Housing
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…
There is at least one glitch in the comprehensive municipality-by-municipality data that the Projo has been providing on foreclosures. According to a John Castellucci story that appeared in the April 15 Projo, there were 108 foreclosures in Pawtucket between January and mid-March of 2008 and 172 in all of 2007. That calls into question the…
Matt Jerzyk of RI Future believes that declines in student population in Central Falls and Providence are due to foreclosures…Speaking of questionable analysis, it is absolutely outrageous to me that anyone can get away with saying that significant drops in school enrollment in Central Falls and Providence are a result of the right-wing’s anti-immigrant activism…
When things go wrong for people, society ought at least to weight the costs of helping, even when the problems are wrapped up in the esoteric complexities of modern finance, but when I read news like this, I can’t help but wonder from where the money’s coming: The legislation is likely to draw on elements…
The cost of healthcare in America has been distorted by the irrational coupling of health insurance to employment. And now, Professor Jeremy Wiesen of the New York University Business School, author of an op-ed in today’s Projo, has an even worse idea — he wants to couple your home mortgage to your employment! Professor Wiesen…
Somebody asked me, the other night, what I would do about the housing affordability problem, and to be honest, I didn’t have much of an answer. I guess I’m not at the point, yet, of having comprehensive understanding of or prescriptions for every important issue, and housing is still one of those for which I’ve…
