Bank of America, allegedly holding 1.5 million loans that are 60 days or more behind on mortgage payments, today announced a new plan designed to write down principal values on a variety of loans to their most troubled homeowners.
The most affected groups will be those who took loans that were largely responsible for the meltdown in the mortgage securities market and eventually, the larger economy, over the past two years: sub-prime, interest-only and other variable rate products.
Prompted by lawsuits which alleged that Bank of America "strung out, delayed and otherwise hindered" efforts to resolve mortgage issues on homeowners in the state of Washington, the nation's largest mortgage servicer outlined the new program, which at first glance appears to have some value, though the gamble is that by lowering principal on loans in which the property values are lower than the original purchase price - often called "underwater" - the bank will further depress real estate values amid a market that is already under considerable strain.
The bank's plan is somewhat crafty, in that it works down principal balances over a period of five years and is tied to homeowners continuing to make mortgage payments. While it sounds hopeful on the surface, the plan may only prove to drive home prices down further, especially if economic conditions remain subdued or worsen.
In practice, principal write-downs are usually a last resort for lenders, who routinely hold out for the original, agree-upon value at the time of purchase. However, such as are conditions across a wide swath of the US real estate landscape, the bank seemingly is agreeing to take a "haircut" on its investment. Under BofA's plan, investors in mortgages would not suffer actual principal losses, but they would not make as much as originally planned.
No matter what, a haircut is still a haircut, so the very next thing to expect are lawsuits by mortgage investors. Some have already commenced. The bank is in a box because of its lending practices back in the boom days from 200-2007, when regulators looked askance at all manner of exotic mortgage products and real estate prices skyrocketed because of the lax standards.
In effect, this just buys the zombie bank more leverage and time to sort through the incredible mortgage morass. Within weeks or months, expect to see more banks offering more exotic plans to remediate troubled mortgage loans. All of them will be met with skepticism, most of them won't go far enough, the end result being a further breakdown in prices for residential real estate.
Most of the major mortgage lenders - Citigroup, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo - in addition to BofA, are in an untenable situation between foreclosure and principal write-downs. Both solutions are wrought with conflict and offer no guarantee of a positive outcome. The best most of the banks can hope for now is that they aren't damaged too badly, though they have nobody but themselves to blame.
News of the bank's most recent maneuver was met with mostly positive reaction, though the real effects will not be known probably for years, if ever.
Adding to the real estate woes was a Commerce Department report on new home sales for February, which fell 2.2% to an annual pace of 308,000. That was the lowest figure since data has been monitored: 1963, when the price of a middle-class suburban home was close to $30,000. The number of new homes being built underscores the actual depth of the real estate collapse and augers for even further declines in home values. With median household incomes virtually stagnant since the 1980s, home values should not have appreciated as much as they did, nor as quickly.
A reversion to a level more in line with actual economic conditions now seems absolute. With household income struggling to keep pace with expenses, the correct path is toward lower prices, not just on real estate, but tangentially, on everything from garden gnomes to restaurant dinners.
The deflationary spiral the Fed, the government and Wall Street most want to avoid now seems to be what it always was: unavoidable. Efforts to stem the flow have only served to buy time, temporarily propping up prices on stocks, gold and assorted other assets, but now, as evidenced by the non-ending housing crisis and associated unemployment condition (at multi-year highs), the death dance can engage in earnest.
Truth be told, economists are grasping at straws when seeking solutions to stem deflation and depression. No good solution has ever been made available at any time, other than the traditional - and painful - exercise of writing down or writing off bad assets and bad debts. Be prepared for another three to four years of dismal conditions, though, as readers of this missive already know, there are a wide variety of ways to mitigate the damage and actually come away less-damaged than your neighbors.
Bank of America has now stepped over a critical line and will not be able to step back. Cries of "foul" from homeowners diligently paying on their mortgage obligations will be loud and resonant. In a relentless search for the bottom, prices will proceed downward at an accelerating pace over the next 18-36 months.
