OMG: DOUBLE COUNTING!!!

Data on sales of previously owned U.S. homes from 2007 through October this year will be revised down next week because of double counting, indicating a much weaker housing market than previously thought.

Realtors: We Overcounted Home Sales for Five Years

Gosh, wonder how that happened? Maybe we should ask Jon Corzine.

Letter to an ignorant Obama-worshipping kool aid-drinking friend

(Name removed even though none of my liberal friends would ever waste their precious Obama-worshipping time on my blog...and I say "ignorant" because every Obamaphile I know REFUSES to even glance at ANY news reflecting badly on him.)

This person, a real estate agent, was telling me how great things are (and how Obama is cleaning up Bush's mess) so I sent this: Bloomberg reported yesterday – “U.S. Home Prices May Be Lost for a Generation”

"A major lesson of Fan and Fred and the subprime fiasco is that no one benefits when we push families into homes they can't afford. Yet that's what Congress is doing once again as it relentlessly expands FHA lending with minimal oversight or taxpayer safeguards." Wall Street Journal reports today – “The Next Housing Bust”

Wall Street Journal reports today: …the International Monetary Fund has just released a study of estimated losses on U.S. loans and securities. It was very bleak -- $2.7 trillion, double the estimated losses of six months ago. Our estimates at RGE Monitor are even higher, at $3.6 trillion, implying that the financial system is currently near insolvency in the aggregate.

PS: Your history is factually incorrect about the previous eight years.

Bush and Republicans repeatedly called for financial reforms and were blocked by Democrats--who took over Congress in 2006--including Chris Dodd (Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee) and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and more: http://tinyurl.com/5xz7d6

Democrats distorted the market through the CRA and through Fannie and Freddie’s massive securitizing of bad debt, and then blocked regulators from doing their jobs. Shocking Congressional Video: Democrats insist “nothing wrong” at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac (2004): http://tinyurl.com/4njuuv

See Obama helping the real estate markets to recover...

National Association of Realtors

Dear Fellow REALTOR,

You may have seen news reports about President Obama’s budget proposal that was released today at 11:30 AM Eastern Time. A small section of the sweeping budget plan has the potential to become a major impediment to a recovery in real estate markets across the nation. NAR is 100% opposed to the provision that modifies the Mortgage Interest Deduction and is prepared to use its formidable array of resources against its enactment.

As currently drafted, the plan changes the Mortgage Interest Deduction by reducing the amount of mortgage deductibility on families earning over $250,000. This proposed change in the Mortgage Interest Deduction will result in further erosion of home prices and home values. If this proposal is enacted it will lead to a new round of price depreciation, will cause greater distress on the balance sheets of banks as the collateral value of mortgage backed securities declines. A second credit crisis could emerge before the first one is resolved.

As you read this NAR is launching a multiphase plan of action to eliminate this provision from the budget plan. In the next 24 hours, NAR will be expressing our concerns directly to President Obama, to all members of the United States House of Representatives and the Senate, placing advertisements in the publications read by Washington, DC decision makers. Additionally, NAR will be forming a coalition with other groups affected by this proposal.

This communication is the first part of our response, we will continue to update you as the situation and events warrant.

Sincerely,
Charles McMillan, CIPS, GRI
2009 NAR President