patrick.net

Instead of the negative:

“The US housing bust is like a leaking ship.” and “Home prices expected to drop”

They could have been positive and said: "Good news in housing market - savers and responsible borrowers see increasing affordability"

Where is the Love?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SI-MHhEJxI

I thought was mine o' mine

'til the end of time...

Can anyone summarize the new bankruptcy laws? Or the fraud laws? I have certainly seen my fair share of fraud in my neighborhood. Watching homes pass from owners, to realtors, to undocumented immigrants. With no income documentation they are able to buy $650k homes, cash $30k out of the home in just a few months, buy cars and other toys, then just wander off to the next town.

What I want to know is how much of this can be recovered? Can the system take back the goods, the cash, the bonuses? How much is shielded by bankruptcy? How far can financial recovery go in fraud?

For the Wall Street types, remember when the unethical, biased research was used to pump stock prices? The firms had to pay back billions. Will we get that here? All of that Wall Street leakage on bonuses. How much of that can be recovered.

May as well think about it now - its going to get very, very ugly.

Since when is it a big deal to place illegals in loans there's NFW they can honor, get cash back at close and have realtors get "just and due compensation" for steering unqualified buyers to their MB buddies?

Really Duke, you can be such a busy body sometimes!

In a nutshell the new BK laws require that anyone that files be "means tested". You can't just file b/c it's convenient for you at the time. There has to be documented hardship and demonstrated inability to pay.

HR 3648 will basically "do away" with the term "fraud". It's so... 2005?

SP,

I think Financial Times and Bloomberg have been pretty good on the subject for some time now.

Inside the print media world, it's been pretty much a given that NYT plays brontosaurus to Bloomberg's velociraptor - it takes the old girl a while to make course corrections, but she eventually does. However, once the Grey Lady is finally on the job, the tide turns in NY and at all those affiliated mid-market papers.

By the time Reuters or, especially, the Associated Press are aroused from their stupor, it's something everyone already knows about excepting possibly Readers' Digest.

Market Wrapup from Gary Dorsch at Financial Sense.
Red Chips! Greenspan's comments on the chart are very amusing. ...that or they'll just piss you off.

http://tinyurl.com/1w56

I predict many more sob stories.

Like this one:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=business&id=5662611

Let's see, who am I mad at for that particular story. . .

Of course Countrywide has no business putting a single mother of 9 who is a housecleaner into a home. I hope Countrywide loses their shirt.

But at what point does the borrower feel she is owed a home? Low income and high expenses (God bless the little ones) is no recipe for home ownership.

eburbed,

You are correct sir. The human tragedy of this mess will be the MSM's trusty topic for months if not years.

Unfortunately, these stories will also serve those that had a hand in it. Quotes like; But the California Association of Mortgage Brokers believes lenders should work with homeowners. “As long as its a person who played by the rules and didn't cut corners, we are strong advocates of lenders helping homeowners stay in their homes," said Ed Craine from the California Association of Mortgage Brokers.

Hey Ed, how about you brokers refund your Yield Point Spread kickbacks to help the lender, help the borrower that you helped into a loan with higher interest rates than there would have been? That should cover a couple payments and get a few FBs through Christmas.

Steveoh,

Precisely! And... it further supports the notion that we should pay no mind to "foreclosure figures". My guess is, going forward they are going to be as "cooked" as any other NAR bs.

What we need to focus on is "How many of your loans are paying EXACTLY "as agreed". I don't give a sweet mother f@ck about what percentage are in NOD/"distress" etc! (Hell, you guys won't issue that unless you're absolutely left with no other alternative!)