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Sub Prime Mortgages

TAMMI and Charles Eggleston never took out a risky mortgage, never borrowed more than they could afford and never missed a monthly payment on their neat, three-bedroom colonial in the Cleveland suburbs. But that hasn’t prevented them from getting caught in the undertow of the subprime mortgage mess now submerging this town.

Over the last 18 months, the Egglestons have watched one house after another on their street, Gardenview Drive, end up foreclosed and vacant. Although lawns are still tidy and empty homes are not boarded up and stripped as they are in inner-city Cleveland, the Egglestons say Maple Heights no longer feels safe after dark. Nor do they have the confidence they had when they moved in a decade ago that this is the ideal place to raise their 6-year-old twin girls, Sydney and Shelby. So, in May 2006, they put their home on the market in order to move closer to Mrs. Eggleston’s parents in another middle-class Cleveland suburb, Richmond Heights.

They have had no takers. Although they lowered the asking price to $99,000 from $109,000, no one has even come to look at it in more than six weeks. “My heart panics every time I drive down the street and I see another for-sale sign,” says Mrs. Eggleston, pointing past the placards in front of her porch to others that dot surrounding yards like lawn furniture. “Some people on the street couldn’t pay, so they just left. The competition to sell is just ridiculous.”

It is a scene being repeated in cities and towns across America as loans that were made to borrowers with little or no credit history, many of whom could not even afford a down payment, fail in ever-growing numbers. It is also a story of how local economic trends are intersecting with national politics, with local foreclosures drawing the attention of Democratic presidential candidates, including John Edwards and Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio.

On the Republican side, President Bush announced on Friday several steps aimed at alleviating the impact of the subprime crisis on homeowners. In a Rose Garden appearance, he ruled out a federal bailout, citing both “excesses in the lending industry” and unduly optimistic homeowners who took out “loans larger than they could afford,” as reasons for the mortgage woes.

Indeed, what was once a problem confined mostly to economically struggling areas is quickly becoming a national phenomenon. Last year, there were 1.2 million foreclosure filings in the United States, up 42 percent from 2005, according to RealtyTrac, a firm that analyzes such data. At current rates so far this year, RealtyTrac expects foreclosure filings to hit two million in 2007, or roughly one per 62 American households — a rate approaching heights not seen since the Great Depression.

Analysts also say that the fallout from mortgages gone bad is spreading well beyond borrowers now in default. It has begun to engulf middle-class communities like Maple Heights, where nearly 10 percent of the houses — or 910 properties — have been seized by banks in the last two years. And it foreshadows what could lie in store if mortgage holders default on what the Federal Reserve conservatively estimates to be $100 billion in risky subprime loans. Many of these loans were made in 2005 and early 2006, when standards were at their most lax and cities like this were blanketed with aggressive pitches from mortgage providers.

“I don’t think we’ve hit bottom,” says Michael G. Ciaravino, the mayor of Maple Heights. “My fear is that foreclosure rates could go to double where they are today.”

IN terms of the subprime mortgage meltdown, Ohio has been among the hardest-hit states, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. In Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland and surrounding suburbs, roughly 30 percent of subprime mortgages are either delinquent or in foreclosure, says Jim Rokakis, the county treasurer.

But this leafy community of bungalows and small family homes built after World War II could be described as its epicenter. Already, Maple Heights, with a population of 27,000, ranks No. 1 in Cuyahoga County in foreclosures per capita, according to Policy Matters Ohio, a nonprofit research group. Ranked by ZIP code, the number of foreclosures here puts Maple Heights in the top one-half of 1 percent nationally, RealtyTrac says.

Mayor Ciaravino has already had to shut his town’s two swimming pools, cut the ranks of police officers and firefighters and eliminate services like free plowing for senior citizens with snow-covered driveways.

