by Calculated Risk on 10/09/2007 10:10:00 PM

My friend Ramsey Su sent me an update tonight:

This is the 3rd San Diego REO auction of its kind in 5 months, 4th, if you count the DHI auction by the same auctioneer. Fortunately, of the 83 properties, only 7 were not previously listed in the MLS so this is an easy batch of properties to research.

I noted yesterday that unlisted REOs are one of the reasons the reported inventory level is currently too low. In this case, over 90% of the REOs were listed.

REOs are now an integral part of the real estate market. Appraisals have come down to earth and REO brokers are selling properties in record volume, though not matching the pace of acquisitions.
...
Similar to the homebuilders, as the REOs force the price down, it "impairs" the neighborhood and homeowners in default are even more likely to be foreclosed upon now.
...
"Previously Valued To"
REDC abandoned previous practice of using the last sold price as their "Previously Valued To" price. I use available tax record and recreated that value. It appears the last average list price of these properties is 81.4% of the last sold price.

Lenders are now aggressively cutting prices on REOs. The average LIST price is almost 20% off the previous selling price! Ouch. Ramsey also notes that many of these homes were previously purchased with 100% LTV, so the homeowners were substantially underwater and workouts were near impossible.

If someone is thinking the lenders are working down the REO inventory in San Diego, Ramsey Su offers the following graph:

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows:
NODs: Notice of Default,
NOTs: Notice of Trustee’s sale,
and
REOs: Real Estate Owned by the Lender.

After a NOD is filed, the lender must wait 3 months before filing a NOT. Then the foreclosure sale happens 3 weeks later. Ramsey has shifted the graph to account for these lags.

The graph of NODs shows where NOTs and REOs will go over the next 3 months.

Ramsey adds this comment:

719 REOs in San Diego during the last 4 weeks, comparing to just 1,239 sales reported so far by the MLS for September, are we going to see over 50% REO prevalence next quarter?

It's about to get ugly.

by Calculated Risk on 10/09/2007 09:37:00 PM

From the WSJ: Strip-Mall Vacancies Hit 7.4%

U.S. strip-mall vacancies only inched up in the third quarter, but still hit a 5½-year high ... Rentals of retail space in weak housing markets are getting hit disproportionately hard, as consumers rein in their purchases.

The retail sector has been a pillar of the commercial real-estate industry -- and the overall economy -- for the last seven years ...

The strip-mall vacancy rate rose to 7.4% in the third quarter, from 7.3% in the second quarter and 7% in the year-earlier period. Along with the first quarter of 2002, when the vacancy rate was also 7.4%, that level was the highest in 11 years, according to a survey of 76 U.S. retail markets by Reis.
...
Shopping-mall vacancies have shown no impact from the housing problems yet. Because of malls' long lease terms, economic problems typically take 18 months to 24 months to show up in vacancies and rents.

The CRE slowdown is here.

UPDATE (from an earlier post): As a reminder, in a typical business cycle, investment in non-residential structures follows investment in residential structures with a lag of about 5 quarters.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the YoY change in Residential Investment (shifted 5 quarters into the future) and investment in Non-residential Structures. In a typical cycle, non-residential investment follows residential investment, with a lag of about 5 quarters. Residential investment has fallen significantly for five straight quarters. So, if this cycle follows the typical pattern, non-residential investment will start declining later this year.

by Calculated Risk on 10/09/2007 04:07:00 PM

From San Francisco Fed President Janet L. Yellen: Recent Financial Developments and the U.S. Economic Outlook. Here are some excerpts. Housing was turning down before the credit turmoil:

... forward-looking indicators of conditions in housing markets were pointing lower even before the financial market turmoil began. Housing permits and sales were trending down. Inventories of unsold new homes remained at very high levels, and they will need to be worked off before construction can begin to rebound. Finally, most measures of house prices at the national level fell moderately. Notably, despite these declines, the ratio of house prices to rents—a kind of price-dividend ratio for housing—remains quite high by historical standards, suggesting that further price declines may be needed to bring housing markets into balance. This perspective is reinforced by futures markets for house prices, which expect further declines in a number of metropolitan areas this year. The downturn in house prices would likely be intensified by a simultaneous decline in employment, should that occur, since significant job loss would weaken demand for housing and raise foreclosures.

