Curbed:Meantime, in Manhattan: a mere eight foreclosure auctions were scheduled in April

http://curbed.com/

scroll down a little...

I'm not shaving my back just yet...

Yup. People like to dream about the impact of foreclosures. In Manhattan they are practically non-existant. Even if there were many times that number, they would still be nominal relative to overall resale transaction volume.

The economics support selling the home via negotiated transaction pre-foreclosure in Manhattan. The bank/owner gets more residual value in a negotiated transaction this way. Property needs to sit unsold for a much longer period of time (1 year or longer) before the foreclosure actually becomes an economically superior way of recovering value on the property.

Nothing to see here.

For now. We're still below the "magic number" which is usually 30% price decrease or greater.

Must we go through this nonsense every time? Foreclosure data are NOT comparable from one state to another. First, for instance, California is a title theory state; New York is a lien theory state. Meaning that in California the lender owns the property; the "owner" occupies it under a deed-in-trust. Which makes foreclosure as simple as an eviction.

New York, on the other hand, is a lien theory state, meaning that the lender merely holds a lien against the property. State foreclosure laws mean that it can take up to 18 months to execute a foreclosure, whereas in other states - Georgia, for instance - they have nonjudicial foreclosures that can and do take place on courthouse steps, and are very fast. In New York, co-ops are not technically foreclosures, and they do not show up in the figures until the foreclosure is executed. And it is much easier to sell a property in the 18 months a foreclosure takes in New York than it is in the 30 days it takes elsewhere.

Therefore, you're comparing apples to horsecrap.

Here you go steveF. Wouldn't want you to miss the reality check.

Paul Krugman Says Rapid Recovery ‘Extremely Unlikely’

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aE0mkwMWHxQs&refer=home

The housing market will stabilize a lot sooner than most of you think.
Recent reports out of Asia is that housing prices in Hong Kong are at new all time highs.
Now we have this...

"In the U.K., measures of same-store sales and house prices rose to multiyear highs, helping the British pound rally over 1% to four-month highs. The dollar also dropped against the euro and was steady the yen."

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-futures-edge-up-on-economic-optimism

stevejhx, but you are forgetting about the this:...

New Foreclosures in New York City (263) saw an 18% decrease from March 2009 (320) and a 20% decrease from April 2008 (329). Queens’ new foreclosures (172) recorded a 23% drop from March 2009 (222) and an 11% decrease from the April 2008 numbers (193). Manhattan had 8 new foreclosures in April 2009, 47% less than in April 2008 (15).

steveF, I'm not forgetting anything. Foreclosures in NY are a meaningless measure.

Steve - I agree with you on the foreclosures. Since it is so difficult to get to that point in NYC the sample-saize is so small that it is not worth anything of value.

As if to prove stevejhx' point, Curbed today posts that Victoria Gotti's Westbury home has been forclosed on, but only after she missed two years of payments.

Wait a minute...Steve and Curbed have never been in the same place at the same time. Perhaps they are one in the same? This could be a conspiracy, Steve...if that is your name....

More non sense from you SteveF :
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1895766,00.html?
and since you have your nose sticked to cnbc all day, how come you havn't posted this?:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/30687618/site/14081545?__source=yahoo|headline|quote|text|&par=yahoo&

"and since you have your nose sticked to cnbc all day, how come you havn't posted this?"

Its called denial...

I call it now.... housing prices will stop declining 12 months after SteveF stops saying they've stopped declining...

Bailout watchdog: Credit crunch alive and well

In her latest report, Elizabeth Warren of the Congressional Oversight Panel says loans for small businesses and households are still tough to come by.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/07/news/economy/warren_report/index.htm?section=money_markets

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite recent encouraging signs in the economy, Americans are having a hard time getting credit and the effectiveness of government programs to spur lending is unclear, a congressional bailout watchdog said Thursday.

"A snapshot of small business credit at the beginning of 2009 shows credit terms tightening and loan volume dropping," the Congressional Oversight Panel wrote. "Families are facing an even more difficult situation."

The report looked at the availability of credit for small businesses and consumer loans, such as credit cards, auto loans and student loans. It also looked closely at the government's TALF program meant to stimulate markets for those kinds of loans.

"Small business lending has not principally advanced through TALF," said the panel's chief Elizabeth Warren on Thursday. "It's much more through SBA loans, direct loans through community beaks and credit cards."

TALF -- for Term Asset-Backed Lending Facility -- aims to make consumer and small business loans more widely available by spurring what's known as the securitization of those loans. In securitization, banks that make loans in turn sell them to investors -- thus reducing the lenders' cost and risk.

The securitization market in the first quarter of 2009 was 80% below the level in 2007, according to the report.

The five-member panel, established by the law enacted last fall at the height of the financial crisis that set aside $700 billion to bail out banks and other companies, is headed by Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren.

Warren has been an outspoken critic of the government's handling of the bailouts, arguing forcefully that the government rescue efforts need more transparency and tougher standards on banks.

But her latest report also acknowledges that many forces could contribute to restricted lending.

Rising unemployment might mean that households will take on less credit card debt, for example. And as the economy slows, small businesses might have less need for credit.

Even so, the report expressed concern about the effectiveness of TALF to help. "Despite favorable loan terms, the TALF is only beginning to generate significant demand. Some of the slow growth of demand is attributable to lack of demand for securitization, some to claimed flaws in the program's design, and some to fear of political risk. Under those conditions, it is difficult to predict at what rate the demand for TALF loans will increase."