foreclosures posts
FeedPosted Nov 20th 2009 2:30PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Economic data, Housing, Recession
The loans that got us into this mess were generally the first to fall. Variable rate mortgages written without documentation for people with sketchy credit histories shocked nobody as their slide became an avalanche. But, the good stuff is starting to follow. An increasing amount of fixed rate mortgages offered to borrowers with solid credit histories are feeling their ways to foreclosure. Blame unemployment for this one. When people can't work, it gets pretty hard to pay the mortgage.
Fixed rate, high quality mortgages had a foreclosure a year ago. Last quarter, it jumped to 33%, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association report. As this happened, the amount of homeowners behind on their payments or in foreclosure just set another record high ... for the ninth month in a row. Subprime mortgages are headed in the other direction. Low quality adjustable rate mortgages are now 16% of new foreclosures -- compared to 35% last year. And, more than 18% of Federal Housing Administration loans are anywhere from one payment behind to in foreclosure, with California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida worst off: together, they accounted for 44% of new foreclosures.
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Continue reading Even the good die young? High-quality mortgages approaching foreclosure
Posted Nov 12th 2009 9:30AM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Before the bell, Housing, Financial Crisis

According to RealtyTrac, the number of homeowners facing foreclosure
dropped during October, thanks in part to foreclosure prevention programs that helped borrowers. RealtyTrac stated that more than 332,000 households (one in every 385 homes) were recipients of either a notice of default or a trustee's sale. This number is 3% lower than September, making October the third-straight month with a drop in the number of homeowners facing foreclosure. As for homes actually repossessed, the number dropped to 77,000 in October from 88,000 in September.
RealtyTrac noted that one reason for the lower number of foreclosures is new state programs that require a bank to try and work with the homeowner before seizing property. In addition, some lenders are staving off foreclosures by evaluating which of their close-to-default borrowers may qualify for the new federal loan modification program.
Continue reading Foreclosures fall, but are still higher than a year ago
Posted Oct 24th 2009 10:00AM by Michael Shulman (RSS feed)
Filed under: Housing, Recession
People not only feel poorer, they are poorer. Personal wealth will continue to decline in 2010, as home prices fall even further, fueled by a wave of 7 million homes that will go into foreclosure in the next 12 to 18 months. And foreclosure rates will remain above historical norms well beyond that.
More foreclosures mean more downward price pressure in the housing market. And homeowners will experience a commensurate loss of wealth as the value of their homes decline. And this is on top of all the money that had previously been lost in the stock market -- as much as 40% of accumulated consumer wealth.
Continue reading Reason #1: Dramatic loss of wealth
Posted Oct 20th 2009 3:00PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Employees, Economic data, Personal finance, Recession
Some of the jobs that have disappeared through this recession are gone forever, it seems. Even when the market turns, and even gains momentum, we could be stuck with a fairly weak employment market for a while. The recovery will take longer than we'd like, putting more distance between now and the top of the next market run. We've lost 7.2 million jobs since December 2007, and the predictions of some economists that we'll get them back by 2014 may actually seem optimistic.
Unemployment is at 9.8%, and it's expected to clear 10% early next year. Then, we have the specter of a jobless recovery with which to contend. "Full employment" is often considered to be an
unemployment rate of 4% to 5%, but it could be a while before we get there. The last downturn, following the
dotcom bust, resulted in a peak unemployment rate of 6.3% in 2003 ... and we're already well past that.
Why is the recovery going to be such a grind? Check out the four major reasons after the jump.
Continue reading Four reasons we're stuck with high unemployment for a while
Posted Oct 15th 2009 8:40AM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Economic data, Housing, Financial Crisis

It has been a great quarter for the economy, hasn't it? I mean, the economic recovery is in full swing . . . right? The Dow has eclipsed 10,000 for the first time in a year and there is absolutely no hint of the doldrums from which the economy has emerged. Not so fast, my friend.
According to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes,
937,840 homes were foreclosed on during the past quarter -- a record number. That is a lot of foreclosures -- 5% more than in the second quarter and 23% more than a year ago. In fact, this means that one in every 136 homes were in foreclosure. Rick Sharga from RealtyTrac told CNNMoney: "They [the past quarter] were the worst three months of all time."
Continue reading It was a record quarter ... for foreclosures
Posted Sep 5th 2009 10:30AM by Ted Allrich (RSS feed)
Filed under: Comfort Zone Investing
Unlike Commissioner Gordon who can send out the Bat signal to call his helpmate against crime, there is nothing investors can do to summon aid in times of stress. They have to go it alone. But they can be armed with intelligence that helps. Here are few of the most prominent data points that will make a difference for all stocks, a macro perspective that should make navigating the stock market highway a little easier.
However, taken on a one-time basis, these aren't going to solve the mystery that is the market. Rather, data has to show a trend before it can be used. Even then, a trend stops and another begins. So even though the trend can be your friend, it can just as easily turn and become your enemy. As they used to say on Hill Street Blues: Be careful out there.
Continue reading Comfort Zone Investing: Road signs, good and bad, to navigate the market
Posted Aug 28th 2009 9:30AM by Jim Cramer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Housing, Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the demand for homes is real because they are affordable.
Sometimes the misdirection in the media's interpretation of the mortgage/foreclosure market simply drives me up a wall. Take Thursday's fret story, "Loans That Looked Easy Pose Threats to Recovery," in The New York Times. This one is played big online, much bigger than another story, "Signs of Life as Sales of New Homes Improve." The gist of the big story? Option rate ARMs are going to crimp anything good that could happen from the housing recovery.
But you know what? The amazing thing here is the number of option ARMs that they say we are in trouble on: 500,000 homes. Sorry, I know that number is meant to scare people, but it is truly small, especially when you consider that 17 million homes traded during the period from 2005 to the first quarter of 2007, when the reckless lending set in. Given the charges we have taken in the banking system, the reserves we have, the bottom in housing and the robust market we have -- and it isn't just for first-time homebuyers, and it isn't just for low-dollar homes, despite the impressions made by the media -- you have to take this worry and throw it out.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Housing is back, despite media's worries
Posted Aug 17th 2009 4:30PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Good news, Market matters, Money and Finance Today, Housing, Recession, Financial Crisis
Homebuilder confidence hit a 1 year high today, providing another sign that the worst of the housing melt down may have passed.
The housing market started to crumble back in 2006, and since that time foreclosures and falling home prices have hit the economy hard, and played a major role in the recession that has effected millions. Today the The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo confidence index climbed to 18, the highest level that it has been since June 2008.
Continue reading Homebuilder confidence hits 12 month high
Posted Jun 26th 2009 9:30AM by Jim Cramer (RSS feed)
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
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