AFP

Fed Halts Mortgage Repos For First Time Since March Bloomberg - 2 hours ago 6 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve didn’t purchase mortgage-backed securities to add reserves to the banking system for the first time since it began a ... NY Fed begins purchasing mortgage securities The Associated Press Fed starts program to buy illiquid mortgage assets MarketWatch Mortgage Spreads Decline on Fed Buying Wall Street Journal Blogs BusinessWorld Online - Bloomberg all 238 news articles

Best Syndication

Report: Ga. mortgage rates among lowest Bizjournals.com, NC - 7 hours ago 4, rates on 30-year fixed mortgages were lowest in Arizona (4.97 percent) and Georgia (4.99 percent), according to the Zillow Mortgage Rate Monitor. ... Mortgage rates in Australia Meadow Free Press Net Branch Offices of US Mortgage Reports Record Low Rates MediaSyndicate (press release) Mortgage Rates Hover Around 5.00% PR Newswire (press release) KEYC - CBS42 all 33 news articles

Cuomo’s Settlement Over Allegedly Discriminatory Mortgage Fees Wall Street Journal Blogs, NY - 1 hour ago Also yesterday, New York AG Andrew Cuomo announced that about 455 black and Latino borrowers will split $665000 in restitution from mortgage brokers HCI and ... Cuomo: 2 firms settle mortgage bias charges Newsday Two Suffolk-Based Mortgage Lenders Investigated for Discrimination LongIslandPress.com Lenders overcharged Latinos, blacks New York Daily News Housing Wire - Legal News Line all 42 news articles

Allegheny County offers homeowners help with troubled mortgages Bizjournals.com, NC - 3 hours ago 12, struggling Allegheny County home owners will be eligible for a little help with their troubled mortgages. A plan, established through a court order ... Allegheny County program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure Pittsburgh Post Gazette County tosses lifeline to homeowners Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Allegheny County plans court for veterans Pittsburgh Post Gazette all 17 news articles

WCBD

BOND REPORT: Treasurys Move Higher As Fed Buys Mortgage Bonds CNNMoney.com - Jan 5, 2009 Short-term Treasurys gained Monday, pushing yields down after the Federal Reserve said it had begun buying mortgage-backed securities. ... Regional lenders need help, too Kansas City Star In Fed's decision to slash rates, fears of a long recession International Herald Tribune The $8 trillion bailout CNN CNBC - Asia Times Online all 379 news articles

Attorneys general push to ease bankruptcy rules on mortgages Bizjournals.com, NC - 3 hours ago Current federal law allows bankruptcy courts to adjust other debts and loans, but not home mortgages. Goddard and other state AGs contend the courts could ... Goddard, other AGs, urge more help for hurting homeowners KTAR.com AGs urge Congress to amend Bankruptcy Code Legal News Line all 5 news articles

Lawmakers set new mortgage bankruptcy bill Reuters - 22 hours ago By Patrick Rucker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation designed to stem foreclosures by allowing bankruptcy judges to erase some mortgage debt will be ... Stimulus Package to Include Cram-Downs: Report Housing Wire all 8 news articles

100 Mortgages

Mortgage rationing gets tougher BBC News, UK - 15 hours ago Mortgage lenders are continuing to demand larger deposits as they ration home loans to their customers. In the past month the proportion of new mortgage ... Dramatic Decline In Higher LTV Mortgages Find a Property Moneyfacts: Quarter of mortgages require 40% deposit Mortgage.org.uk Moneyfacts.co.uk: Mortgage lenders not passing on interest rate cut Money News The Press Association - Loans4 all 43 news articles

Leading Democrat offers US mortgage aid bill Reuters - 33 minutes ago A similar plan failed in the Senate last spring as President George W. Bush and many Republican lawmakers opposed it, but supporters of 'mortgage cram-down' ...

Conyers introduces mortgage legislation Detroit Free Press, United States - 2 hours ago Under current rules, bankruptcy judges can’t rewrite mortgage terms on primary residences – a fact that many Democrats have criticized as the foreclosure ...

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

Sub Prime Mortgages

TAMMI and Charles Eggleston never took out a risky mortgage, never borrowed more than they could afford and never missed a monthly payment on their neat, three-bedroom colonial in the Cleveland suburbs. But that hasn’t prevented them from getting caught in the undertow of the subprime mortgage mess now submerging this town.

