Housing.com News, Analysis & Opinion: Friday Housing News

So, what? Bernanke changes his opinion on deficits and spending as soon as he gets a new office? Or he's determined to eat his cake and have it too--cut taxes, rein in spending, stop inflation, and fiddle around with interest rates all at once?

The Kool-Aid must be mighty tasty these days. I was talking to a fellow blogger the other day who already evinced despair that Bernanke was going to be emulating Greenspan at his worst. I was hopeful, but that hope is fading faster than Karl Rove's chances of avoiding indictment. :)

Rates on 30-year mortgages increase, and ARM rates climb with them. This seems like it's gonna be a number- crunching game until the pundits decide if housing is booming, slowing, both, or neither.

CNN Money has a fascinating study of how brokers make bank on home closings. It flat-out states what buyers in this market have known all along: Unqualified "brokers" are jumping into the market to make huge commissions off controlling the flow of home sales information and keeping sellers and buyers from cutting out the middleman. That lawsuit didn't come out of nowhere, after all.

If some goofball can join the NAR, hand out some business cards, and say they can sell a house, the seller can get on the Web and put their property up for sale themselves. There shouldn't be a $12,000 difference between the two either.

The high rejection rate is being described by officials as the result of a new computer system that takes all applications into account, not just loans that are seriously considered for approval by the agency. SBA officials, however, conceded that the rejection rate for Rita-related loans is quite likely to top 70 percent _ much higher than the traditional 50 percent to 55 percent for most disaster recovery efforts.

"We're dealing with areas where there's a lot of low-income people," said Herb Mitchell, head of the SBA's disaster assistance office.

So the people that need the loans the most are the least likely to get them, thanks in no small part to a dehumanized system that doesn't even work right. It's almost Terry Gilliam-esque in its Byzantine amorality.

But just so you don't get any misconceptions as to what Big Gummint is doing to protect you, federal agencies are already investigating fraudulent Katrina claims. If they approached actually getting aid and comfort to displaced families with the same kind of zealotry that they'll no doubt nail any money-grubbers, I think the FEMAville population would drop by a factor of 50 in a week.

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Even as the media stands transfixed at the indictment of Scooter Libby, we housing junkies are scouring the files for more clues as to what hopeful new Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is going to bring to the table. The more I dig up, the less impressed I get. So, what? Bernanke changes his opinion on deficits and spending as soon as he gets a new office? Or he's determined to eat his cake and have it too--cut taxes, rein in spending, stop inflation, and fiddle around with interest rates all at once? The Kool-Aid must be mighty tasty these days. I was talking to a fellow blogger the other day who already evinced despair that Bernanke was going to be emulating Greenspan at his worst. I was hopeful, but that hope is fading faster than Karl Rove's chances of avoiding indictment. :) Rates on 30-year mortgages increase, and ARM rates climb with them. This seems like it's gonna be a number- crunching game until the pundits decide if housing is booming, slowing, both, or neither. CNN Money has a fascinating study of how brokers make bank on home closings. It flat-out states what buyers in this market have known all along: Unqualified "brokers" are jumping into the market to make huge commissions off controlling the flow of home sales information and keeping sellers and buyers from cutting out the middleman. That lawsuit didn't come out of nowhere, after all. If some goofball can join the NAR, hand out some business cards, and say they can sell a house, the seller can get on the Web and put their property up for sale themselves. There shouldn't be a $12,000 difference between the two either. The Small Business Administration is coming under heavy fire for not approving a single Rita loan. The money quotes: The high rejection rate is being described by officials as the result of a new computer system that takes all applications into account, not just loans that are seriously considered for approval by the agency. SBA officials, however, conceded that the rejection rate for Rita-related loans is quite likely to top 70 percent _ much higher than the traditional 50 percent to 55 percent for most disaster recovery efforts. "We're dealing with areas where there's a lot of low-income people," said Herb Mitchell, head of the SBA's disaster assistance office. So the people that need the loans the most are the least likely to get them, thanks in no small part to a dehumanized system that doesn't even work right. It's almost Terry Gilliam-esque in its Byzantine amorality. Of course, the lack of aid from the national level isn't stopping states from getting help to those who need it. Real charity always starts at home, as they say. But just so you don't get any misconceptions as to what Big Gummint is doing to protect you, federal agencies are already investigating fraudulent Katrina claims. If they approached actually getting aid and comfort to displaced families with the same kind of zealotry that they'll no doubt nail any money-grubbers, I think the FEMAville population would drop by a factor of 50 in a week.