Home sales jumped 9.6% in July 2009. We have a lot of experts out there looking at the latest housing data, many with different conclusions on what it means than the MSM.
My own feeling is home prices must come down to where the U.S. median income can afford a 30 year fixed mortgage and payments. Obviously that's too crude of an answer, to simply make owning a home affordable again, with investment, equity, wealth, jobs all wrapped up in the real estate market. So, with that, let's read some insightful writings.
Calculated Risk is the gold standard on housing market analysis.
The U.S. Treasury is reporting the Cash for Clunkers program netted 700,000 auto sales.
Wow, that's a lot of car for 27 days of sales!
Economic benefits of the program will persist in coming months as carmakers replenishing inventories hire and expand production, the White House Council of Economic Advisers said.
The initiative will boost U.S. third-quarter gross domestic product by 0.3 to 0.4 percentage point and create 42,000 jobs by the end of 2009, according to the CEA’s estimate.
I hope this estimate is simply to replenish sold inventory, but still, looks like a success! (for Japan!)
(Bloomberg) -- Japan’s exports fell for a tenth straight month in July as demand from all of the nation’s major markets deteriorated.
Shipments abroad tumbled 36.5 percent from a year earlier, steeper than June’s 35.7 percent drop, the Finance Ministry said today in Tokyo.
It isn't just Japan. Hong Kong is also far below last year's recessionary levels, and worse than last month. Mainland China is far below last year's recessionary levels as well.
There's been a lot of talk recently about the economy. Has it bottomed? Are we recovering? Will we see a "V" shaped bounce? Or a "U"? Or a "W"?
Since most of the economic numbers are still negative, it seems a little premature to talk about a recovery. Nevertheless, since the cheerleaders of the economy have brought it up, let's examine exactly what is going to lead this economy out of our deep recession.
In order to do that we must look at a topic that the Green Shoots crowd doesn't mention much - the fundamentals of the economy.
You can bet all of the good ones have been eaten by China and all of those crappy nasty ones have been bitten, put back in the box and left for America.
Today CBO issued its annual summer update of the budget and economic outlook. CBO estimates that the federal budget deficit for 2009 will total $1.6 trillion, which, at 11.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), will be the highest since World War II. That deficit figure results from a combination of weak revenues and elevated spending associated with the economic downturn and financial turmoil. The deficit has been boosted by various federal policies implemented in response, including the stimulus legislation and aid for the financial, housing, and automotive sectors.
What is a cure rate? It's the percentage of loans where people who have fallen behind in their payments manage to make up the difference and get back up to date and in good standing.
While the number of U.S. prime RMBS loans rolling into a delinquency status has recently slowed, this improvement is being overwhelmed by the dramatic decrease in delinquency cure rates that has occurred since 2006, according to Fitch Ratings. An increasing number of borrowers who are 'underwater' on their mortgages appear to be driving this trend, as Fitch has also observed.
President Obama plans to nominate Ben S. Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, administration officials said Monday night.
The nomination, while expected, comes after Mr. Bernanke has had perhaps the most tumultuous term of any Fed chairman, helping to steer the economy through its greatest downturn since the 1930's. Mr. Bernanke is a Republican who was appointed by President George W. Bush.
A top White House official said Mr. Obama had decided to keep Mr. Bernanke at the helm of the Fed because he had been bold and brilliant in his attempts to combat the financial crisis and the current deep economic recession.
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