Governments and financial wizards can only distort the truth to varying degrees. eventually, Actions like Bank of America's and data like the February new home sales reveal the true condition and it is far from pretty.
As for Wall Street, reality may be setting in that the overall economy is being kept floating by bailout money, productivity gains and government debt purchases rather than real, productive enterprises. Stocks slipped early in the day and remained lower throughout the session.
Dow 10,836.15, -52.68 (0.48%)
NASDAQ 2,398.76, -16.48 (0.68%)
S&P 500 1,167.72, -6.45 (0.55%)
NYSE Composite 7,408.20, -70.56 (0.94%)
Declining issues outpaced advancers by a wide margin, 4471-2033. New highs came down precipitously, to 417, though there were still only 40 new lows. Volume was about normal, though slightly elevated off some of the low-volume days of gains lately.
NYSE Volume 5,284,420,000
NASDAQ Volume 2,309,833,750
Commodities were also feeling the sting of reality. Off a report of higher crude inventory, oil fell $1.30, to $80.61. Gold was whipsawed $14.90 lower, to $1,088.60. Silver plummeted 39 cents, to $16.63.
If any of this activity looks like selling, you may have it nailed. Stocks and commodities have been driven up by hope and market insiders, and their values are highly inflated. Another downturn in the economy is already underway. The media, government and especially YOUR BROKER - all co-conspirators in the worst deceit in the long history of finance - simply refuse to own up to the truth.
Be certain you fully understand the frail condition of not only the US economy, but the entire world to some degree, and weigh the implications as they relate to your specific conditions. Only then can you devise a workable plan of action that will save you from desperation and ruin.
Showing posts with label mortgages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mortgages. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Stocks Climb to Fresh Highs; Housing Still Slumping
I'll begin where I left off yesterday. My final words were:
"Wall Street will continue to trade in what it knows best: equities. And until there comes an alternative, they will continue to rise."
I have now no doubt attained the status of a genius, but I cannot explain the explosiveness of today's venture into equity-land, but I'll attempt to make some sense of it.
Stocks, without alternatives, will no doubt provide positive returns. Since there are few alternatives in today's environment - real estate is a mess, bond returns are paltry, art is illiquid, over-priced and risky - all the money is going into stocks.
Partially to blame for Wall Street's current bubbly stock markets is the near-complete meltdown in the mortgage securitization market. It's a two-pronged attack that has virtually frozen the market for what just 5 years ago was the whitest-hot money machine in the world.
First, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have already announced that they would be prepaying a large number of soured loans. In other words, investors will be paid a lump sum - the remaining principal - on loans delinquent by more than 120 days, decimating their long-term value and consistent cash flow. Once these and other quasi-federal agencies own the loans, they're combing through them, looking for discrepancies and hammering the banks that issued them. One such instance is a recently-filed lawsuit by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, seeking $5.4 billion from the usual suspects including Deutsche Bank; Bear Stearns; Countrywide Securities, a division of Countrywide Financial (now Bank of America); Credit Suisse Securities; and Merrill Lynch (also Bank of America).
So, where's the money? And, where's it going? Simply put, there must be a lot of mortgage investors out there sitting on large chunks of cash, because Fannie and Freddie have no doubt begun the process of prepayment. Stuck in the middle are the large banks which originated the mortgage melee in the first place, having first to pay back investors and then, sweat out the heat from the G-men scouring the bad loans for errors, omissions or outright fraud.
It doesn't require a huge leap of faith to believe that both the investors who have been made whole (Here's a dirty little secret, though: those investors, including the banks servicing the loans, don't get hurt from day 1 when a mortgagor defaults if it's a Fannie or Freddie loan. The agencies make the payments) and the banks, each looking for places to make money might dip a toe into equities. The banks would no doubt be the more aggressive and the parties with more money to move, which makes the recent rally all that more suspect.
