New Program to Speed 'Short' Sales

New Program to Speed 'Short' Sales
March 14, 2010, Wall Street Journal

Short sales are a valuable tool for struggling homeowners. But they've been notoriously difficult to complete, with buyers and sellers often playing a long waiting game before hearing back from lenders. Now, however, a new government program plus some lender initiatives may make for shorter wait times and a smoother process. "Any structure is better than what we've had," says Kathryn Bovard, a broker/manager for Prudential Americana Group in the Las Vegas area.


Government Could Cut Seconds First
March 10, 2010, Wall Street Journal

It is one of the big unanswered questions of the housing crisis: Why hasn't the government pushed harder to include second mortgages in its anti-foreclosure efforts? Take a stressed borrower with a $200,000 first mortgage and a $50,000 second-lien loan, such as a home-equity line of credit. The government's foreclosure-prevention approach focuses primarily on modifying the first mortgage by, say, reducing the interest rate. But writing down the junior loan would immediately lighten the borrower's overall debt burden. And this would be fairer since second loans are subordinate to the first mortgage.


Some Tax Issues to Consider on Mortgage Write-Downs
March 13, 2010, Washington Post

With the Obama administration and private lenders actively considering mortgage principal-reduction programs to help financially distressed homeowners, the Internal Revenue Service has issued a new advisory to taxpayers who receive -- or seek to receive -- such assistance. The IRS gets involved in mortgage principal write-downs because the federal tax code generally treats any forgiveness of debt by a creditor in excess of $600 as ordinary taxable income to the recipient.


The Squeeze on Napa Valley Wine
March 11, 2010, BusinessWeek

That sound you hear is not the uncorking of a cabernet—it's the popping of California's wine country bubble. Crumbling land prices and a newfound popularity of cheaper wine may turn 2010 into a vintage year for Napa Valley foreclosures. As many as 10 premium wineries and vineyards in the area—home to the nation's priciest grapes—will change hands in distressed sales or foreclosures this year and next, according to an estimate by Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB). (In 2008 there were none.) Property loan defaults in January were up fourfold from a year ago.