Someone will find 50 ways to tell us we’re idiots, and it wouldn’t be ‘Trek’ if they didn’t.
…but…
There’s just too much stuff out there to be loyal to everything
—Damon Lindelof inadvertantly addresses the encumberance of working as an informed expert while discussing the challenge of producing the new Star Trek movie
While the declines in residential real estate continued into February, we witnessed some deceleration in the rate of decline in some of the markets.
Finally, we’re seeing a touch of moderation. This is the kind of thing one might see if we’re beginning to see a bottom. I would not run out and celebrate, but I would not dig the bunker any deeper.
You really can’t tell for sure. It’s only one month’s observation. It’s pretty slim, but it’s better than nothing.
—David M. Blitzer, chairman of S.&P.’s index committee
When people looking at the index with hope or despair as to what it means for their home’s value at the present moment, it doesn’t necessarily give them that information. If the data were just February, we would have seen a much slower rate of decline.
—Thomas Lawler, former FNMA economist, on the impact of the survey’s methodology on the index value. Because it represents a three-month trailing average, it may have been weighed down by depressed sales in December and January.
Consumer Confidence
There’s definitely caution, but it pales in comparison to what we saw in the second half of 2008. By the second half, we may see a decided increase in consumer spending
Maxwell Clarke, chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal
Consumers believe the economy is nearing a bottom…[but it] remains well below levels associated with strong economic growth.
Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s consumer research center
The metro areas with the highest levels of foreclosure activity in the first quarter of 2009 paint a picture of concentrated problems in a relatively small number of hard hit areas.Sales activity appears to be increasing in some of these markets as home prices have fallen to levels that are attractive to first-time homebuyers and investors. While we expect many of these metro areas to continue to experience high levels of foreclosure activity throughout 2009, we also expect to see other markets rise up the ranks as unemployment rates surge throughout the country.
—James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac
Thirteen of the top 26 metro foreclosure rates were in California,
Nine were in Florida,
Two were in Nevada, and
Two were in Arizona.
There’s no reason he shouldn’t feel he’s going to make this thing make money. Maybe he will and maybe he won’t. But that that’s what 26-year-olds are supposed to think. Wisdom is not Jared’s business right now. Energy and enthusiasm is, and that’s something we can use a lot of here.
—Peter Kaplan, now former editor of the NY Observer:
In a newspaper you can work 300 hours a week and it still won’t make a difference.
—Peter Kalikow, Chairman of the MTA
—NYT, 3/11/2007: on the purchase of the NYO by Jared Kushner, scion of the disgraced Charles Kushner
Jared saved the paper. It would have gone bye-bye in 2006. He is fundamentally a capitalist in a business that needs capitalists, and he is 28 years old in a business that needs 28-year-olds.
—Peter Kaplan, parting words
I think it seems depressing that we are living at a time when someone like Peter Kaplan is not running a major publication in New York. That just seems weird to me.
—Jim Windolf, contributing editor of Vanity Fair
—NYT
In next few years inflation is going to be the bigger problem [than deflation]. We’re not going to see a sustained turnaround in the economy until next year.
—Martin Feldstein
It’s going to be a while before a report is going to say there’s clear signs of an economic recovery.
—Colin Bradford, Brookings Institute
As demand firms, and once inventories of houses and a broad range of goods are brought into line with sales, economic activity should begin to stabilize
—Donald Kohn, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman
Whatever damage has been done in California is only going to get worse because there is a glut of homes owned by lenders that aren’t yet on the market. These homes are like a shadow inventory that is likely to drag down prices further when they come onto the market.
—Bruce Norris, a principal with the Norris Group, a Riverside, California-based real estate investment firm
It’s going to be a long grind. Bernanke has a very difficult task in front of him, and I’m not sure if simply lowering mortgage rates from 4.8 percent to 4.5 percent to 4.25 percent will increase the number of people who want to buy houses.
—Dan Gertner, an analyst at New York-based Grant’s Interest Rate Observer
Home sales won’t rebound significantly until the job market stabilizes in early 2010
—Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com
It’s harder for younger first-time homebuyers. The buying is restricted to a somewhat wealthier group.
—John McIlwain, senior resident fellow for housing at the Urban Land Institute in Washington. “
Nobody is really sure what’s going on. We have a bipolar market with short sales and foreclosures on the one hand, and a higher-end market that’s doing relatively well.
—Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist of the California Association of Realtors
New York and the Mid-Atlantic region rises .7%, matching the overall US trend.
—FHFA
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