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 I can't quite figure out whether Alan Greenspan is still big news. He's still capable of headlines, though: "Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. is 'nowhere near the bottom' of the housing slump and is 'right on the brink" of a recession.'
More, from CNBC.com: "... he also warned that 'Fannie and Freddie are a major accident waiting to happen.'
His comments came in an interview today with CNBC. I'll look for more quotes on housing from the interview and add them to this post.
-- Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo: AFP / Getty Images
 A couple of people forwarded me links to the story of "Princess Chunk," a 44-pound white cat who has been wandering the streets of New Jersey, a victim of foreclosure. At first I thought it was some sort of news hoax, the kind of thing you would read in the Onion and forward to friends.
But it's true. WNBC-TV in New York reports the cat -- real name "Powder" -- "became a local media sensation this week and was dubbed "Princess Chunk" -- since it was found on Saturday wandering the southern New Jersey suburb of Voorhees.... In a week with headlines about presidential politics, suicide bombings in Iraq and big baseball trades, the cat has also captured the nation's attention."
New York magazine: "The nationwide mortgage crisis has a new face: Powder, a.k.a. Princess Chunk, the 44-pound orphaned cat from Camden County, New Jersey. The tubby tabby's elderly owner recently contacted animal-control officials — who, in turn, told WNBC — that she can no longer take care of him because she recently lost her home to the bank."
The cat, by the way, is a male.
Now, go ahead and let me have it for jumping the shark, ruining the blog and journalism as we knew it by posting something so over-the-top irrelevant and frivolous. Go ahead, you want to.
--Peter Viles
Photo credit: John Costello / Philadelphia Inquirer
I'm test-driving a new feature: Morning links from here and there.
From Redfin via Curbed LA: A Little Tokyo Loft -- once sold for $400,000 -- lists for $245,000.
Opinion, from the New York Times: The federal bailout of Fannie Mae violates constitutional principals.
From Newsweek via Patrick.net: Our "infatuation with homeownership" has created a housing nightmare.
From Bubble Markets Inventory Tracking: An update on an alleged fraud ring in Riverside County.
From Forbes.com: West Hollywood 90038 ranks among America's "most overpiced zip codes."
Top housing-related story on Digg: Bush signs housing bill.
I'd like your feedback on this one: Tell me whether you like the list-of-links concept, feel free to suggest specific stories you'd like to see linked, or to suggest specific blogs or websites you'd like to see featured on a regular basis.
-- Peter Viles
Photo: Little Tokyo Lofts; Credit: Los Angeles Times
 That's the title of a provocative and seemingly counterintuitive study by UC Irvine's Paul Merage School of Business Center for Real Estate. It wasn't the selling of home loans to credit-risky borrowers that sparked the phenomenal run-up in prices per se, it was "the changing credit regime" beginning in 2003 that inflated the bubble -- and Fannie and Freddie seem to be have major, albeit unwitting roles.
When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pulled back from the credit markets in 2003 and significantly slowed their lending volume in response to internal accounting problems and outside political pressure, the breach was filled by aggressive securities issuers in the private mortgage market.
And helping to fuel them on was an enthusiastic administration pushing the "dream of homeownership" without a whole lot of regulatory restraint. As a result, total mortgage volume skyrocketed and pushed up home prices "with momentum characteristic of a bubble," the study says. Rather than causing the run-up in house prices, the subprime market may well have been a joint product, along with house price increases, (i.e., the "tail") of the economic, political, and regulatory environment characteristic of the early- to mid-2000’s (the "dog").
"We were quite surprised to find the intensity of subprime lending was insignificant after controlling for all the other factors including the market," says Kerry Vandell, the UCI finance professor and director of its real estate center who was the lead researcher on the study. "But we were really blown away when Fannie's and Freddie's continuing presence in the market was shown to be so important."
Co-authoring the study was doctoral student Major Coleman IV and Michael LaCour-Little, a Cal State Fullerton finance professor who theorized in a provocative 2006 research paper that prepay penalties saved borrowers money.
The latest study was partly funded by the Mortgage Bankers Assn., the National Assn. of Realtors' Subprime Crisis Research Consortium and -- drumroll please -- Freddie Mac.
--Annette Haddad, Times staff writer
Photo credit: Associated Press
Questions? Comments? Tips? E-mail annette.haddad@latimes.com
News item from the Daily News via LA Biz Observed: "The median price of a San Fernando Valley home in June fell 34 percent
from a year earlier, which was the record-high ($655,000). The price
dropped 4 percent from May, and is now nearing 2004 levels."
More data, from the Southland Regional Assn. of Realtors:
--In the San Fernando Valley, sales of existing homes fell 3.6% from June 2007 levels, and remain at the lowest levels for June in 24 years of SRAR statistics. Pending escrows are running 20.6% ahead of year-ago levels. Inventory -- 6,935 properties for sale at the end of June -- is up 1.6% from year-ago levels.
--In the Santa Clarita Valley, sales of existing single-family homes in June paced 11.2% ahead of year-ago levels, while the median price fell 25.6%, to $450,000. That's a decline of $193,000, or 30%, from the record level of $643,000 in April 2006. Inventory -- 1,940 active listings -- is down 16.4% from June 2007 levels.
Worth noting: Citing dropping inventory, SRAR officials say they believe "further steep price discounts are unlikely" in the Santa Clarita Valley: "Real estate is extremely local, with the Santa Clarita Valley far better off than other, harder-hit areas of the state, especially those that had large numbers of new home tracts aimed primarily at first-time home buyers," said Jim Link, chief executive officer of the SRAR.
Doreen Chastain-Shine, president of the SRAR's Santa Clarita Valley division, added, "No doubt that foreclosures and short sales are up and there are still current homeowners at risk of losing the property. But the pressure on prices is not nearly as great as buyers assume simply because there are not nearly enough active listings to force sellers or banks to accept steep discounts."
--Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, via L.A. Times.
It would seem that still-high prices and hard-to-get loans would keep people away from Southern California's pricier areas. But they're still coming. According to a recent NorthStar Moving Corp. survey of their customers' moving requests from June '07 through May '08, nearly 2,000 of them transplanted  to Los Angeles and Orange counties. And that's just one moving company.
The top L.A. County destinations:
1) Los Angeles (city of)
2) Pasadena
3) Santa Monica
4) Marina del Rey and Woodland Hills (tied)
5) Long Beach
The top Orange County destinations:
1) Irvine
2) Huntington Beach
3) Newport Beach
4) Costa Mesa
5) Aliso Viejo
Californians moved away too. The most popular destinations:
1) Las Vegas
2) Austin, Texas
3) New York City
4) Chicago
5) Houston
-- Diane Wedner
Photo: Bob Carey / Los Angeles Times
Questions? Comments? E-mail diane.wedner@latimes.com.
 A few changes at L.A. Land, worthy of a short note.
First, as some of you noticed over the weekend, the blog has some new contributors -- reporters and editors who cover real estate and related issues for the Los Angeles Times. This is good news. It will lead to a more diverse, more interesting and more informative blog. As always, you'll still get the full dose of my grumpy take on real estate and the housing bubble. But now, for no extra charge, you'll get additional news, information and analysis from the experts in the Times newsroom.
Second, more good news: Beginning this Sunday, a "greatest hits" version of the blog will appear weekly in the print edition of The Times, in the Business section (you Web-only cheapskates had better subscribe, ASAP). The paper will "reverse-publish" the best posts from that week for those of you who missed it, or for those print readers who might not have ever come to this blog.
Third, a bit of controversy for you to chew on: The latimes.com website is in the process of tweaking its blog comment policy ever so slightly, in hopes of encouraging more thoughtful, sincere, well-reasoned discussion and debate. You can still be silly, or mean and ornery; just be silly, or mean and ornery, while making a relevant point.
My hope is that these changes will make this blog more interesting and more valuable to its readers. You have my thanks, as always, for participating in the blog. As one of the higher-ups here told me (he meant it as a compliment, but I didn't hear it that way): "Pete, the best thing about your blog is the comments."
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times
 It didn't receive much notice, but Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (pictured) committed some news over the weekend when he told NBC News' Tom Brokaw, "What we need is a floor in the housing market, a, a stop to the decline in housing values." (Read the entire Obama-Brokaw exchange about housing at the bottom of this post.)
In some circles of Washington, and particularly the Democratic Party, this is not a controversial idea: that the government's goal right now should be to stop the decline in housing prices. But here in Los Angeles -- where housing prices remain high relative to income, and home ownership levels remain low relative to the rest of the country -- there are many who believe the government should stand back and let the market determine housing prices.
Example: The reader who calls himself "Home prices need to get lower," who wrote here earlier today, "My ray of hope is that home prices will continue to slide and housing will become affordable again." Another example: Reader "Manny," who wrote here today that he makes $90,000 and can't afford a decent house: "The markets are still not affordable. I hope more correction is on the way."
Will the new housing bill succeed in doing what Obama says is necessary? It's doubtful. Analyzing the bill this spring, the Congressional Budget Office predicted the housing rescue package would prevent some foreclosures but would not stop the historic decline in housing prices.
I eagerly anticipate hearing from the Obamatons on this one. Please try to stay on topic: Obama's belief that the government needs to put a floor under housing prices.
Continue reading for the entire exchange between Obama and Brokaw about federal housing policy.
Read more Obama: 'What we need is a floor in the housing market' »
Tribune Co. has picked two New York commercial real estate brokerages to market the Los Angeles  Times building downtown and Tribune Tower in Chicago to investors, the company said today.
Cushman & Wakefield will look for buyers for The Times' historic headquarters at 1st and Spring streets in Los Angeles, and Eastdil Secured will attempt to sell the landmark Tribune building overlooking the Chicago River, said Stephanie Pater, director of real estate for Tribune.
Prices for the properties have not been set, Pater said, but The Times' headquarters was valued at about $150 million, and Tribune Tower might garner around $230  million, according to industry trade publication Real Estate Alert.
Tribune announced in June it would sell the buildings to help pay down debt.
-- Roger Vincent
Photos: Getty Images
Questions? Comments? E-mail roger.vincent@latimes.com.
 Here's a wild one: The mini-mansion at right, which was built by the ABC reality show "Extreme Makeover" in 2005 as a gift to an Atlanta-area family, appears headed for foreclosure. How do you lose a house that someone gave you as a gift on national television? According to the Associated Press, the family that owns the house took a loan against its value to start a construction business.
From Access Atlanta:
"Things couldn't look
better three years ago for Milton and Patricia Harper of Lake City, who
giddily accepted the keys to a small castle, plus enough money to pay
taxes on it for 25 years.
"Now, the Clayton County house that "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"
built is a two-story, turreted example of how things can go wrong. It's
in foreclosure.
The A.P.:
"After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a
$450,000 loan, it's set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton
County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday,
but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that
failed.
"The house was built in January 2005, after Atlanta-based
Beazer Homes USA and ABC's "Extreme Makeover" demolished their old home
and its faulty septic system. Within six days, construction crews and
hoards of volunteers had completed work on the largest home that the
television program had yet built."
--Peter Viles
Photo Credit: A.P.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
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I can't quite figure out whether Alan Greenspan is still big news. He's still capable of headlines, though: "Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. is 'nowhere near the bottom' of the housing slump and is 'right on the brink" of a recession.'
