More Homeowners are Opting for 'Strategic Defaults'
March 17, 2010, Los Angeles Times

Nearly one-quarter of U.S. mortgages, or about 11 million loans, are "underwater," i.e. the houses are worth less than the balance of their loans. While home values are regaining ground — median prices rose 10% in Southern California last month to $275,000 compared with a year earlier — they remain far below the July 2007 peak of $505,000. Many homeowners are just coming to grips with the idea that prices will take years to reach the pre-crash peak: as long as 14 years in California, according to economist Chris Thornberg.


An Odd Way to Measure the Success of Mortgage Mods
March 15, 2010, Wall Street Journal

The Obama administration has an odd way of assessing the results of its $50 billion Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP. When the program was announced a year ago, the administration said it would “offer reduced monthly payments for up to three million to four million at-risk homeowners,” people in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure. That phrase, though qualified by the words “up to,” set high expectations. Despite the huge expectations the administration built up for HAMP, dealing with this situation was never going to be easy. Nearly eight million U.S. households, or 15% of those with mortgages, are behind on payments or in foreclosure in what has become by far the worst wave of defaults since the 1930s. Stand by for more rescue plans from Uncle Sam, and perhaps more inflated expectations.


Home Builders Can't Compete With Foreclosures
March 15, 2010, Forbes

As U.S. home builders grew more wary of the housing market in March, besieged by competition from cheap foreclosures, real estate auction companies are booming. Real Estate Disposition, a home auctioneer, has sold off 7,000 properties for $382 million so far this year, says spokesman Rick Weinberg. The total dollar value of auctioned properties is 10% higher than it was in the last three months of 2009 when Real Estate Disposition moved 6,351 homes across the U.S.


Obtaining Due Process in Non-Judicial Foreclosure States
March 16, 2010, RISMEDIA

Things are starting to get really ugly out here on the front lines. The banksters latest tactic has them confirming in writing that the homeowner’s eligibility for a modification is being considered while secretly continuing to foreclose.The homeowner breathes a huge sigh of relief and waits….and waits….and waits. Then comes a knock on the door and the homeowner is out on the street. And, in more and more cases, the borrowers are not even being served with notice as required by law.


Fed Leaves Interest Rates At Record-Low Level
March 16, 2010, NPR

The Federal Reserve decided Tuesday to keep its benchmark interest rate near zero, reinforcing a commitment that rates should stay at record lows as the nation grapples with high unemployment and tight credit. Concluding a one-day policy meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee said the target rate for overnight loans between banks would remain in the zero-to-0.25 percent range "for an extended period."


24-story Trump Condo-Hotel on Ft. Lauderdale Faces Foreclosure
March 16, 2010, Palm Beach Post

The unfinished Trump International Hotel & Tower on Fort Lauderdale beach is facing foreclosure, after developers defaulted on a $139 million loan on the long-awaited condo-hotel project. The new mortgage holder filed for foreclosure against the developers, SB Associates LLC. The suit also names more than 80 people who put deposits on condos, but never received the units or refunds, and now seek liens on the high-rise that was to include 298 condos.

New round of foreclosures threatens housing market
March 12, 2010 — Washington Post

The housing market is facing swelling ranks of homeowners who are seriously delinquent but have yet to lose their homes, and this is threatening a new wave of foreclosures that could hit just as the real estate market has begun to stabilize.

Foreclosure tsunami hits high-end homes
March 12, 2010 — Inman News

A few months ago, one of my columns focused on the tie-in between unemployment in the financial sector and the high-end home market.

Foreclosure Specialist Admonishes HAFA Program
March 11, 2010 — DSNews

President Obama’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative (HAFA) program has been under intense fire this week.

As DSNews.com reported, four appraisal organizations sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday, opposing the program’s allowance of broker price opinions (BPOs). However, appraisers aren’t the only ones with concerns about HAFA.

BofA and the Parrot: Bird’s Eye View of the Foreclosure Mess
March 11, 2010 — Wall Street Journal

“It isn’t about the parrot,” a lawyer for Angela Iannelli told me.

The issue, insisted the lawyer, Michael Rosenzweig of Edgar Snyder & Associates in Pittsburgh, was the distress inflicted on Ms. Iannelli by Bank of America Corp.’s bungling. As we reported Wednesday, the bank apologized for an incident in which its contractors entered her home near Pittsburgh while she was out, cut off utilities, padlocked the door and confiscated her pet parrot. Though Ms. Iannelli had fallen a month or so behind on mortgage payments, her case hadn’t reached the stage at which Bank of America would be justified in taking such actions to “secure” the collateral.

FHA challenged on projected risk to taxpayers
March 12, 2010 — Washington Post

The Federal Housing Administration will need taxpayer money because it failed to properly project how borrowers with FHA-backed loans are affected by job losses and diminished equity in their homes, New York University professor Andrew Caplin told a House panel Thursday.

Brockton activist takes foreclosure woes to Bernanke
March 10, 2010 — Boston Globe

Katie Sandford is a Brockton housing activist and young mother who worries about how foreclosures have damaged her city.

Yesterday, she was able to have her say with the most powerful banker in the world, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, in a one-hour, face-to-face meeting in Washington, D.C.

Milwaukee Foreclosure Mediation Programs Help 50 Families
March 9, 2010 — Huliq News

Underwater homeowners in Milwaukee are getting help from local county mediators. Wisconsinites are doing everything possible to avoid more foreclosures. Milwaukee is in the state lead for foreclosed properties, according to Realtytrac.com, and the state currently ranks 21st in comparison to the rest of the nation's foreclosure crisis.

Congressman Calls for Second Lien Write-Downs
March 8, 2010 — DSNews

As servicers step up efforts to modify loans and keep borrowers in their homes, many are tripping over stumbling blocks in the form of home equity loans and other second lien mortgages. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D- Massachusetts) has sent out a petition to some of the nation’s largest junior lien holders demanding that they take “immediate steps to write down second mortgages” to create a clear path for sustainable loan restructurings.

Senate financial bill appears likely to keep Fed as regulator of big banks
March 10, 2010 — Washington Post

Key members of the Senate banking committee are coalescing around legislation that would strip the Federal Reserve of much of its regulatory authority but would leave the central bank with oversight of the nation's largest banks, according to aides familiar with the ongoing negotiations.

Dodd: Negotiations improving on bank reform bill
March 9, 2010 — MarketWatch

WASHINGTON — As they work on sweeping bank reform legislation, senators are close to reaching a deal on the creation of a controversial consumer protection unit for mortgages and credit card products while also resuming talks over how much power the Federal Reserve should have over banks.