Over the last 18 months, the Egglestons have watched one house after another on their street, Gardenview Drive, end up foreclosed and vacant. Although lawns are still tidy and empty homes are not boarded up and stripped as they are in inner-city Cleveland, the Egglestons say Maple Heights no longer feels safe after dark. Nor do they have the confidence they had when they moved in a decade ago that this is the ideal place to raise their 6-year-old twin girls, Sydney and Shelby. So, in May 2006, they put their home on the market in order to move closer to Mrs. Eggleston’s parents in another middle-class Cleveland suburb, Richmond Heights.

They have had no takers. Although they lowered the asking price to $99,000 from $109,000, no one has even come to look at it in more than six weeks. “My heart panics every time I drive down the street and I see another for-sale sign,” says Mrs. Eggleston, pointing past the placards in front of her porch to others that dot surrounding yards like lawn furniture. “Some people on the street couldn’t pay, so they just left. The competition to sell is just ridiculous.”

It is a scene being repeated in cities and towns across America as loans that were made to borrowers with little or no credit history, many of whom could not even afford a down payment, fail in ever-growing numbers. It is also a story of how local economic trends are intersecting with national politics, with local foreclosures drawing the attention of Democratic presidential candidates, including John Edwards and Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio.

On the Republican side, President Bush announced on Friday several steps aimed at alleviating the impact of the subprime crisis on homeowners. In a Rose Garden appearance, he ruled out a federal bailout, citing both “excesses in the lending industry” and unduly optimistic homeowners who took out “loans larger than they could afford,” as reasons for the mortgage woes.

Indeed, what was once a problem confined mostly to economically struggling areas is quickly becoming a national phenomenon. Last year, there were 1.2 million foreclosure filings in the United States, up 42 percent from 2005, according to RealtyTrac, a firm that analyzes such data. At current rates so far this year, RealtyTrac expects foreclosure filings to hit two million in 2007, or roughly one per 62 American households — a rate approaching heights not seen since the Great Depression.

Analysts also say that the fallout from mortgages gone bad is spreading well beyond borrowers now in default. It has begun to engulf middle-class communities like Maple Heights, where nearly 10 percent of the houses — or 910 properties — have been seized by banks in the last two years. And it foreshadows what could lie in store if mortgage holders default on what the Federal Reserve conservatively estimates to be $100 billion in risky subprime loans. Many of these loans were made in 2005 and early 2006, when standards were at their most lax and cities like this were blanketed with aggressive pitches from mortgage providers.

“I don’t think we’ve hit bottom,” says Michael G. Ciaravino, the mayor of Maple Heights. “My fear is that foreclosure rates could go to double where they are today.”

IN terms of the subprime mortgage meltdown, Ohio has been among the hardest-hit states, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. In Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland and surrounding suburbs, roughly 30 percent of subprime mortgages are either delinquent or in foreclosure, says Jim Rokakis, the county treasurer.

But this leafy community of bungalows and small family homes built after World War II could be described as its epicenter. Already, Maple Heights, with a population of 27,000, ranks No. 1 in Cuyahoga County in foreclosures per capita, according to Policy Matters Ohio, a nonprofit research group. Ranked by ZIP code, the number of foreclosures here puts Maple Heights in the top one-half of 1 percent nationally, RealtyTrac says.

Mayor Ciaravino has already had to shut his town’s two swimming pools, cut the ranks of police officers and firefighters and eliminate services like free plowing for senior citizens with snow-covered driveways.

Dividend.com

An Erratic Year for Mortgage Rates New York Times, United States - Jan 2, 2009 By BOB TEDESCHI WHEN it comes to mortgage rates, 2008 may be remembered as the year the market went haywire. Near the start of the year, some long-term ... Home-Mortgage Rates' Next Stop: Below 5% Wall Street Journal Mortgage rates hit a new low WLNS As mortgage rates slide, refinancing applications take off Dallas Morning News CNNMoney.com - MarketWatch all 385 news articles

FDIC Agrees to Sell IndyMac to Investor Group Washington Post, United States - Jan 2, 2009 By Binyamin Appelbaum The federal government has agreed to sell the skeleton of IndyMac Bank, the aggressive California mortgage lender whose July failure ... IndyMac deal slowed by Fannie mortgage issues-source Reuters Mnuchin Leads Private-Equity Funds to Buy Failed IndyMac Bank Bloomberg Fannie claim delays IndyMac deal CNNMoney.com Forbes - Washington Post all 736 news articles

