Housing is looking good!

Richard Fischer, president of Dallas's Federal Reserve bank: 
"We recommend that TBTF (too big to fail) financial institutions be restructured into multiple business entities," Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, said in remarks prepared for delivery at the National Press Club in Washington.


Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Fed-Fisher-break-up-banks/2013/01/16/id/471798?s=al&promo_code=11FB2-1#ixzz2IL39CGsM
This means JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.  Already many small banks have gone out of business or been taken over by larger banks due to the excessive IT requirements of the Dodd-Frank bill.  Doing this would allow more options for home buyers when looking for a mortgage.
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kpanchuck@housingwire.com:
Housing starts were up 12.1% from November to December ending 2012 and up 36.9% year over year.  WOW!  Now if the banks will loan to buyers, we will be in great shape in the real estate industry. 
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jgaffney@housingwire.com reports:
Deutsche Bank analysts Joseph LaVorgna and Carl Riccadonna "if the pace of housing starts increases over the next year by the amount that builders' sentiment implies, then the contribution from residential construction in the GDP accounts should double, as well, from 30 bps to 60 bps per quarter."  My question is how will the impact of increased taxes and health insurance costs impact the discressionary income of US citizens; and how will this impact the purchasing power of the public expecially the 18-34 year olds?
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TBWSDailyShow:
GoldmanSachs assessment management rose +$26 billion in Q4 for a total of $854 billion; investment banking rose 13% in 2012 for a total of $4.93 billion; securities trading +36% to $2.3 billion in Q4 for a total of $8.21 billion.  However since compensation is the largest expense for the company, compensation has only risen 6% to 38% of gross revenues to pay the salaries of this group.  This is down from 42% from a year earlier.  They only paid our $12.9 billion in salaries, bonuses and differed stocks.  The median income is down to $399,506 for a Goldman employee.  Jamie Dimon of JPMorganChase had his salary cut in half down to $11.5 million/year. 

According to the former chairman of AIG, Hank Greenburg, they are considering suing the US gov't for the bailout.AIG feels they got ripped off for borrowing $182 billion to stay afloat.  This after a commercial which says thank you to the American people for the bailout money. All this happened in just a week. (My question is why if AIG runs an expensive commercial saying thank you, then it decides to file suit for the bailout.) 

However, the tough rules and regulations which forced the big banks to cut salaries and other compensation are not being enforced equally among the large and small banks.  The small banks are the ones suffering from the rule enforcement.
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kpanchuck@housingwire.com
CFPB rules now forbid dual tracking which means if someone applies for a loan mod at least 37 days before the scheduled foreclosure sale, servicers must consider and respond to the request.  If the borrower accepts the foreclosure alternative, they must be given time to accept the offer.  And, borrowers must be informed of all loss mitigation options after the borrower has missed two consecutive mortgage payments.
" ...servicing employees are responsible for alerting borrowers who miss information on loan modification applications and for ensuring documents reach the right personnel for processing. The contacts also have to provide continuous updates to the borrower on loan modifications."
"The CFPB says borrowers can no longer be surprised by forced-placed insurance policies attached to their accounts. If such a transaction is required, the servicer must provide advance notice and pricing information before charging consumers. In addition, a servicer has to have a reasonable basis for concluding a borrower lacks this type of insurance before acquiring a policy. When servicers do buy insurance and find out it was not needed, the policy must be terminated within 15 days with all premiums refunded. '  This sounds good to me!
To read the whole story go to  http://www.housingwire.com/news/2013/01/16/cfpb-launches-national-mortgage-servicing-rules.
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Spanish unemployment sits at an astonishingly high 26.6 percent, Greek unemployment at 26 percent, 16.3 percent in Portugal, and 14.6 percent in Ireland.  And we think we have it bad!

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Looks like all the (big) lenders have good increases in profits for 2012.  One of my connections in the Philippines says real estate is booming there as well.
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According to CoreLogic’s HPI report, all but six states experienced annual price gains in November: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Conversely, the five states with the highest home price appreciation are Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, North Dakota and California.
mhopkins@housingwire.com
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I want you to see what Larry Edelson thinks:  "Forgive me for being blunt, but our leaders in Washington are totally inept. Worse, I think they’re a bunch of self-aggrandizing egomaniacs that don’t have a clue what they’re doing ... nor the foggiest notion of what a government should truly be."

"Belgium dumped $491 million of Treasuries ... Denmark, $628 million ... Germany, $358 million ... Greece, $109 million ... Ireland, a whopping $4.74 billion ... Italy, $192 million ... Luxembourg, $695 million ... Turkey, $1.8 billion ... and the U.K. — a staggering $19 billion."  That's US treasuries he is referring to.  Hang on for a bumpy ride.  What will this do to the housing market? 
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The Fed has no idea what it will do about monetary easing and the unemployment problem.  One day I hear one thing, the next day I hear something else.  Maybe we just need to audit the fed and get their collective minds off messing with the economy.