by Calculated Risk on 9/01/2012 08:03:00 AM

The key event of the week was Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech on Friday at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. Here was my take on the speech: Analysis: Bernanke Clears the way for QE3 in September and a couple more views: Two more reviews of Bernanke's Speech: Weak Labor Market "a grave concern"

The economic data was still weak, but a little better than expected - since expectations are so low. Q2 GDP was revised up to a still weak 1.7% from 1.5% and personal income and spending increased in July. An important positive was that the Case-Shiller house price index turned positive on a year-over-year basis suggesting house prices might have bottomed earlier this year.

On the other hand, the manufacturing surveys were once again disappointing.

Even the “better” news was pretty weak – definitely not “substantial and sustainable strengthening in the pace of the economic recovery”. Next week the focus will be on the August employment report and the European ECB meeting.

Here is a summary of last week in graphs:

• Case-Shiller: House Prices increased 0.5% year-over-year in June

Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows the nominal seasonally adjusted Composite 10 and Composite 20 indices (the Composite 20 was started in January 2000).

The Composite 10 index is off 32.0% from the peak, and up 1.0% in June (SA). The Composite 10 is up 3.5% from the post bubble low set in March (SA).

The Composite 20 index is off 31.6% from the peak, and up 0.9% (SA) in June. The Composite 20 is up 3.6% from the post-bubble low set in March (SA).

The second graph shows the Year over year change in both indices.

The Composite 10 SA is up 0.1% compared to June 2011.

The Composite 20 SA is up 0.5% compared to June 2011. This was the first year-over-year since 2010 (when the tax credit boosted prices temporarily).

• Real House Prices, Price-to-Rent Ratio

Here is another update to a few graphs: Case-Shiller, CoreLogic and others report nominal house prices, and it is also useful to look at house prices in real terms (adjusted for inflation) and as a price-to-rent ratio. Real prices, and the price-to-rent ratio, are back to late 1999 to 2000 levels depending on the index.


This graph shows the quarterly Case-Shiller National Index SA (through Q2 2012), and the monthly Case-Shiller Composite 20 SA and CoreLogic House Price Indexes (through June) in nominal terms as reported.

In nominal terms, the Case-Shiller National index (SA) is back to Q1 2003 levels (and also back up to Q4 2010), and the Case-Shiller Composite 20 Index (SA) is back to July 2003 levels, and the CoreLogic index (NSA) is back to November 2003.

The second graph shows the same three indexes in real terms (adjusted for inflation using CPI less Shelter). Note: some people use other inflation measures to adjust for real prices.

In real terms, the National index is back to mid-1999 levels, the Composite 20 index is back to June 2000, and the CoreLogic index back to October 2000.

As we've discussed before, in real terms, all of the appreciation early in the last decade is still gone.

Here is a graph using the Case-Shiller National, Composite 20 and CoreLogic House Price Indexes compared to owners equivalent rent.

This graph shows the price to rent ratio (January 1998 = 1.0).

On a price-to-rent basis, the Case-Shiller National index is back to Q3 1999 levels, the Composite 20 index is back to June 2000 levels, and the CoreLogic index is back to August 2000.

In real terms - and as a price-to-rent ratio - prices are mostly back to late 1990s or early 2000 levels.

All Current House Price Graphs
• Personal Income increased 0.3% in July, Spending increased 0.4%

This graph shows real PCE by month for the last few years. The dashed red lines are the quarterly levels for real PCE.

"Personal income increased $42.3 billion, or 0.3 percent ... Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $46.0 billion, or 0.4 percent. ... Real PCE -- PCE adjusted to remove price changes -- increased 0.4 percent in July, in contrast to a decrease of 0.1 percent in June."

A key point is the PCE price index has only increased 1.3% over the last year, and core PCE is up only 1.6%. The PCE price index - and core PCE - hardly increased in July.

• Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims at 374,000

"In the week ending August 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 374,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised figure of 374,000. The 4-week moving average was 370,250, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average of 368,750"

The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims increased to 370,250.

This was above the consensus forecast of 370,000.

