Monday Morning Real Estate Reading

Housing

Debunking the Housing Recovery Story (Part 1 of 5) - Barry Ritholtz

Ahhh, Spring is here. Each year around this time, the flowers push up through the soil, the trees begin to bud — and the Real Estate recovery stories start to appear.
It is a perennial rite of Spring, not remotely slowed down by such niggling factors as consistently being wrong year after year, unsupported by data, and ignoring key factors that strongly suggest “Not this year.”
All this week, we are going to review the many factors that are overhanging residential housing. Each of the following 5 factors will be discussed. By the time Friday rolls around, I expect you will be looking at those calling for a Housing recovery a bit more skeptically.

How the Internet (Yes, the Internet) Can Solve the Housing Crisis – The Atlantic

(interesting article but bad title. This has nothing to do with the actual housing crisis.)

Spain Record Home Price Drop Seen With Bank Pressure – Bloomberg

Australia Housing to Drag on Growth - WSJ

Foreclosures Give Rise to New Industry - WaPo

Ken Major climbs the steps of a county courthouse in a San Francisco suburb with $500,000 in cashier’s checks in one hand and a list of addresses in the other. Major is a buyer for Waypoint Real Estate, an Oakland-based investment firm that is scooping up foreclosed homes in California.
On this afternoon, he joins a dozen house flippers as an auctioneer starts hawking the latest batch of defaulted properties to hit the market. Major bids on a three-bedroom house in Antioch, and after other buyers counter, he wins at $147,600.

Economy

17 Scary Numbers From the First Quarter – Morningstar

Senior citizens continue to bear burden of student loans – WaPo

Rethinking How We Teach Economics – NY Times

Euro-Region Unemployment Surges to Highest in More Than 14 Years – Bloomberg

How Americans spend money, compared with other countries – Ezra Klein

In short: Americans appear to spend more than their peers on housing, transportation, and health care — and we spend far less on clothes, food, and booze.