Loads of liquidity are thus fueling the stock market rally, and, as usual, the Fed is sitting on its hands, watching the bubble inflate. With the NASDAQ already back to the level before the economic collapse of 2008 and the Dow and S&P fast approaching theirs, shouldn't the Fed be raising interest rates to slow down the rampant speculation?
You'd think so, but the Fed is in a box. Any rate hike - even a tiny 25 basis points - would kill the stock rally. Worse, it would likely touch off discussions of the broader economy and the unseemly truth that jobs aren't being created, banks aren't lending and most consumers are still stretched pretty thin. Even worse, all of the recently-issued government debt would begin to cost more to service. The Fed is quite literally dammed if they do and dammed if they don't, but the Wall Street money-grabbers are having a field day.
The sorriest part of the story is going to be the ending, other than the idea that most small investors haven't fully participated in the most recent money party. They are still too scared of the markets after the horrifying events of 2008.
Major banks and brokerages are now in nearly-complete control of the stock markets, so they're not trustworthy. Most of the current financial commentary resides somewhere below the ethereal, along the lines of, "this or that stock is up; it must be a good buy."
The oldest adage on the Street is to buy low and sell high. Since the Dow was languishing around 6600 a year ago and today its closing in on 11,000, even a third-grader would know that now is not the optimum time to buy stocks.
During the housing boom, the attitude filling the balloon was that housing prices would always go up. We know how wrong that was. Now, it appears that stocks will continue to rise. I remain on the bearish side of that statement, awaiting the eventual collapse. We have gone too far, too fast.
Dow 10,888.83, +102.94 (0.95%)
NASDAQ 2,415.24, +19.84 (0.83%)
S&P 500 1,174.17, +8.36 (0.72%)
NYSE Composite 7,478.76, +59.74 (0.81%
Advancers pounded decliners, 4550-1942. New highs exploded to 757, to just 73 new lows. Volume was actually good, especially on the NASDAQ.
NYSE Volume 4,955,676,500
NASDAQ Volume 2,305,962,750
Oil drifted 31 cents higher, to $81.91. Gold also was up $4.20, to $1,103.50. Silver gained 9 cents, to $17.01. All three commodities remain stuck in a range they've maintained for close to 9 months.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced that existing home sales slipped 0.6% nationally for the month of February, but that inventory of unsold homes rose 9.5%, the largest jump in 20 years. The increase is due to banks finally releasing some of their foreclosure inventory onto the market and the overall lack of qualified buyers.
The sales rate improved in the Northeast and Midwest, but fell in the South and West, which has generally been the story for the past two years.
Better? That's a no.
"Wall Street will continue to trade in what it knows best: equities. And until there comes an alternative, they will continue to rise."
I have now no doubt attained the status of a genius, but I cannot explain the explosiveness of today's venture into equity-land, but I'll attempt to make some sense of it.
Stocks, without alternatives, will no doubt provide positive returns. Since there are few alternatives in today's environment - real estate is a mess, bond returns are paltry, art is illiquid, over-priced and risky - all the money is going into stocks.
Partially to blame for Wall Street's current bubbly stock markets is the near-complete meltdown in the mortgage securitization market. It's a two-pronged attack that has virtually frozen the market for what just 5 years ago was the whitest-hot money machine in the world.
First, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have already announced that they would be prepaying a large number of soured loans. In other words, investors will be paid a lump sum - the remaining principal - on loans delinquent by more than 120 days, decimating their long-term value and consistent cash flow. Once these and other quasi-federal agencies own the loans, they're combing through them, looking for discrepancies and hammering the banks that issued them. One such instance is a recently-filed lawsuit by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, seeking $5.4 billion from the usual suspects including Deutsche Bank; Bear Stearns; Countrywide Securities, a division of Countrywide Financial (now Bank of America); Credit Suisse Securities; and Merrill Lynch (also Bank of America).
