subprime

Fed Research Sheds Light On Reluctance Of Subprime Lenders To Modify Loans

by Rob K. Blake | January 17, 2009

I came across a research paper published by the Boston Federal Reserve Bank where the researchers looked into among other things a mathematical formula that demonstrates subprime lender have little financial motivation to modify mortgages facing default. This research I thought was interesting because I am caught between wanting the government or the lenders to [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

Foreclosures

Santa Faces Foreclosure; Victim Of Subprime Debacle; Seeks Christmas Government Bailout

by Charles Feldman | December 10, 2008

Ho! Ho! Ho! boys and girls (and real estate investors) — it’s that time of year again–Christmas –when the holiday spirit is in the air. Jingle those bells! You know you want to. But, there is a slight problem this Yule time season (well, okay, a big problem) that just may dampen your good cheer. [...]

11 comments Read the full article →

Commentary

The Latest Dynamic Duo Disaster In The Making

by Rob K. Blake | December 6, 2008

I call the Bernanke – Paulson twosome the Dynamic Duo because what they devise to solve our financial crisis is no more ridiculous than the far-fetched ways Batman and Robin used to escape sure death in the campy TV show. Unlike the TV show, I’ve stopped rooting for this financially bungling Dynamic Duo to succeed. [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Economy

Community Reinvestment Act NOT Source of Subprime Mess

by Steve Heideman | November 20, 2008

The scuttlebutt amongst conservatives since the beginning of the subprime mortgage mess has been that the Community Reinvestment Act (conveniently expanded during the Clinton years) was the source of the troubles in the capital markets. Being a housing economist with a fiscally conservative disposition (although not a registered republican or democrat) I always found this [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Mortgages & Lending

Bond Insurers – The Hidden Conspirators of the Mortgage Meltdown

by Rob K. Blake | August 10, 2008

Bond insurers are virtually never discussed as a pivotal and responsible party in the subprime mortgage meltdown. Companies like Ambac and MBIA this week used a new accounting rule to post deceptive earnings gains after multiple quarters of multi-million dollar loses. The duplicity of the bond insurers in earnings reports and the over-all “asleep at [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Commentary

New Housing Bill Will Not Stabalize Home Prices

by Rob K. Blake | July 27, 2008

Yesterday in a special session the Senate passed the Housing Economic Recovery Act of 2008, H.R. 3221, with a 72 to 13 vote. This measure received such overwhelming bipartisan support so politicians could point to this legislation and say, “We are doing something to mitigate the foreclosure crisis”. They aren’t. This bill once converted to [...]

11 comments Read the full article →

Commentary

Commentary: How to Really Handle the Foreclosure Problem

by Tom Koziol | July 25, 2008

Last week I opened my big mouth and said I’d present another solution to the foreclosure problem we are facing today. Before I do, I happened across this law: “every insolvency of a bank shall be deemed fraudulent, and the president and directors shall be severally punished by imprisonment and labor in the penitentiary . [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Financing Real Estate

Are Mortgage Brokers An Endangered Species?

by Rob K. Blake | July 13, 2008

By all accounts it seems the banking lobby will get everything they’ve been ask for from Congress over the past decade and in do so may legislate mortgage brokers out of existence. A little history lesson is in order to understand all the political and media spin designed to sway their and public opinion away [...]

8 comments Read the full article →

Economy

Consumers Worried; Home Prices Down; Trillions in Losses; Any Good News? Well…

by Charles Feldman | March 26, 2008

How about some good news for a change about real estate, mortgages, credit, jobs, consumer confidence, Wall Street stability, the future of civilization as we know it? Sorry, not gonna get it here. Evidence is evidence and though some may like to engage in wishful thinking, the evidence is not good at all. Goldman Sachs [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Commentary

Are They Serious? Fed Takes Mortgage Debt as Collateral, Bear Stearns Gets Bailout, and President Bush is Confident in the Economy!

by Joshua Dorkin | March 14, 2008

This week has been an extremely volatile one in the world of real estate and the economy. We’ve seen Gold at $1,000 an ounce, a collapsing dollar, oil skyrocketing, an much more. Of everything that has happened, probably the most shocking is what came out of the Fed this week . . . According to [...]

14 comments Read the full article →

Economy

Real Estate Crisis Worsens and Takes the Rest of the Economy Down with it!

by Charles Feldman | March 12, 2008

If someone were to have said, say a year ago, that there would be a crisis in the subprime mortgage market that would lead to world-wide economic chaos, that person would no doubt have been laughed at. Sadly, though, that is exactly what has happened and the evidence just this week is overwhelming. But, before [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Economy

US Real Estate Crisis Causing Record Economic Distress

by Charles Feldman | February 27, 2008

It is amazing, by any standards, just how bad things have gotten on the economic front because of what was, at first, a crisis in the subprime mortgage market. Of course, conditions had to be right (or wrong, in this case) for the subprime match to ignite such an enormous world-wide blaze, but, it has, [...]

16 comments Read the full article →

Foreclosures

Subprime Mortgage Crisis Draining Wealth From African-Americans

by Charles Feldman | February 20, 2008

A little noted report last month deserves a much closer review. It concludes that the subprime mortgage crisis is causing African-Americans to “experience the greatest loss of wealth in U.S. history.” The report is from United for a Fair Economy and is called “Foreclosed–The State of the Dream 2008.” According to the report, American blacks [...]

10 comments Read the full article →

Foreclosures

Foreclosures Way Up In 2007. A Time For Professional Advice

by Charles Feldman | January 30, 2008

[tag]Foreclosures[/tag] are up 79 percent! Now that’s something. And that is exactly how much the foreclosure rate in this country increased by in 2007 from the year before. The latest figures from RealtyTrac paint an even darker picture for the near future: apparently lots of folks just began falling behind on [tag]mortgage[/tag] payments since November, [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

subprime

BREAKING: Subprime Debacle Goes Criminal. FBI Investigates 14 Companies

by Charles Feldman | January 29, 2008

It was bound to happen. The subprime mortgage fiasco is now the target of investigations by several law enforcement organizations. The FBI today announcing it is looking at 14 companies—companies that may have committed fraud in the handing out of loans to mortgage borrowers who should not have gotten loans in the first place because [...]

10 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries