Why are the Feds talking Mortgage Meltdown Bailout? Because the stench of the NAR and NAHB fills the halls of your corrupted Congress

Hey, what's that stench? Oh, it's just the REIC doing their thing.

Tax breaks for buying a home. No cap-gains tax on home sale proceeds. No oversight of mortgage brokers, realtors or lenders. And a corrupt REIC allowed to spin out of control by a corrupt Congress.

The realtors and home builders made this mess. Congress went along for the ride. And if there's a move in Congress for a REIC bailout, you'll know why.

Top 10 Political Action Committees 2006

#1. National Association of Realtors

According to OpenSecrets, the NAR PAC spent $3,752,005 in the 2006 campaign: 49% to Democrats and 51% to Republicans. They raised $1,716,960 in contributions of $200 or more. The Realtors Political Action Committee (RPAC) is one of the largest trade association PACs, dating to 1943. Issues of interest range from accessibility to wireless 411 directory.

#3. National Association of Home Builders

According to OpenSecrets, the National Association of Home Builders PAC spent $2,900,500 in the 2006 campaign: 26% went to Democrats and 72% to Republicans. They raised $3,526,927 in contributions of $200 or more.

The NAR and their local chapters are run by monkeys

Just watch the video.

This is how they (try to) teach ethics to their no-skill, no-ethics, no-morals, no-education, no-worth sea of ramen eaters.



Thanks to housingdoom for the link

Warning - don't watch this NAR ad on a full stomach

I like the pledge pin they give out too...

30 days ago, HP played this April Fool's prank. Today, The Corrupt David Lereah really DID resign

This stunner off the wires today will blow you away. But hey, we all saw it coming...

New York (Fox News) April 1, 2007

David Lereah, Chief Economist of the National Association of Realtors, resigned his position today, effective immediately, as Lereah was under increasing pressure to resign due to rebellion amongst the 1.3 million strong NAR membership and mocking in the media and amongst housing blogs.

Mr. Lereah held a press conference earlier today at NAR headquarters in Chicago, also attended by his lawyer Lirpa Loof.

"For too long I did the bidding of my evil masters at the NAR" said Mr. Lereah, in a hushed tone to start the briefing. "They marched me out as the bubble grew bigger and bigger, month after month, to say 'it's different this time - the fundamentals have changed - housing prices never go down'. Well, we all know how that line of bull turned out."

"They even had me write a book, which looking back on it must seem like a real hoot, called "Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom", later retitled "Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust". And yes, that book, and my series of misleading quotes to the press as the bubble burst, has made me the laughingstock of the nation, if not the world, and caused irreparable damage to the nation, to families and to our economy."

"But today, everything changes. I have resigned my position with the NAR, I renounce 100% of my quotes and behavior over the past five years, I admit the housing bubble was the biggest con, the biggest Ponzi Scheme in world history, and I ask America for forgiveness."

Mr. Lereah went on to say that he will now be volunteering at a homeless shelter in Phoenix, the epicenter of mortgage fraud, realtor greed, and the housing collapse. His lawyer, Lirpa Loof, also confirmed that Mr. Lereah will be donating all of his book profits, and his entire NAR salary for the past five years, to the homeless.

In a related development, the NAR has hired Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf as its new spokesman and Chief Economist.

Bubble Sitters and Bitter Renters go mainstream: MSM reporting It's much cheaper to rent now than buy

Finally MSM and writers start sifting through the NAR and real estate clerk bullsh*t and spin and point out that it's MUCH cheaper to rent than own. With prices plummeting and unsold inventory skyrocketing, that simple truth is now glaring, no matter what the NAR says.

Too bad more people weren't reading HP in 2005 and 2006. Bet they wish they had been now.

Renting a home now cheaper than buying

A promotional spot for the National Association of Realtors came on the radio the other day. The spot, introduced as something called ‘Newsmakers,’ was supposed to sound like a news report, with the association’s president offering real estate advice.

“This is the best time to buy,” Pat Vredevoogd Combs, the president, said cheerfully. “There’s a lot of inventory in the marketplace. Interest rates are low. It’s a wonderful tax deduction.”

By the Realtors’ way of thinking, it’s always a good time to buy. Homeownership, they argue, is a way to achieve the American dream, save on taxes and earn a solid investment return all at the same time.

That’s how it has worked out for much of the last 15 years. But in a stark reversal, it’s now clear that people who chose renting over buying in the last two years made the right move.

The costs that come with buying a home — mortgage payments, property taxes, fees to real estate agents — remain a lot higher than the costs of renting. So buyers in many places are basically betting that home prices will rise smartly in the near future.

“House prices have to fall more before housing becomes a clear buy again,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, a research company that helped conduct the analysis. “These markets aren’t as overvalued as they were a year ago or two years ago, but they’re still unfriendly. And that’s one of the reasons the market is still soft — people realise it’s not a bargain.”

