We're all in this together

Here's an introductory 5 minute video by Senator Ted Kaufman on the Congressional Oversite Panel's goals and preliminary findings for the foreclosure mess. (Watch Here.)  The video is worth watching as Senator Kaufman demonstrates that he is aware of some of the serious problems regarding foreclo...

The U.S. Congress is starting to pay attention to the mortgage mess as is the press - about time in my opinion!  It's about time that the mainstream media pick up on this issue also.  It's been largely ignored to date.  I read lots of financial blogs (ZeroHedge being one of my favorites) and most...

Matt Tabbi of Rolling Stone has an expose of the "Fraudclosure" that our nation's largest banks are performing that should raise your blood pressure. If this situation is allowed to continue, then there's no hope for the U.S. It's a long read, but well worth the effort. You owe it to yourself to ...

Another writer speculated that the real estate market might recover by mid 2011, according to what he'd read. Let's look at that idea a little more closely. The problem now has several parts. First, a much higher number of people are out of work than in past recessions. The official numbers hover...

HUD just started offering a pilot program that offers low-cost loans for energy saving home improvements. This program will offer up to $25,000 to borrowers who want to improve the energy efficiency of their home. It will cover HVAC upgrades, water heaters, insulation, door and window upgrades an...

In recently decided Southern Florida case 09-60633 (Merrill Lynch Credit Corp vs Karin Lenz) Judge Marcia Cooke slapped down Merrill Lynch's idea that they could foreclose on a property that had an IRS tax lien. The case found that a tax lien has priority over a mortgage. This basically means tha...

A recent Rismedia article speculates that paying your mortgage on time when you're underwater may not actually be the best thing for the economy. The reason is that most of these homeowners are paying higher interest rates than the current national average and despite the fact that they have jobs...

The Pending Home Sales Index, which is an economic indicator that looks forward, dropped 1.8% to a level of 80,900 from August's good news of an increase of 4.3%.  Even though last month looked pretty good, it was still 25% below September, 2009.  The Pending Home Sales index is based on the numb...

Banks seeking to avoid local governments' recording requirements are now beginning to find that the self-published MERS claim to have saved at least 2.4 billion dollars in recording costs is coming back to haunt them in court. Local governments are using Qui Tam lawsuits which allow a private par...

What effect does the second mortgage or heloc have on a bank's exposure to the mortgage mess?  So far, most banks are reporting that less than 5% of their second lien home loans are late.  But, how can that be?  By September 2009, 14.4% of all mortgages outstanding were either delinquent or in fo...