The nation’s foreclosure epidemic has come home big time where job cuts, consumer credit woes, creative mortgages, and energy costs have tightened the squeeze on homeowners in the fourth quarter. No region is alone. Tens of thousands of homeowners across the country have had to resort to foreclosure.
With two months left in the quarter, nationwide [...]
Author Archives: Alan Smith
Economic Woes Fuel Foreclosures
December 1, 2006 – 7:10 pm
The Real Minefield: Sub Prime Loans
November 1, 2006 – 7:15 pm
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the greatest vulnerability to foreclosure lies in the sub-prime sector of the mortgage market. According to a recent article in the New York Sun, 62% of sub-prime loans made in 2005 were made with little or no income verification. In addition, 52% of those loans were interest only or had [...]
REO Fight at the OK Corral
September 1, 2006 – 7:28 pm
One thing we’ve been harping about as we anticipate a cascade of defaults (as the “funny money” loans reset to real world rates) is how lenders will have to bite the bullet with their growing inventories of foreclosed properties. They have only themselves to blame.
During the recent five year feeding frenzy that drove prices into [...]
Foreclosures Sweeping the U.S.
August 1, 2006 – 4:20 pm
The tsunami of foreclosure activity we predicted last month has begun. Defaults are up sharply in the overheated bi-coastal markets, as well as the manufacturing sector dependent states of the Midwest, as housing sales cool down across the country and price appreciation drops to its weakest level in 11 years. The inventory of unsold homes has reached [...]
Foreclosure Tsunami Alert
July 1, 2006 – 4:35 pm
Do not be deceived by reports of a “leveling off” of foreclosure activity across the country. As we predicted in an earlier column, a wave of new foreclosures will spread across the nation in the second half of 2006 and will likely continue well into 2007. After that, our crystal ball has as many fingerprints [...]
Foreclosures Rise with Economic Sea Changes
June 1, 2006 – 4:47 pm
While we saw a dip in foreclosure activity nationwide in March and April, defaults are still on the increase in most large cities around the country. Even with the decrease, defaults are way up 2006 over 2005. Across the U.S. over 323,000 properties went into foreclosure in the first quarter of this year.
There are multiple [...]
Something’s Gotta Give!
May 1, 2006 – 4:55 pm
Housing prices have started to inch up again in the nation’s most overvalued bi-coastal markets after a brief decline late in 2005. The increases over the last month are small, usually 1% to 1.5%. Nevertheless, according to a report issued in early April by the PMI Group office in Walnut Creek CA, the risk of [...]
Foreclosures Scams Leading to Bad Laws Part 2 of 2
May 1, 2006 – 4:54 pm
Last month, we discussed a new law in Maryland that prevents homeowners in a bind from entering into the best contract for their personal circumstances.
This month we’ll take a look at a new law in Texas that hamstrings investors who want to resell a property on a lease option or land contract, and pending legislation [...]
Foreclosure Rescue Scams Producing Bad Laws
April 1, 2006 – 5:06 pm
The proliferation of unscrupulous foreclosure “rescuers” who use deceptive and fraudulent schemes to fleece homeowners in financial distress out of money, property or both, have led some states to propose and pass laws aimed at putting a stop to these scams. (Read more about scams here).
Unfortunately these new laws reduce the options open to homeowners [...]
Foreclosure activity up across the country
April 1, 2006 – 11:39 am
As we predicted in a recent column foreclosure activity is on the increase for the third consecutive month across the country. Housing markets have cycled over the top and price corrections have begun in the most overheated regions.
Overall 117,259 properties in the U.S. went into the foreclosure process in February (a 68% year over year [...]
