real

 Buying a Home  Home Buyers Tips  What is a Buyers Agent  Buying A HUD Home  Links 

 

 

 

Real Estate Recession Happening

real estate recession Real Estate Recession Happening

The nation’s mortgage melt down has evolved into America’s real estate crisis amid falling home prices, record foreclosures and weakening consumer confidence and threatens to produce the nation’s worst economic disaster in history, a Housing Predictor study reveals.

The catastrophic damage could be so widespread that the crisis could reach $600 billion in losses to home owners, Wall Street investors, mortgage companies and banks.

The number of adjustable rate mortgages set to adjust with higher mortgage payments for homeowners in the U.S. through 2009 is now estimated to be at least 5 million loans, which is widely expected to further damage the nation’s ailing real estate markets. The earlier estimate was just 40% of the new estimate at 2 million mortgages.

The staggering estimate was provided by the office of U.S. Congressman Brad Miller, (D) North Carolina. Miller is championing a proposal in the house to let courts alter mortgages of subprime borrowers in response to the nation’s mortgage crisis resulting in record foreclosures.
Fault In The Vaults

For years greedy lending practices and investors forged a booming housing market that appreciated in most areas of the country at or near double digit figures until the coffers, which were Wall Street Bankers shut off the flow of money. With the money stream in short supply mortgage lenders tightened lending guidelines, which in turn slowed many real estate markets down.

Real estate markets all over the country at first slowed and now more than half of the nation’s housing markets are nearly at a standstill with abysmal sales figures, according to independent surveys conducted by Housing Predictor. The rate at which prices are falling in some areas is staggering, much faster than when the Savings and Loan Fraud Scandal reached its peak in the early 1990's.
Expanding Crisis

The real estate crisis is beginning to move into markets where they have been untouched thus far. Second home, vacation markets and extremely high end properties well over $1-million are sectors of the housing market that remain less distressed than many others. California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada are the most troubled states with record high foreclosures and increasing notices of late mortgage payments being recorded. Banking officials concede by the time the fall out is over few urban markets will remain unaffected.

The concentration of fraud and misrepresentations combined with easy access to mortgages of all kinds, including subprime loans to those with poor credit histories and exotic new conventional mortgages to those with good credit has caused the worst financial disaster for lenders since the Great Depression with more than 120 mortgage companies either filing for bankruptcy or going out of business all together.

Compounding the problem are increasing estimates of more than 5 million adjustable rate mortgages that are scheduled to be reset before the end of 2009, many which are held by investors who will be unable to make higher payments. Americas Watchdog, a web site that has been warning about the forthcoming crisis for nearly three years estimates the consequences from home flippers alone will be devastating.

"The problem is we have half a million to three quarters of a million flippers (investors wishing to make a quick profit buying and selling homes) in this country and by this time next year they will have lost their homes," said Thomas Martin, president of the organization, which offers services to help consumers.
"Worst Financial Disaster in History"

"We think this will be the worst financial disaster in the nation’s history," said Martin. Others, including some economists are beginning to agree and at least one ex-Federal Reserve Board member says the housing crisis has reached epidemic proportions that have not been witnessed since the Great Depression. "Wall Street talks like the problem is behind us," said Martin." In reality the problem is just in its initial stages with more severe hardships that will effect individual homeowners as well as the over all economy."

Critics charge the Federal Government looked the other way. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he knew about the subprime mortgage problem a few years ago, but never expected it to evolve into such a massive problem.

The crisis is so wide ranging it extends to all levels of government.
"Best Congress That Money Can Buy"

The crisis undermines the mortgage process as we have known it for the last half century in the United States, and poses fundamental issues for society to resolve. Builders lobbyists in Washington D.C. have made many campaign contributions to Congressional candidates running for office, who were later elected. One mortgage agent ironically said, "We have the best Congress that money can buy."

In the mean time, home sales continue to decline. Sales of existing homes depressed by the credit markets fell for a sixth straight month in August. The housing market has already dropped to its worst slow down in at least 16 years. Housing Predictor expects sales to continue to be slow for many months, perhaps even years in some urban markets. Foreclosures have already reached all time record highs nationally.

