Sunday Housing News: The Resurrection of Brownie

There's a lot of noise being made about the rebirth of Mike Brown as a crusading hero against the failures of Bush and Chertoff regarding Katrina. I am certainly not willing to cut Brownie even the least bit of slack, but at least he has the foresight to realize that they're hanging him out to dry, and he's not going down quietly. Imagine--if he'd shown that kind of testicular fortitude circa August 29, 2005, we might still have a functional city in New Orleans!

It's really hard for me to be empathetic to Brown. I view this much more as yet another case of thieves and liars turning on each other. But it's keeping the aftermath of Katrina in the public eye, which means more people will be realizing what a serious economic and financial crisis this is.

How to maximize your home's sellability, courtesy of CNN Money. Very interesting and useful advice, though I had to snicker at the first header: "Get On Your Hands and Knees." Yeah, if you want to sell in this market and expect top dollar, that's the position to take, all right.

Urban Trekker pointed me to this article from the Washington Post about Montgomery County's new anti-discrimination housing laws causing lenders to flee that regional market. I'm sorry, but that's a crock, kiddies. If it's such an onerous burden to provide fair lending terms and rates, you shouldn't be in the business.

Remember, Ameriquest had to cough up $325 million because it couldn't be bothered to explain to its customers how the game was actually played. I also don't buy the tired old saw that state regulations can cause things to be confusing. If you can boil every bit of a borrower's history down to a three-digit-score, you can afford to give said borrower the rates they deserve.

Posted at March 5, 2006 07:30 PM

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There's a lot of noise being made about the rebirth of Mike Brown as a crusading hero against the failures of Bush and Chertoff regarding Katrina. I am certainly not willing to cut Brownie even the least bit of slack, but at least he has the foresight to realize that they're hanging him out to dry, and he's not going down quietly. Imagine--if he'd shown that kind of testicular fortitude circa August 29, 2005, we might still have a functional city in New Orleans! It's really hard for me to be empathetic to Brown. I view this much more as yet another case of thieves and liars turning on each other. But it's keeping the aftermath of Katrina in the public eye, which means more people will be realizing what a serious economic and financial crisis this is. How to maximize your home's sellability, courtesy of CNN Money. Very interesting and useful advice, though I had to snicker at the first header: "Get On Your Hands and Knees." Yeah, if you want to sell in this market and expect top dollar, that's the position to take, all right. Urban Trekker pointed me to this article from the Washington Post about Montgomery County's new anti-discrimination housing laws causing lenders to flee that regional market. I'm sorry, but that's a crock, kiddies. If it's such an onerous burden to provide fair lending terms and rates, you shouldn't be in the business. Remember, Ameriquest had to cough up $325 million because it couldn't be bothered to explain to its customers how the game was actually played. I also don't buy the tired old saw that state regulations can cause things to be confusing. If you can boil every bit of a borrower's history down to a three-digit-score, you can afford to give said borrower the rates they deserve.