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Hard proof Dodd-Frank isn’t working | Katonah NY Real Estate
Reuters is running a pretty shocking exclusive right now. Apparently the Federal Bureau of Investigation, of all agencies, is investigating the claim that derivative traders are front running swaps orders from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The article itself goes into the unethical, if technically legal, nature of these trades. So I won’t. Still the contents are disturbing in implication.
The first is that the government-sponsored enterprises didn’t even look to monitor shifts in markets BEFORE placing these huge orders. Clearly, they were getting played, but aren’t even wide awake enough to take notice.
Second, this is proof Dodd-Frank isn’t working. The financial reform made plenty to do with how it would regulate derivatives and how this was going to happen: “The Dodd-Frank Act divides regulatory authority over swap agreements between the CFTC and SEC.”
Yet the FBI is investigating? Clearly something about this whole ordeal should be illegal, if not yet explicitly so as of today. How did this get past regulatory authority?
After all, we were led to believe that Dodd-Frank is meant to prevent activities just as this.
Three points from the article that show Dodd-Frank isn’t working. Read them and weep (the italics are my responses):
1: “Senior bankers at the two banks ‘planned and encouraged this behavior because it led to higher revenue for their respective parent banks’.”
Dodd-Frank is meant to serve as a model for disincentivizing this exact behavior.
2: There is “low confidence that law enforcement could prosecute suspected traders because the trades concerned seem to be completely legitimate.”
This kind of market manipulation may or may not be illegal? Dodd-Frank should have made it clear.
3: “GSEs frequently submit large interest-rate swap trades, making them easy targets for front running and lucrative targets for market manipulation,” the FBI bulletin said.
http://www.housingwire.com/blogs/1-rewired/post/28585-heres-hard-proof-dodd-frank-isnt-working
Real Housewives, Tour Boats Made Rosie O’Donnell Sell Her Star Island House | Katonah Real Estate
We crazy Miamians really did scare talk show lady Rosie O’Donnell out of her Star Island house after all. In a radio interview on the Paul & Young Morning Show, Rosie admitted that tour boats constantly cruising behind her house, and the insanity of her Real Housewives of Miami neighbors, finally drove her from the island, where she had lived for 18 years. And by that she probably means the Lisa Hochstein/42 Star Island debacle right next door, although to be fair Lea Black does own on the island too.
http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2014/01/10/real-housewives-tour-boats-made-rosie-leave-miami.php
Terry Riley Explores Miami’s Return To Its Pedestrian Routes | Katonah NY Real Estate
Australia Housing Report Revives Bubble Fears | Katonah Homes
Australia’s latest housing data, while promising on the surface, has increased concern the market may be overheating, posing a potential threat to a still fragile economic recovery.
A government report Monday showed the value of home loans approved in Australia rose 1.1% in November from October and 15% from a year earlier, confirming that record-low interest rates are continuing to fuel demand for houses and apartments.
However, the data also highlighted two trends that policy makers will be less thrilled about.
First, the rise in the value of mortgages approved continues to be driven by people looking to invest in property, rather than those seeking to move into houses or apartments. Second, first-home buyers are increasingly being frozen out of a market in which house prices have hit record highs in some large cities.
“While owner-occupier demand is intensifying, investor demand is surging well ahead,” said Janu Chan, a Sydney-based economist at St. George Bank in a note to clients, pointing out that investor loans for housing exceeded 30% in November.
Dubai property market attracting more Chinese investors | Katonah NY Real Estate
How to stop anyone on Google+ from emailing your Gmail account | Katonah NY Realtor
Katonah-Lewisboro Parents Propose New School Redistricting Option | Katonah NY Real Estate
Edward Burt’s third-grade son may have to change schools in the fall if the Katonah-Lewisboro school board decides to close an elementary school when it votes on the matter Thursday, Jan. 23.
He isn’t alone. The Increase Miller Elementary School parent was one of dozens to attend a forum on the matter Wednesday night, moderated by Goldens Bridge resident and former Assemblyman Robert Castelli.
Mirjana Jovanovic, a mother of two at Increase Miller, asked the two Katonah-Lewisboro school board members present to consider an alternative option to moving 94 students to Katonah Elementary. Since the school runs below capacity, she proposed letting those students stay at Increase Miller and send new and incoming students to Katonah.
