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The Subprime home mortgage collapse...a Primer. It's ALL about the CRA of 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 - This required banks to offer credit throughout their entire market area for “underserved” populations and small businesses. The CRA gave incentives to help low income borrowers become “home owners”. Liberals call this group “low income borrowers”. Conservatives call them a RISK!The CRA was passed by the Carter administration. In 1995 the Clinton administration authorized subprime loans under the CRA. Democrats added these provisions for the securitization of subprime loans and then ENFORCED the lending to high risk individuals. By 2000,...

If you've been waiting for home prices or interest rates to fall further before you buy a home, it's time to rethink your strategy. If you act soon, you'll be able to take advantage of historically low prices and interest rates that won't be around forever. And if you're a first-time buyer and you act very soon, you can still take advantage of an $8,000 tax credit. Here are five reasons to take the plunge now. 1. You may get a fat tax credit. The first-time home buyer's tax credit is worth 10% of the home's purchase price, up to...

DALLAS - When Congress passed an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers last winter, it was intended as a dose of shock therapy during a crisis. Now the question is becoming whether the housing market can function without it. As many as 40 percent of all home buyers this year will qualify for the credit. It is on track to cost the government $15 billion, more than twice the amount that was projected when Congress passed the stimulus bill in February. In the view of the real estate industry and some economists, all that money is well spent. They...

The Federal Housing Administration said Friday that its financial cushion will sink below mandatory levels for the first time in its history, but officials insisted the agency won’t need to be rescued. “Under no circumstance will any taxpayer bailout be needed,” said David Stevens, the F.H.A.’s commissioner. He also said its borrowers are unlikely to see any change. Amid the collapse of the subprime lending market, the government has taken up the slack. The F.H.A. has insured nearly a quarter of all new loans made this year, and about 80 percent of that business is from first-time homebuyers. But the...

(Automatic Translation from Spanish to English)Source: Channel T47, TelemundoTitle: Immigration / "Illegal Immigrants Can Buy Homes" (Indocumentados Pueden Comprar Casa) by Delinés Batlle (BEGIN TRANSLATION) PUBLISHED: September 7, 2005 at 12:11 pm (ET) UPDATED: 30 September 2005, at 9:16 am (eastern) NEW YORK, NY. -- Thanks to an initiative of private banking it is now possible for illegal immigrants to buy homes in the United States without having a social security number. A new program helps immigrants who can not afford home to fulfill their American dream. Elena Hernandez has long had the dream of buying a home, but...

A number of experts believe that aggressive enforcement of the 1970s-era Community Reinvestment Act contributed to the mortgage meltdown, and thus to the greater financial crisis, by requiring financial institutions to lend to unqualified borrowers. Now, the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives is responding to that situation by proposing to expand the scope and power of the Community Reinvestment Act. This morning House Financial Services Committee chairman Rep. Barney Frank held a hearing on H.R. 1479, the "Community Reinvestment Modernization Act of 2009." The bill's purpose is "to close the wealth gap in the United States" by increasing...

The Acorn scandal, in which amateur journalists posing as a prostitute and a pimp went seeking a mortgage for a house of prostitution and received advice on how to evade the law, is a fitting new chapter in the controversial history of the advocacy group.Acorn found its way into the mortgage business through the Community Reinvestment Act, the 1977 legislation that community groups have used as a cudgel to force lenders to lower their mortgage underwriting standards in order to make more loans in low-income communities. Often the groups, after making protests under CRA, were then rewarded by banks with...

Oversight: As the Senate votes to de-fund Acorn, add pimping, tax evasion and human trafficking to voter fraud paid for with taxpayer dollars and you have an organized criminal enterprise. It's time to investigate.After Acorn workers were caught on tape in three cities allegedly abetting what they believed was a fraudulent-mortgage and sex-trafficking scheme, the Senate has voted overwhelmingly to strip the group of funding in the Transportation/Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. The amendment, offered by Nebraska Republican Sen. Mike Johanns, passed by an 83-to-7 margin and marked the third time this year that Republicans have tried to block...

Now THAT is what I call bipartisan!Monday evening, the Senate approved a measure sponsored by Senator Mike Johanns (R-NE) that would block ACORN from receiving grants for mortgage counseling, Community Development Block Grants, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, and other programs. Such a provision is not included in the House version of the housing bill, so it will not become law unless House negotiators approve of the change to the bill in conference. With ACORN under fire for enabling child prostitution, tax cheating, voter registration fraud and embezzlement it's about time Congress started to bar the group from collecting federal funds....

