Housing
Too often our reaction to ideas with which we disagree is to mock them or to dismiss them from the conversation. Although the impulse is understandable, and I’m certainly guilty of it, doing so is a mistake. Listening is how we understand, not only as a check on our own biases, but also as a…
This started out as an open-thread post, on Rhode Island ballot question 7. The question itself will read… 7. AFFORDABLE HOUSING BONDS — $25,000,000 — (Chapter 241 – Public Laws 2012) Approval of this question will allow the State of Rhode Island to issue general obligation bonds, refunding bonds, and temporary notes in an amount…
Two multimedia pieces addressing Rhode Island ballot question number 7 — to borrow $25 million through bond sales for affordable housing — are starkly different. Both are essentially given over to advocates for the new debt, but in one case, the journalist does a reasonable job of raising possible objections, if not quite going so far…
Checking in on single-family home sales across Rhode Island, as I did for July and 1Q12, reveals a mixed picture. Results for the state are mildly improving, but the “downward spiral index” worsened for 22 of the 38 listed cities and towns. The downward spiral index is the sum of the three percentages given in…
State Senator Beth Moura (R – Cumberland/Lincoln) put out a press release calling for a forum with top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal governmentally backed financial entities that securitize mortgages for the servicing banks. Moura’s allegation is that Fannie and Freddie aren’t working with many distressed Rhode Island homeowners to refinance…
We all get that mortgage foreclosure is a bad thing, in an absolute sense, but I can’t help but wonder whether this is actually a positive development for borrowers, lenders, or the entire system: Retsinas said that the increase in people three months behind on their mortgage coupled with the drop of mortgages entering the…
In order to interpret trends in mortgage payments, one must look at the overall movement, and I’m not sure the content of this article by Paul Edward Parker merits the the talk of recovery that the front-page headline initiates: In Rhode Island, the association reported that 11.09 percent of all mortgages were one or more…
Anybody catch the following in a Sunday Projo article about yet another economy-restricting practice? The solution he refers to is the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, a set of standards for residential real estate appraisals that grew out of an investigation of the mortgage industry by New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo. The code…
Even with the market sag, housing is still relatively expensive in Rhode Island, and part of what led to our being hit so hard in the subprime collapse was residents’ inability to find suitable housing within their means, and the lack of in-state competition for property owners probably raises the threshold of taxation “price” tolerance…
Offering assistance to steer foreclosed neighborhoods away from blight is a worthwhile goal, and the collection of initiatives recently announced by Governor Carcieri and Senator Reed seems properly targeted. It does seem, however, that the actual owners of the properties (i.e., banks) get a pass on the whole problem. Increasing the risk of lending money…