Yesterday Calculated Risk wrote an interesting post looking at what housing is telling us as a leading indicator of the economy:
Historically the best leading indicator for the economy (and employment) has been housing.
…
So here is a review of the three monthly leading indicators:
Housing Starts: Housing starts are moving sideways…
Builder Confidence: More moving sideways…
New Home Sales: [...]
Calculated Risk’s Unofficial Problem Bank List continues to increase in size, with the latest update including 576 banks across the country. This update added four more Washington State banks to the list: American Marine Bank in Bainbridge Island, Pierce Commercial Bank in Tacoma, The Bank of Washington in Lynnwood, and Viking Bank in Seattle. [...]
With the news in September that Seattle is #1 for delinquent construction loans, it probably comes as not much of a surprise that Washington State also happens to rank #1 in the nation for troubled banks, according to Calculated Risk’s unofficial problem bank list.
State
Percent
Washington
26.3%
Utah
25.0%
Arizona
21.3%
Nevada
20.0%
Oregon
19.5%
Georgia
19.2%
California
17.8%
Florida
16.3%
Michigan
13.2%
Maryland
10.8%
Colorado
10.6%
This week we looked over the numbers to determine which states have [...]
Here’s a pair of somewhat conflicting stories about the push to extend and expand the inefficient, expensive, economically stupid $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit.
From the real estate news source Inman News: Final push for tax credit
Real estate industry trade groups are mounting a final push for an extension of the first-time homebuyer tax credit, with [...]
As the expiration date on the first-time homebuyer $8,000 tax credit nears, talk is stirring about renewing and expanding the scheme. Here’s a brief rundown of some of the varying related pieces I’ve been following from around the web.
First up, we’ve got the National Ass. of Realtors pushing hard on their members to “Write [...]
A couple people pointed out a piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday titled The Housing Crisis Is Over. I don’t doubt that the mere fact that it was printed in the WSJ makes it gospel to some folks. I am not interested in writing a rebuttal to this piece, as that has [...]
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