The idea caught steam with the board members and parents. Other parents suggested to let just those in fourth and fifth grades finish out their time at Increase Miller.
The school board formed a School Closure Task Force in June to investigate the possibility of closing one or two elementary schools in response to enrollment that has dropped by 700-plus students since 2006. The task force decided closing Lewisboro Elementary would disrupt the fewest students possible and created a redistricting plan that spread the 300-plus students across the remaining three schools.
However, Lewisboro Elementary parents asked the board to alter its redistricting plan to send their kids to only two schools. By sending them in larger groups parents argued this would prevent some students from being torn apart from their friends.
Tobin said the board agreed and the administration develop a second scenario, in which some Increase Miller kids would be redistricted to Katonah Elementary to even out the distribution among the three remaining schools. This, Burt said, would send students, including his son, to Katonah alone, without any of their friends.
“You listened to them, well you should listen to us,” Burt said. “You agreed with them, now here’s the other side of it.”
The other side of it left Burt and scores of parents filling the small room in the Lewisboro Recreation and Parks Building debating which redistricting scenario they prefer, each choosing the one that would impact their child least. Most parents supported Jovanovic’s idea because it would keep their kids together.
The first scenario would give Increase Miller 470 students, Katonah 490 and Meadow Pond 426. The second scenario would give Increase Miller 467, Katonah 472 and Meadow Pond 447.
The second scenario also comes with a lower savings total at $1.74 million, down from $1.89 million.
Tobin said she will bring the parents’ third scenario to the board at its regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, where they are scheduled to discuss which scenario is best. If four of the seven agree the phasing in, or grandfather clause should be looked into, the administration will do so, she said.
A public hearing on the school closing is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 16 and the final vote is Thursday, Jan. 23.
Parents may email all seven school board members, the superintendent and assistant superintendents ahead of the meeting Thursday, which will be held at the John Jay High School library on 60 Cross River Road, Cross River.
http://bedford.dailyvoice.com/schools/katonah-lewisboro-parents-propose-new-school-redistricting-option
Why 2013 Might be Housing’s Best Year Ever | Katonah NY Real Estate
After nearly a decade of disaster that reached levels of despair not seen since the Great Depression., the year ending today was more than a turnaround year. Within its short life, it changed housing from a liability to an asset so favorable that it had to power to take the rest of the nation’s economy along for its ride upward, in the eyes of the Bernankes and Obamas.
In some ways, it changed the housing economy for years to come. Like a human life, it’s true place in history won’t be known until it is gone and some time has passed, but it will be hard to argue with the hard numbers of what was achieved in 2013.
Some examples:
◦ Home prices are rising faster than they have since the housing boom. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property prices in 20 cities released today climbed 13.6 percent from October 2012, the biggest 12-month gain since February 2006, after a 13.3 percent increase in the year ended in September.
◦ Annual existing home sales should reach 5.1 million in 2013, the highest total in seven years, according to NAR. That is 10 percent higher than 2012’s total of almost 4.7 million.
◦ New home sales are on pace to reach 435,100 new homes sold this year, the most since 2008, according to Bloomberg. In November, purchases of new U.S. homes exceeded projections, holding near a five-year high and showing the housing recovery was gaining momentum even as mortgage rates climbed.
◦ Through the third quarter of 2013. more than 3 million homeowners returned to positive equity and homeowner equity increased by $33 billion. Some 7.1 million homes, or 14.5 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage, were still in negative equity at the end of the second quarter of 2013. This figure is down from 9.6 million homes, or 19.7 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage, at the end of the first quarter of 2013, according to CoreLogic.
◦ By the end of October, homeowners in 55 of the nation’s 100 largest markets have now recovered more than half of the equity they lost in the housing crash. Of the 84 all markets that achieved more than a 100 percent rebound in November, 58 were midsize. Additionally, 58 midsize markets (28% of the U.S. midsized markets) now have fully recovered prices.
◦ Mortgage rates rose about one full point during the year, which made buying a home more expensive for many. But at long last lending standards have begun to loosen up, perhaps because many originators are shifting from refinancing to purchase loans. Median FICO scores, for example, were at 729 in November, down from 750 in November 2012. Closing rates were 53.1% compared to 52.3% in 2012.
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/12/why-2013-might-be-housing%e2%80%99s-best-year-ever/