Realtors Protest Increase in Fannie Mae Mortgage Fees Wall Street Journal - Jan 2, 2009 For instance, for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to buy a condominium, allowing for initial payments of interest only and with a 20% down payment, ... Mortgage Deals Abound, For Some Borrowers VillageSoup Belfast What is life like after foreclosure? Pittsburgh Post Gazette Realtors allege Fannie hitting borrowers for profits The Money Times WalletPop - PR Newswire (press release) all 27 news articles

Times Online

INSTANT VIEW-Mortgage approvals dive Reuters - Jan 2, 2009 LONDON, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Mortgage approvals for house purchase fell to a record low in November, while a separate survey showed credit conditions looked ... Lending Drop Bloomberg Fresh low for mortgage approvals BBC News UK mortgage approvals hit record low Financial Times Independent - guardian.co.uk all 579 news articles

Hürriyet

‘Piggyback’ Mortgages May Cut Modifications, Fed Says Bloomberg - Dec 31, 2008 30 (Bloomberg) -- Attempts to loosen terms on hundreds of thousands of delinquent home loans may be hindered by so- called piggyback second mortgages that ... Will mortgage rates drop again? Los Angeles Times Fed to start buying mortgage securities next month MarketWatch Fed move could bring rates even lower Seattle Post Intelligencer Boston Globe - Reuters all 94 news articles

Series spreads the blame on economy Los Angeles Times, CA - 5 hours ago Its reporters, she said, let their "myopic point of view" cloud their front-page story on President Bush's role in the mortgage crisis. ...

Real Estate: Different types of mortgages, what they mean to you Annapolis Capital, MD - 48 minutes ago By BOB & DONNA McWILLIAMS, For The Capital One of the most important factors in buying a house is securing a mortgage that works well for your individual ...

Mortgage pros lead investors from pit Crain's New York Business, NY - 2 hours ago The surroundings may not be grand, but Mr. Spoto, who was laid off more than a year ago from his position as a mortgage specialist at Credit Suisse, ...

On the House: Low rates, but banks hold back Philadelphia Inquirer, PA - 5 hours ago By Al Heavens As mortgage rates decline, the question most readers are asking me these days is this: How low can they go? What the experts are telling me is ... Rescue me! Augusta Chronicle all 4 news articles

Modifying a loan may not help Seattle Times, United States - 4 hours ago "There are individuals for whom any loan modification would result in a mortgage payment they can't afford, because they couldn't really afford the original ...

Common Misspellings include accros, acrosss, acrost, accross affort, efford aggresive, agressive allready alreayd, aready alsot, aslo allthough altho, althought, altough amoung, amung adn, anbd annouced, anounced anohter appeareance, appearence, apperance, apprearance assocation attension becomeing, becomming beng bu charle clas communites competion, competitiion coudl, sould decribed, descibed, discribed doulbe eearly ecomonic eiter eveyr spects fedral, fedral fiels fomr, frome gerat, graet, grat, gret gropu ahev, ahve, haev, hvae, hvea htere hstory housr includng, incuding, inlcuding it's jstu lastr, lsat lefted liek, liuke littel maked milion, millon monts moreso, mroe, omre morage, morgage, morgtage, morgate, mortage nto, onot nowe munbers offcers peopel palce popoulation presedential, presidenital, presidental probelm quicklyu represantative, representive reasearch rediculous, rediculous rised rougly sasy, syas siezed seinor severeal sicne, sinse sose standars staes sotry, sotyr, stopry, stoyr, stroy stuggling sorrounding, surounding, surrouding swiming tahn, thna taht, tath, thast, thgat, thta, thyat hten, tghe, ther, thge, tjhe ther, theri, thier, thier their, ther theese htey, tehy, tyhe htikn, htink, thikn, thiunk, tihkn htis, thsi, tihs threee tiem, timne, tiome todya twon twpo untied wass, weas, ws vell waht, whta wehn, whn hwihc, whcih, whic, whihc, whlch, wich worls 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