The Housing Market Still Sucks

From Crooks and Liars: The Black Hole at the Pit of the Economy | Crooks and Liars

1. The percentage of homeowners with underwater mortgages — where the value of a mortgage exceeds the value of the property — has now climbed to 28.4 percent. It has been at around a quarter of all (single-family) home mortgages, but is continuing to climb, edging closer to a third. This is a truly stunning number, especially when you consider how many homeowners are in their second or even third decade of paying off their mortgage.

2. Housing prices continue their decline, in fact scoring their biggest quarterly drop since the crash months in 2008. Home values have declined a net 29.5 percent since their peak in 2006, and after a modest increase after the 2008 crash, started declining again last fall and are now at their lowest level, making them equal to the bottom point of the crash. And analysts expect them to continue to fall for another year at least.

3. A new report out by National People’s Action shows that one out of ten homes in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cinncinnati will have received a foreclosure notice since the housing crisis began. Those are depression-level numbers, and I expect they parallel other hard hit states like MI, FL, and NV. Where the housing crisis is at its worst, we are seeing economic devastation on a massive scale.

All of this adds up to terrible news not just in the housing sector but in the rest of our economy as well. Homes represent the No. 1 source of wealth and equity for middle-class Americans, and their best chance for having some kind of decent retirement. Being secure in your home equity makes people far more likely to start a small business, and far more likely to have the confidence to buy the other consumer items that make the economy hum. And home prices are cyclical, in the sense that bad news for your neighbor in terms of a foreclosure usually means bad news for your home value.

Ireland

Ireland is Bankrupt...a letter from an Irish citizen | Angry Bear

A good read on Ireland. I couldn't stop thinking about our (the US) China financed spending spree of the last decade and the recent bank bailouts.

tnb

Foreclosure Fraud

ginandtacos.com » Blog Archive » A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE

Another good one from GinAndTaocs, this time ranting on just one of the crooked things happening to people caught in the Florida foreclosure process.

Also, this from Matt Taibbi at The Rolling Stone has more detail.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/232611?RS_show_page=0

A Woody Guthrie line that was something like "It's easier to rob people with a pencil than with a gun" seems fitting here.

tnb

but remember,.... the housing crisis was cause by the government forcing those good-guy banks to loan money to "those" people...

tnb again...

Foreclosure Crisis

"that courts have found that some mortgages have been sold again and again to different trusts, when they should have only been sold once."

Guest Post: Mortgages Were Pledged to Multiple Buyers at the Same Time « naked capitalism

Fox News and Tea-baggers, please note that this was not caused by Barny Frank and the Democrats forcing the good old banks to loan money to "Those" people.

tnb

Enormous Mortgage-Bond Scandal

For you "Fox News Watchers" that think the financial crisis was caused by Barney Frank forcing the banks to lend money to all "those" people, please note,.... the rich, wall-street bankers pulled this one off.

The enormous mortgage-bond scandal Analysis - Opinion

Foreclosure Fraud For Dummies - Part 3

Foreclosure Fraud For Dummies, 3: Why Are Servicers So Bad At Their Job? « Rortybomb

Latest Real Estate Time Bomb

You should be very cautious when buying a house out of foreclosure. The bank may not really own the title rights. Of course they write the contract so the buyer, not the bank, is responsible if there are problems. You could end up with a big loan but without a house.

Latest Real Estate Time Bomb: Title of Foreclosed Properties Clouded; Wells Fargo Dumping Risk on Hapless Buyers - naked capitalism