Back in 2005, near the peak of the market, the chief economist of the Realtors’ association, David Lereah, published a book called ‘Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?’ The can’t-miss argument was wrong then, and it may still be wrong today.

After hearing that radio spot, I called Combs and asked her whether she thought there was any chance that she and her fellow realtors had gone a bit too far in promoting the boom. “I absolutely disagree,” she said, still cheerful. “We help people look at the marketplace.”

A HousingPANIC Message for the REALTORS (ramen-eating real estate clerks) of America

I'm baaaaccckkk... Now where do I even begin? Here's one for starters, a thought for our real estate clerk friends.

Dear REALTORS of America,

It has come to our attention that unsold home inventory is at record levels, with more and more homes are being put on the market every week, and we're just getting started. This is called "exploding supply".

It also appears that home sales velocity has plummeted, as people have come to realize that you and the NAR were lying, and that real estate values can fall. People aren't buying anymore (even if they could - thank you subprime implosion), since the smart people know the same house will be cheaper next month or next year. This is called "plummeting demand".

Now, when supply is rocketing, and demand is cratering, there's this third variable called "price" that gets impacted. For homes to sell, the prices will need to come down. Drastically. And this is your job now, to help Desperate Homedebtors understand that nobody wants their home anymore, especially at last year's price.

So, it's time to do the unimaginable. It's time for you, REALTORS of America, to embrace HousingPANIC. Make HP your friend, not your enemy.

Send your sellers the link to HP. Help them understand that the game is up, homes are insanely overvalued, the fundamentals do matter, and if they want out from under their debt trap, they're gonna have to cut the price, cut it bigtime, and cut it now. And if they don't it'll get even worse tomorrow. Trust us.

Then send your prospective buyers the link to HP. Help them understand that now is a great time to buy - at 50% off. Teach them all about foreclosures, lowballing, and Desperate Homedebtors. Then get out there and lowball!

Finally, listen to the HP community when it comes to The Corrupt David Lereah, the NAR, and the usual REALTOR spin. At your next REALTOR gathering, be the one who calls for TCDL's resignation. Next time the media interviews you, or you blog, write about what a joke the NAR, your fellow REALTORS, and TCDL have become. And try telling the truth for a change - it can only help at this point. Yes, telling the truth is against your normal business model, but times have changed.

I know the idea of embracing HP is like eating glass to many of you. But at least you'd be eating something! Good luck out there. Now get those prices down - they're gonna crash anyway, so wouldn't you rather it be sooner rather than later?

It's the little bubble blogs vs. 1.3 million realtors, $3.7 million in NAR bribes to congressmen, and $10 billion in advertising

And guess who's winning... he he he he he

It must be driving them crazy!

It's nice to see the people have the power now, isn't it? Cheers to the HousingPANIC community - the corrupt REIC never knew what hit 'em.
_______________

NEW YORK, March 28 (Reuters) - The subprime mortgage crisis and faltering new homes sales are raising concerns about the risk of major spending cuts by a real estate industry that puts more than $10 billion annually into advertising and marketing.

_______________

The REALTORS® Political Action Committee was the largest PAC contributor to U.S. House and Senate candidates in the 2006 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission data reported by Political Money Line. As of the end of November, RPAC had contributed $3.7 million to congressional candidates,

Cheney almost bites it. China stocks drop 10%. Dow tanking. Subprime in meltdown. NAR puts out bogus report.

Interesting day so far, eh?

The Corrupt David Lereah, on today's bogus NAR numbers:

"For the last several months I have been hemming and hawing on whether we have reached bottom," said David Lereah, chief economist for the Realtors. He said that the January report was an encouraging sign that the bottom for sales activity was reached last September with sales expected to stabilize this year.

China and US action:

Stocks Slide after China Sell-Off - Shanghai's major index dropped 8.8%, prompting equity weakness worldwide. Investors were also spooked by a big drop in durable goods orders. In early trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 131.14 points, or 1.04%, to 12,501.12

China Stocks Post Biggest Drop in Decade - China Stocks Fall 8.8 Percent, Sending Ripples Through Markets From Hong Kong to Singapore

Cheney:

Cheney takes refuge in shelter after Afghan blast

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was whisked into a bomb shelter immediately after a Taliban suicide bomber struck the main American military base he was visiting in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Subprime:

Mortgage finance company Freddie Mac will no longer buy subprime mortgages that have a "high likelihood" of payment shock and foreclosure, the company announced Tuesday.

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,"

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Won't everyone be surprised that those unsustainable home price gains were 100% driven by fraud, deception and speculation?

50% up, 33% down and we're right back where we started folks... Oh, what a wild ride it will be...

HousingPANIC urges the real estate clerks of America to rebel against the NAR and demand the firing of The Corrupt David Lereah

It should now be painfully obvious, my underemployed, nothing to do, ramen-eating real estate clerk friends, that the NAR and The Corrupt David Lereah (TCDL) are no longer your friends. Their actions and activities are actually HURTING YOU, not helping you.

