foreclosures posts
Posted Jun 26th 2009 9:30AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Economic data, Wells Fargo (WFC), Housing, Cramer on BloggingStocks, Recession, Financial Crisis
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the endless worries will prove bogus, and jobs creation could spur a real lift. Alt-A. Endless bank foreclosures. Commercial real estate. These are the big three worries that will not be killed by data, rigor or common sense, no matter what happens.
Doesn't it occur to anyone that there already should have been a big spike in commercial real estate losses by now? That the decline in the economy has lasted long enough that it should have manifested itself? Doesn't anyone think that there should have been a big commercial real estate bad-debt bump at a
Citigroup (NYSE:
C) (
Cramer's Take) or a
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:
JPM) (
Cramer's Take) or a
Wells Fargo (NYSE:
WFC) (
Cramer's Take)?
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Real estate turnaround
Posted May 13th 2009 2:10PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Economic data, Housing
U.S. foreclosures jumped 32% in April from a year ago. This is not good news.One of every 374 households with a mortgage received a foreclosure filing in April bringing filings to 342,038 according to RealtyTrac.
What is happening is that banks and other lenders are now initiating foreclosure proceedings that previously had been on hold. There had been a temporary freeze by major banks and lenders that ended March 6. When that expired, lenders moved in quickly to start the foreclosure process. It's like a dam broke loose when the freeze ended. Realty Trac expects another three or four months of high foreclosure activity.
Continue reading U.S. foreclosures at an all time high
Posted May 12th 2009 5:30PM by Michael Fowlkes
Filed under: Consumer experience, Housing, Recession, Financial Crisis

As we all know, the housing market has been taking a beating over the past couple years. The global recession seemed to spark right out of the American housing market, and things have not really been improving too much. With all the homes that are unsold in the country, more and more homeowners have decided to
rent instead of sell their properties.
As the housing market began to come apart at the seams, home inventories started to swell, and prices started to drop. Everyone has been waiting anxiously to see a point where the lower prices would bring massive buyers back into the market, but that still has not happened yet, and instead of lowering prices even further, homeowners have decided to hold onto properties a little longer and pull in some rental income instead.
Continue reading More homeowners look to rent unsold properties
Posted Apr 11th 2009 2:40PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Housing, Recession
Fannie and Freddie have already gotten their bailouts, and now the third leg of the federal government's affordable home ownership fetish might need more money too: the Federal Housing Administration.
The FHA insures loans for first-time homebuyers, and its obligations could be staggering. The FHA insures loans with down payments as low 3.5%, but given the number of buyers who have wrapped closing costs into their mortgages in recent years, the true loan-to-value ratios may have been even higher.
Some 10.2% of people who took out FHA loans in first quarter of 2008 missed two consecutive monthly payments within the first ten months. And 12.3% of the loans made in 2007 were seriously delinquent.
Continue reading Is FHA next in line for a bailout?
Posted Mar 12th 2009 8:20AM by Mark Fightmaster
Filed under: Economic data, Housing, Recession
While many major lenders took steps to stem the rising tide of foreclosures, RealtyTrac reported that the number of households facing foreclosure increased 30% compared to a year ago. Last month, roughly 291,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice -- which is 6% higher than January.
Western states and Florida continue to lead the country in foreclosures (with Nevada, Arizona, and California leading the West), but RealtyTrac noted that states like Idaho, Illinois, and Oregon saw more foreclosures.
RealtyTrac's Vice President Rick Sharga noted that this data "doesn't bode well ... At least for the foreseeable future, it's going to continue to be pretty ugly."
Continue reading Foreclosures increase a shocking 30% in February
Posted Mar 6th 2009 8:10AM by Michael Fowlkes
Filed under: Bad news, Economic data, Housing, Recession, Financial Crisis

We all know that things have been less than ideal for homeowners over the past year, and we got a little clearer picture yesterday of just how bad things have become. According to a new report,
12% of all homeowners in the country were at least one month behind on their mortgage payments, or already in foreclosure at the end of 2008.
The situation is even worse for subprime, adjust-rate mortgage holders. These loans have been blamed as a major reason why the credit market has reached the point where it is now, and according to this report an amazing 48% of these mortgages have either fallen behind or have entered foreclosure proceedings.
Continue reading More dismal news on the foreclosure front
Posted Feb 20th 2009 12:00PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Good news, Market matters, Personal finance, Housing
As the song goes "what a difference a day makes." On Wednesday President Obama unveiled his $275 billion housing plan to help stem the tide of foreclosures. By the next day, mortgage lenders' phones were ringing off the hook. Lending Tree, the online mortgage lender had the highest loan request volume day for the month. Traffic at Zillow.com was up 56% on Wednesday.
While the program announced on Wednesday will help the foreclosure problem, it does not contain a provision for servicers to modify mortgages. Professor Chris Mayer, senior vice dean at Columbia University said that 50% of mortgage servicers have some kind of restriction on loan modification which can only be changed through legislation.
Continue reading Obama's housing plan is off to a roaring start
Posted Feb 13th 2009 3:00PM by Michael Fowlkes
Filed under: Good news, Consumer experience, Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Economic data, Politics, Housing, Recession, Financial Crisis

The alarming rate at which foreclosures have been rising over the past year is definitely something to be concerned about. Today, some homeowners are getting a little breathing room as a couple of the
biggest banks are granting a moratorium on foreclosures.
As
Lita Epstein pointed out yesterday, last month was the tenth month in a row where foreclosures were in excess of 250,000 as
274,399 foreclosures were filed in January. The foreclosure epidemic has been a serious drain on the overall economy, and it is hoped that the Obama administration is going to be able to develop a plan to help keep homeowners in their homes.
Continue reading Foreclosures halted by two big banks
Posted Feb 12th 2009 8:45AM by Lita Epstein
Filed under: Money and Finance Today, Personal finance, Housing, Financial Crisis

More owners are walking away from homes with mortgages underwater, as foreclosure filings totaled 274,399, the 10th month in a row that the number topped a quarter million, according to RealtyTrac, which sells default data. This is the
37th year-on-year increase in foreclosure filings.
"Until debt goes down or prices go up, this is going to be a mess," Bruce Norris, president of the Norris Group, a California-based investment firm, told
Bloomberg. That turnaround isn't likely any time soon as home prices have fallen every month since January 2007. The biggest drop was in November when prices fell 18.2%, according to the S&P/Case Shiller index of 20 U.S. cities.
Continue reading More than 250,000 homes face foreclosure filings for 10th straight month
Posted Feb 3rd 2009 12:15PM by Joseph Lazzaro
Filed under: Forecasts, Politics, Housing

Economists note that the U.S. recession that has mushroomed into a global recession with constrained credit and falling demand began with the rise in foreclosures in the U.S. housing sector.
Hence, ending the rise in foreclosures, while it would not mean U.S. GDP growth would immediately follow, will help put the world's largest economy on the road to recovery, many economists agree.
Further, it looks like the Obama administration is set to make a large financial commitment toward achieving that goal by allocating up to $100 billion of the TARP's second $350 billion in bailout / rescue funds for home mortgage refinances,
Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. Continue reading Ray of Light: Obama administration may offer mortgage refinance plan
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