So, where's the money? And, where's it going? Simply put, there must be a lot of mortgage investors out there sitting on large chunks of cash, because Fannie and Freddie have no doubt begun the process of prepayment. Stuck in the middle are the large banks which originated the mortgage melee in the first place, having first to pay back investors and then, sweat out the heat from the G-men scouring the bad loans for errors, omissions or outright fraud.
It doesn't require a huge leap of faith to believe that both the investors who have been made whole (Here's a dirty little secret, though: those investors, including the banks servicing the loans, don't get hurt from day 1 when a mortgagor defaults if it's a Fannie or Freddie loan. The agencies make the payments) and the banks, each looking for places to make money might dip a toe into equities. The banks would no doubt be the more aggressive and the parties with more money to move, which makes the recent rally all that more suspect.
Loads of liquidity are thus fueling the stock market rally, and, as usual, the Fed is sitting on its hands, watching the bubble inflate. With the NASDAQ already back to the level before the economic collapse of 2008 and the Dow and S&P fast approaching theirs, shouldn't the Fed be raising interest rates to slow down the rampant speculation?
You'd think so, but the Fed is in a box. Any rate hike - even a tiny 25 basis points - would kill the stock rally. Worse, it would likely touch off discussions of the broader economy and the unseemly truth that jobs aren't being created, banks aren't lending and most consumers are still stretched pretty thin. Even worse, all of the recently-issued government debt would begin to cost more to service. The Fed is quite literally dammed if they do and dammed if they don't, but the Wall Street money-grabbers are having a field day.
The sorriest part of the story is going to be the ending, other than the idea that most small investors haven't fully participated in the most recent money party. They are still too scared of the markets after the horrifying events of 2008.
Major banks and brokerages are now in nearly-complete control of the stock markets, so they're not trustworthy. Most of the current financial commentary resides somewhere below the ethereal, along the lines of, "this or that stock is up; it must be a good buy."
The oldest adage on the Street is to buy low and sell high. Since the Dow was languishing around 6600 a year ago and today its closing in on 11,000, even a third-grader would know that now is not the optimum time to buy stocks.
During the housing boom, the attitude filling the balloon was that housing prices would always go up. We know how wrong that was. Now, it appears that stocks will continue to rise. I remain on the bearish side of that statement, awaiting the eventual collapse. We have gone too far, too fast.
Dow 10,888.83, +102.94 (0.95%)
NASDAQ 2,415.24, +19.84 (0.83%)
S&P 500 1,174.17, +8.36 (0.72%)
NYSE Composite 7,478.76, +59.74 (0.81%
Advancers pounded decliners, 4550-1942. New highs exploded to 757, to just 73 new lows. Volume was actually good, especially on the NASDAQ.
NYSE Volume 4,955,676,500
NASDAQ Volume 2,305,962,750
Oil drifted 31 cents higher, to $81.91. Gold also was up $4.20, to $1,103.50. Silver gained 9 cents, to $17.01. All three commodities remain stuck in a range they've maintained for close to 9 months.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced that existing home sales slipped 0.6% nationally for the month of February, but that inventory of unsold homes rose 9.5%, the largest jump in 20 years. The increase is due to banks finally releasing some of their foreclosure inventory onto the market and the overall lack of qualified buyers.
The sales rate improved in the Northeast and Midwest, but fell in the South and West, which has generally been the story for the past two years.
Better? That's a no.
Label:
Fannie Mae,
Freddie Mac,
mortgages,
NAR
Friday, August 03, 2007
Bad Finish
The end of the week always seems to provide some perspective, even if it occurs as an afterthought. I've been saying right along that the markets were shaky and Friday's figures indicate that I've been very much on the right track, so pay attention!
Head for the hills. Today was another in a continuing series of ugly trading sessions.
