Housing Market
« Previous Entries25% of Borrowers Who Received Mortgage Payment Reductions Fell Behind Again
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009For every four borrowers that received a mortgage payment reduction, one ended up falling behind again.
Okay, I guess the optimistic way to state that would be to say that the mortgage payment reduction program has had a 75% success rate (still that’s a “C” if you were using a grading scale). There’s [...]
What’s Going to Prevent The Housing Crisis From Happening Again?
Thursday, June 25th, 2009Interesting article by David Wessel in today’s WSJ about how he believes (and Greenspan too) that the economy can only rebound if housing prices rebound. From the article:
For the two-thirds of American families who own their homes, a house is their biggest asset. The lower house prices go, the less wealthy they are and [...]
Flawed Thinking…
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009Check out this comment that was left the other day on one of my old mortgage posts:
Two years ago we stopped investing in our 401k and we began paying thousands against the principal on our home. We only have $1,500.00 left to pay and the property is ours and we didn’t lose our a$$et$ to [...]
What Should Happen to Angelo Mozilo?
Friday, June 5th, 2009The SEC has charged Angelo Mozillo with fraud. You can read the full complaint here (PDF).
The article seems pretty clear that Mozilo was aware of just how bad things were while he was dumping his company stock. Mozilo had always played the “I-don’t-know-how-this-could-have-happened” card. I remember reading in the Wall Street Journal [...]
How Quickly Mortgage Rates Can Change, Affecting Your Payments
Friday, May 29th, 2009Think about this for a minute…
On Tuesday, the rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage stood at about 5.03%. That same mortgage had a rate of 5.44% on Thursday. To get an idea of what this means dollar-wise, I ran some numbers. Because mortgages are such big, long-term loans, small changes in interest [...]
Thoughts on Foreclosure Auctions
Monday, May 18th, 2009I read the following article in today’s Houston Chronicle:
First-Timers, Pros Vie For Foreclosures
A reader named, NavyPop, left the following comment on that article:
I personally could not bring myself to profit off someone else misery. Nor would I feel comfortable providing that example to my wife and children. The church took it as a sign from [...]
Question of the Day - Mozilo and Countrywide
Thursday, May 14th, 2009I saw in today’s WSJ that the SEC is about to charge Angelo Mozilo with fraud:
The charges the SEC is considering include alleged violations of insider-trading laws and alleged failure to disclose material information to shareholders, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Mozilo sold $130 million of Countrywide stock in the first half of [...]
20% of Homeowners Underwater According to Zillow
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009More Than One in Five Homeowners Underwater: Zillow
U.S. home values posted a year-over-year decline of 14.2 percent to a Zillow Home Value Index of $182,378, resulting in a total 21.8 percent drop since the market peaked in 2006, according to Zillow’s first-quarter Real Estate Market Reports, which encompass 161 metropolitan areas and cover the value [...]
Some Comments Just Need to Be Highlighted!
Thursday, March 12th, 2009This blog has nearly always been blessed with awesome commenters. Some of my favorite commenters are Kitty, Stacey, Foobarista, Sam (there are a couple of “Sam” commenters. The “Sam” I am referring to has been reading this blog for years), Miguel, and many others. Although I write this blog as a way [...]
What’s So Bad About Foreclosure?
Monday, March 9th, 2009No, I would not want to have my house foreclosed upon. But, I still think the process makes sense. From today’s Wall Street Journal (no link. It was just a short piece on A4):
Hundreds of houses went to the highest bidder at an auction of foreclosed homes Sunday at the Jacob K. [...]