CBS alone in questioning GSEs over the 'disaster.' Watch the live news report: http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=hd8znznzIr
CBS alone in questioning GSEs over the 'disaster.'
By Kyle Gillis
Business & Media Institute
8/25/2010 11:04:45 AM
On August 24, all three network evening news broadcasts led with stories on the tumbling housing market. While ABC and NBC fretted over another economic apocalypse, CBS reporter Anthony Mason looked at the effect government-sponsored entities (GSE’s) Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have on the housing market.
“The steep fall off in housing sales highlights the degree to which the government has been propping up the housing market,” said Mason, “and the two biggest pillars of that system, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are facing a crisis.”
As the Business & Media Institute has documented, the GSE’s have faced a crisis for years, but Mason was the only evening news reporter to investigate the GSE’s instead of hiding from the falling sky.
“The government has already pumped nearly $150 billion into Fannie and Freddie to keep them afloat, and some say taxpayers could end up with a trillion dollar bill,” Mason reported.
Bloomberg reported the possible $1 trillion taxpayer cost over two months ago and, while Mason mentioned the Future of Housing Finance Conference panel discussion on housing solutions, CBS failed to report on the conference last week when it was actually held. Rather, CBS chose to air a story on fedora hats.
At the very end of his report, Mason returned to his liberal talking points when substitute anchor Harry Smith questioned whether the stimulus was helping the economy.
“Well in fact, the Congressional Budget Office came out with a report today that suggested the stimulus added as many as 3.3 million jobs to the economy and boosted GDP by 4.5 percent,” Mason said. “If that’s accurate, the stimulus, in fact, saved us from another recession.”
By contrast, NBC ‘Nightly News’ host Brian Williams harped on the poor housing numbers without investigating the cause of the numbers.
“You can probably look around and see our lead story tonight. Housing, the real estate market, it’s a disaster,” Williams said.
CBS has been almost alone in challenging the GSE’s, as the networks ignore the GSEs’ role in the housing mess. The networks remained silent on the GSE’s absence in the financial reform bill and only when the housing market plummets do the networks consider questioning them.
Showing posts with label housing slump. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housing slump. Show all posts
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
CREA lowers housing forecast again
Last Updated: Friday, July 30, 2010 12:04 PM ETCBC News
The number of resale homes sold in Canada is forecast to hit 459,600 in 2010, a 1.2 per cent decline from 2009.
A real estate agent puts up a sold sign in front of a house in Toronto in April. The Canadian Real Estate Association expects home prices to decrease in 2011. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press)
In its latest housing forecast Friday, the Canadian Real Estate Association said weaker sales activity in the key spring homebuying season in Canada's four most populous provinces prompted the downgrade.
"The jump in national sales activity earlier this year likely borrowed from the future," CREA president George Pahud said.
And expected interest rate increases to come will do nothing to stoke the real estate fire that burned brightly during the tail end of the recession.
Sales are projected to drop even further, by 7.3 per cent, to 426,100 units in 2011.
The national average home price is forecast to rise 3.5 per cent in 2010 to $331,600, with increases in all provinces. The national average price is then forecast to ease by 0.9 per cent to $328,600 in 2011.
The agency already lowered its 2010 sales forecast at the start of June. At that time, the agency was expecting 490,600 units to be sold this year.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Mortgage hike and housing slump is no disaster
By Michael Taube Last Updated: July 21, 2010 12:02pm
GTA resale home transactions for June were down 23% from last year’s level — no surprise, as the real estate market has been saturated with overpriced homes, high volume of sales, and a wide variety of houses available for purchase for some time.
Toronto had to go through a real estate correction — not only because this is the way the market works, but also because asking (and final sale) home prices were out of whack, to put it mildly.
With housing rates falling, some people are concerned mortgage rates will start to rapidly increase — with Tuesday’s quarter-point hike being just the start.
The thinking is banks will need to hike 1-5 year mortgages to make up for the shortfall in sales. This will lead to more home defaults and foreclosures, reduce investor confidence, and create a drain on our economy — just like what happened in the U.S.
That’s what some people think. I’m not one of them.
I believe mortgage rates will gradually increase over the next year or two, but not as high as some fear.
