HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

If the NAR and REALTORS on COMMISSION didn't have monopoly control over the MLS, and America's bribed congressmen in their pocket, would they stand any chance of stealing 6%?

Bonus Question - will the MLS still be the dominant monopoly property listing service in five years?

David Lereah, the most discredited economist in world history, finally admits housing crash going to get worse, expects US home values to plummet 20%

No, this is not a joke.

David Lereah, the thoroughly discredited former Chief Cheerleader for the evil National Association of realtors, publisher of the hilarious comedy "Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust", and pinata for this blog among others, has come out of his self-imposed hole.

Hey, a guy has to make a living somehow, right?

So Lereah has these gems in Newsweek - and no, THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

"We're not at the bottom," he says. "[People] want it to be near the bottom, but we're not there yet. The leading indicators are still very bad. Pending home sales are still in bad shape. Mortgage applications are low … There's still supply out there in abundance … This thing is going to get worse before it gets better."

"We're probably going to end up with a 20 percent [decline], but if I'm wrong it will be even more than that"

"I didn't think this would turn into an all-out bursting of a balloon for the whole nation"

"That (lending) got so out of hand, and none of us realized the magnitude of it until it was too late."

Go ahead HP'ers. Destroy this man. Unload with both barrels. Until we get a sincere apology from Lereah for the destruction and pain he's caused, and a complete and total repudiation of his former employer the National Association of Deceptive Used Home Sellers and his replacement stooge Lawrence Yun, he's still fair game.

And for the idiots calling bottom, when the former Chief Housing Cheerleader FINALLY comes out of his hole to admit how horrifically, historically wrong he was, how bad it is, and how bad it's gonna get, any sane person should understand that when it comes to home prices, WE'RE NOWHERE NEAR BOTTOM.

FLASH: Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac regulator calls legislation to raise loan size a MISTAKE, doesn't feel they have sufficient risk management or capital

Gotta love the incompetent corrupt monkeys in Congress intent on screwing the America people because the NAR's lobbyists promised them a bunch of money for their re-election campaigns.

Fannie and Freddie should not be allowed to take on loans (that nobody else in their right minds would buy) up to the new $729,750 limit because they DO NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT CAPITAL, NOR DO THEY HAVE SUFFICIENT RISK MANAGEMENT IN PLACE, and even Bush and Paulson know this.

The eventual writedowns and taxpayer bailout will be in the trillions HP'ers. It'll make Citibank and Merrill's messes look like a day in the park.

This should be illegal. And when there is a Federal bailout of Fannie and Freddie, the congressmen and women who voted for this insanity, AGAINST the wishes of Fannie and Freddie's oversight agency and the Treasury secretary, should be arrested for treason. And the NAR lobbyists who bribed them should be tracked down and dealt with in the public square.

STATEMENT OF OFHEO DIRECTOR JAMES B. LOCKHART ON CONFORMING LOAN LIMIT INCREASE

We are very disappointed in the proposal to increase the conforming loan limit as we believe it is a mistake to do so in the absence of comprehensive GSE regulatory reform. To restore confidence in the markets we must ensure that the GSEs’ regulator has all the necessary safety and soundness tools.

Yesterday Chairman Dodd talked about moving a GSE reform bill early this year. We are ready to work with him and the Senate Banking Committee. We will also be working with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure that any increase in the conforming loan limit moves through their rigorous new product approval process quickly and has appropriate risk management policies and capital in place.

_____________

Lockhart, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and the White House have repeatedly insisted that any such increase should be tied to broader legislation tightening regulation of the two companies. The decision to include the increase in the economic rescue package flies in the face of those calls, a fact Paulson addressed Thursday.

"I got run down by a bipartisan steamroller," Paulson said at a White House briefing. "Republicans and Democrats were united on this."

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Rightly or wrongly, will Americans come to blame George Bush (the worst president ever) and the GOP for the housing crash?

Bonus - will the housing crash be the #1 issue on voters' minds in 2008? And will large past campaign donations from the NAR and NAHB be candidate-killers?

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Do you think ramen-eating real estate clerks and mortgage brokers have figured out yet that their greed, lies and corruption killed the golden goose?

The economy will collapse, lives will be ruined and millions of them will go unemployed, all because the corrupt NAR leaders, conmen mortgage brokers and unethical real estate clerks just couldn't help themselves.

They wrongly focused on the short-term windfall and their greed, at the expense of their morals, value as human beings, and career futures.

They made their beds. Now they get to sleep for the rest of their lives in the moral gutter, knowing they lied to, cheated, conned and stole from their fellow man. Yes, there may be a few moral, honest, ethical and genuine ones amongst the professions. But the majority killed it for the minority, and the rot at the top (TCDL) stained the lot.

The terms "Mortgage Broker" and "REALTOR®" will forever have a stench associated with them, and for good reason. The golden goose is dead.

The Corrupt David Lereah throws new home builders under the bus, starts taking real crazy now

It's all coming apart now for TCDL. Now he's not even making sense.

Man, it's time for a new spin/strategy session over at the ol' NAR, because today's line of BS isn't even making sense. To say existing homedebtors trying to sell will be fine, and new home builders will struggle, is the exact opposite of reality. Everyone (except TCDL) knows the homebuilders will ALWAYS win a selling battle versus the suckers they sold homes to (existing homedebtors) who can't cut prices like the builders can.

Hmmm.... why do "Mugabe" and "Lereah" seem so similar today? Could we see a violent overthrow soon? The 1.3 ramen-eating natives are probably getting a bit restless right about now, don't 'cha think?

David Lereah, the head economist for the National Association of Realtors, said the landscape for the resale market is very different from new-home sales.

“There is a recovery in existing home sales, but for new home builders, the market will be very bumpy going forward,” he said. “New-home sales are still in recession, and increased foreclosures and subprime problems will make the next two years difficult.”

Senator Sarbanes arrives at the scene of the toxic loan crime scene, a day late and $1 Trillion short

The first legislative crackdown you'll soon see in the US will be against toxic loans and unregulated mortgage clerks, which by the time our bought-and-sold-NAR/NAHB-purchased-Senate gets around to it will be a moot point anyway, because the market will already have taken care of the issue by cutting off access to funds.

For the housing wonks out there, here's Sen. Sarbanes laying it on the line against predatory lending in this video which preceded the economist panel discussion I posted earlier.

You know the NAR and NAHB must be plenty pissed their $$$ haven't shut him up, being the #1 and #4 Senate PAC contributors last year. Maybe he didn't get his check in the mail?

Bottom line folks is that corrupted mortgage brokers steered clueless and greedy homedebtors into toxic loans to earn bigger commissions, when those homedebtors would have been much better off with a different debt instrument, namely the 30-year fixed (which if you remember Greenspan told people to get out of too.. hmmm...).

Those toxic loan proceeds then helped drive up home prices to insane levels, and now the loan holders will default to the tune of over $1 Trillion, leaving the bagholders (China, hedge funds, etc) of the commoditized loan bundles in a world of hurt, and the prices of US homes collapsing to pre-bubble levels.

Too bad the Senate didn't get involved when it could have helped. Instead they're the CSI team showing up to zip open the body bag and start the investigation.