Dow 13,181.91 -281.42; NASDAQ 2,511.25 -64.73; S&P 500 1,433.06 -39.14; NYSE Composite 9,370.60 -248.73
Prior to the market opening, the Labor Dept. announced that July payrolls came in well below expectations of 135,000 new jobs, with the addition of just 92,000. According to some people's fudgy math, this translates into a 0.8% annual rate of growth which, by some accounts, would be sufficient to keep real GDP growth at the expected rate of 2.75% for the second half of the year. Dream on. The labor figures have been cooked, fried, refried, baked, grilled and fricasied to a point at which they are scarcely believable.
The day dawdled on until about 2:00 pm, when the floodgates opened and sellers spilled blood into the streets.
Market internals took a turn from nearly OK to horrific. Declining issues overwhelmed advancing ones at a 5-1 clip. New lows were once again beyond reason, with 792 issues (that's a whopping 13% of the whole market) hitting the skids. There were just 126 new highs.
Once again, the spreading contagion from the credit markets made it sensible to leave stocks alone. The US financial system, already under stress from years of government spending waste and an enormous trade deficit, is in tatters from the largely-unregulated mortgage business that is forcing people into foreclosure at record numbers.
While the big wigs in Washington - people like Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke - continue to spread the word that risks from the sub-prime mortgage mess are "contained" and "not serious", investors are taking whatever profits they have and leaving town.
The credit crunch even has people in the oil pits worried. Seriously, if there's going to be a recession - and it looks like it could be a long and serious one - there's no way oil will be able to maintain its current pricing structure. At some point, the demand side of the equation will send oil and gas prices tumbling. Crude for September delivery lost $1.38, closing at $75.48.
The precious metals finally made headway, as the future looks all the more certain - gloomy - which is good for gold bugs. Gold rose $7.80 to $684.40, while silver added 16 cents to $13.16. A good hedge would be to buy as much silver as possible as soon as you can.
Happy hunting.
Head for the hills. Today was another in a continuing series of ugly trading sessions.
Dow 13,181.91 -281.42; NASDAQ 2,511.25 -64.73; S&P 500 1,433.06 -39.14; NYSE Composite 9,370.60 -248.73
Prior to the market opening, the Labor Dept. announced that July payrolls came in well below expectations of 135,000 new jobs, with the addition of just 92,000. According to some people's fudgy math, this translates into a 0.8% annual rate of growth which, by some accounts, would be sufficient to keep real GDP growth at the expected rate of 2.75% for the second half of the year. Dream on. The labor figures have been cooked, fried, refried, baked, grilled and fricasied to a point at which they are scarcely believable.
The day dawdled on until about 2:00 pm, when the floodgates opened and sellers spilled blood into the streets.
Market internals took a turn from nearly OK to horrific. Declining issues overwhelmed advancing ones at a 5-1 clip. New lows were once again beyond reason, with 792 issues (that's a whopping 13% of the whole market) hitting the skids. There were just 126 new highs.
Once again, the spreading contagion from the credit markets made it sensible to leave stocks alone. The US financial system, already under stress from years of government spending waste and an enormous trade deficit, is in tatters from the largely-unregulated mortgage business that is forcing people into foreclosure at record numbers.
While the big wigs in Washington - people like Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke - continue to spread the word that risks from the sub-prime mortgage mess are "contained" and "not serious", investors are taking whatever profits they have and leaving town.
The credit crunch even has people in the oil pits worried. Seriously, if there's going to be a recession - and it looks like it could be a long and serious one - there's no way oil will be able to maintain its current pricing structure. At some point, the demand side of the equation will send oil and gas prices tumbling. Crude for September delivery lost $1.38, closing at $75.48.
The precious metals finally made headway, as the future looks all the more certain - gloomy - which is good for gold bugs. Gold rose $7.80 to $684.40, while silver added 16 cents to $13.16. A good hedge would be to buy as much silver as possible as soon as you can.
Happy hunting.
Label:
foreclosures,
gold,
labor dept.,
mortgages,
oil
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