Long-term mortgage rates (three years and up) follow the bond market. If bond yields are high, banks will usually spike mortgage rates to make up for funding costs. If bond yields remain low, mortgage rates also remain low.
Meanwhile, the correction in a real estate market does not mean market collapse. A repeat of the U.S. mortgage meltdown won’t happen here.
The subprime mortgage crisis was, in former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan’s view, “an accident waiting to happen.”
He’s right. It was a preventable accident. High-risk loans given to people with lousy credit was a bubble waiting to burst.
The late department store tycoon Marshall Field had a simple motto, “Buying real estate is not only the best way, the quickest way, the safest way, but the only way to become wealthy.”
That’s what happened in the U.S. While we blame “greedy” businessmen, “arrogant” government officials, or “dim-witted” low-income families for this financial mess, everyone had their fingers in the pie — and enjoyed the filling a bit too much.
In Canada, we don’t offer subprime mortgages to potential clients. Most importantly, credit checks matter.
If you don’t have sufficient personal income or assets, you ain’t getting the deed to the house.
As well, the Canadian economy continues to chug along. According to Statistics Canada, 93,000 new jobs were created in June, and most jobs lost during the recession have now been recovered. As long as our economy remains on track, real estate will not collapse in Toronto.
It’s up to federal politicians — and, to a lesser extent, provincial and municipal politicians — to ensure economic growth remains a priority so the real estate correction doesn’t become a real estate collapse.
But it’s also up to voters. If pro-business and pro-development forces are in charge of our political futures, the economy should remain on solid footing, bond yields should remain low, and mortgage rates should remain stable.
If not, the future of real estate in our fair city could be up in the air.
— Taube is a former speechwriter for PM Stephen Harper. His family has been involved in mortgages for more than 50 years
GTA resale home transactions for June were down 23% from last year’s level — no surprise, as the real estate market has been saturated with overpriced homes, high volume of sales, and a wide variety of houses available for purchase for some time.
Toronto had to go through a real estate correction — not only because this is the way the market works, but also because asking (and final sale) home prices were out of whack, to put it mildly.
With housing rates falling, some people are concerned mortgage rates will start to rapidly increase — with Tuesday’s quarter-point hike being just the start.
The thinking is banks will need to hike 1-5 year mortgages to make up for the shortfall in sales. This will lead to more home defaults and foreclosures, reduce investor confidence, and create a drain on our economy — just like what happened in the U.S.
That’s what some people think. I’m not one of them.
I believe mortgage rates will gradually increase over the next year or two, but not as high as some fear.
Long-term mortgage rates (three years and up) follow the bond market. If bond yields are high, banks will usually spike mortgage rates to make up for funding costs. If bond yields remain low, mortgage rates also remain low.
Meanwhile, the correction in a real estate market does not mean market collapse. A repeat of the U.S. mortgage meltdown won’t happen here.
The subprime mortgage crisis was, in former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan’s view, “an accident waiting to happen.”
He’s right. It was a preventable accident. High-risk loans given to people with lousy credit was a bubble waiting to burst.
The late department store tycoon Marshall Field had a simple motto, “Buying real estate is not only the best way, the quickest way, the safest way, but the only way to become wealthy.”
That’s what happened in the U.S. While we blame “greedy” businessmen, “arrogant” government officials, or “dim-witted” low-income families for this financial mess, everyone had their fingers in the pie — and enjoyed the filling a bit too much.
In Canada, we don’t offer subprime mortgages to potential clients. Most importantly, credit checks matter.
If you don’t have sufficient personal income or assets, you ain’t getting the deed to the house.
As well, the Canadian economy continues to chug along. According to Statistics Canada, 93,000 new jobs were created in June, and most jobs lost during the recession have now been recovered. As long as our economy remains on track, real estate will not collapse in Toronto.
It’s up to federal politicians — and, to a lesser extent, provincial and municipal politicians — to ensure economic growth remains a priority so the real estate correction doesn’t become a real estate collapse.
But it’s also up to voters. If pro-business and pro-development forces are in charge of our political futures, the economy should remain on solid footing, bond yields should remain low, and mortgage rates should remain stable.
If not, the future of real estate in our fair city could be up in the air.
— Taube is a former speechwriter for PM Stephen Harper. His family has been involved in mortgages for more than 50 years
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