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Here’s a roundup of housing-related links from the past week:

• [Joint Release by OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, OTS, NCUA [OCC]](http://www.occ.gov/toolkit/newsrelease.aspx?JNR=1&Doc=XWJAUOQF.xml) — “The federal financial regulatory agencies today issued for comment proposed guidance on residential mortgage products that allow borrowers to defer repayment of principal and sometimes interest.”

• [U.S. Nov. PPI down 0.7%, core PPI up 0.1% [MarketWatch]](http://marketwatch.com/news/newsfinder/pulseone.asp?dist=bnb&param=archive&siteid=mktw&guid=%7B6EA8B97B%2DB18D%2D4142%2D8A65%2D6D15A009B0C6%7D&dateid=) — “U.S. prices of raw materials and other producers’ inputs fell 0.7% in November, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. This is the largest monthly decline since April 2003. Excluding food and energy costs, the core PPI rose 0.1%.”

• [Housing Starts Rise, Core Inflation Tame [NYT]](http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-economy.html) — “U.S. housing starts rose 5.3 percent in November, defying Wall Street expectations for a slowdown, while producer prices posted their biggest drop since July 2004 and showed well-contained inflation outside the volatile energy and food areas, the government said Tuesday.”

• [Has the Fed Finished Tightening? [BW]](http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/dec2005/nf20051219_2801_db082.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily) — “After tightening for the 13th time (appropriately on Dec. 13), the Federal Reserve appears to be signaling that it’s nearing the end of the rising-rate cycle. Standard & Poor’s expects another 25-basis point hike at the Jan. 31 meeting, and another 25 basis points in March, if economic growth remains strong. We then expect the Fed to close up shop for the rest of 2006.”

• [Builder Sentiment Cools Further In December [NAHB]](http://www.nahb.org/news_details.aspx?sectionID=134&newsID=1649) — “Confidence of single-family home builders slid further this month from its summer peak, yet remained well within the positive range, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for December, released today. The overall HMI declined four points from a slightly revised November number to 57, while the component measuring builder expectations for future sales held firm at 65.”

Tags: FDIC, NAHB

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The FDIC reported that [bank and thrift earnings set a record this quarter [FDIC]]((http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2005/pr11805.html), above the prior record set in the first quarter. Other items of interest are:

• Residential mortgage loan growth increased 3.6% over last quarter. (I’d consider this a solid increase.)
  

• Growth in real estate construction was 7.2% and is accelerating. (This is reflective of the potential for an over supply of housing.)
  

• Home equity loan growth increased by 0.8%, the smallest quarterly increase in 4 years. (This could be a clue to a weakening economy as homeowners cooled off their use of home equity accounts, which is largely credited with keeping the economy going.
  

Tags: FDIC

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The Real Deal – The Real Deal Weekly Interview

I suggested to Amir Korangy of the Real Deal that he begin Podcasting since his publication would be a perfect candidate for it. The Real Deal has access to many interesting people and their content is always changing.

Not only did he look into this technology right away, but he asked me to be the guninea pig…errr…the first interviewee. 😉

From The Real Deal’s Web Site…

Jonathan Miller at The Real Deal Magazine’s first Podcast on July 15, 2005

In The Real Deal’s inaugural interview in its new weekly audiocast series, we sat down with appraiser Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers and Consultants. Miller’s reports on the Manhattan apartment market are the most widely cited in the industry, and he has been featured in The New York Times, the New York Post and countless other publications including The Real Deal.

With reports showing apartment prices hitting new peaks each quarter but often differing significantly in their findings we asked Miller how he collects his data, and his thoughts on the existence of a real estate bubble. To listen to the entire interview, click one of the links below.

[MP3 Version](/wp-content/The_Real_Deal_Podcast_1.mp3)

[Podcast (RSS) Version](http://www.audibletreats.com/download/podcast/TRD.xml)

excerpt…

THE REAL DEAL: Is there a housing bubble in New York?

MILLER: It’s interesting about the whole bubble psychology the boom and bust orientation in the real estate discussions that have been going on for the last three or four months. Especially because Manhattan is closely tied with the financial markets.

A lot of us remember what happened in ’87 with the stock market crash and subsequent real estate correction that we saw from about the end of ’89 to early ’95. So it is something that is fresh in everybody’s minds, and everybody is trying to relate that to the current experience that we are having now.

When I look at what happened then versus now, it’s apples and oranges, a very different experience. Back then we had a tax incentive-based supply-creation syndrome I made that up, but the idea is that housing came on in large quantities in the mid ’80s because of tax incentives. The 421a abatements gave the incentives to developers to throw foundations in the ground without even plans for what they were going to build just to get the tax credits.

Then all of a sudden in ’86 we had the change in the federal tax laws that eliminated the whole incentive for investors to buy individual units that created a lot of supply. And then we had the co-op conversion frenzy, in which seemingly every rental building that could have been converted was converted. I think the conversion pace today not including 2005, but up through the end of 2004 is something like 10 percent of what it was back then, but that’s largely inclusive of, say, lofts being gut renovated to condo as opposed to existing rental buildings.

As far as today, the situation is we have record low mortgage rates, which are really fueling a lot of the demand and we have an improving but very tepid economy. And we now have supply that is gaining momentum. Your magazine did a great study on the condo inventory that is coming online [in July 2005 issue].

TRD: Thank you.

MILLER: And it’s gaining speed. But it’s still about 3,000 units, give or take, and we have a condo universe of somewhere in the neighborhood of 65,000 to 85,000, depending on who you talk to. So it’s still relatively small. In prior years we were talking about 1,500 units coming online. So the pace is increasing but it’s another 1,500 units a year.

I think the two variables on whether we are going to go into a bubble real estate environment is going to be supply or mortgage rates. There are a lot of other things to look at, but those are two main things. Mortgage rates have been forecasted to increase since the end of 2003, and, generally speaking, they’ve been falling. So, in the equation of supply and demand, it has become a constant.

TRD: Brooklyn has become such a great place for developers to go to because there are so many available lots.

MILLER: For those new developments to come in and be viable they are getting $700 a foot. In Manhattan now, the threshold seems to be you have to be at least at 1,000, and more likely on the new developments you’re talking $1,500.

TRD: If you saw a new development at $1,000 per square foot, would you jump on that and say, “Hey, that’s a bargain?”

MILLER: I guess it’s personal preference. You have to decide whether you like the neighborhood. I’ve always felt the reason why [a neighborhood is] cheaper than a Soho and Tribeca is because it’s not proven as yet for that price structure. So you are going to see more price volatility if you have some sort of market downturn meaning that there is a lot of upside and there’s potential downside.

However, the thing about housing which is very different than stocks, is that, for example, the FDIC defines a housing boom as three years and 30 percent appreciation, and a bust is five years and 15 percent depreciation.

TRD: And how does that compare to our market now?

MILLER: On the upside, we’re about double what their boom figure is. But it’s sort of that idea that on a down cycle, prices tend to be sticky on the downside, that it’s still an asset that’s useable. Real estate is a cyclical thing.

We’ve just seen a lot of the upside over the last five to seven years.

Tags: FDIC, Podcast, Amir Korangy

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