Free Republic

The door isn't expected to slam shut on foreclosures here next year. Home foreclosures, which have pummeled many Chicago area neighborhoods, are expected to continue to mount in 2010, and high unemployment will be the driver, experts say. The problem, which has driven home prices down to bargain basement levels in some hard-hit African-American communities on the South and West sides of the city, will likely attract speculators. And that could be more bad news for those neighborhoods, predicts one local researcher. While the start of the crisis was linked to the subprime mortgage meltdown, today and going forward "it's...

The Mortgage Bankers Association released a grim report today revealing that nearly one in seven households with mortgages is behind on payments or already in foreclosure. Last year, only one in 10 were behind. Two years ago, the number was just 7.3%. We’re now in what is clearly the second leg downward of the mortgage mess. While the early days of the mortgage crisis were driven largely by people saddled with complex mortgages they couldn’t afford to pay, now even homeowners with relatively sane mortgages are running into trouble as unemployment soars into the double digits. In a rising housing...

I was fighting traffic on my way in to work today, when I heard a headline on the radio, something to the effect of, "Good news on the housing front! Foreclosures are moderating, potentially signaling an end to the housing crisis." This is why people don't trust the news. Headlines.

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...

Hat tip to several - thanks! Note: Victorville is east of Los Angeles at the southern edge of the Mojave desert.

Not satisfied with voter fraud and attempting to fix elections, President Obama's favorite community activist group has added another crime to their portfolio, breaking and entering. Now that the group's former lawyer, Barack Obama has announced his poorly received home mortgage plan, they have decided to come up with their own. The ACORN plan involves breaking into foreclosed houses and giving them back to their original owners (even if the home is now owned by someone else). Just another example of how ACORN does not believe in following the law, just as during the election its their belief that their...

A year ago Irvine, Calif., was still riding high on the subprime boom; then almost overnight the industry and more than 4,000 good paying jobs vanished.___ IRVINE, Calif. (CNNMoney.com) -- The subprime mortgage meltdown has shaken the entire U.S. economy. But nowhere might the impact be as stark as Irvine, California, a planned community nestled between Los Angeles and San Diego. A year ago at this time, Irvine was home to 18 subprime lenders, including many of the leaders in the field, such as New Century Financial and Option One. Then, in what seemed like the blink of an eye,...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - The white bus rumbles into the quiet suburban neighborhood, heading toward a foreclosed home that sits empty. Neighbors, young and old, cock their heads in curiosity or point at the slow-moving coach. Once the vehicle stops, about 20 potential buyers file out and become detectives, opening and closing cabinets and drawers, knocking on walls and asking about the price, the previous owners and what repairs may be needed. Welcome to the Foreclosure Bus Tour, a six-hour expedition to show Orlando-area homes and educate potential buyers on the vagaries of snatching foreclosures in a state where the...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In May, Alvin Clavon received a foreclosure notice on the simple, Spanish-style house in South Los Angeles that he shares with his wife and three boys. Clavon bought the place in 2003 with a fixed-rate loan. They painted the walls, fixed the yard and made friends with the neighbors, who let the Clavon boys pick their basil. In 2005, he worked with a mortgage broker to refinance his home with another fixed-rate loan. But on the night before signing, the family was offered an interest-only, adjustable-rate mortgage. Clavon, a 35-year-old executive assistant at a bank, said...

Call them grave dancers, vulture funds, turnaround specialists or the more euphemistic "opportunity investors." However you identify them, the deal is the same: When hyperactive real estate markets lose their sizzle, or property owners no longer can afford to hang on to their houses, well-capitalized investors smell blood and move in.

<p>More than a quarter million black and Hispanic families are expected to lose their homes in the next few years due to foreclosure. For many, the financial trouble will be traceable to a mortgage they should never have been given.</p>

America’s mortgage woes are spreading from home loans made to high-risk borrowers to encompass medium-risk recipients too, with potentially far-reaching consequences for US homeowners and their lenders. Problems with risky sub-prime mortgages have been a focus for lenders, particularly HSBC, which is expected to write off about $11 billion (£5.6 billion) — much of it relating to this area — when it reports its annual results today. However, lenders in the US face a new threat as defaults on the fast-growing “Alt-A” mortgages, medium-risk policies that stand between sub-prime and prime loans in the credit rankings, are also on the...

Paul Kasriel at Northern Trust wrote an excellent commentary last Friday but came up a little short in the conclusions section- stymied by a lack of data it seems. Perhaps some assistance can be provided here, where the lack of data rarely hinders the offering of an opinion or the forming of a conclusion. The question at hand involves rising home ownership rates, home ownership by age group, and housing affordability over the last ten years. Specifically, how youngsters in America have been duped into buying homes with nontraditional mortgage products while the older crowd has largely passed on risky...