Housing

The latest flow of funds data from the US Federal Reserve show that the great American household deleveraging may be over. This should add a credit accelerator to the US economy which maintains growth. Meanwhile analysts are increasingly…

Drawing on research by the IMF's Hites Ahir and Prakash Loungani, the chart compares the house-price-to-rent ratio compared with the historical average. This is a standard measure of valuation. Clearly by such a metric, the recovery in…

At its current pace the Fed is taking about half a trillion of MBS securities out of the market. In fact the Fed is now removing more than 100% of the paper that is being issued.

The recent increase in long-term rates is causing major changes in the mortgage markets. Here are some key trends

While the US housing market remains relatively robust, it is likely to face a couple of headwinds going forward. One is the lower affordability index. The other is the recent slowdown in net household formation.

With wages stagnant, the proportion of income going into rent is on the rise. While homeowners have been able to reduce their monthly payments to the lowest level in decades via mortgage refinancing and cutting back on credit card usage,…

So imagine you are a moderate FOMC member. This is the economic situation you face and the trade-offs in terms of policy tools.

The central banks in Sweden and Germany are concerned about overheating economies as the European sovereign debt crisis has led to a net inflow of investment into their housing sectors. If one looks at European economic policy, these…

One could argue that home-buyers are ignoring higher rates, but that doesn't seem likely. Is this spike driven by capitulating buyers who had been waiting on the sidelines for mortgage rates to drop? That strategy had certainly worked in…

This is crazy. John Carney tells us that not only are homes now growing increasingly less affordable, but the psychology of the US housing market is changing to one of the fear of being priced out. Frankly, I can't believe we are here…