Housing

Existing Home Shadow Inventory remains at 1.6 million units - CR

Merrill: House prices”bottoming now” - CR

We have … updated our home price model andbelieve that prices are bottoming now. However, we continue to believe the recovery will not begin in earnest until 2014. … we expect roughly flat home prices this year and next with modest growth in 2014.

Another Hidden Bailout: Helping Wall Street Collect Your Rent – Matt Taibbi

So congratulations, America, your quasi-governmental housing entity is about to subcontract out mass-landlording/slumlording jobs to the likes of John Paulson and Warren Buffett, so that they can add to their bottom lines collecting rent payments in the middle of a nationwide housing slump.

As one hedge fund analyst put it to me this morning: “Help inflate the bubble, create a foreclosure crisis, buy homes in bulk, and rent them out to the same average homeowner.”

Is this what we had in mind when we created the “ownership society” – helping billionaires collect your rent?

Mortgages rates surpass 4% for first time since October – HousingWire

Housing is still ‘shadowed’ by supply – MarketWatch

Home demand took a step forward in February. But oversupply remains a problem.

The Housing Crisis Is Crushing Responsible Homeowners - The Atlantic

The Changing Face of Foreclosures – The Fed

Economists Temper Expectations for Home Price Improvement – Zillow

Economy

Why gas prices vary so much from one place to the next – Ezra Klein

The Dallas Fed Is Calling For The Immediate Breakup Of Large Banks – TBI

On Not Being Greece – Esquire

Given my own limited aptitude in the field of economics, I long ago determined that there was only one thing I really needed to know about economists.

They make it all up.

Misc.

Are Your Morning Vitamins Slowly Killing You? – Gizmodo

Colleges slashing tuition, offering 3-year degrees – CNN

California Mom Turns Shipping Container Into Home (VIDEO)