Archive for the 'Historical Perspective' Category

The origins of the financial crisis ….

By: Myles, September 24th, 2008

Not to pile on, as there is clearly more than enough material on the topic, but we at MarylandCommercialTitle.com believe it is very important for all of us to fully understand the origins of our financial crisis, IF we are to truly solve the problem (and safeguard this from ever happening again).
Here is an attempt to summarize […]

Tags:

A Financial dissater or a catharsis?

By: Myles, September 17th, 2008

Gerald Baker of the TimesOnline puts a very interesting spin on the recent financial events, which have dominoed. In Bakers article, Crisis may prove cathartic in the long run, but the worst is not over, he states that: 
Yesterday a couple of the world’s most famous financial institutions sank without a  trace, one of the world’s […]

Tags:

Is this the Real Estate solution?

By: Myles, September 5th, 2008

SeekingAlpha just posted a very intriguing opinion piece by John Preston entitled, The Reality of Real Estate and the Economy.

Is this the problem? the solution?

According to many, the thesis (and problem) is simple: Housing health and the economy are linked arm-in-arm.  

Preston traces  this theory back to Robert Shiller, of Case-Shiller Home Price Index fame, who reflects back on a 2004 […]

Tags:

The Real Estate Bubble: What — Mostly Good News?

By: Myles, August 24th, 2008

I am about to show you how, when it comes to the real estate bubble in the U.S., there is actually a whole lot more good news than bad. For real.
Would you believe that for more than 80 percent of the states, there is no bubble at all. Read on …
 As real estate professionals, […]

Tags:

Foreclosure Stats: Up Close and Personal

By: Myles, August 15th, 2008

Are things getting better? The news certainly is not good, but the question is whether there is lemonade amongst the lemons …
 U.S. foreclosure activity in July 2008 increased 8 percent from the previous month and 55 percent from a year earlier, July 2007, according to the RealtyTrac Foreclosure Market Report released today.

Bank Repossessions (REOs) […]

No Tags

Now, Banks’ Subprime Losses Exceed $500 Billion!

By: Myles, August 12th, 2008

Today, Bloomberg News reported that 100 of the world’s biggest banks losses from the U.S. sub-prime crisis, and the ensuing credit crunch, crossed the $500 billion mark as write-downs spread to more asset types.
Further exacerbating the situation we now see that auction-rate securities have begun adding to the losses as regulators and prosecutors force banks […]

Tags:

Bank Lending Practices Q4 2008 and into 2009

By: Myles, August 12th, 2008

Much of the news over the summer of 2008 has been negative, somewhat depressing, and duplicative. Unfortunately, our post today is much of the same, but there comes a time when there is just no way to avoid the news. The truth is that we need to know how to set our course in the days to come.
As reported […]

No Tags

Finally: Some Good RE News!

By: Myles, July 31st, 2008

Is there finally some positive real estate news to report on? Looks like it. As we drill down on the raw data, and move away from a macro view, there just maybe activity that is starting to turn positive.

As reported in The Mortgage Reports, for the third straight month, at least 15 of the nation’s 20 largest […]

Tags:

Largest Monthly U.S. CRE Decline ….

By: Myles, July 22nd, 2008

As we have said on many occassions, commercial real estate is a lagging economic indicator. We have seen the strain in other areas like residential property (sub-prime crisis), rising food and gas prices, and a tightening of consumer finance options (Home Equity Lines Of Credit (HELOC), Credit Card Defaults, etc.).
Now the tail is finally starting to wag the […]

Tags:

Could things get worse?

By: Myles, July 20th, 2008

Here’s the potential $2.8 trillion dollar question. In a revealing article in the New York Times, they investigate the question of how bad could things get? Since World War II, there have been 18 banking crises in industrial countries. The worst five were caused by changing lending standards or real estate bubbles (often both) and […]

Tags: