Americans Brace for Next Foreclosure Wave

[nordskoven]

reuters.com/article/2012/04/04/us-foreclosure-idUSBRE83319E20120404

Described elsewhere as a “tsunami,” what are described here as “foreclosure starts”–what an ugly concept versus “housing starts”–are ready to pummel the housing market that had, not a recovery, but simply a little breather in 2011. All the robo-signing paperwork has been cleared up and the hopper is dumping foreclosures out. Home prices will be depressed further, taking the economy with it.

HUD has elsewhere stated since families are not buying homes, they are designing programs to offer their burgeoning foreclosure inventory to landlords. Rental properties are not ideal for having stable populations in neighborhoods. But this could be useful for those wishing to hold rental properties in their IRA’s. There has to be a trustee-to-trustee transfer to a self-directed account, right? I would hope good-hearted Catholics would become these landlord types, or engage in rent-to-own. Even the Church herself should do this as was done in St. Louis to stabilize the community around the Cathedral. God bless America.

 

[7_Sorrows]

when will this stop??!! please tell me there are not more foreclosures about to come on the market again!!!

 

[Megan7]

reuters.com/article/2012/04/04/us-foreclosure-idUSBRE83319E20120404

Described elsewhere as a “tsunami,” what are described here as “foreclosure starts”–what an ugly concept versus “housing starts”–are ready to pummel the housing market that had, not a recovery, but simply a little breather in 2011. All the robo-signing paperwork has been cleared up and the hopper is dumping foreclosures out. Home prices will be depressed further, taking the economy with it.

HUD has elsewhere stated since families are not buying homes, they are designing programs to offer their burgeoning foreclosure inventory to landlords. Rental properties are not ideal for having stable populations in neighborhoods. But this could be useful for those wishing to hold rental properties in their IRA’s. There has to be a trustee-to-trustee transfer to a self-directed account, right? I would hope good-hearted Catholics would become these landlord types, or engage in rent-to-own. Even the Church herself should do this as was done in St. Louis to stabilize the community around the Cathedral. God bless America.

Thanks!

 

[nordskoven]

Not to politicize this, but the foreclosure tragedy is exacerbated by the fact that billions in TARP money was available to the “Hardest Hit” program for low-income homeowners facing foreclosure and it was simply left unspent. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s rationale was that bailing out banks and car companies would stimulate the economy and forestall any need for foreclosure help to the poor. Oy! Three billion sat there until the TARP deadline expired.

This is like premeditated fake suicide. Now banks get a second bonus bailout in seizing homes that homeowners paid banks a load of cash for but ultimately lost; not to mention any short-sale tax slam as homeowners have to pay taxes on the “debt forgiveness” difference between the outlandish mortgage price and the actual market price. To carry it further, now Fannie Mae gets to re-do the fine print to allow for carbon credits they will now seize from their mortgage holders so they can trade them and profit by the trades and profit by the fees on each trade via their million-dollar carbon credit calculating and trading computer program. Oy! Oy! “Truthy.” --Stephen Colbert

*Our Lady, whose home once consisted of the roads to Egypt, your Son’s home was the roads as well unlike foxes who have dens, have mercy on those in need, including those of us who seek secure shelter, and grant us Christ’s abundant life, and eternal life joining you in Heaven to praise and thank our Creator for eternity. AMEN *

 

[nordskoven]

I just remembered Hillary’s campaign accusation that Barack, the “community organizer” is actually best characterized as the lawyer working for the “slum landlord” Rezko. The actions of the Obama administration, factoring in no jobs policy in four years, landlord-oriented streamlined foreclosure sales policy from HUD, the withholding of the bulk of TARP mortgage aid for the “Hardest Hit” program ultimately channeling the poor into rentals; in other words, judging by what they do not what they say; this is perfectly consonant with Hillary’s accusation.

Remember, this anti-poor real estate policy started in Florida with Democrats (not to politicize this, just a fact) using the power of Eminent Domain not to seize property for roads and power line right-of-ways but to throw poor African-Americans off their juicy seaside property and provide it to the land to developers, resulting in higher tax revenues for bigger government. This was taken to the Supreme Court and Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion upholding this. Respectfully, I note this technically defines fascism, the collusion of big government with big business to exploit we, the people. May the Lord enlighten the “eyes” of our hearts.

 

[jwakja]

An ironic fact = a vote for Obama = more government dependence = more corruption = more waste = more buracracy = more inefficiency = making us slaves to this brand of socialism. Ironic to me that the blacks, poor minorities, women and kids vote and suppport this brand almost 100%. Go figure.