September 15, 2009 Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), ranking Republican on the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, today wrote to committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Inspector General, Kenneth Donohue, calling for an immediate and thorough investigation into the activities of the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Shelby’s call for an investigation follows recent news reports surrounding the arrest of individuals in Florida for falsifying voter applications while employed by ACORN leading up to the 2008 elections, as well as video of employees in...

President Obama stood in New York at "high noon" and talked about how we must have "change", and that we have "helped homeowners avoid foreclosures", how "we must put in place reforms" and that "we have helped come back from the brink" and "an irresponsible period of crisis."In fact, in his speech he said: So I want to urge you to demonstrate that you take this obligation to heart. To put greater effort into helping families who need their mortgages modified under my administration's homeownership plan. To help small business owners who desperately need loans and who are bearing the...

Conservatives have cheered the Census Bureau's decision to sever ties with ACORN because it had lost confidence in the group, but the hidden-camera videos that prompted ACORN to fire four workers this week could raise more questions about the federal funding ACORN receives for housing outreach....

DENVER – He bought his first home, spent $30,000 fixing it up, and now, six months later, Jonathon Kyte has learned the home doesn't belong to him. According to the City and County of Denver, Jonathon owns the dump, next door. He found out about the mistake almost by accident when he received a map which showed the unit he's living is actually unit No. 4. "I froze. My wife and I were just speechless," Kyte said. Kyte owns the deed and title to unit No. 5. Jonathon blames the Coldwell Banker listing agent for the mistake. She marketed the...

Here's what you'll find at the top of the ACORN Housing Inc. website. President Obama formally announced this morning a new $75 billion dollar plan designed to help families prevent foreclosures and stabilize hard-hit communities. The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan includes a loan modification program, which provides incentives for lenders to modify the loans of borrowers who are at risk of foreclosure because their incomes are not sufficient to make their mortgage payments. It also includes refinance opportunities for borrowers who are current on their mortgage payments but have been unable to refinance because their homes have decreased in...

BALTIMORE (AP) — The nonprofit housing group ACORN has fired two employees at its Baltimore office who were seen on hidden-camera video giving advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman pretending to be a prostitute. Fox News Channel broadcast excerpts from the video Thursday. Those excerpts showed a man and woman asking about buying a house and how to account on tax forms for the woman's income. An ACORN employee advises the woman to list her occupation as "performance artist." Maryland ACORN board member Margaret Williams says in a statement the employees "did not meet ACORN's...

I think a lot of people are missing something here, I hoped I could bring focus to it more. This girl Kenya is trying to buy a house. That gets lost in the child prostitution part(and for good reason) but what it does is expose a part of the mortgage crisis that us conservatives have talked about for a while. ACORN couldn't do what it's doing without all the help it gets from government. Not just the 501c3 status, but also all the laws on the books that make way for politically correct loans. Now let's say this all actually...

Treasury: Millions More Foreclosures Coming Official says a strong housing market is crucial for the economy Sept. 9, 2009 WASHINGTON - Only 12 percent of U.S. homeowners eligible for loan modifications under the Obama administration's housing rescue plan have had their mortgages reworked, and millions more foreclosures are coming, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday. A Treasury report showed 360,165 people had their monthly payments reduced through August, up from 235,247 through July, but a senior Treasury official conceded much more must be done to soften the impact of a severe and prolonged housing crisis. Treasury has begun releasing monthly...

Only 12 percent of U.S. homeowners eligible for loan modifications under the Obama administration's housing rescue plan have had their mortgages reworked, and millions more foreclosures are coming, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday. A Treasury report showed 360,165 people had their monthly payments reduced through August, up from 235,247 through July, but a senior Treasury official conceded much more must be done to soften the impact of a severe and prolonged housing crisis.

Barney Frank wants Cabinet post By Bob Cusack - 09/07/09 05:07 PM ET Rep. Barney Frank is interested in capping his political career as a member of the president’s Cabinet, according to a new biography of the Financial Services Committee chairman. Frank (D-Mass.) told author Stuart Weisberg that he would like to be Housing and Urban Development secretary. However, the 69-year-old lawmaker stresses that his departure from Congress is not imminent. He first wants to pass more legislation on affordable housing, saying, “I want at least two years with President Obama and a solidly Democratic Senate so that we can...