All current Employment Graphs

• Fed: Consumer Deleveraging Continued in Q2

From the NY Fed: Overall Delinquency Rates Down as Americans Paying More Debt on Time

This graph shows aggregate consumer debt decreased in Q2. This was mostly due to a decline in mortgage debt.

However student debt is still increasing.

This graph shows the percent of debt in delinquency. In general, the percent of delinquent debt is declining, but what really stands out is the percent of debt 90+ days delinquent (Yellow, orange and red).

From the NY Fed: "Overall delinquencies improved in 2012Q2. As of June 30, 9.0% of outstanding debt was in some stage of delinquency, compared with 9.3% at the end of 2012Q1. About $1.02 trillion of debt is delinquent, with $765 billion seriously delinquent (at least 90 days late or “severely derogatory”)."

• Other Economic Stories ...
• NAR: Pending home sales index increased 2.4% in July
• Fed's Beige Book: Economic activity increased "gradually", Residential real estate shows "signs of improvement"
• Chicago PMI declines to 53.0
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Serious Delinquency rates declined in July
• LPS: Mortgage delinquencies decreased in July

by Calculated Risk on 8/31/2012 09:27:00 PM

This is an unofficial list of Problem Banks compiled only from public sources.

Here is the unofficial problem bank list for Aug 31, 2012. (table is sortable by assets, state, etc.)

Changes and comments from surferdude808:

The FDIC released its actions for July 2012 as anticipated. This week there were 10 removals and three additions leaving the Unofficial Problem Bank List with 891 institutions with assets of $331.5 billion, down from 898 institutions with assets of $346.7 billion. About two-thirds or $10.0 billion of the $15.2 billion decline in assets came from updating assets with figures from the second quarter. For the month of August 2012, the list declined by a net of nine institutions after 11 additions, 16 actions terminations, three unassisted mergers, and one failure. The singular failure is the lowest monthly total since the list was first published on August 7, 2009. A year ago, the list held 988 institutions with assets of $403.0 billion. This week the FDIC released the Official Problem Bank List for the second quarter that included 732 institutions with assets of $282 billion.

Actions have been terminated against Park View Federal Savings Bank, Solon, OH ($805 million Ticker: PVFC); Cornerstone Community Bank, Chattanooga, TN ($420 million Ticker: CSBQ); PBK Bank, Inc., Stanford, KY ($116 million); The First Bank of Greenwich, Cos Cob, CT ($88 million); Community First Bank, Rosholt, WI ($68 million); Select Bank, Grand Rapids, MI ($66 million); and The State Exchange Bank, Lamont, OK ($50 million).

Three banks were removed as they found merger partners -- BankAtlantic, Fort Lauderdale, FL ($3.8 billion Ticker: BBX); Valliance Bank, McKinney, TX ($68 million); and Texas Coastal Bank, Pasadena, TX ($27 million).

The three additions were The Peoples Bank, Eatonton, GA ($137 million); The Peoples Bank, Covington, GA ($113 million); and First Community Bank of Crawford County, Van Buren, AR ($97 million). The other change was the FDIC issuing a Prompt Corrective Action order against Banks of Wisconsin, Kenosha, WI ($155 million).

Not surprising the FDIC took the long weekend off. We wish a happy Labor weekend to all and hope that anyone seeking a job lands one soon.

CR Note: The FDIC's official problem bank list is comprised of banks with a CAMELS rating of 4 or 5, and the list is not made public. (CAMELS is the FDIC rating system, and stands for Capital adequacy, Asset quality, Management, Earnings, Liquidity and Sensitivity to market risk. The scale is from 1 to 5, with 1 being the strongest.)

As a substitute for the CAMELS ratings, surferdude808 is using publicly announced formal enforcement actions, and also media reports and company announcements that suggest to us an enforcement action is likely, to compile a list of possible problem banks in the public interest.

