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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.

New York Times

A Mortgage Tornado Warning, Unheeded New York Times YEARS before the housing bust — before all those home loans turned sour and millions of Americans faced foreclosure — a wealthy businessman in Florida set out to blow the whistle on the mortgage game. His name is Nye Lavalle, and he first came to ... Halfway homeWashington Post Gingrich Ties to Fannie, Freddie Said to Extend to Speaker DaysBusinessWeek Who's the Big Bad Wolf Now on Foreclosure Fraud and Abuse?Economic Populist Examiner.com all 35 news articles »

Bloomberg

Obama Says Home-Mortgage Relief Plan Will Eliminate US's 'Biggest Drag' Bloomberg “Right now, there are more than 10 million homeowners in this country who, because of a decline in home prices that is no fault of their own, owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth,” Obama said. It is “wrong for anyone to suggest that ... Obama pressures Congress on mortgage refinance programFox News Obama: Push for mortgage reformPolitico (blog) Obama: Let's fix the housing crisisNew York Daily News Detroit Free Press -USA TODAY -MyFox Houston all 508 news articles »

PW-Philadelphia Weekly (blog)

Mortgage Deal Reached In 2008 Shows Pitfalls To Avoid In Current Settlement Huffington Post As states gear up to finalize a national mortgage servicing settlement, some are looking to avoid the painful lessons of a 2008 mortgage deal that failed to deliver the help promised to desperate homeowners. Nearly four years ago, 11 states settled ... HUD Secretary Expects “Substantial” Payment of Foreclosure Fraud Settlement ...Firedoglake Foreclosure Accord Said to Ensure Same Terms for All 50 StatesBusinessWeek Finally, A Foreclosure Settlement (Maybe)KCCI Des Moines PW-Philadelphia Weekly (blog) -eCreditDaily.com -Business Insider all 41 news articles »

Reverse mortgage may be best option for elderly homeowner Los Angeles Times A reverse mortgage would enable an 82-year-old woman who needs cash to tap the substantial equity in her home. By Liz Weston Money Talk Dear Liz: My healthy and active 82-year-old mother is faced with having to sell her home this year because she's ...

Homeowners struggle to get mortgage relief Tulsa World By OMER GILLHAM World Staff Writer While the government has taken measures to bolster its mortgage-relief program, local homeowners are still ensnared in red tape with lenders attempting to foreclose on their homes. The Tulsa World interviewed several ... and more »

USA TODAY

New York Sues 3 Big Banks Over Mortgage Database New York Times Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York sued three major banks on Friday, accusing them of fraud in their use of an electronic mortgage database that he said resulted in deceptive and illegal practices, including false documents in ... Mortgage fraud unit co-chair sues biggest banksUSA TODAY JPMorgan, BofA Sued by New York Over Use of Mortgage DatabaseBusinessWeek New York sues 3 big banks over use of mortgage registry databaseLos Angeles Times Reuters -Wall Street Journal -Washington Post all 358 news articles »

Profit From Mortgage Debt With MBS San Francisco Chronicle In its May 2006 edition of Research Quarterly, the Bond Market Association estimated that mortgage debt represents $6.1 trillion of the $25.9 trillion bond market. As more people buy their first homes, move into bigger spaces, or purchase vacation ...

Fox News

Regulator: Freddie Ceased Mortgage Transactions 'On Its Own' Wall Street Journal (blog) By Alan Zibel and Nick Timiraos Freddie Mac stopped investing in certain mortgage derivatives last spring amid a weak market for such transactions, the firm's federal regulator said on Friday, as an uproar continued on Capitol Hill about the ... Attorney General Martha Coakley tells Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce ...Boston.com DeMarco "Completely Puzzled" Over Derivatives FlapForbes Senator Demands Answers from Freddie Mac's RegulatorNPR (blog) USA TODAY -The Spokesman Review -Boston Globe all 415 news articles »

Bloomberg

Refinancing: Time to Act? Wall Street Journal By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG Mortgage rates have been hovering at historical lows for months—but some homeowners are waiting for even better deals before they take the plunge and refinance. Associated Press Townhouses in Beaverton, Ore. Mortgage rate falls to record 3.87 percentChicago Sun-Times Mortgage rates: new record lows. Again.Christian Science Monitor Mortgage Interest Rates Friday February 3, 2011, 15 Year Mortgage Rates at 3.30%MonitorBankRates.com San Francisco Chronicle -Bloomberg -The Independent all 367 news articles »

Jamaica Gleaner

Credit unions push deeper into mortgage market Jamaica Gleaner The Jamaica Cooperative Credit Union League (JCCUL) has relaunched its mortgage programme which assigns matching funds to the community lenders for on-lending to individuals who want to purchase real estate. With the resuscitation of the facility last ...

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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.