The Federal Reserve is trying to avert a worsening crisis by cutting interest rates, and Housing Predictor expects the Fed to continue on its current interest rate cutting path to assist the housing market and other U.S. financial markets in an attempt to save the overall economy from worsening.
Laws to Avert Repeat of Great Depression

Many economists are concerned about the housing market’s future. Economist Milton Friedman and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke say that the U.S. Great Depression was caused by "monetary contraction," which resulted from poor policy making decisions by the former Federal Reserve policymakers’ organization known as the American Federal Reserve System, which preceded the current Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Federal laws were changed and improved since the Great Depression to allow the Fed to take additional actions to help ailing economies and avoid a similar fate from repeating, including supplying additional money into the economy and cutting interest rates more.

The panic that banks experienced with massive withdrawals by depositors during the height of fear in the Depression era has occurred only to a limited degree, mainly in areas like California, which is in a housing recession. Most banks remain solvent and continue to do business daily. Some of the nation’s largest mortgage companies are battling to stay in business.

The housing crisis, however, will take many years to overcome, according to most economists, who are leery about predicting how long it will take to recover from


Wells Fargo, Memphis resolve mortgage lawsuit
BusinessWeek
The suit alleged that the mortgage lender targeted minority communities for predatory practices that resulted in high-risk subprime loans that led to a higher number of foreclosures in those areas. The governments claimed that the foreclosures caused ...
Wells Fargo Reaches Deal In Memphis Bias Suit, To Pay $7.5MWall Street Journal
Under Wells Fargo's thumbSan Francisco Chronicle

all 75 news articles »


Finally, it's mortgage do-over time
Los Angeles Times
By Nicole Gelinas This month, Bank of America said it would start reducing mortgage balances by $150000 on average for up to 200000 underwater homeowners behind on their payments. The biggest news was the dog that didn't bark.
Fed Doesn't Understand Its Target MarketSeeking Alpha

all 3 news articles »


Mortgage modification nightmare
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Mary E. Glover of Clairton is fighting the companies that serviced her mortgage over the foreclosure of her home. By Tim Grant / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette When Mary E. Glover fell on hard times and could not pay her mortgage for four months, ...



Grab Mortgage Now or Save Up to Avoid PMI?
Fox Business
By Don Taylor, Ph.D., CFA, CFP I can get a loan with 5% down, 0.5% private mortgage insurance, or PMI, and around a 5% mortgage interest rate on a $130000 home. I have figured that I can comfortably make an extra $300 in additional principal payments ...
How to Get the Best Mortgage RatesThe Dough Roller

all 2 news articles »


Del. lawmakers weigh mortgage assistance plans
BusinessWeek
Delaware is slated to get about $46 million in a nationwide mortgage foreclosure settlement. Roughly $35 million of that amount will be provided by banks in the form of credits to current and former homeowners. Gov. Jack Markell wants $8 million of the ...
Mortgage registration company seeks dismissal of Delaware lawsuit alleging ...The Republic

all 6 news articles »


Bank of America whistleblower receives $14.5 million in mortgage case
Reuters
N) and the US Justice Department over allegations of mortgage fraud at Countrywide, his attorneys said in a news release. Bank of America bought Countrywide in 2008. Lagow's suit was one of five whistleblower complaints that were folded into the $25 ...
BofA Whistle-Blower Gets $14.5 Million Payday, Lawyer SaysSan Francisco Chronicle
BofA Whistle-Blower Receives $14.5M: LawyerBusinessWeek

all 26 news articles »


GBPUSD: Trading The U.K. Mortgage Approvals Report
TheStreet.com
By DailyFX 05/30/12 - 12:00 AM EDT By David Song, Currency Analyst By Jim Cramer By Eric Jackson By Doug Kass Mortgage approvals in the UK are projected to increase an annualized 50.1K following the 49.9K expansion in March, and the ongoing improvement ...
GBPUSD: Trading the UK Mortgage Approvals ReportInside Futures

all 9 news articles »


