trust the "experts" - there was no housing bubble. It's different this time! All will be fine!

They all sounded so convincing at the time, didn't they HP'ers? The MSM sure thought so. Millions of Desperate Homedebtors sure hoped so. But alas, they were a parade of fools, some corrupt, some stupid, and all wrong.

First, you have the NAR's anti-bubble realtor spin instructions, which are still up on their website:

These downloadable 10-page reports show that the facts simply do not support the possibility of a housing bust -- not for these 135 markets and not for the nation

And The Corrupt David Lereah from January 2006:

"The level of home sales activity is now at a sustainable level, and is likely to pick up a bit in the months ahead."

Then there was the idiot MSN columninst Jim Jubak in June 2005 with this gem:

Why there is no housing bubble. The sky is not falling. Yes, home prices are sky-high, but we really don't have a housing bubble that is anywhere near bursting.

And of course, you have NAR-poodle Nicholas Retsinas at the corrupt Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies boldly proclaiming in 2002:

Bubbles, of course, do burst; but housing is not a bubble akin to tulips or to Enron or other corporate scandals. It is a concrete product -- a place where people live. And as anybody who has sold or bought a house can attest, it is not an easily fungible commodity.

And Dr. James Smith, the dimwitted and corrupt chief economist for the Society of Industrial and Office realtors, pontificated in April 2005:

There Is No Housing Bubble in the USA - There is no evidence of a housing “bubble” in the United States and housing demand should stay strong for years to come.

And finally, Donald Trump's little play thing Kendra Todd:

"You can't go anywhere without hearing people talk about "the real estate bubble." Such talk drives me to distraction, and I'll tell you why. It's because there is no real estate bubble. Bubbles are for bathtubs."

I hope Americans know a fraud, a liar and a con-man next time they see one. The housing bubble sure brought out the bunch of 'em. And some are still at it. But their day is done. It's over.

The Rat Bastard Speaks: Greenspan Warns Of Likely U.S. Recession

* Cause greatest bubble in recorded human history - check

* Deny you did that - check

* Tell everyone that housing crash has ended - check

* Warn today of a recession but don't say your stupidity was the cause - check

* Go home and admire your Presidential Medal of Freedom - check

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Monday that the American economy might slip into recession by year's end.

He said the U.S. economy has been expanding since 2001 and that there are signs the current economic cycle is coming to an end.

"When you get this far away from a recession invariably forces build up for the next recession, and indeed we are beginning to see that sign," Greenspan said via satellite link to a business conference in Hong Kong. "For example in the U.S., profit margins ... have begun to stabilize, which is an early sign we are in the later stages of a cycle."

"While, yes, it is possible we can get a recession in the latter months of 2007, most forecasters are not making that judgment and indeed are projecting forward into 2008 ... with some slowdown," he said.

Greenspan said that while it would be "very precarious" to try to forecast that far into the future, he could not rule out the possibility of a recession late this year.

"We are now well into the contraction period and so far we have not had any major, significant spillover effects on the American economy from the contraction in housing," he said.

The NAR is still serving the Kool-Aid. Anyone want another sip?

Liars. Scoundrels. Terrible businessmen. Discredited hacks. Watching the NAR implode at the same time housing implodes is quite poetic, wouldn't you say HP'ers?

I think the only ones still drinking their Kool-Aid are the rip-and-read MSM, and even many of them are starting to actually think before they write. Not all of 'em, but some. It's a start.

But here's the reporter at Realty Times allowing the NAR spinmeisters to serve more unfiltered Mountainberry Punch! Hey Kool-Aid!

NAR Says Existing Home Sales Have Hit Bottom

Despite wailing from banks that late or non-payments on sub-prime loans are sinking their profits, continuing fear from homebuyers that they're catching a falling knife, and predictions from housing analysts that the pain is far from over, the outlook looks sunny for housing, says the National Association of Realtors.

Analysts say that a number of causes kept buyers away including affordability, the financial media, rising gas prices, rising mortgage interest rates, and buyers' fear of becoming "the greater fool."

Housing bulls suggest that the drop in housing sales is primarily due to fear -- that housing fundamentals are actually better now than they were during record housing conditions.

David Lereah, NAR's chief economist, said it appears the fourth quarter was the bottom for the current housing cycle.

"This information confirms 2006 was the year of contraction, and hopefully the fourth quarter was the bottom of this current business cycle," he said. "Home sales are leveling at historically high levels, and examination of data within the quarter shows home prices stabilizing toward the end. When we get the figures for this spring, I expect to see a discernible improvement in both sales and prices."

NAR President Pat V. Combs: "Since the typical owner stays in a home for six years, it's more useful to look at the five-year comparison for metro area home prices -- most of them are seeing strong gains,"

Thinking of getting out of that option-arm, no-down, no-doc, teaser rate debt trap? Think again. Checkmate.

Don't worry, the mortgage clerk and real estate clerk told you when you were signing your name on the dotted line. Don't worry - you can always refinance again in a couple of years when the rate resets, and heck, by that point you'll have built up so much equity that you can take that money out and go on a cruise!

Not.

Things change my friends. The subprime implosion means liquidity dries up hasta pronto, and easy-credit standards go away. In addition, these desperate homedebtor-hamsters are looking at massive pre-payment penalties (hey, nobody told them about those!) if they try to escape.

Oh, boy, is this ending ugly. Welcome to option-ARM jail, homedebtors.

With rates on many homeowners' adjustable-rate mortgages rising, some who would like to refinance into a new loan are finding they can't.

In some cases, that is because their loan carries a prepayment penalty, which would force them to come up with thousands of dollars if they refinance in the first few years. Such penalties are common with so-called option adjustable-rate mortgages, which typically carry a low teaser rate that rises sharply after an introductory period.

Other borrowers are getting caught short by a changing housing market -- one in which home prices have flattened and lenders are beginning to tighten their standards after a long period of making mortgages easier and easier to get. The challenges are greatest for homeowners whose credit has declined since they took out their last loan and for those who have little if any equity. Some of these borrowers are still able to refinance but are finding it more costly than they expected.

These new challenges come at a time when many borrowers who took out adjustable-rate mortgages are facing higher payments. There are about $1.1 trillion to $1.5 trillion in ARMs that will face rate increases this year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA expects borrowers to refinance as much as $700 billion of those mortgages.