The federal government’s “footprint” in the housing market In a review of the 2010 budget, the federal government’s “footprint” in the housing market was broad and deep. In addition to the support provided by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Bank System and Farm Credit to the housing market, there were roughly 177 housing programs in the administration’s 2010 budget in more than 11 agencies, including the Federal Reserve (4 programs), Treasury Department (6), HUD (93), Department of Agriculture (46), Department of Defense (8), Department of Education (2), Department of Homeland Security (3), Department of Justice (1), Department...

Due to the economy and weak real estate market, Miles Brannan is raffling off his luxury home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The raffle is attracting buyers from around the world due to both the appealing price of $10 per ticket and international interest in U.S. real estate. Brannan's raffle is a great deal for foreign investors who want to break into the market because the deed and title will be transferred to the lucky winner free and clear. There will be no need for a jumbo mortgage or creative financing, making the $10 investment an even more attractive offer. "The...

HORSHAM, Pa., — Toll Brothers Inc. says it lost $472.3 million in its fiscal third quarter, as the luxury homebuilder took a large tax hit. But while Toll Brothers' results were worse than analysts expected, the company is seeing signs of improvement in the industry. The builder said Thursday it lost $2.93 a share in the three months ended July 31. That compares with a loss of $29.3 million, or 18 cents a share, the same period last year. Toll Brothers sold 792 homes with revenue totaling $461.4 million. Those results were down 36 percent and 42 percent, respectively, from...

A new way for homeowners to hedge themselves against property crashes FIRE insurance was not given much thought until the Great Fire of London alerted people to the danger of combining dozy bakers and wooden houses. It took two world wars for life insurance to take root. Some think that the housing meltdown is poised to be a similar catalyst for derivatives that allow investors to hedge against movements in the price of residential property. Housing derivatives first appeared in 2006 as futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange but were only available to sophisticated investors. In the euphoria of...

Many of the lenders eligible to receive billions of dollars from the government's massive foreclosure prevention program helped fuel the housing crisis by issuing risky subprime loans, according to a report to be issued Wednesday by the Center for Public Integrity. Under the $75 billion program, called Making Home Affordable, lenders are eligible for taxpayer subsidies to lower the mortgage payments of distressed borrowers. Of the top 25 participants in the program, at least 21 specialized in servicing or originating subprime loans, according to the center, a nonprofit investigative reporting group funded largely by charitable foundations. Much "of this money...

When it comes to foreclosures, there is no such thing as a "safe state". Even states that did not engage in widespread use of liar loans and other silly mortgage lending practices are struggling with foreclosures. The issue is jobs, and unemployment is rising everywhere. Please consider Foreclosure Woes Spread To Areas Once Thought Safe. Amid record levels of home foreclosures nationwide, there are worrying signs that the foreclosure crisis could be spreading to parts of the country that had previously been relatively unscathed. Last month, for example, RealtyTrac, a private firm that tracks foreclosure data, recorded sharp spikes in...

In the second quarter, the number of homeowners behind on payments or in foreclosure rose along with the jobless rate, with California among states leading the way. Widespread joblessness is causing more Americans to fall behind on their house payments, triggering a new round of foreclosures that some analysts fear could delay the nation's economic recovery. A mortgage trade group reported Thursday that more than 13% of the nation's mortgage holders were delinquent on their mortgages or in the process of having their homes repossessed during the second quarter of this year. That's the highest figure since tracking began...

According to the Michigan Association of Realtors and Detroit Board of Realtors (data here), the average sales price of a Detroit home fell to $11,596 in July (Year-to-Date), a -40% decline from the $19,596 average home price during the same period last year (see chart above). 2009 year-to-date unit sales increased by 17% to 7,373 homes, compared to 6,315 Detroit homes sold last year over the same period. From the $97,850 peak Detroit home price in 2003, prices have fallen by an amazing 88%. With a 20% down payment on a $11,596 average priced home in Detroit, the monthly payments...

Self-preservation is something that most humans take quite seriously, and that a few take to extremes. Faced with the real or imagined threat of attacks levied by nuclear, biological, and chemical weaponry, some people opt to head 25 feet underground, surrounded by concrete and complex air-filtration systems, surviving off rations and waiting, so to speak, for the end of the world.That’s the subject of Richard Ross’s Waiting for the End of the World, originally published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2004, for which Ross spent five years traveling over three continents, photographing the interiors of bomb shelters. “I’m a child...

A summary of Second Quarter 2009 Negative Equity Data from First American CoreLogic shows that Nearly One-Third Of All Mortgages Are Underwater. • More than 15.2 million U.S. mortgages, or 32.2 percent of all mortgaged properties, were in negative equity position as of June 30, 2009 according to newly released data from First American CoreLogic. As of June 2009, there were an additional 2.5 million mortgaged properties that were approaching negative equity. Negative equity and near negative equity mortgages combined account for nearly 38 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage nationwide.

So now President Obama wants to spend money on creating low-cost housing? Uh, that's apartments, not "homes to own": The idea is to pay for the construction of low-rise rental apartment buildings and town houses, as well as the purchase of foreclosed homes that can be refurbished and rented to low- and moderate-income families at affordable rates. Uh huh. More housing units while we have a huge number vacant. That's dumb. I got a smart idea (instead of this stupid one): Close the banks that have failed condo construction loans and seize the assets (via the FDIC.) Complete those with...

What should one make of the fact that, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the number of properties being repossessed in the second quarter of the year dropped? Indeed, it actually fell by 10pc on the quarter. Might this be another sign that the housing crash is now at an end? While there will be plenty of people who will certainly interpret as that, I am rather more sceptical. In the first place, although repossessions are down somewhat on the quarter, they are still up quite sharply compared with last year.Indeed, the half-yearly rate of repossession is...

Bush's "ownership society" has collapsed under the dead weight of debt. There is too much debt and too little income to support it. Please consider President shifts focus to renting, not owning. The Obama administration, in a major shift on housing policy, is abandoning George W. Bush’s vision of creating an “ownership society’’ and instead plans to pump $4.25 billion of economic stimulus money into creating tens of thousands of federally subsidized rental units in American cities. The idea is to pay for the construction of low-rise rental apartment buildings and town houses, as well as the purchase of foreclosed...

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration, in a major shift on housing policy, is abandoning George W. Bush’s vision of creating an “ownership society’’ and instead plans to pump $4.25 billion of economic stimulus money into creating tens of thousands of federally subsidized rental units in American cities. The idea is to pay for the construction of low-rise rental apartment buildings and town houses, as well as the purchase of foreclosed homes that can be refurbished and rented to low- and moderate-income families at affordable rates.

The bad news is that Westchester County, the sprawling suburb just north of New York City, has been pressured to settle a federal lawsuit brought by liberal activists over "affordable" housing. The worse news is that the Obama Administration wants the settlement to be a template for the rest of the nation. The three-year-old lawsuit alleged that Westchester had accepted federal housing funds but failed to provide enough affordable housing and reduce segregation in some of its wealthier communities, such as Scarsdale and Chappaqua, home to Bill and Hillary Clinton. In February a U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan ruled...

While the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance is helping people buy homes, their aim is to build an army of trained homeowners to engage their own neighbors in organizing and advocacy. ___ From its beginnings MAHA was much more than a place to get homebuyer training. It tackled organizing and advocacy, fought to strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), and created new loan programs designed for low- and moderate-income buyers. In 2007, MAHA successfully pushed legislation to make Massachusetts the first state to extend CRA provisions to mortgage lenders. The bill’s provisions includes full state examinations for all lenders making 50...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—The suburban county just north of New York City agreed Monday to create hundreds of affordable homes in heavily white communities and encourage nonwhites to move in. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which brokered the settlement with Westchester County, called it a landmark agreement that could have far-reaching national consequences. Officials said it signaled a new commitment to fair housing by the Obama administration. "We're clearly messaging other jurisdictions across the country that there has been a significant change in the Department of Housing and Urban Development and we're going to ask them to pursue...

Posit: Underwater mortgages hurt home sales and increase delinquencies and foreclosures. People who have to pay their mortgage holder to sell their homes are less likely to be sellers. A home sold for $200,000 when it has a $250,000 mortgage is a home that the owner may not be able to afford to sell.People living in homes with monthly mortgage payment that stretch their abilities to cover their living costs may stay in homes that they believe have a lot of equity and where a sale will eventually bring them a profit. That hope for a bonanza may encourage them to go through the agony of making large payments....

Much to their dismay, Americans learned last year that they “owned” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Well, meet their cousin, Ginnie Mae or the Government National Mortgage Association, which will soon join them as a trillion-dollar packager of subprime mortgages. Taxpayers own Ginnie too. Only last week, Ginnie announced that it issued a monthly record of $43 billion in mortgage-backed securities in June. Ginnie Mae President Joseph Murin sounded almost giddy as he cheered this “phenomenal growth.” Ginnie Mae’s mortgage exposure is expected to top $1 trillion by the end of next year—or far more than double the dollar amount...