 

[Jeanne_S]

An ironic fact = a vote for Obama = more government dependence = more corruption = more waste = more buracracy = more inefficiency = making us slaves to this brand of socialism. Ironic to me that the blacks, poor minorities, women and kids vote and suppport this brand almost 100%. Go figure.

 

[Samuel63]

The vote in 2008 went for these programs due to media bias, ignorance, a failure of logic, and a small push by the USCCB toward social programs. This latter factor was small. Catholics vote in-line with the general public.

 

[7_Sorrows]

An ironic fact = a vote for Obama = more government dependence = more corruption = more waste = more buracracy = more inefficiency = making us slaves to this brand of socialism. Ironic to me that the blacks, poor minorities, women and kids vote and suppport this brand almost 100%. Go figure.

he won’t get my vote!! the house i have owned since 1989 is being rented right now awaiting the turn around of the real estate market. it was to have been a nest egg added to my other retirement. all of the equity is gone and it is worth about as much as i paid for it in May of 1989. the real estate collapse was probably building for a long time.
my only question is - how could this happen in America? where were the safeguards to prevent this from happening?

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Well I live at a lake and there are several homes that were for sale, and all but two have sold.

All were purchased as summer homes, even though they’re full year round buildings.

The people selling them, are just moving to smaller homes or retirement communities, as their kids are grown and gone.

So, some people are doing well economically.

Jim

 

[JimG]

he won’t get my vote!! the house i have owned since 1989 is being rented right now awaiting the turn around of the real estate market. it was to have been a nest egg added to my other retirement. all of the equity is gone and it is worth about as much as i paid for it in May of 1989. the real estate collapse was probably building for a long time.
my only question is - how could this happen in America? where were the safeguards to prevent this from happening?

The real estate collapse was building for a long time because the housing bubble was building for a long time. When prices get too high, people quit buying, and prices drop. Why should houses be any different in this regard than the prices of anything else? We don’t expect our cars, our cameras, and our I-phones to keep appreciating indefinitely, and if they get overpriced, we quit buying.

There was a bubble in housing prices. Prices fell. Does anyone advocate for price controls?

Prices of homes are set by sellers and buyers of homes, not by mortgage companies, and not by the buyers of mortgage backed securities.

Sure there are a lot of things that government can and did do to feed the bubble–low interest rates, making a secondary market for mortgages with Fannie and Freddie and Ginnie. And big consolidators of mortgage backed securities can provide a lot of liquidity and a lot of demand for new mortgages. But nobody can actually drive the market except buyers.

After a stock market crash, it takes some time for stock prices to reach a new eqilibrium. The same is true of housing market crashes.

On the plus side–and it is a plus–there will be homes available to buyers at cheaper prices. But even now, buyers can’t expect automatic appreciation in home prices; they might even anticipate depreciation.

 

[rlg94086]

Well I live at a lake and there are several homes that were for sale, and all but two have sold.

All were purchased as summer homes, even though they’re full year round buildings.

The people selling them, are just moving to smaller homes or retirement communities, as their kids are grown and gone.

So, some people are doing well economically.

Jim

Indeed, Jim. Let the rest eat cake.

 

[Trader]

reuters.com/article/2012/04/04/us-foreclosure-idUSBRE83319E20120404

I would hope good-hearted Catholics would become these landlord types, or engage in rent-to-own. Even the Church herself should do this as was done in St. Louis to stabilize the community around the Cathedral. God bless America.

Fair warning: I actually did participate in a rent-to-own program with a friend who was a home improvement contractor, starting in 2004. He bought distressed homes, kept his empolyees busy in fixing them up, maintained neighborhoods, and sold them on a rent-to-own basis. Some of the buyers were the current occupants who were behind on payments. It was all structured to improve the credit rating of the buyers, so that in 5 years they could get a normal loan. This was in an area where home prices never had the wild appreciation like California, Nevada, and Florida.

Unfortunately, we found out the hard way that people with bad credit have bad credit for a reason. Three of the eight houses where I had the second mortgage went into forclosure. My friend went into chapter 7 bankruptcy, and I lost more than $20,000. As the second mortgage holder, I got sued to extinguish my liens, and I got the details on the borrowers. One in particular stands out. This couple had a debt collector’s judgement in 1999, another debt collector’s judgement in 2001, and somehow got a mortgage from a now defunct company in 2003. By 2005 they needed a bailout and my friend rescued them. By early 2008 they just quit paying and fought the eviction. While they were squatting rent free they trashed the place and ran up the legal bills. When my friend finally got them out and began to clean up the place, one thing he noticed was the cable TV bill left behind. This couple had all the premium channels and was spending $100 per month in pay per view porn, but they were not paying rent. I guess it is a matter of priorities.

