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“What did the happy real estate agent put on her sign? I have lots to be thankful for.” (Feel free to use that gem at your next presentation at Sotheby’s.) In response to yesterday’s opening paragraph comments about housing supply, from Maryland Ken Sonner sent an article about how New Zealand managed to shift its zoning to help alleviate the supply issues and lower rents. People like lists for some reason, and here is the “The 15 most in-demand ZIP codes for U.S. homebuyers, and #1 is in Ohio.” But heading back to inventory, affordable housing, and such, the topic is certainly percolating up to Capitol Hill. A bipartisan duo in the U.S. Senate introduced a bill that would address a shortage of affordable housing in rural communities by easing the process for non-profits to acquire properties with USDA rural housing loans. It would also decouple the related rental assistance so that the assistance doesn’t end when the mortgages mature. ( ....
“If you have no interest in banking, you are not a loan.” (Best said out loud to a 6th grader.) Cutting edge humor aside, this morning I head to Orlando for the FAMP event, in a state where there are a total of 186 banks operating with 4162 branches. Some of the conversation will be about Freddie Mac earning $2.9 billion in the 2nd quarter (how’d your company do?). Banks… Last Friday we saw something we haven’t seen for a while: a bank closure. “Heartland Tri-State Bank of Elkhart, Kansas, was closed by the Kansas Office of the State Bank Commissioner, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver… the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Dream First Bank, National Association, of Syracuse, Kansas…” While we’re on Agency and government news, the Federal Reserve's quarterly Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey found that banks have tightened credit standards f ....
A “crisis” is a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger. Think calamity, catastrophe, or disaster. The word makes for attention-grabbing headlines, and a scan through the news shows a mental health crisis, child care crisis, migrant crisis, China property crisis, a climate change crisis, an opioid crisis, a housing crisis… Eventually people become immune to seeing the word, and it loses its effectiveness, especially when nothing pans out from the “crisis.” I mention this because, despite a lot of predictions to the contrary, the banking “crisis” from March seems to have been contained to a few well-known banks. (Let’s hope so.) The Federal Reserve Board, released its results of annual bank stress test, which demonstrates that “large banks are well positioned to weather a severe recession and continue to lend to households and businesses even during a severe recession.” Of course, not every bank is large, and K ....