The Associated Press

Mortgage Relief Plan Aims at Refinancing New York Times President Obama, in announcing new mortgage relief on Wednesday, acknowledged that previous efforts to help homeowners had fallen short of expectations. And he did not do much to explain how his new effort, much of which would require Congressional ... Obama mortgage plan looks dead on arrivalCBS News Obama Offers Mortgage Rescue for 'Responsible' BorrowersTheStreet.com Obama Announces Refinancing PlanWall Street Journal Los Angeles Times -BusinessWeek -The Associated Press all 684 news articles »

AFP

Ex-Credit Suisse Employees Face Charges in Mortgage-Bond Probe Wall Street Journal Wall Street valuations of mortgage securities were a major factor in the market turmoil of 2008. For years, financial firms had packaged hundreds of billions of dollars of subprime mortgages into securities. When those mortgages soured, ... Credit Suisse exec charged in NY mortgage probeFox News Ex-Credit Suisse traders plead guilty in subprime mortgage probeLos Angeles Times 2 ex-Credit Suisse employees guilty of mortgage fraudAFP all 483 news articles »

Housing Wire

Mortgage Bonds Recover; Investors Discount Obama Refinancing Plan Fox Business NEW YORK – Mortgage bond investors expressed skepticism Wednesday over the latest White House proposal to refinance millions of additional US home loans, and stepped cautiously back into securities most likely to be affected by the effort. Fannie Mae See's Big Boost in Loan Modifications in DecemberLoanRateUpdate (press release) Seller serves up $559 million in Fannie, Ginnie servicing rightsHousing Wire Fannie Mae Announces Offering of New Issue 3-Year Benchmark Notes® due March ...MarketWatch (press release) Mortgage Daily all 18 news articles »

Bloomberg

Could more mortgage shopping prevent foreclosures? Washington Post (blog) The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is currently examining how consumers shop for mortgages, which could provide some clues to unraveling the housing crisis. In its first semi-annual report to Congress, the CFPB notes that home buyers are taking ... Cordray mum on qualified mortgage rule due by this summerHousing Wire CFPB Submits First Report to Congress, Reverse Mortgage Study Under WayReverse Mortgage Daily all 161 news articles »

Chicago Tribune

Exclusive: Mortgage deal would give states enforcement clout Chicago Tribune (Reuters) - A proposed settlement to resolve mortgage abuses by top US banks will give states broad authority to punish firms that mistreat borrowers in the future, according to documents seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Under the settlement, which states ... Donovan says mortgage settlement days awayReuters Mortgage-servicing settlement to be done in 'days'MarketWatch Foreclosure Deal Would Give States Future Authority To Punish FirmsHuffington Post all 38 news articles »

Petoskey News-Review

Mortgage Rates: Low Mortgage Rates Remain Stable After Solid Economic Reports FreeRateUpdate.com Today's low mortgage rates remain stable after solid economic reports were released that turned investor confidence towards the stock market and sent the Dow up over 100 points. According to the Mortgage Banker's Association, for the week ending ... Emmet County joins lawsuit against mortgage lenders Fannie Mae, Freddie MacPetoskey News-Review EDITORIAL: Bets Against HomeownersLoanSafe Financing Fannie and Freddie's failuresThe Hill (blog) Payson Roundup -Smartmoney.com (blog) -Washington Post (blog) all 291 news articles »

Los Angeles Times

Obama swipes at Romney as he promotes mortgage refinancing plan Los Angeles Times By Kathleen Hennessey As the GOP primary brawl turned to Nevada, President Obama seemed to want to in on the fight. While the Republican candidates were still heading west, fresh off the Florida primary, Obama took direct aim at GOP front-runner Mitt ... and more »

TheStreet.com

Bank of America Mortgage Retreat Benefits These 6 Banks TheStreet.com By Dan Freed 02/01/12 - 02:36 PM EST NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Bank of America(BAC)has been backing out of the mortgage market, and several banks are well positioned to pick up the slack, according to a report published Wednesday by FBR Capital Markets. Jumping The Gun On Bank Of AmericaSeeking Alpha all 8 news articles »

Capstead Mortgage (CMO) Releases Quarterly Earnings, Beats Estimates By $0.02 EPS LocalizedUSA Capstead Mortgage (CMO) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.02. On a related note, analysts at B. Riley downgraded shares of ... Capstead Mortgage Corporation Announces Fourth Quarter 2011 ResultsEON: Enhanced Online News (press release) all 6 news articles »

Outcome Magazine

Mortgage applications dipped last week: MBA Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - Applications for US home mortgages slipped last week, even as interest rates also eased, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, ... Mortgage Applications Decrease AgainLoanSafe The State of the Mortgage Industry According to MBAMortgage News Daily Mortgage activity slows slightlyUPI.com RealEstateRama (press release) -Wall Street Journal (India) all 35 news articles »

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