Economics Update: Housing Edition

There is a lot of news, so this one is just housing.

Mortgage rates are climbing, despite the Fed rate cuts. As I've said before, with the expectation of inflation and greater risk of defaults, there is nothing that the Fed can do to keep the rates down.

It does not help that Standard & Poors is looking at cutting ratings on new tranches of mortgage backed securities, this time Alt-A, to the tune of 1,887 classes, which are supposed to be higher quality than subprime.

In the San Diego area home prices are in free fall, having fallen 3% last month, and 9.14% in the last three months.

Finally, we are beginning to see foreclosure self help websites. The link is "You Walk Away" dot com.