Housing

This is just in from CNBC's John Carney: a key advisor to U.S. President Obama will leave the Federal Housing Authority where he is a regulator of the mortgage industry and make a beeline straight for the industry he once oversaw. When…

A few weeks ago, the Economist put out its quarterly gauge of house price values. Australia just beat out Hong Kong as the most overpriced market in the developed world, with an overvaluation of 56%. Japan was by far the most undervalued…

CoreLogic released its data analysis for the fourth quarter of 2010 showing that mortgage distress is still very widespread and that negative equity is the norm in many states in the U.S. (Hat tip Yves Smith). The data showed that the…

The Obama Administration is keen to get this $20 billion mortgage settlement done. The prevailing view in the Administration is that the U.S. is in a fragile but sustainable recovery. With emerging markets leading the economic recovery and…

Nationwide Chief Economist Robert Gardner doesn't think so? Yesterday, he spoke on CNBC Europe about why he sees continued housing stagnation in the UK. Gardner says an improvement in the labour market is what the UK needs to see the…

Here's a morning note from UBS' Andy Lees in London on core inflation that made me think. Andy writes: Opinion – By focussing on core inflation rather than headline inflation, central banks are making a major policy mistake. Because…

By William K. Black I write to contrast four recent stories about Countrywide. Here are their headlines and brief synopses provided in the initial paragraphs of the stories. U.S. drops criminal probe of former Countrywide chief Angelo…

Guest Author post by Steven Hansen, Publisher of Global Economic Intersection. Econintersect is using the Case-Shiller data release to overview the home price situation as of December 2010. Generally, all home price indexes are trending…

The S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices shows that house prices in the U.S. continue to decline this winter.  For data through December 2010, the broad Composite-20 index is down 2.4% compared to December 2009. The Composite-10…

By William K. Black Freddie Mac made a terse announcement Wednesday in a securities filing about the resignation of its chief operating officer, Bruce Witherell. Freddie said that Witherell resigned "for personal reasons."…