Housing Giants - June 23, 2008 - (Page 8)

viewpoint TIpS fOr USING Housing giants DIGITAl Reading Housing Giants digital magazine might take some adjustment – and we thank you for your patience. Here are a few tips to help you along: Is it hard to read? Play with the “zoom” tool. You probably figured out that clicking on a page zooms in or out, making a closer read easier. But did you know you can change the amount of “zoom”? After you open Housing Giants, find the zoom button on the left side of the toolbar; click on it to adjust to what works for you. Do the pages load slowly? Clear your Internet browser’s history, and delete cookies and other temporary Internet files. If you have Internet Explorer, you can take care of all three by choosing Internet Options under the Tools drop-down menu. Do you want to take it with you? Housing Giants still travels. Once the magazine is open, find the Print option in the toolbar and insert the pages you’d like to print: a few or the entire magazine if you wish. many of their more risky loans. The trouble is, after the transfer, the banks can no longer renegotiate the terms of the loans, which creates problems when defaults loom (like they do now). Many of these loans came in the form of subprime mortgages, Howe writes, HOUSING GIANTS.6.23.08 and their defaults were a large spur to the housing crisis. But the jig is now up. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the governing body of U.S. accounting rules, recently outlawed use of QSPEs for the purpose of removing mortgage-backed securities from the books of financial institutions. This should encourage the institutions to tighten underwriting standards, because all defaults will now be recognized on their own books. Then there’s the report that appeared recently in London’s The Financial Times, warning that U.S. banks fear being forced to take back onto their balance sheets $5 trillion in assets. Accounting changes in the coming months will force the moves, the report says, which is likely to curb future lending. Analysts say the tightening of rules regarding off-balance sheet vehicles (I smell a whole bunch of QSPEs) will force such moves. Birgit Specht, head of securitization analysis at Citigroup, is quoted in the Financial Times report: “We think it is very likely that these vehicles will come back on the balance sheet. This will not affect liquidity because [they] are funded, but it will affect debt-to-equity ratios [at the banks] and so significantly impact banks’ ability to lend.” Better ask your banker what he knows about QSPEs! HG www.HOUSINGGIANTS.cOm http://www.fasb.org/ http://www.fasb.org/ http://www.citigroup.com/citigroup/homepage/ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/db943d88-3196-11dd-b77c-0000779fd2ac.html http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/db943d88-3196-11dd-b77c-0000779fd2ac.html http://www.housinggiants.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Housing Giants - June 23, 2008

Housing Giants - June 23, 2008 Contents Viewpoint News and Moves Sell Workforce The Land Dilemma

Housing Giants - June 23, 2008

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