Happy talk will not fix housing. Housing will lead to deflation.

No one wanted to listen when the housing crisis began. The Republicans were just as bad and clueless as the Democrats, probably worse.

It should have been obvious that falling prices, the evaporation of credit and rising unemployment would create the perfect housing storm. The situation is actually getting worse, not better.

Some of the happy talkers have seized on any morsel of positive news to declare things are improving. Surely, at some time markets will heal, but at a needless price and a mass destruction of equity and capital.

I am not even going to review the suggestions made on this blog and many others that would have helped. It was a waste of time then and remains so now. Doctrine overruled pragmatism. Take your medicine.

_____________


Prime Jumbo Trouble: The Foreclosures Keep Coming
By Nick Timiraos


WSJ
The volume of loans entering foreclosure and the rates of foreclosure starts showed no signs of slowing in July, even amid signs that early stage delinquencies may be slowing. Foreclosure starts increased by 7.1% in July, the second highest month on record, according to a monthly report by LPS Applied Analytics.

Among the report’s key conclusions: Foreclosure rates on prime jumbo loans, granted to borrowers with good credit and too large for backing from government agencies, surpassed the 2.98% average for all loan types in July, and continue to rise faster than any other loan type. Prime jumbo foreclosure rates are up a staggering 634% versus January 2008 levels, according to LPS Applied Analytics.

Meanwhile, a research report by FTN Financial notes that there are some signs that the rapid deterioration earlier this year of Alt-A loans, a level between prime and subprime that includes “liar’s loans” that didn’t require documentation of incomes, could stabilize in the coming months. But the same can’t be said about prime jumbo loans:

There is now very little financing available to support the high end of the housing market, and the performance trends in prime jumbo space are quite troubling. Therefore, we think the prime jumbo sector will surprise to the downside over the next 6-12 months, whereas the performance of the lower-loan balance Alt-A market will continue to flat-line for a few months before slowly improving starting in mid-2010.

A separate report by Hope Now, a mortgage industry coalition, found that foreclosure starts increased in July, to 284,000 from 251,000 in June, even as completed foreclosure sales decreased to 89,000, from 93,000.