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GOOD READS GET INSPIRED RESEARCHERS SAY MONETARY POLICY GAIN INSIGHT AND ISN'T ENOUGH TO PREVENT BUBBLES BiggerPockets Presents: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing  By Joshua Dorkin and Brandon Turner Already read by tens of thousands of people, this e-book answers the one foundational question asked of the authors on a daily basis: "How do I get started investing in real estate?" For those overwhelmed by the substantial volume of blogs, forums, books, and videos out there on the topic, the founder and the senior editor of BiggerPockets, a social network for the real estate investing community, break down the basics with actionable information you can use in this beginner's guidebook. Open Budgets: The Political Economy of Transparency, Participation, and Accountability Edited by Sanjeev Khagram, Archon Fung, and Paolo de Renzio Among the many issues of public concern, disputes and debates over the national budget are perhaps the closestwatched political incidents. As taxpayers and voters, constituents want to know where the money's going and why. Published by the Brookings Institution Press and developed in conjunction with the International Budget Partnership, Open Budgets delves into the level of transparency afforded the United States' ledgers in recent years. First-Time Landlord: Your Guide to Renting out a SingleFamily Home By Janet Portman and Marcia Stewart From timely tips to true stories from successful landlords, First-Time Landlord shows readers how to rent out property lawfully and safely, with information on determining a property's profitability, finding the right tenants, preparing the lease, handling repairs, dealing with problem tenants, and preparing to sell the property. 16 National monetary policy regulators would increase the alone cannot reliably prevent capital ratios for that asset," Higher capital or reverse housing bubbles, the researchers explained. according to a recent report Higher capital reserves reserves make a bank from the Lincoln Institute of make a bank safer and insafer and increase Land Policy. The downfall lies crease mortgage costs, dampin the fact that housing prices ening demand, according to mortgage costs, and housing markets vary dampening demand. the report. "[C]ountercyclical widely across the country, the capital requirements offer researchers concluded in their two major benefits: they report titled Preventing House Price Bubbles: better enable financial institutions to withstand Lessons from the 2006–2012 Bust. severe shocks, and they lower the likelihood of an "Indeed, the evidence strongly suggests that extreme event," the report stated. the idea of a national housing market is fiction," The researchers detailed the effect countercythe researchers stated. "There are in fact hundreds clical capital could have had on Fannie Mae leadof housing markets, albeit with some interconing up to the Great Recession. Fannie would have nectedness or shared features." had to maintain higher capital, thus decreasing Monetary policy and large national programs the amount of loans it acquired "that ultimately such as the Home Affordable Modification resulted in excessive losses." At the same time, Program (HAMP) may help some markets Fannie would have been forced to raise prices while hurting others, according to the report. on home loans, which would have decreased The researchers turned to a quote from Nassim demand, "thereby reducing the magnitude of the Taleb—scholar and author of The Black Swan—to house price bubble," according to the report. illustrate their point: "Never cross a river because The countercyclical capital policy the Lincoln it is on average four feet deep." Institute on Land Policy recommends would rely After illustrating the shortfalls of national on regional market models that would take into policies in addressing housing market bubbles, account home prices and economic indicators, inthe researchers from the Lincoln Institute of cluding employment rates and household income, Land Policy offer a solution: local countercyclical which affect home prices. capital policies. One of the obstacles to such a policy, the "The basic idea is straightforward: when prices researchers stated, is "[t]here will always be resisfor a particular asset or sector are rising much tance to raising capital requirements when times faster than market fundamentals justify, bank appear to be good." RULE SEEKS APPRAISAL EXEMPTIONS FOR HIGHER-PRICED LOANS Six financial regulatory agencies issued a proposed rule last month to exempt a subset of higher-priced mortgage loans from certain appraisal requirements. In a joint release, the FDIC, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Housing Finance Agency, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, National Credit Union Administration, and Federal Reserve Board proposed to provide exemptions from Dodd-Frank appraisal requirements for loans of $25,000 or less, certain streamlined refinancings, and certain loans secured by manufactured housing. According to a statement from the agencies, the proposed exemptions "are intended to save borrowers time and money and to promote the safety and soundness of creditors." The initial guidelines for appraisal requirements on higher-priced loans were issued by the regulators earlier this year and will go into effect January 18, 2014. The finalized rule requires creditors to use a licensed or certified appraiser who prepares a written report based on a visit to the property. It also includes a requirement that creditors disclose information about the purpose of the appraisal to applicants and provide consumers with a free copy of any appraisal report, among other mandates. The rule already included exemptions for several types of loans, including qualified mortgages (QMs); temporary bridge loans and construction loans; loans for new manufactured homes; and loans for mobile homes, trailers, and houseboats. The public has until September 9 to review and comment on the proposed exemption rule.

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