Market Matters

MBA's Stevens: We are in the middle of a housing crisis Source: HousingWire The word “crisis” can sound alarmist, but Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO David Stevens has used that term to describe the current state of housing, or better put, the lack of focus on housing as an opportunity by Washington policy makers. He places the blame at the top of the ladder, opining that President Barack Obama has not built enough confidence in consumers' views about homeownership. Due to the lack of focus, Stevens notes that “Today's environment is not encouraging credit expansion. It's forcing lenders to be overly conservative - ultimately failing entry-level homeowners on every front.” Read the full story   Real estate experts weigh in on SoCal housing market Source: KPCC   Want to hear from two top academic experts on the housing market? KPCC interviewed Raphael Bostic, Judith and John Bedrosian Chair in Governance and the Public Enterprise at USC’s Price School of Public Policy, and Stuart Gabriel, professor of finance and director of the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate. The experts discussed state of housing, including a report from the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® noting that low supply has a lot to do with homeowners choosing to stay up rather than start over as buyers. Read the full story The subprime mortgage crisis wasn't about subprime mortgages? Source: Fortune   The media, in explaining the causes of the financial crisis, has frequently painted the narrative that once subprime borrowers began to default, falling dominoes sent the entire mortgage market, U.S. financial system, and global economy into crisis. Consequently, subprime borrowers and lenders have received a great deal of attention and blame in analysis of the crisis, but new research suggests this is misguided. The study notes that the vast majority of mortgages in the U.S. were still given to prime borrowers, which means that the real estate bubble was a phenomenon fueled mostly by creditworthy borrowers buying and selling homes they simply thought wouldn’t ever decrease in value. Simply put, the foreclosure crisis would have happened even in the absence of such risky lending. Read the full story