No end in sight to foreclosure quagmire

Source: MSNBC.com

Four years after a wave of rogue mortgage lending sent the U.S. housing market into the worst collapse since the Great Depression, the devastating flood of resulting foreclosures shows no sign of abating. In some ways, the problem is getting worse.

House prices are falling again, forcing more homeowners “underwater” — owing more than their house is worth. Lenders’ shoddy document practices have brought widespread court challenges, slowing the process and leaving millions of homeowners in limbo.

And the foreclosure crisis continues to weigh heavily on the fragile economy.

“Right now, it’s the second-biggest drag on the economy after the surge in oil prices,” said Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42881365/ns/business-personal_finance/

featuring irresponsible fiscal policies, grossly unfair tax policies, and perpetual pre-emptive wars as the social safety net and fabric are to be dismantled to allow the MIC and coffers of the wealthy to be fully gourged. :patriot:

and every bit of savings we have has been extracted.

I'd be willing to bet the majority of new foreclosures are "strategic". People with the means to keep paying their mortgage but realizing they're upside down and just walking away.

That is nothing to sneeze at. It probably makes up for a 5% down payment.

I get what you are saying, as it is indeed happening, but the economy is so bad, and people are losing their health insurance at a time when their mortgage payments are escalating and while cancer, heart attacks, major depression all continue to be on the rise.

My household went bust in 2005-06, and we are just now getting back on our feet. If we had owned a home, we would have lost it. Kaiser Permanente was behind what happened to us.

They love that home, but the husband lost his job. Probably too nice a person. (Banking industry was employing him.)

They are moving in with family - them and the two kids. All going to live with the wife's parents.

It really sucks to be a human being in this nation.

But hey! WE GOT OSAMA!! America number one!

still over 7 million fewer jobs than we had before the downturn

He had been making enough money as an entrepreneur, but his third child was born with a bad congenital syndrome that makes keeping her alive very expensive.

He strategically took a mid-level management job with good benefits (i.e. health insurance) but that involved getting his income cut in half. His wife doesn't work, so they spiraled down and ended up losing their home to a short sale, with all of the fun bad tax consequences.

He moved closer to work to a more humble but perfectly adequate house, dealt with the ego thrash and is now doing fine.

He was gainfully employed but simply walked away from the mortgage b/c he was underwater.

Why is this specifically pinned on foreclosures?

economy tanked, unemployment increased, home prices declined, people lose confidence, home prices decline, foreclosures increase, suicides increase, people with no insurance get sick and lose home to foreclosure, on and on and on.

REO is pushing down the rest of the market, and it's getting worse. This is the "shadow inventory" problem that many warned about. Now that the banks have been able to re-capitalize, they can start foreclosing in force. Woohoo, taxpayer funded bailouts to financial fraudsters.

Bad for people who need positive equity, good for people who are in the market to buy a home.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/for-the-young-theres-a-silver-lining-in-the-housing-bust/2011/05/06/AFBZeQTG_story.html

Real forces behind the major dive this nation has been in are the very people at the top.

Rather than using an article citing how the "lenders" brought about the collapse of the economy.

It was actually the "lenders" in collusion with Wall Street forces, who went out and made the gambling bets against the housing market, the derivatives, the CDO's and CDS' etc that brought about the economic piece of shit pie we are all facing right now.

Somehow the lenders-in-collusion-with Wall Street all got bailed out. Either from the Geithner/Bernnake/Paulson Bailouts, or through their own Golden Parachutes. The one person in jail for his wrong doing - Maddoff. Everyone else is still leading the good life, and one of those leading a good life is doing so just down the hall from the Oval Office. (lil Timmy Himself.)

There were not enough "liars mortgages" on a dozen galaxies to cause the type of massive catastrophic calamity that our nation and the world faces right now.

And in June, it will be even worse.

Watched the trailer last night, not sure how to take it.


OTOH, everyone should be required to watch "Inside Job".

I imagine a lot of people lose there homes because they are unable to refinance their higher rate mortgages and take advantage of low rates due to a collapse in their home value...

and,

because they’re restricting the supply to owner-occupants and not investors.

That strategy isn’t working...