When the list was increasing, the official and "unofficial" counts were about the same. Now with the number of problem banks declining, the unofficial list is lagging the official list. This probably means regulators are changing the CAMELS rating on some banks before terminating the formal enforcement actions.

by Calculated Risk on 8/31/2012 06:29:00 PM

"The stagnation of the labor market in particular is a grave concern not only because of the enormous suffering and waste of human talent it entails, but also because persistently high levels of unemployment will wreak structural damage on our economy that could last for many years."
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, August 31, 2012

From a research note today by Andrew Tilton at Goldman Sachs:

In the most striking line of the speech, Bernanke professed “grave concern” about the weak labor market and the potential human and economic cost of persistently high unemployment. Although consistent with prior comments about long-term unemployment and the risk of hysteresis, these are very strong words from a Fed chairman. When one has a “grave concern”, action—quite possibly aggressive action─is appropriate.

The Chairman’s remarks strengthen our conviction that the Fed will ease in September, most likely by pushing out its guidance that rates will remain “exceptionally low at least through late 2014” to mid-2015 or beyond. We now think the probability of an announcement of further asset purchases is close to 50/50 in September, though our base-case forecast is still that this is more likely in December or early 2013. When and if asset purchases do occur, we expect them to be concentrated in agency mortgage-backed securities, and on an open-ended basis (i.e. a monthly rate of purchases) with changes in the rate of purchases conditional on the economic environment. Our views could still change depending on how economic data and financial conditions evolve between now and the September 13 announcement.

And from Tim Duy at EconomistsView: Bernanke at Jackson Hole

On net, Bernanke's speech leads me to believe the odds of additional easing at the next FOMC meeting are somewhat higher (and above 50%) than I had previously believed. His defense of nontraditional action to date and focus on unemployment point in that direction. This is the bandwagon the financial press will jump on. Still, the backward looking nature of the speech and the obvious concern that the Fed has limited ability to offset the factors currently holding back more rapid improvement in labor markets, however, leave me wary that Bernanke remains hesitant to take additional action at this juncture. This suggests to me that additional easing is not a no-brainer, but perhaps that is just my internal bias talking.

by Calculated Risk on 8/31/2012 03:54:00 PM

LPS released their First Look report for July this week. LPS reported that the percent of loans delinquent decreased in July from June.

LPS reported the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) decreased in July to 7.03% from 7.14% in June. The percent of delinquent loans is still significantly above the normal rate of around 4.5% to 5%. The percent of delinquent loans peaked at 10.57%, so delinquencies have fallen over half way back to normal.

The following table shows the LPS numbers for July 2012, and also for last month (June 2012) and one year ago (July 2011).

LPS: Percent Loans Delinquent and in Foreclosure Process
	July 2012	June 2012	July 2011
Delinquent	7.03%	7.14%	7.90%
In Foreclosure	4.08%	4.09%	4.12%
Number of loans:
Loans Less Than 90 Days	1,960,000	2,012,000	NA
Loans 90 Days or more	1,560,000	1,590,000	NA
Loans In Foreclosure	2,042,000	2,061,000	NA
Total	​5,562,000	5,663,000	NA

The total number of delinquent loans, and in foreclosure, dropped about 100 thousand in July from June.

The percent of loans less than 90 days delinquent is close to normal, but the percent (and number) of loans 90+ days delinquent and in the foreclosure process are still very high.

by Calculated Risk on 8/31/2012 01:54:00 PM

Fannie Mae reported that the Single-Family Serious Delinquency rate declined in July to 3.50% from 3.53% June. The serious delinquency rate is down from 4.08% in July last year, and this is the lowest level since April 2009.

The Fannie Mae serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010 at 5.59%.

Freddie Mac reported that the Single-Family serious delinquency rate declined in July to 3.42%, from 3.45% in June. Freddie's rate is only down slightly from 3.51% in July 2011. Freddie's serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010 at 4.20%. This is the lowest level for Freddie since August 2009.

These are loans that are "three monthly payments or more past due or in foreclosure".

Click on graph for larger image

In 2009, Fannie's serious delinquency rate increased faster than Freddie's rate. Since then, Fannie's rate has been falling faster - and now the rates are at about the same level.

Although this indicates some progress, the "normal" serious delinquency rate is under 1% - and it looks like it will be several years until the rates back to normal.