Housing

Flood of foreclosures to hit the housing market – CNN

Wake me up when this actually happens.

Lou Barnes on Boulder, Colorado Housing - CR

As Barnes notes, a bottom for prices is one thing, a recovery in prices “something else entirely” – and I doubt prices will rise significantly any time soon. However, in more and more areas, it appears prices have bottomed, and buyers have “lost their fear”.

Bay Area sees patchwork recovery from housing crash – Contra Costa Times

Of the 204 Bay Area ZIP codes analyzed, the median loss in value from the peak stands at 30 percent. The top 10 best performing ZIP codes were in Silicon Valley. The bottom 10 were in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

The Truth About The ‘Housing Bottom’: Home Prices Across The Northeast Are In Total Freefall – Business Insider

Bay Area renters squeezed in tight market – Contra Costa Times

Short Sales Surpass Foreclosures as Banks Agree to Deals – Bloomberg

Short sales accounted for 23.9 percent of home purchases in January, the most recent month available, compared with 19.7 percent for sales of foreclosed homes, data compiled by the Jacksonville, Florida-based company show. A year earlier, 16.3 percent of transactions were short sales and 24.9 percent involved foreclosures.

Fear of Buying: The Psychology of Renting (Part 5 of 5) - Barry Ritholtz

Economy

Why the Middle Class Is Doomed – Charles Hugh Smith

Housing starts fall 5.8%, disappointing analyst estimates – HousingWire

The top 10 fastest-growing U.S. industries (Hint: Think hot sauce) – WaPo

Best Buy closures to add to local joblessness – SF Gate

In Economics, You Are What You Model – NY Times

Misc.

The Case for Beer: Why You Should Enjoy it and Enjoy it Right (Infographic) – Frugal Dad

Death By Foreclosure Killings and Staff Sgt. Roger Bales - Yves Smith

This past Thursday, a Modesto, California, man whose house was in foreclosure shot and killed the Sheriff’s deputy and the locksmith who came to evict him from his condominium unit. Modesto authorities responded by sending 100 police and SWAT snipers to counter-attack, and it ended Waco-style, with the fourplex structure burning to the ground with the shooter inside.

It’s not surprising that this should happen in Modesto: Last year the Central California city’s foreclosure rate was the third worst in the country, with one in every 19 properties filing for foreclosure.  The entire region is ravaged by unemployment, budget cuts, and blight — the only handouts that Modesto is seeing are the surplus military equipment stocks being dumped into the Modesto police department’s growing arsenal.

The shooter who died was 45 years old and he appears to have lost his condominium over a $15,000 home equity loan he took out almost a decade ago, owed to Bank of America. The condo was sold at an auction for just $12,988 to a shady firm, R&T Financial, that doesn’t even have a listed contact number. Too much for the former security guard, who barricaded himself in the condo which had been in the family for decades. He refused to walk out alive.

Wells Fargo Now a Major Shareholder in For-Profit Prisons – Crooks and Liars