The Obama administration wants to use $275 billion of taxpayers' money to refinance the loans of people who didn't pay their mortgages..

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S mortgage "rescue" initia tive gets only four things wrong.But those flaws are so major, they negate any good that the plan would do. Here's what's wrong:

Source: www.nypost.com

Tenants are 'forgotten victims' of the repossession crisis

Thousands of tenants will be evicted from their homes this year because their landlords have not paid the mortgage.

Private tenants have become the "forgotten victims" of the repossessions crisis, according to a coalition of charites, which launched a campaign this week to increase tenants' legal rights. About 27,000 landlords are in arrears on their buy-to-let mortgages, according to the Council...

Read more 'tenants' forgotten victims of the mortgage mess...

Source: www.imesonline.co.uk

As thousands more people lose their jobs, we explain how to handle tenants who disappear or default

'But I lose my job...I cant pay you what I owe you"


Rent arrears strikes fear into amateur landlords..

The forecasts are hardly promising. By the end of the year the jobless total could hit 3.4 million, about one in ten working adults, leading to thousands of missed rental payments.

Read more record number of tenants defaulting...

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Realtor: "I haven't seen pricing like this ever. Foreclosure properties are plentiful and priced to sell…"

A Glendale home that originally went for $259,000 sells for $113,000. A Phoenix home that fetched $190,000 two years ago sells for just $45,900. Lenders saddled by a growing number of foreclosed properties are selling homes for prices not seen in metro Phoenix for a decade. Last year, almost half of the homes in the area were foreclosed houses resold by lenders,...

Read more deals on foreclosures…

Source: www.examiner.com

Coming to a bank near you: the 9% mortgage

If, like me, you're holding out for cheaper fixed mortgage deals, last week's review of the global banking crisis by Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, showed just how long a waiting game it could be.

Buried in the report was a startling figure: mortgage rates can stay high for six to nine years after the onset of a banking crisis. Turner wants banks to hold much more.....

Read more 9% mortage....

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

'Bad to Really Bad': Foreclosure Rescue Gone Wrong

The big, bright, four-bedroom Florida dream house was proof for , that they had finally made it. Debi Dillon and her husband Don Dillon were facing foreclosure on the Wisconsin home her father... Debi Dillon and her husband Don Dillon were facing foreclosure on the Wisconsin home her father built 35 years ago. The Dillons paid a steep $3,000...

Read more home rescues gone really bad….

Source: www.acbnews.go.com

Home Buyers Stir Hope in California

California's mortgage crisis hit this master-planned community particularly hard last year, and eventually 90% of mortgage holders here owed more than their homes were worth. But residents are allowing themselves the first twinges of optimism amid the gloom. The 2,600 existing homes in this development 60 miles east of San Francisco are selling at nearly...

Read more Hope in California...

Source: www.online.wsj.com

California home sales up 42.5 percent..

Home sales in California rose 42.5 percent in February from a year earlier as the median home price fell by 39.9 percent, driven by sales of foreclosed properties, according to an MDA DataQuick report released on Thursday...

Read more California February home sales up 42.5 percent

Source: www.reuters.com

County appraiser: ‘This is not a normal year’

Paul Welcome, Johnson County's appraiser, may have said it best: "This is not a normal year." The majority of reappraisal notices mailed to homeowners earlier this month were lower than last year, a sign of the recession and the national trend toward lower home values.

This trend was most pronounced in areas like De Soto, where 93 percent of single-family homes received reduced...

Read more ‘This is not a normal year’

Source: www.kansascity.com

“If your property value goes up 10 percent this time around, you’re going to pay 10 percent more to the schools,”

Homeowners, businesses to shoulder bill: “A lot of people are going to get their notices of valuation and go, ‘Excuse me,’ “It’s the real estate industry and real estate owners who are going to be so dramatically affected…”

Read more Homeowners, businesses to shoulder bill

Here’s why it’s a bad idea to walk from the mortgage..

With home prices continuing to drift lower nationwide, something like one in five homeowners now owes more on their mortgage than their house is worth.

It’s tempting to consider just walking away and starting over. Here are a few reasons why that’s a bad idea. I owe about 50K more on my mortgage than my house is worth....

