Our Awful Situation

Archive for the ‘Housing Crisis’ Category

Communities suffer as foreclosure rate rises

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 24th, 2008

As mortgage defaults and foreclosures continue to rise, the impact is spreading well beyond those who are losing their homes.

In communities across the country, msnbc.com readers report that local governments are coping with shrinking tax rolls, lenders are saddled with more foreclosed homes than they can sell and empty homes in many neighborhoods are being vandalized.

Like everything associated with the nation’s housing crisis, the fallout from foreclosures is very local, a fact confirmed by hundreds of e-mails from readers in msnbc.com’s Gut Check America. Some regions appear to have escaped relatively unscathed. But in hard-hit states like California, Arizona and Florida, readers report that some neighborhoods are becoming virtual ghost towns.

Senators’ mortgages under microscope

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 24th, 2008

What comes around goes around:

Amid a brewing scandal over special mortgage deals given to two U.S. senators, Politico last week asked the offices of all 100 senators to describe the circumstances under which they obtained their own home loans. Seventy-seven senators have complied so far. Twenty-three have not.

Senators are not required to report in their disclosure forms any financial information about their homes unless they draw rental income from the home. But in the wake of questions regarding mortgages obtained by Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) — loans they received through a VIP program run by Countrywide Financial Corp. — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said that the disclosure rules should be changed so that senators’ mortgage details are made public.

73,000 homes lost to foreclosure in May

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 13th, 2008

Filings for the month jumped by 48%. Nevada, California, and Florida continue to bear the brunt of the crisis:

The housing crisis grew worse in May, as more than 73,000 American families lost their homes to bank repossessions, up a staggering 158% from the 28,548 households that were dispossessed in May 2007.

Foreclosure filings of all kinds, including default notices, notices of sheriff’s sales and bank repossessions, were up 48% from May 2007, according to the latest release from RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed properties. Filings increased 7% from April.

“May was the 29th straight month we’ve seen a year-over-year increase,” RealtyTrac’s CEO James Saccacio said in a statement.

Million US homes in foreclosure

Posted by patriot on June 5th, 2008

Big bubble burst:

More than one million homes are now in foreclosure, the highest rate ever recorded, according to a trade group which warned Thursday that number will continue to climb.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s first quarter report showed that a record 2.5% of all loans being serviced by its members are now in foreclosure, which works out to about 1.1 million homes. That’s up from the 2% of loans, or about 938,000 homes, that were in foreclosure at the end of 2007.

The report also showed that 448,000 homes, or about 1% of loans being serviced, began the foreclosure process during the first quarter. That’s up from about 382,000 homes, or 0.83%, that entered foreclosure in the last three months of 2007.

Mortgage Foreclosures Rise to New Heights

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 5th, 2008

Even more “no duh” news from CNBC:

U.S. home foreclosures and the rate of homes entering the foreclosure process rose to record highs in the first quarter with increases across many loan classes, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday.

The rate of failing loans was led by a growing wave of subprime borrowers unable to make payments, the trade group said in its delinquency and foreclosure survey.

A record 0.99 percent of U.S. loans were entering the foreclosure process in the first three months of 2008 compared with 0.58 percent in the same time a year earlier.

The U.S. mortgage delinquency rate of 6.35 percent was the highest since 1979 when the trade group began its current method of measuring failing home loans.

Mortgage Applications Hit 6-Year Low as Rates Surge

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 4th, 2008

Its a very hard to time to be in the banking and mortgage business. What’s that old saying? What comes around…

Applications for mortgages stumbled to their lowest level in six years last week as rates on fixed-rate mortgages surged, according to data released Wednesday morning by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The association’s composite index, which covers purchase and refinancing activity, fell 15.3 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis to 502.3 for the week ended May 30, from a reading of 593.3 one week earlier. Applications were off 20.3 percent compared to the same week one year earlier.

Misleading headline: End of US Housing Slump Likely to Be Long, Painful

Posted by Charlie Kilo on May 26th, 2008

The headline to this story really could have been much more positive. Yes, we’re still in a major slump but the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to reveal itself:

Like spring flowers, the “For Sale” signs are sprouting in front yards all over the country. But anxious sellers are facing the most brutal environment in decades, with a slumping economy, falling home prices and rising mortgage foreclosures.

And even the faint promise of better days ahead might not come true, given all the headwinds the housing industry is facing at the moment.

“This is going to be another difficult spring,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “I think we are at the beginning of the end of the housing downturn, but it is going to be a long and painful end.”

A new use for SUV’s…call it “home”

Posted by Charlie Kilo on May 16th, 2008

Economic hard times are forcing Americans to move out of their homes and into their cars.

CNN video here

Foreclosure filings continued to climb in April

Posted by Charlie Kilo on May 14th, 2008

Actions rise 65 percent over the same month the year before:

More U.S. homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments last month, driving the number of homes facing foreclosure up 65 percent versus the same month last year and contributing to a deepening slide in home values, a research company said Tuesday.

Nationwide, 243,353 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in April, up 65 percent from 147,708 in the same month last year and up 4 percent since March, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida were among the hardest hit states, with metropolitan areas in California and Florida accounting for nine of the top 10 areas with the highest rate of foreclosure, the company said.

Disappearing now: $6 trillion in housing wealth

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 30th, 2008

Hear that giant flushing sound? Its your “wealth” going down the toilet:

A Washington think tank is warning that housing prices are falling at an accelerating level, destroying wealth at a pace that will cost the average homeowner $85,000 in lost wealth this year alone.

The projections by the Center for Economic and Policy Research are based on the numbers in Tuesday’s Case-Shiller home price index, which showed accelerating price declines in most big cities.

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