Housing Doom

More "delaying the inevitable" legislation:

Los Angeles home foreclosures fell sharply in October from September as a new California law came into effect, while the number of foreclosures in Miami continued to grow at a slower rate, real estate research website PropertyShark.com said Tuesday.

The number of newly scheduled auctions on foreclosed properties in Los Angeles county fell 51 percent, the greatest monthly decline in two years.

The law, passed July 8, requires lenders to contact homeowners and explore options to avoid foreclosure before initiating the process. Some sections of the law became effective Sept 8.

Its implementation accounted for most of the decline, to 2,389, in the number of newly scheduled auctions foreclosures in Los Angeles County, said PropertyShark.com Chief Executive Bill Staniford.

By comparison, such auctions fell only about 1 percent to 4,863 between August and September.

However, the law requires only a 30-day waiting period before the lender files the foreclosure notice, which means the closure of that period might result in a reversal of this month’s dip, Staniford said.

"We could see this snap right back," he said.

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It’s election day, and it’s time to get out and vote.  I loved the comments from this "Disgruntled Republican", though, on why the uninformed should sit today out:

You should not let anyone shame you into voting. You should not vote unless you are real informed and confident in your decision. It is unpatriotic to cast an uninformed vote. What if you vote the wrong way and the person you vote for does something to really screw up the world? Do you want that responsibility?

Voting casually without being certain of your vote is wrong. Casting your vote should be a sober decision. Casting an unsure vote is sort of like driving drunk. So, if you don’t feel certain that you are qualified to vote or have adequately studied the issues; please don’t vote. If you get most of your news from Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report, please do not vote.

Some people will tell you that if you don’t vote you have no right to complain. That is just not true. By not voting, you are not giving up the right to complain.

I don’t want you to vote. You see, if you don’t vote, my vote carries more weight. If only 33% of the people vote, it is like I am voting for three people; if 50% of the people vote it is like I am voting for only two people. I don’t want you to dilute my vote. Let me vote for you.

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Remember how the housing bailout plan was supposed to help 400,000 homeowners?  Now it looks like they overestimated [or overstated] the number of homeowners who could avail themselves of the program and underestimated the number of homeowners who would: [Thanks L!]

WASHINGTON — The government expects that only 20,000 troubled borrowers will be able to refinance into more affordable home loans by next fall under a new mortgage aid program passed by lawmakers over the summer.

The $300 billion Hope for Homeowners program was launched Oct. 1. Designed by lawmakers eager to respond to the mortgage crisis, the Congressional Budget Office had projected it would let 400,000 troubled homeowners swap risky loans for conventional 30-year fixed-rate loans with lower rates.

But the early results are discouraging: The government received only 42 applications in the program’s first two weeks, according to the Federal Housing Administration. The low turnout was first reported by the industry newsletter Housing Wire. Since the applications take about 60 days to process, no loans have been approved yet.

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