Linkage: Where Home Prices Are Rising Faster Than Rents

Today’s Originations linkfest: must-read mortgage and housing stories (and a goof-off video too). Lots of great weekend reading material here, and if you only have time for one right now, read Jed Kolko’s piece on rents and home prices. He’s chief economist for Trulia and is one of the few analysts who emphasizes asking prices rather than closed prices of homes, so his data provides a leading rather than lagging indicator of housing.

– Has MBS Become A Crowded Trade? (SoberLook)

– Lawler: on the upward trend in real house prices (via CalculatedRisk)

– Fannie & Freddie Will Live Forever (Shanthi Bharatwaj, TheStreet)

– The Big Long: new generation of investors betting on US housing (Economist)

– Prices rising faster than rents in biggest cities (Jed Kolko, Trulia Chief Economist)

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Follow The Authors:
@calculatedrisk, @shavenk, @soberlook, @TheEconomist, @JedKolko
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And as a bonus for this weekend, here’s the hottest viral video of December so far: College Humor’s Nickelback parody released last week that rips Instagram in epic fashion. The part about the duck made me laugh out loud.