First it was the subprime loans that were causing problems for lenders.  They were followed by the alt A loans.  What is the latest problem child for lender is the formerly known as "insulated" prime jumbo loans: [Parenthetical comments are by author "Tradermark", not me.]   Rising defaults by affluent homeowners are raising the specter of another cloud over banks and investors, which could get stuck with thousands of expensive homes. About 6.9% of prime "jumbo" loans were at least 90 days delinquent in December, according to LPS Applied Analytics, a mortgage-data research firm. The rate was up sharply from…
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John put this find on the sidebar, but it was too wierd to not upgrade it to a post.  In a world where concerns about moral hazard have gone the way of the Dodo bird, Freddie Mac has brought unconcern to new heights. [Or would that be lows?] How’s this for unbelievable? So you didn’t make the payments on your property and are now in foreclosure.  They not only will allow you to live in it should you choose, you can rent it out to someone else if you don’t! WASHINGTON (AP) — Mortgage finance company Freddie Mac said it…
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It’s Friday, and while things could be worse, it’s hard to tell that from the news.  Yesterday we saw the worst new home sales ever, the worst week for unemployment figures since 1967, and we heard that 2008 was the worst year ever for Ford.  Today we expect to hear that the GDP is the worst it’s been in 26 years. [Thanks L!]

The Federal Reserve has alluded to stepping in and buying its own debt to prop up demand, supporting prices and keeping yields in line. [1] “We’re seeing a bit of indigestion” [2] Just before yesterday’s NY Fed H.4.1 numbers came out, we were contemplating the evening star and the lovely New Moon that had recently heralded the Chinese Year of the Ox. Well, East Asia’s party season has now ended, and the central bankers at countries like Japan and China are back to work. Looks like that new Ox may not have an infinite capacity for Treasury Debt. As is…
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After many promises of "transparency", it’s clear that where taxpayer billions- I mean TRILLIONS- are going, is going to remain a secret.  Not just to taxpayers, but to Congress as well. Hat tip to Freedom’s Phoenix for this video: Watch CBS Videos Online

I thought this was funny…. [Hat tip to our admin!]

I recognize that when you pull video off of YouTube, you run the risk of posting something of dubious authenticity.  I did think however, if the poster’s claims in this case are correct, this is a case of an eviction running amok.I thought this was worth posting. According to the poster of the video on YouTube: Davidson County, North Carolina:  Local Davidson County politician and Sheriff David Grice was embarrassed and stood with foreclosure egg on his face after a botched attempt to serve what later proved to be an unlawful eviction. Grice, accompanied by 14 patrol cars, nearly 20…
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Many thanks to T.M. for sending me the following article with the comment, "This is why it is taking such a long time for house prices to fall here in California." This is the story of the divorce squabbles of Debbie Matenopoulos, host of E! and her estranged husband. They can’t seem to come to grips with a realistic selling price for their $4.3M home. People magazine is a bit of a change from my usual sources, but if John can quote Vanity Fair, I can use People.  Debbie Matenopoulos’s estranged husband is seeking spousal support from the E! host,…
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Another Arizona builder, Fulton Homes has filed for bankruptcy protection:  [Thanks L!] Fulton Homes sought legal protection from its creditors Tuesday by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. The Tempe-based company is among Arizona’s largest home builders. It was founded by Ira Fulton, a prominent community figure and one of the state’s best-known philanthropists. The engineering college at Arizona State University bears Fulton’s name.

The Case-Shiller Housing Index Report has been released for November. Like the rest of the economic news out there, it’s not pretty:  [Thanks L!] The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index released Tuesday tumbled by a record 18.2 percent from November 2007, the largest decline since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index dropped 19.1 percent, tied with October for the biggest drop in its 21-year history. Both indices have recorded year-over-year declines for 23 straight months. Prices are at levels not seen since February 2004. Prices in the 20-city index have plummeted 25.1 percent from their peak in July…
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I didn’t get a chance to write my rebuttal to the NAR’s Existing Home Sales Report yesterday, but fortunately Yahoo Finance did and L sent it to me: [Thanks L!] The initial existing home data for December 2008 was fairly positive, as sales on seasonally adjusted annualized rate increased 6.5% month-over-month, with the increase in sales more of a function of lower home prices. However, what concerns us about the data is that approximately 45.0% of the improvement came from distressed-type sales (predominately foreclosures). If we try to account for influences of these ‘distressed sales,’ a back of the envelope…
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The Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma said it lost $1.4 million, less than 1 percent of its assets, when third-party money managers invested in two of Madoff’s allegedly fraudulent hedge funds. [1] It almost looks like comic relief, but that amount’s still serious money to the OK Baptist community.  It puts the damage to Bernie’s core constituency that includes NY & FL Modern Orthodox congregations [2] into perspective.  Later, from the same story, … Like many Ponzi schemes, Madoff is accused of an affinity fraud, which preys on victims of identifiable groups such as ethnic or religious communities. The Madoff scandal…
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I’ve just hung up on "Rachel" for the one-hundred-fifty-first time this month Canadians (especially those who have subscribed to the infamous Canadian Do Not Call list and started getting MORE calls) will know exactly what I mean.  I expect similar stories are coming out of most American states. This is getting ridiculous, and it’s starting to seriously degrade the usefulness of my land-line phone.  What I’d like is some sort of STAR 419 function that would immediately alert my phone provider that the immediately preceding call was an unsolicited telemarketer.  I’d like to see regulations allowing the provider to charge…
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Canada is not in a depression. There are no breadlines, no hobos riding rails, no agricultural collapse, no banks closing their doors, no dustbowls, no shanty villages on the outskirts of the town. We are in a recession — a serious one, but still a recession. We’ve been in recessions before. We survived those; we can handle this one. [1] Whether the faceless gnomes writing the above were taking direction from Coleman-Low, the PMO, or a medium in touch with Izzy’s ghost, the result was just lame. Not only are key assertions in the piece at variance with the facts,…
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There has been a "foreclosure prevention" idea that has been kicked around for awhile now. It is to allow bankruptcy judges to alter mortgage loan terms and even to reduce a borrower’s principal balance. I have not seen a short, concise name for this suggested mortgage "cram down" program so I would like to suggest one of my own:  MALPRACTICE MORTGAGE ALTERING PRINCIPAL ADJUSTING CHANGING TERMS IN CERTAIN EVENTUALITIES An MSNBC article stated yesterday: [Thanks as always to L!] A bill to give judges authority to alter loan terms for primary residences may be the quickest way to arrest the…
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