Business Insider

Zillow: US 30-Year Mortgage Rates Dropped In Latest Week
Wall Street Journal
Zillow Inc. (Z) said Tuesday its real-time measure of 30-year-fixed-mortgage rates edged down in the latest week, continuing a mostly downward trend for the rate in recent months. The 30-year-fixed-mortgage rate on Zillow's Mortgage Marketplace fell to ...
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Hovers Above All-Time Low; Current Rate is 3.6 ...MarketWatch (press release)
5 Common Misconceptions About Mortgage Pre-QualificationBusiness Insider

all 7 news articles »


Mortgage Partnership Finance® Program Creates New Advisory Council
MarketWatch (press release)
CHICAGO, May 29, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The MPF® Program is pleased to announce the creation of the MPF Advisory Council, which will provide a national forum for experienced mortgage professionals to share their expertise, experiences, ...

and more »


Mortgage Rates & Trends (blog)

Record Low Mortgage Rates Spur Naples Growth
MarketWatch (press release)
NAPLES, FL, May 29, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced that the month of May 2012 has set the all-time record for the lowest interest rates ever for both the 30 year fixed rate mortgage and the 15 year fixed rate ...
Mortgage Interest Rate Report From FHFALoanSafe
Finding a Second Home loan to prevent Mortgage InsuranceThe Bakersfield Voice
Current Mortgage Rates for Tuesday, May 29, 2012Mortgage Rates & Trends (blog)
World Property Channel
all 20 news articles »

Google News

Common Misspellings include addtional agre allready alreayd, aready adn, anbd assit attemp, attemt bankrupcy, banruptcy bedore, befoer, befor beggining, beggining, begining, beginnig beng bisiness, bidness, buisness, busineses, busness, bussiness bu campain centruy chariman conserned congreso congresional consequeseces contritutions convential coudl, sould ocuntry descisions devestating, devistating diaster doulbe buring, durig, durring, duting ealier eearly ecomonic eceonomy eiter ellected esitmated expeced spects experianced extemely, extrememly, extremly, extremly fedral, fedral finacial firt, firts fomr, frome fundametal furuther, futher gogin, goign, gonig, oging govement, govenment, govenrment, goverment, goverment, governmnet, govorment, govornment gerat, graet, grat, gret ahev, ahve, haev, hvae, hvea heighth, heigth, hieght, hieght, hieght halp heigher, higer historie hstory housr howver includng, incuding, inlcuding independant, independendet, indipendent, indpendent inital, intial intrest inot ironicly it's jstu largst lastr, lsat liek, liuke lone maked mailny amke, mkae, mkea amking, mkaing mena memeber michagan milion, millon moeny mounth monts moreso, mroe, omre morage, morgage, morgtage, morgate, mortage enxt noeth, noth nto, onot nowe occured, occured, ocurred lonly, onyl organiztion nother, otehr perhasp, perheaps, perhpas, perphas preceeded, proceded probelm proccess, proces propotions provded reched rela recrod, rocord reponse, responce runing, runnung sasy, syas similiar, simmilar sicne, sinse sose smoe, soem staes studdy suppy sytem tkae tahn, thna taht, tath, thast, thgat, thta, thyat hten, tghe, ther, thge, tjhe ther, theri, thier, thier htey, tehy, tyhe htikn, htink, thikn, thiunk, tihkn htis, thsi, tihs ethose, thsoe threee throught, thru tiem, timne, tiome toghether untied untill wass, weas, ws vell wehn, whn hwihc, whcih, whic, whihc, whlch, wich widesread iwll, wille, wiull eyar, yearm, yera eyars, eyasr, yeasr, yeras, yersa cricis,
 Buying a Home  Home Buyers Tips  What is a Buyers Agent  Buying A HUD Home  woodlands texas homes for sale   Home Insurance  Realtor Advantages  Flood Insurance  Steps to Sell your Home  Selling Home HUD  First Time Home Buyer  Protecting Your Credit  Mistakes when buying a Home  Home Forclosures on The rise!!!!!!  Bad Mortgages  Sub prime mortgages   Mortgage collapse  Real Estate Recession is happening  US Economic collapse