The Blog of Author Mark MacKenzie: It's The Housing Market, Stupid!

The Bank of Wyoming was shuttered by the FDIC on July 10th making it the 53rd bank failure this year. The concern for local banks is that many of them are hard-wired into the commercial property market, specifically commercial property values.  While most of the residential mortgage loans were se...

According to the Census Bureau, housing permits rose 8.7% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 563,000, the highest pace since December of 2008. Single family housing permits rose 5.9% from May to June to the highest rate since October of 2008. While these numbers are both good news, w...

In one of Meredith Whitney's most recent and damning interviews (watch the video) on the economy, housing market, and banking system she forecasts 13% unemployment, 50% home value declines from the peak, the bursting of the homeownership bubble, and a prolonged banking and credit crisis.  Whitney...

How can a bank lose money when they can borrow at 0% and lend at 5%?  Most won't lose money, and Bank of America was no exception when it released its second quarter earnings this past week, but they came close. A couple of things from a Reuters report that are worth pointing out: First, "Results...

According to the Census Bureau, housing starts rose 3.6% in June from last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 582,000, this is the highest pace since November of 2008.  Interestingly it was only in April, two months ago that housing starts had made a record low. The story within the re...

Despite RealtyTrac's recent announcement revealing that foreclosure filings surged 33% from last year, Jim Cramer is refusing to back down from his shameful housing bottom call that he made in June.  In fact, Cramer took his prediction one step further on Thursday when he wrote, "the worst is ove...

According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings surged by 33% from June of 2008 to June of 2009.  Additionally, filings are up 5% month over month from May to June.  In other words, despite Obama's housing plan, the pace of foreclosures is accelerating. According to the AP, "It was the fourth-straig...

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association and their weekly mortgage application survey, mortgage purchase applications fell 9.4% from the previous week to 258.8.  This is the lowest reading in 7 weeks when the survey fell to 256.6 during the week of May 22. The reason the purchase application...

Nassim Taleb, the author of "The Black Swan", said during a CNBC interview on July 2nd, "We're in the middle of a crash" when referring to the economy and banking system.  In other words, the crash is still happening and we have further to fall. And while most reasonable people would come to the ...

On May 26th, as a result of consumer confidence surging despite a deteriorating job market and eroding home values, I arrived at the conclusion that the stock market rally was the reason for the increase in consumer sentiment, there was no other explanation.  The flaw in this "confidence" was of ...