UCLA's Anderson school of business reported that they see the first flicker light at the end of the housing collapse in California, citing year-over-year transaction increases in areas like Riverside (one of the hardest hit by the bubble). To me this just smacks of analysts wanting to be the first to call bottom without consideration to the underlying fundamentals of the California market.The two m...

From a recent client discussion:"The case for renting has been simple enough. House prices rose so high in the first half of this decade that you could often get more for your money by renting. You could also avoid having a large part of your net worth tied up in a speculative bubble. All this time, I have been a renter myself, ... [but] the housing market has, obviously, changed quite a bit since...

This week we witnessed a dramatic change within the jumbo mortgage and luxury financing space that has broad implications for housing markets across the country. It appears to have started with Wells Fargo on Monday and spread within a day to all investors whether bank, insurance, pension or hedge fund money sources. Remember we had earnings from all banks and insurance companies in the last two we...

If you wonder why jumbo mortgage rates for all borrowers have increased in recent months at major banks it's because we are in a real deal Holyfield CREDIT CRUNCH. No fooling around, every major financial institution around the world has had to go cap in hand to shareholders or international wealth funds for money. All the money that went into bad loans needs to be replenished and the cost of capit...

This is an outstanding video in that it provides a basic overview of what is going on from a consumer demand perspective, it is 8 minutes long, and worth a viewing.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cus4opgTJb0Mortgage Insider dishes it straight on housing and the mortgage market....