Shrink the State. End the Fed. Balance the budget. Make a profit. Leave an inheritance.
Gary North
Written by Gary North on December 26, 2013
A large number of Americans have decided not to borrow to buy a home. Last week, applications fell 6.3%. These figures are seasonally adjusted. This is in response to rising mortgage rates, which began in May. Since then, home sales have begun to fall. Mortgage applications had been rising for 18 months. The Federal Reserve’s […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on October 14, 2013
The most affordable city: Akron, Ohio (86%). The least affordable: San Francisco (14%). Most of the most affordable cities are in Ohio. Most of the least affordable cities are in California. How affordable is housing in your city? You can check this easily by using the handy list that is available on another site. Click […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on September 26, 2013
The Federal Reserve System’s policy known widely as QE3 is a massive subsidy of the rich at the expense of the middle class. This is the conclusion of Stephen Roach, who for years was chief economist for Morgan Stanley. He calls this policy destabilizing. He says this: the FED “is courting an increasingly treacherous endgame […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on August 26, 2013
Last week, I wrote an article on federal housing vouchers. I made the point that these vouchers are like all other vouchers: a pseudo-market intrusion of the government into our lives. I made an assumption: the evil side of housing vouchers will be apparent to conservatives in a way that school vouchers are not. Conservatives […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on August 23, 2013
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has adopted housing vouchers as a way to finance families’ escape from the inner city. The program is described here. It is part of a much larger program. HUD has launched a comprehensive program to move inner-city residents into the suburbs. HUD will do this at taxpayers’ […]
Continue reading →Posted on August 22, 2013
WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 21, 2013) — Mortgage applications decreased 4.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 16, 2013. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 4.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from […]
Continue reading →Posted on August 22, 2013
(RTTNews.com) – Wells Fargo & Co. ( WFC ), the fourth-largest bank in the U.S. by assets, will cut 2,300 mortgage-related jobs across the U.S. as higher interest rates slow down refinancing activity, according to media reports on Wednesday. Wells Fargo has reportedly provided a 60-day layoff notice to 2,300 employees in its home-lending unit […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on July 26, 2013
The sheep never learn. This makes things easier for shepherds, who have their shears close at hand. Americans are using adjustable rate mortgages — ARMs — to buy their homes. They look at the 30-year rate of 4.5% — an incredible bargain in an era of looming inflation — and opt for ARMs. They can […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on July 22, 2013
Greenspan said that he could not see any bubbles. Bernanke said there was no bubble in 2006. He said housing prices would not fall. Across America, people were flipping houses. Buy low, sell higher in six months: instant money. My next door neighbor told me in 2005 that she was thinking of flipping houses. I […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on July 19, 2013
The San Francisco area was hot. It was Evening News hot. In June, it turned cold. Sales dried up. Between May and June, sales in San Francisco fell 7.5% — in one month. What about year over year? Sales were down 9.4%. Real estate markets never turn cold in June. In June, the markets heat […]
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