Rising mortgage interest rates will slow home price appreciation

Higher mortgage interest rates will reduce future loan balances; thus today’s homeowners will not experience the home price appreciation enjoyed by previous generations.

Many would-be homeowners rush to the market to lock in low mortgage rates out of fear of being priced out forever. Nervous b...

Rising mortgage interest rates will slow home price appreciation

Chinese government decree prohibits investment in foreign real estate

State Administration of Foreign Exchange requires all buyers of foreign exchange to sign a pledge that they won’t use their $50,000 quotas for offshore property investment.


It’s really happening. The outflow of capital from China prompted the decree to stop Chinese Nationals from i...

Chinese government decree prohibits investment in foreign real estate

Top ten ways to protect taxpayers against future mortgage bailouts

More than eight years after the government took over mortgage finance, the US taxpayer still insures the bulk of the loans in the housing market.

Prior to the collapse of the housing bubble, when lenders foolishly loaned money to people operating personal Ponzi schemes, it was theirs to give — a...

Top ten ways to protect taxpayers against future mortgage bailouts

Expect low for-sale house inventory for many more years

For the missing MLS inventory to return to the market, borrowers need debt forgiveness, and house prices need to move even higher.

I advise buyers to be sure they plan to live in the same place for at least two or three years for prices to rise high enough for them to sell and cover the sales...

Expect low for-sale house inventory for many more years

Raising California"s minimum wage won"t help workers much

Competition for limited housing stock will prompt low-income workers to allocate any pay raises to securing better housing, enriching landlords.

Advocates for raising the minimum wage aspire to help. Many working-class Americans barely subsist earning minimum wage — and some only survive living ...

Raising California"s minimum wage won"t help workers much

Did Trump raise the FHA insurance premium to screw California?

Higher FHA mortgage fees hurt real estate markets most in areas that did not vote for Donald Trump.


In one of his first acts as President of the United States, Donald Trump suspended the lowing of FHA mortgage insurance premiums scheduled by outgoing president Obama. If Trump had done nothing,...

Did Trump raise the FHA insurance premium to screw California?

Rising mortgage interest rates repel first-time homebuyers

Rising mortgage interest rates caused an alarming 10% decline in potential first-time homebuyers.

Over the last several years, most pundits predicted mortgage interest rates would rise. With the exception of the taper tantrum, a 1% rise in mortgage rates during a six-week period in mid-2013, ...

Rising mortgage interest rates repel first-time homebuyers

Federal Reserve"s Dudley predicts return of HELOC abuse

The Federal Reserve’s Dudley believes people will forget the lessons of the housing mania and return to profligate home equity spending.

When people lose money (or foolishly waste it), they often behave differently after the incident. Wise people actually take action to prevent a ...

Federal Reserve"s Dudley predicts return of HELOC abuse

The weak case for occupancy after foreclosure

Some progressives want people to occupy houses they don’t own and don’t pay for.

It’s sad when someone is forcibly evicted from their family home. People develop strong emotional attachments to real property, so many people feel compassion and empathy for those enduring such a d...

The weak case for occupancy after foreclosure

Yesterday"s Baby Boomers were better off than today"s Millennials

Millennials are worse off than Baby Boomers were at this stage in their life cycle.

Growing up in the Midwest, I remember the relative prosperity of ordinary families in the 1960s and 1970s. Working-class families supported themselves on union labor contracts granting them a high quality of...

Yesterday"s Baby Boomers were better off than today"s Millennials

Can unrealistic beliefs about appreciation cause a housing bubble?

It takes more than a manic desire to inflate a bubble. The ability to deliver capital to the market is also an essential element.

Many people who believe in the wisdom of the markets subscribe to the efficient markets theory. It postulates that market participants have equal access to good ...

Can unrealistic beliefs about appreciation cause a housing bubble?

The final frontier for land speculators: the moon

We running out of land! Buy now or be priced out forever! We’re even running out of land on the moon!

Most participants in financial manias share a common belief in the scarcity some precious resource. The notion that we’re “running out of land” sparked several financial man...

The final frontier for land speculators: the moon