And on the impact of the housing bust on consumer spending:

Beyond the housing sector’s direct impact on GDP growth, a significant issue is its impact on personal consumption expenditures, which have been the main engine of growth in recent years. Indeed, data on consumption spending in the last few months have continued to show strength. The nature and extent of the linkages between housing and consumer spending, however, are a topic of debate among economists. Some believe that these linkages run mainly through total wealth, of which housing wealth is a part. Others argue that house prices affect consumer spending by changing the value of mortgage equity. Less equity, for example, reduces the quantity of funds available for credit-constrained consumers to borrow through home equity loans or to withdraw through refinancing. The key point is that, according to both theories, a drop in house prices is likely to restrain consumer spending to some extent, and this view is backed up by empirical research on the U.S. economy.

Indeed, in the new environment of higher rates and tighter terms on mortgages, we may see other negative impacts on consumer spending. The reduced availability of high loan-to-value ratio and piggyback loans may drive some would-be homeowners to pull back on consumption in order to save for a sizable down payment. In addition, credit-constrained consumers with adjustable-rate mortgages seem likely to curtail spending, as interest rates reset at higher levels and they find themselves with less disposable income.

Repricing of risk will be "contractionary":

Many of the liquidity problems afflicting banks and other financial market participants are gradually being resolved, but it’s not clear that all markets will return to “business as usual,” as defined by conditions in the first half of this year, even after that occurs. For one thing, many of the structured credit products that became so widely used may prove to be too complex to be viable going forward, and this would more or less permanently reduce the quantity of credit available to some risky borrowers. Moreover, as I mentioned, if financial intermediation that was routinely conducted via asset securitization and off-balance sheet financing vehicles ultimately migrates back onto the books of the banks, borrowing spreads and lending terms are likely to remain tighter given current limitations on bank capital and the higher costs of conducting intermediation through the banking sector. Most importantly, the recent widening of spreads appears to reflect a return to more realistic pricing of risk throughout the economy. This development may be positive for the long run, but it will be contractionary in the short run.

by Calculated Risk on 10/09/2007 01:49:00 PM

From William Poole, President, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: Real Estate in the U.S. Economy. On housing (emphasis added):

"... recent events suggest that housing will remain weak for several more quarters; stabilization may not begin until well into 2008. Probably the most important statistics in this regard are the number of unsold new homes still on the market relative to their current sales rate and the recent trends in house prices. Figure 7 shows that the inventory-to-sales ratio of unsold new and existing single-family homes has risen sharply since early 2005. The current level of inventories relative to sales is about double the average levels from 1999 to 2005.

Some potential homebuyers are no doubt delaying purchase because they expect house prices to fall. As seen in Figure 8, prices have decelerated sharply nationwide. According to the price index published by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), through the second quarter of 2007 prices are still a bit above year earlier levels.(11) However, another measure of national house prices—the S&P/Case-Shiller price index (SPCSI)—actually declined 3 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier. A subset of this measure, indexes based on house prices in the 10- and 20-largest U.S. markets, suggests that prices have declined even more in the third quarter. In July 2007, the 10-city composite has declined 4.5 percent from 12 months earlier and the 20-city composite has declined about 4 percent.

A decline in home prices on a national average basis is relatively rare. In fact, using OFHEO data, there has been no such decline over four quarters since the inception of the purchases only OFHEO index in 1991 or since 1975 using OFHEO’s total index, which includes refinancings. It appears that we are in uncharted territory, and, given that fact, a forecast of house prices must be regarded as highly uncertain."

And concluding remarks:

"The financial market turmoil that began in August hit hard an already struggling housing market. Financial markets appear to be stabilizing, but they have not returned to normal and are still fragile. Most forecasters have reduced their expectations for GDP growth and believe that downside risks have risen. However, the employment report for September, the latest available at this time, does not suggest that the downside risk is occurring. As an aside, the substantial upward revisions to data released in the August report remind us that it is a mistake to place too much weight on any one report.

Although this episode of financial turmoil is still unfolding, my preliminary judgment is that there are no new lessons. Weak underwriting practices put far too many borrowers into unsuitable mortgages. As borrowers default, they suffer the consequences of foreclosure and loss of whatever equity they had in their homes. It is painful to have to move, especially under such forced circumstances. Investors are suffering heavy losses. There is no new lesson here: Sound mortgage underwriting should always be based on analysis of the borrower’s capacity to repay and not on the assumption that a bad loan can be recovered through foreclosure without loss because of rising property values.