Read more dont walk away from your mortgage…

Source: www.msnbc.com

Cons with foreclosure scams rarely go to jail

They call themselves loan modification consultants, negotiators or specialists. Some are legitimate, but many are simple con artists looking for desperate marks facing foreclosure amid the wreckage of the nation's housing market.

It's a good business, too, because, in most states, there's not much of a chance they'll ever end up before a judge facing any time in jail. "It's difficult...

Read more real estate scams..

Source: www.knoxnews.com

Will not help home-owners: Rudd Bank

SINCE the Government announced it would make available at least $2billion of taxpayers' money to bail out commercial property investors, there has been much thrashing about as to the rationale underlying this surprising decision...

Read more homeowners cant get help...

Source: theaustralian.com

February foreclosures up 30 percent

Despite halts on new foreclosures by several major lenders, the number of households threatened with losing their homes rose 30 percent in February from last year's levels, RealtyTrac reported Thursday.

Nationwide, nearly 291,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice last month, up 6 percent from January, according to the Irvine, Calif-based company. While...

Read more defaults up 30%

Source: www.syracuse.com

Not even renters safe from foreclosure storm

About 40 percent of people facing eviction from foreclosure in the United States are renters, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition [NLIHC].

Yet regulations on the rental industry vary by state, and often there are no protections for those living in rental properties...

Read more Not even renters safe...

Source: www.cnn.com

Jobless? Citi to Allow You to Pay Less on Loan

Under the program, Citigroup will temporarily lower mortgage payments to an average of $500 a month for certain borrowers who have recently lost their jobs and are at least 60 days behind on their mortgage payments.

Borrowers will be allowed to make the lower payments for three months. Citigroup will waive interest and penalties during this period…

Source: online.wsj.com

Obama’s Homeowner Rescue Bound to Fail?

Now, there is no doubting that Obama’s heart is in the right place. With foreclosures at record highs, the American white picket fence dream is crumbling. And the impulse of any caring President must be to do something, almost anything to keep the dream alive.

But the experience of politicians tinkering with the U.S. housing market is not a happy one. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, anyone? …

Read more Homeowner plan to fail?..,.


Source: www.wsj.com

U.S. Homeowners late with payments now 1 in 9

One in every nine US homeowners with a mortgage was behind on home loan payments or in some stage of foreclosure at the end of 2008, as mounting job losses exacerbated the housing crisis, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday.

The percentage of loans that were in foreclosure or at least one payment past due rose to 11.93 per cent in the fourth quarter, the highest since the MBA began keeping records in 1972 and a jump of almost 2 percentage points since the third quarter...

Read more US home loan arrears affect one in nine

Source: www.ft.com

Obama Homeowner plan focuses on "responsible" homeowners

President Obama's new $75 billion Homeowner Stability Initiative aims to help three-to-four million homeowners who owe more than 80 percent of their home's value.

The plan focuses on "responsible" homeowners, who are still current in their payments but at risk of default.

Read more focuses on "responsible" homeowners...

Source: breitbart.com

Homeowner Mortgage Delinquencies Up 8th Straight Quarter

The number of people who were late making their mortgage payments shot up 53 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 from the same period in 2007, according to data provided by TransUnion LLC...

Read more Mortgage delinquencies up..

Source: yahoo! news

The Plan: $75 billion to Bailout Homeowners

Asked why the cost had jumped to $75 billion from initial talk of a $50 billion effort, Geithner said, "We think that's necessary to make a program like this work."

And he said relief would be almost instantaneous, basically as soon as rules are published March 4. "You'll start to see the effects quite quickly", Geithner said…

Read more homeowner bailout…

Source: the star

Recession: State Farm net worth drops

State Farm Insurance Cos. last year had a $9.2 billion reduction in its stock value, the company said Friday.

Crain's Chicago Business reported that the Bloomington, Ill., company's net worth was $53.3 billion at year-end, down $10.4 billion from 2007.

The newspaper said State Farm, the nation's largest insurer of cars and homes, posted an after-tax net loss...

Read more State Farm net worth drops..

Source: insurance news net