http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/subprime/ en-us Wed, 1 Jul 2009 00:03:01 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2282869/posts For many U.S. homeowners, crisis hasn't meant urgency. Just as potential buyers have waited, many would-be sellers facing paper losses have not been forced to act. The standoff shouldn't be confused with stability. The housing freefall slowed in April. Prices dropped 18.1% year on year, according to S&P/Case-Shiller's index of 20 cities. They were lower in every city, but economists were encouraged by slightly more modest declines compared with March -- a possible sign the market is near a bottom. In some overbuilt cities, foreclosures have helped clear inventory while rapidly bringing prices back to reality. Phoenix and Las Vegas,... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2282869/posts#comment Wed, 1 Jul 2009 00:03:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2278247/posts Barney Frank was a leading opponent of the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Frank never made to answer about how we got into the present crisis. Why he fought so hard to squash regulation or why he pushed Fannie and Freddie to get involved with making loans to people who could not afford them? Because he was never confronted, he has been empowered to go at it again. In March, Fannie Mae announced it would no longer guarantee mortgages on condos in buildings where fewer than 70 percent of the units have been sold, up from 51 percent,... WSJ/The Lid http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2278247/posts#comment Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:35:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275050/posts Sales in the decimated housing market may finally be bottoming, but don't expect home prices to stop dropping before mid-2010 at the earliest, analysts and economists say. Indeed, prices in the battered housing market could get a lot worse before they get better as an avalanche of specialized adjustable rate mortgages, known as option ARMs and Alt-A mortgages, are slated to reset over the next 18 to 24 months, and rising unemployment causes a surge in the number of prime mortgages going into default. All of this is expected to trigger another round of foreclosures and cause home prices to... CNN Money http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275050/posts#comment Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:34:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274512/posts The Obama administration’s latest financial regulatory reform proposal contains a stunning surprise hidden on page 67: “Rigorous application of the Community Reinvestment Act should be a core function of the CFPA.” The Community Reinvestment Act, or CRA, should be a core function of the CFPA or the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the very epicenter of the financial meltdown last year, the CRA is one of the vehicles used to inveigle, incent or threaten banks into lowering their lending standards to provide home loans to those who simply cannot afford them. According to... HumanEvents.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274512/posts#comment Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:57:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270100/posts Today’s Wall Street Journal carries the amazing story of a small Texas brokerage that pulled a fast one on some of the biggest banks in the world. The short version goes like this. Amherst, the Texas brokerage, and others sold hundreds of millions of dollars of credit default swaps on bonds back by $29 million of subprime mortgages to JP Morgan, Goldman, UBS RBS and other banking giants. The banks paid steeply for the swaps—up to 90 cents for every dollar of insurance—but thought it was easy money. After all, these were Lehman packaged California subprime loans made in 2005,... The Business Insider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270100/posts#comment Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:09:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2269562/posts Foreclosure rates slowed in May; now the market can slug out its interpretation. Will investors pay attention to these better numbers, or rue the looming outlook? In May, foreclosure rates fell 6%, according to RealtyTrac, with more than 321,000 households receiving at least one foreclosure-related notice last month. But it was still 18% higher from the same time last year and the third straight month with more than 300,000 households receiving a foreclosure filing. In a normal economy filings generally fall around 100,000 a month. And this slowdown in foreclosures might not last for long. The mortgage industry has only... TheStreet http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2269562/posts#comment Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:01:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2268678/posts The data for April and May prove that Obama's plan to rescue those facing mortgage foreclosure is a dismal failure. Since this issue was the cornerstone of his economic program during the campaign, its abject failure is a significant setback for the administration's economic plan. In the month ending on May 26, there were 464,983 foreclosures of subprime and Alt-A mortgages (out of a universe of 3.2 million studied). So 15 percent of all subprime mortgages were foreclosed in May! Only 19,041 -- a paltry 6 percent -- were modified during this period. And of those modified, only 11,200 involved... Townhall http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2268678/posts#comment Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:06:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2263650/posts The next group of Americans to lose their homes seemed to have good credit and affordable loans. But those families have been walloped by the recession. There's a simple reason you shouldn't get too excited about the "green shoots" of an economic turnaround. In the housing market, a lot of prime mortgages are becoming subprime as a new wave of foreclosures begins to hit. Mainstream homeowners -- those previously "safe" borrowers with sound credit who have conservative, fixed-rate mortgages -- are getting into trouble at an alarming rate. In the first quarter, the percentage of these borrowers who were behind... MSN Money http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2263650/posts#comment Wed, 3 Jun 2009 12:18:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2260146/posts