Green shoots...... Click to read, not sure of the rules but they can't be good with cnbc on here, so I didn't post anything. very short article, worth the laugh!

With everyone hoping for positive GDP growth in Q3 and Goldman Sachs analyst Jan Hatzius now predicting growth at an annual rate of three percent in the second half of the year, the banks, investors, and politicians are all hoping that that nasty problem of foreclosures would just go away already. Unfortunately for everyone – especially the people losing their houses – there’s no reason for it to go away.Unemployment is always a lagging indicator, and given the record low number of average hours worked, it will turn around especially slowly this time. Until then, people will continue to lose...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- You've heard of speed dating? It's got nothin' on foreclosure buying these days. In many places, anyone who wants to buy a foreclosure better act fast, or they're going to come away with bupkus. REOs, the industry term for homes repossessed by lenders and put back on the market, are often selling in a day -- sometimes in less. "We're seeing REOs go very quickly. Offers come in immediately after the listing comes on the market, within 24 hours," said Brad Geisen, founder of Foreclosure.com. Some homes have been put into contract in less than 90...

Goldman Sachs is once again warning the world of a coming spike in oil prices that will remind everyone of 2008. The current financial crisis is to blame. While we focus on fixing the banking sector, we've forgotten that there are fundamental problems with the commodites markets. The spike from 2008 will return because there's been "decades" of poor investment decisions by oil producers. When the economy kicks into gear around the world, supply shortages will become problematic, and the price of oil will spike. Says Goldman via Alphaville, "As the commodity markets rebound with the broader global economy we...

A man who bought an Oceanside, California home for $1 and moved it to his Rainbow, California residence, is now giving his recent purchase away for free...

OK. So let me get this straight. According to the US Census Bureau, there are 93 million houses in the U.S. Also, according to the Census Bureau, 18.7 million of these houses are vacant. That equals 20% of all the houses in the country. It doesn't include vacation homes. Based on the survey noted below there are another 20 million homes that people would like to sell, but haven't put them up for sale. There are 4.1 million new and existing homes currently for sale. There will be another 2 million foreclosures this year. Millions of Option ARM mortgages will...

The Daily Show's Jon Oliver profiles one family hard-hit by Timothy Geithner's housing policies: the Geithner family. Oliver wonders what, in a hypothetical situation, Timothy Geithner could say to Timothy Geithner to explain why he has to suffer under his economic policies. The Daily Show is an unrepentantly lefty outfit, so you've got to drop the ball pretty catastrophically to get skewered like this in the Obama Administration.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A senior House Democrat threatened banks Wednesday that if they don't volunteer to save more homeowners from foreclosure, Congress will make them. In a sternly worded statement, Rep. Barney Frank said Congress will revive legislation that would let bankruptcy judges write down a person's monthly mortgage payment if the number of loan modifications remain low...

Kurland left Countrywide in 2006. The lender went under last year and Bank of America took over. PennyMac now services assets similar to those that played a hand in fate of Countrywide and also purchases mortgages from other financial firms.

Why are so many homeowners underwater on their mortgages? In crafting programs to prevent foreclosures, policymakers have assumed that the primary reason homeowners owe more on their home than it is worth is that they bought at the top of the market. In other words, they’ve lost equity primarily through forces beyond their control. A new study challenges this premise and finds that excessive borrowing may have played as great a role. Michael LaCour-Little, a finance professor at California State University at Fullerton, looked at 4,000 foreclosures in Southern California from 2006-08. He found that, at least in Southern California,...

VIVA, housing?! If you look at the numbers now coming out of Washington, you might want to go with the exclamation point at the end of my first sentence. Housing lives! -- although the industry's faint pulse is being helped by relatively low mortgage rates (which aren't nearly as low as they once were) and government subsidies (which can't continue forever). Just yesterday, for instance, the Commerce Department reported that new-home sales grew at an annualized rate of 11 percent last month, which was much better than people were expecting. And if you look under the covers, the annualized rate...

For a generation, now, we have been accommodated with a front row seat to a rigorous and seemingly intractable advance of government into the whole of America’s social fabric, and into the institutions of its capitalist system. Today we are confronted with a wave of negative wind pushing against the capitalism that has brought America its unprecedented success, as it absorbs the blame for the economic meltdown. I am not equating capitalism with free markets here as is too often done, because that would imply an inclusion of international communities into a common basket, and there has to be balance...