The other aspect of the current financial turmoil that reaffirms an old lesson is that it is risky to finance long-term assets with short-term liabilities. Consider a portfolio of any sort of long-term assets or assets carrying substantial credit risk, such as securities collateralized with subprime mortgages. Financing such a portfolio with commercial paper makes the firm vulnerable to the risk that holders of the commercial paper will refuse to roll over maturing issues. Over the past few months, firms that structured their portfolios this way found themselves faced with exactly this problem. No manufacturing firm would ever finance a portfolio of fixed assets with commercial paper; once market sentiment became distrustful of subprime assets, these assets lost value and became no more marketable than investments in factory buildings.

The Federal Reserve has neither the power nor the desire to bail out bad investments. We do have the responsibility to do what we can to maintain normal financial market processes. What that means, in my view, is that we want to see restoration of active trading in assets of all sorts and in all risk classes. It is for the market to judge whether securities backed by subprime mortgages are worth 20 cents on the dollar, or 50 cents, or 100 cents. Obviously, the market will judge different subprime assets differently, based on careful analysis of the underlying mortgages. That process will take time, as it is expensive to conduct the analysis that good mortgage underwriting would have conducted in the first place. Although there is a substantial distance to go, restoration of normal spreads and trading activity appears to be under way, and we can be confident that in time the market will straighten out the problems. We do not know, however, how much time will be required for us to be able to say that the current episode is over."

by Anonymous on 10/09/2007 01:45:00 PM

Here's a classic example of why some of us are simply beyond disgusted with the mortgage industry. It comes from an American Banker (not online) article on FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair's recent proposal to a mortgage banking conference that servicers use their ability to modify loans to "freeze" endangered subprime ARMs at the start rate.

The day before the interview, Ms. Bair had done some jawboning in a speech at a New York mortgage investor conference sponsored by Clayton Holdings Inc. Her proposal is "a clear, categorical move that can be applied on a wholesale basis by servicers," she told nearly 100 professionals at the conference. "I don't think servicers have the time or the resources to go through these case by case, renegotiate, [and] restructure every single one."

Moreover, "if the industry doesn't do it themselves, either Congress is going to do it for them, or a bankruptcy judge is going to do it for them," she said, a reference to legislative proposals to allow bankruptcy courts to modify mortgages. "I'm trying to make one suggestion at least for a certain category of loans where I perceive these to be more sympathetic borrowers, and show policy makers that the industry is working to find a solution."

But questions from the audience revealed a reluctance in some corners to cut subprime homeowners much slack.

"The behavior of a subprime borrower, the reason they became subprime, is because they get themselves into [a] credit issue," one audience member told Ms. Bair. "If you, in turn, fix a liability that they have, they will max out their credit card. There will be another event that they will put themselves in trouble, in default. You're just going to postpone" the inevitable and, "in a declining housing market, just make things worse."

See, this is how it all started:

Dude with "credit issues" wanders into a branch of Subprime R Us, wanting a loan to buy a house. Loan officer looks at the fact that Dude has a history of getting into credit messes, and says, "there will just be another event you will put you in default. By buying a house and adding to your living expenses, you are just going to end up inevitably in foreclosure. Loan application denied."

Oh, it didn't happen that way? OK, so Dude got the purchase money loan. Then the credit card bills started racking up, just like the loan officer didn't predict would happen.

Dude goes back to Subprime R Us, wanting a cash-out refi to consolidate debt. Loan officer looks at the fact that Dude has a history of getting into credit messes, and says, "there will just be another event you will put you in default. By fixing a liability that you have by giving you a cash-out, I would just allow you to max out your credit card again. It would just be postponing inevitable default. Loan application denied."

Oh, it didn't happen that way? OK, so Dude got the cash-out refi. Then the combination of the expensive mortgage and the credit card bills started racking up, just like the loan officer didn't predict would happen.

Dude calls up mortgage servicer, because Subprime R Us has apparently filed for bankruptcy and does not answer phone calls. Dude asks for a workout of loan terms. Servicer says . . . sorry. We only make loans to people we know will default when home prices are rising. Now that home prices are falling, the fact that we "know" that you will just max your credit cards out later is relevant. The fact that it used to be irrelevant is immaterial.

You listen to these people and you get the impression that subprime loans are kind of like the Messiah: an immaculate conception and a virgin birth. No lender was apparently involved the first time; the borrowers just made these loans to themselves. Now that reality has intervened to show how stupid some of these lending practices are, it's time to remember that we "know" what subprime borrowers will do if you lower their monthly payments.

Yeah, sure we "know" that. That's why you find so many mortgage servicers advocating outlawing subprime mortgage lending, on the grounds that they know it never works out.