NEW YORK -- The mortgage crisis is spreading and hitting new heights: Borrowers with good credit now make up the largest share of foreclosures as job losses and pay cuts exact their toll. The genesis of the recession - risky adjustable-rate loans made to borrowers with bad credit - remains a significant factor in foreclosures. Today, almost half of all subprime ARMs are past due or in foreclosure. In Florida, New Jersey and New York the number is above 55 percent. [snip] "These (borrowers) are the best of the best out there," said real estate analyst Mike Larson with Weiss... Sacramento Bee http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2260146/posts#comment Thu, 28 May 2009 22:56:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028956/posts WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama is considering former top military leaders among his possible running mates, according to a senator who met Tuesday with the Democratic presidential candidate's vice presidential vetting team. North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad told The Associated Press said the team asked him about potential candidates from three broad categories _ current top elected officials, former top elected officials and former top military leaders. Conrad would not disclose which names they discussed, and the Obama campaign has been keeping the process a closely guarded secret. "We talked about many names," Conrad said, including "some that are out... wokv http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028956/posts#comment Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:26:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2251501/posts After virtually every disaster created by Beltway politicians you can hear the sound of feet scurrying for cover, see fingers pointing in every direction away from Washington, and watch all sorts of scapegoats hauled up before congressional committees to be denounced on television for the disasters created by members of the committee who are lecturing them. The word repeated endlessly in these political charades is "deregulation." The idea is that it was a lack of government supervision which allowed "greed" in the private sector to lead the nation into crises that only our Beltway saviors can solve. What utter rubbish... Investors Business Daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2251501/posts#comment Fri, 15 May 2009 12:56:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2249387/posts After a decade of growth, the gains made in homeownership by African Americans and native-born Latinos have been eroding faster than those for whites, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center. The numbers indicate that the gains for minority groups, achieved between 1994 and 2004, were disproportionately tied to relaxed lending standards and subprime loan products, and that those gains are now being reversed. The exception to the pattern was foreign-born Latinos, whose rate of homeownership, while low, has stalled in the downturn but has not fallen. Since 2004, homeownership for all Americans has declined to... New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2249387/posts#comment Tue, 12 May 2009 18:09:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2249280/posts The shell game is very clearly laid out now... FHA, Fannie, Freddie, and now even state governments will be giving out nothing to "3%ish" down loans, to low credit borrowers who will have no stake in the home since many will be putting nothing down. We will declare housing recoveries. Then quarter by quarter the sausage will be squeezed out the other end as Freddie, Fannie and eventually the FHA suffer magnificent losses. We've outlined the losses Freddie and Fannie are already taking, and Friday morning, another $20B bailout that I'll delve into in a separate piece. This is truly... Seeking Alpha http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2249280/posts#comment Tue, 12 May 2009 15:40:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2249168/posts Not quite. But it seems that during his pre-Senator years, he and Michelle spent substantially more than their income and made up the difference by repeatedly taking out loans against the rising value of their home during the home-price bubble. At least according to this story... In April 1999, they purchased a Chicago condo and obtained a mortgage for $159,250. In May 1999, they took out a line of credit for $20,750. Then, in 2002, they refinanced the condo with a $210,000 mortgage, which means they took out about $50,000 in equity. Finally, in 2004, they took out another line... Scrivener http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2249168/posts#comment Tue, 12 May 2009 12:37:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2245418/posts The top 25 US originators of subprime mortgages – the risky assets that sparked the global financial crisis – spent almost $370m in Washington over the past decade on lobbying and campaign donations as they tried to ward off tighter regulation of their industry, an investigation has shown... Most of the top 25 originators, most of which are now bankrupt, were either owned or heavily financed by the nation’s largest banks, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and Bank of America. Together, they originated $1,000bn in subprime mortgages in 2005-07 – almost three-quarters of the total... The banks, which... The Financial Tmes http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2245418/posts#comment Wed, 6 May 2009 16:41:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2243540/posts May 4, 2009 The Next Housing Bust Everyone knows how loose mortgage underwriting led to the go-go days of multitrillion-dollar subprime lending. What isn't well known is that a parallel subprime market has emerged over the past year -- all made possible by the Federal Housing Administration. This also won't end happily for taxpayers or the housing market. Last year banks issued $180 billion of new mortgages insured by the FHA, which means they carry a 100% taxpayer guarantee. Many of these have the same characteristics as subprime loans: low downpayment requirements, high-risk borrowers, and in many cases shady mortgage... Wall St. Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2243540/posts#comment Mon, 4 May 2009 03:43:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2237543/posts Subprime Loans, Corporate-Style, Will Fuel Defaults By FLOYD NORRIS Correction Appended The loans went to borrowers who might never before have been allowed to borrow. When they found repayment difficult, they were permitted to refinance their loans, generating fees for the lenders and postponing the ultimate reckoning. Then the credit markets turned and both the borrowers and lenders were in deep trouble. So it went with the subprime mortgage crisis. And so it is now going with corporate loans and bonds. It appears that defaults on leveraged loans and corporate bonds will soon rise to levels not seen since the... NYT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2237543/posts#comment Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:13:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2234511/posts WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Treasury Department is considering giving banks and investors billions of dollars in fresh incentives to modify troubled mortgages and save homeowners from foreclosure, sources familiar with official deliberations said. Under one scenario, investors in second liens would receive a cash payment if they agree to ease the terms of troubled loans and accept a smaller return on their mortgage investment, the sources said. During the height of the housing boom, some borrowers were able to buy a home with no downpayment by adding a second lien and many of those loans are now failing as the... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2234511/posts#comment Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:49:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2232737/posts At dinner on Friday night I was talking with an intelligent young woman who seemed shocked at my suggestion that it is a bad idea for the government to subsidize the creation of "green jobs." Given that it was a dinner conversation, I couldn't get much farther than the observation that "you cannot create wealth by subsidizing the inefficient production of energy." I'm afraid that her dismay would be shared by many relatively well-informed people. This analogy might help to convey the danger lurking behind the friendly color green. In the London Times, Dominic Lawson writes: "Beware green jobs, the... Powerline http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2232737/posts#comment Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:24:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2227445/posts After writing several articles about this country’s mortgage meltdown and the little-talked about role which illegal aliens have played in this crisis, a woman who I will call “Mary” contacted me with inside information on the crisis. What follows is a brief interview I conducted with Mary. (I am protecting her identity because she still works in the mortgage business.) Q) What is your background and who have you worked for? A) I am in the Mortgage Industry and personally audited thousands of sub prime loans while working as a contractor. The last company I worked for was EMC, previously... Norfolk Crime Examiner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2227445/posts#comment Sun, 12 Apr 2009 11:54:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2221315/posts GMAC revives sub-prime car loansGeneral Motors' (GM) finance division is cutting financing costs and reviving sub-prime lending to speed up a car sales revival.GMAC Financial Services will make an extra $5bn (£3.46bn) available as loans to car buyers over the next 60 days. Dealers are also having fees and repayments slashed or delayed to help them clear a back-log of unsold cars. GM has been given a 1 June deadline to come up with a restructuring plan. The alternative is bankruptcy. GMAC's additional car financing packages will be made available for buyers of both new and used cars. ..... GMAC,... BBC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2221315/posts#comment Fri, 3 Apr 2009 06:13:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2212453/posts <p>It's over — we're officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire.</p> Rolling Stone Magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2212453/posts#comment Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:36:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2206575/posts provided by NYT If mark-to-market accounting is to blame for the current financial crisis, then the National Weather Service is to blame for Hurricane Katrina; if it hadn't told us the hurricane hit New Orleans, the city would never have flooded. This is the logic the bankers are using, and they are getting sympathetic ears in Congress. The bankers have gotten two members of Congress to introduce a bill to establish a new body that could suspend accounting rules for financial institutions. Edward L. Yingling, the president of the American Bankers Association, says the proposal addresses "systemic risks that accounting... The New York Times blog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2206575/posts#comment Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:15:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2206439/posts From the ramshackle, plywood deck on Brad Goodyear's rural Vancouver Island home, most people see piles of trash, a mattress, abandoned appliances and heaps of salmon fishing nets. Mortgage lenders, however, have looked at the same property and, until recently, seen nothing but cash. But after two decades of continually borrowing up – plowing through mortgages from Royal Bank, private lenders and credit unions, until settling on two subprime lenders – the 46-year-old fisherman has landed in a foreclosure proceeding. Records show that at least nine different lenders have given mortgages to Mr. Goodyear and his wife Tracy since they... Globe and Mail http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2206439/posts#comment Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:24:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2203189/posts The New York Times has once again gotten itself some financial breathing room - and once again it's coming at a high price. The cash-strapped newspaper yesterday finally struck a deal with investment firm W.P. Carey & Co. to sell space in its sleek Midtown Manhattan headquarters for $225 million, and lease it back from the buyer. As part of the deal, W.P. Carey is paying a low purchase price and getting a high initial rate of return - known in the industry as the capitalization rate - of nearly 11 percent. Real-estate experts said the Times is paying a... NY Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2203189/posts#comment Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:30:28 GMT