Below The Beltway

In a nice, simple YouTube video that even politicians like George Bush and Nancy Pelosi can understand:

H/T: Sully

Two weeks ago he said the government should stay out of the mortgage crisis, now he’s all over calls for increased government intervention:
John McCain called for an aggressive federal government role aimed at stabilizing the housing market, rejecting a largely hands-off approach he outlined two weeks ago.
The likely Republican presidential nominee’s prescription included a heavy […]

More numbers are coming out that suggest that February had some good news for the battered real estate market:
Sales of previously owned homes unexpectedly rose in February, ending a six-month losing streak.
While the 2.9 percent increase in sales may not signal an end to the housing slump, it offered some relief to sellers who had […]

Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson comes up with a really bad idea:
As a longtime realtor in Cobb County, Sen. Johnny Isakson has seen housing downturns before. “We had recessions in 1968, 1974, 1982, and 1991, by every measurement, this is going to be a deeper and bigger recession in residential housing. It’s a significant event.”
Isakson is […]

The D.C. Examiner provides what will probably be seen as good news to homeowners throughout the Washington, D.C. area:
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Though tough economic data seems to have been piling up lately, Thursday brought a hint of good news as home foreclosures dropped in the majority of the metro area and across the country, […]

The Federal Reserve Board reported today that American’s percentage of equity in their homes slipped below 50% last year:
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans’ percentage of equity in their homes has fallen below 50 percent for the first time on record since 1945, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.
Homeowners’ percentage of equity slipped to a revised […]

According to a report released today, it looks like the housing crisis is far from over:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Home foreclosures soared to an all-time high in the final quarter of last year, underscoring the suffering of distressed homeowners and the growing danger the housing meltdown poses for the economy.
The Mortgage Bankers Association, in a […]

The New York Times reports today that an increasing number of people are just walking away from their mortgages:
In recent months top executives from Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wachovia have all described a new willingness by borrowers to walk away from mortgages.
Carrie Newhouse, a real estate agent who also works as a loss […]

This isn’t entirely surprising:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — New home sales slipped to a nearly 13-year low in January, according to a key government report on the battered housing market.
January sales came in at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 588,000, the Census Bureau report showed, down 2.8% from 605,000 in December.
The reading was below the consensus […]

Foreclosures were up 57% nationwide in January:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Foreclosure filings nationwide soared 57% in January over the same month last year - another indication that the nation’s housing woes are deepening.
A study released Tuesday by RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosure properties, showed that 233,001 homes were affected, 8% more than in December. […]