Based on my experience, I would not support my parish or diocese getting involved in a rent-to-own program. It is way outside their competence.

 

[Nec5]

Until we get a bailout like the banks, I don’t want to hear anything from any of our so called experts or leaders about “letting the market settle”. Hypocrites and sycophants.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Until we get a bailout like the banks, I don’t want to hear anything from any of our so called experts or leaders about “letting the market settle”. Hypocrites and sycophants.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Well I live at a lake and there are several homes that were for sale, and all but two have sold.

All were purchased as summer homes, even though they’re full year round buildings.

The people selling them, are just moving to smaller homes or retirement communities, as their kids are grown and gone.

So, some people are doing well economically.

Jim

yes. there are some who are doing well economically. the rich. this high unemployment and bad economy are hurting the middle class and the poor. i don’t have anything against the rich. i am glad that their lifestyle has not been hampered by the economic downturn.
i am just sorry that the rest of us have been affected so badly. i wish that we had a cushion where we could afford the type of life we used to have.
i live in a mountain resort town and there are many people who live here in their second home over the summer to get out of the hot desert. good for them that their hard work has resulted in them being able to afford 2 homes. i am sorry that things are just so tough right now for the middle class and the poor.

 

[manualman]

There just isn’t a real way to avoid the foreclosure pain problem. The idealists recognized REAL fast when they explored setting up relief programs for people in trouble that you can’t do it without either bankrupting the whole country or accepting the fact that everybody underwater (in trouble or not) will jump on the bandwagon if it is offered.

Just don’t panic and ride it out. Now’s the time to hold steady, or if you need to move, don’t trade down, but make a lateral trade as best you can. We had a bubble of fools thinking that home values could never do anything but skyrocket. Let that be a lesson and don’t listen to those who tell you they’ll now never do anything but tank further.

In my market (chicagoland), vacant but improved lots sell for less than what it cost to build the roads and infrastructure that serves them. That’s a pretty good indicator of a good value market. Buy low, sell high, remember?

 

[rlg94086]

yes. there are some who are doing well economically. the rich. this high unemployment and bad economy are hurting the middle class and the poor. i don’t have anything against the rich. i am glad that their lifestyle has not been hampered by the economic downturn.
i am just sorry that the rest of us have been affected so badly. i wish that we had a cushion where we could afford the type of life we used to have.
i live in a mountain resort town and there are many people who live here in their second home over the summer to get out of the hot desert. good for them that their hard work has resulted in them being able to afford 2 homes. i am sorry that things are just so tough right now for the middle class and the poor.

Exactly. The fact that some are still doing fine doesn’t help the majority population who are suffering.

 

[JimG]

I don’t like the fact that banks were bailed out either, except for them holding FDIC insurance, which is an implicit bailout in the event of a run on the bank, because it also protects my deposits.

I’m just not sure what sort of bailout homeowners ought to expect. Reduce their loan balances to the current market value of their homes? That would sure be helpful. But it would merely transfer the market loss to holders of mortgages and holders of mortgage-backed securities, which might be pension funds, thereby reducing the value of our pensions. It would also introduce a heck of a lot of uncertainty into the whole process, probably making secondary marketing of home loans less available; and that in turn, would make mortgage lending to individual buyers less available.

And when real estate markets rise, mortgage holders don’t, after all, increase the balance of the mortgage to match the increase in value of the home! Nor, when there is a thousand point drop in the DJIA in one day, does anyone get their losses reduced by the government, or the value of their stock portfolios increased to match what it was before.

Market bubbles do occur, and they do burst. The worst of the bubbles at the moment is the U.S. debt bubble.

 

[Trader]

Until we get a bailout like the banks, I don’t want to hear anything from any of our so called experts or leaders about “letting the market settle”. Hypocrites and sycophants.

You would not accept the bailout the banks got in TARP. They had to repay the loans in a short time or have the rates rise to a punitive level. They also issued warrants that allowed the US Treasury to claim a multi-billion dollar profit. Even AIG will soon be able to repay the government. They also had the President and other politicians tell them how to run their businesses in the meantime. Remember the war against business jets and meetings in Las Vegas?

The institutions that will likey be long term losers for the government are General Motors and GMAC which renamed itself Ally Bank and runs all those TV ads telling you what good guys they are.