You are paying dues to, and still publicly supporting, an organization and it's spokesman who has made your profession a laughingstock, and "REALTOR(TM)" the least-trustworthy position in America. Yes, you are now lower than Catholic priests and stockbrokers I'd say. And that's tough to do my friends. Tough to do.

So it's time for the real estate clerks of America to rebel. Start an online petition (maybe firedavidlereah.com?) calling for the immediate dismissal of NAR Liar in Chief TCDL, and demand an apology to the American people for the continuous lies and distortion that spewed out of the NAR during the mania and subsequent collapse.

Yes, TCDL is paid to do the NAR's dirty work, to lie, to spin and to distort. Yes, he made a deal with the devil and now has a lifetime to answer for his evil deeds. But every day he stays at the NAR is like another day of the GOP hanging on to Tom DeLay. And you know where that led...

I don't expect real estate clerks to take my advice. Collectively your brain power is a bit low obviously, as your morals are too. But I'll give you this advice for free.

Real estate clerks, and the NAR, are now a joke. America will blame you for the housing crash. You have screwed people time and time again, people who TRUSTED YOU, people whose interests you were supposed to represent, all for that big commission check.

You can atone for your mistakes and evil deeds. And you can start with a house cleaning at the NAR, and the firing of your Iraqi Information Minister.

Or you continue to be seen as a joke, and eventually just whither and slither away. Which is what I think will happen in the end unless we see radical change, and soon.

Peace out. I hear Safeway is having a sale on ramen by the way.

Different professions vary greatly in how much they are trusted to give their clients or patients good advice. According to a recent Harris Poll measuring U.S. adults’ trust in 11 different professions to give advice that is best for them, the professionals trusted completely by the greatest number of adults are doctors (50%), dentists (47%), and nurses (46%). At the other end of the list, those with the fewest adults saying they trust them completely are stockbrokers (6%), real estate agents (7%) and insurance agents (9%).

6%, FSBO, illegal restraint of trade, and why the MLS, NAR and real estate clerks are doomed

Realtors, especially those blowhard "power closers" and "mega-producers", so full of themselves as they generally are, claim they're worth their 6% because homes sold by a real estate clerk sell for more than FSBO homes, because of their smarts, their good looks, their hustle, their "local knowledge", whatever they can spew to convince you of their worth.

And I don't disagree with the fact that homes sell for more using a real estate clerk - I'd bet on it that homes sold by real estate clerks sell for more (before you subtract their 6%).

Why?

It's called "restraint of trade". It's called the MLS monopoly.

If you try to sell your home in today's anti-capitalistic NAR/MLS world, buyers can't find sellers easily unless the home is on the local central database, the MLS.

But what happens when a new, improved, more efficient, nationwide, agnostic "MLS" finally comes to fruition (hello google! cleanup on aisle 3!)?

You got it - real estate clerks go away, FSBO homes sell for just as much if not more than realtor sold homes, and the days of 6% go away, big time.

Yes, craigslist, ebay, gumtree, fsbo.com, zillow and the likes are helping defeat the evil NAR/MLS. But we need a dominant and free central database. Google is it. And watch them buy zillow soon.

Until then, if you're going to sell your home, find a way to get it onto the MLS for the lowest possible cost, and be done with it. And tell real estate clerks that try to convince you otherwise that their days are numbered, they're being disintermediated, and they can stick their 6% where the sun don't shine.

Real estate clerks suck. The NAR sucks. The MLS sucks. Google rocks. Zillow rocks. Fix this already!

Say it with me real estate clerks:

Dis
In
Ter
Me
Di
A
Tion

Disintermediation.

Disintermediation.

Home shoppers do their hunting online

Already, 80% of buyers used the Internet to help find a home, according to the National Association of Realtors. Day by day, new real estate tools are surfacing on the Web.
Technology is shifting knowledge and power to buyers and sellers.

In doing so, it's loosening Realtors' long-standing control of vital information and cutting into their sales commissions. For more than 100 years, Realtors have guarded the details of homes for sale via their multiple listing services. At least 900 regional MLS systems exist nationwide. Unless the MLS systems become more open, unified and technologically sophisticated, they risk being replaced by a Web search engine.

"The Internet is a significant threat to Realtors, who in previous decades have had iron-grip control over all necessary information for those seeking to buy or sell a home," says Stuart Gabriel of the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate.

Signs of upheaval in the industry were evident by late 2005, when the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors. Justice wants the Realtors to stop letting brokers withhold for-sale listings from low-cost Internet rivals.

The Realtors' policy is on hold. But Brian McDonald, a deputy assistant attorney general for the antitrust division, says the policy's restrictions still exert "a chilling effect in the market" because some companies won't risk introducing new Internet business strategies if they could be undercut in the future.

The Justice Department, meantime, is moving forward with its antitrust case against the NAR. The Realtors are fighting back. They argue that the broker should control the information about the seller's home and decide how to share that information and with whom.