Foreclosure Numbers at New Highs: Are Toxic Loans To Blame?
Foreclosures used to be a rarity and for the most part that’s still the case. As of the second quarter of 2008 only about 2.75 percent of all loans were in the process of being foreclosed, according to...
View ArticleForeclosures — No Worries, No Vision
The lending community will plainly tell you that foreclosures are on the rise — in part because of rising interest levels — but don’t worry. According to the party line, there’s no need for alarm...
View ArticleThe Illusion of Mortgage Assets
With newsstands dominated by scary headlines, Hollywood break-ups and still more diet plans, Harper’s magazine is typically somber and understated. However, for those with an interest in real estate...
View ArticleWhy Have Piggyback Mortgages Disappeared?
We usually define a “conventional” mortgage as financing with 20 percent down. Since most people don’t happen to have 20 down much less 20 percent plus closing costs, there has always been a market...
View ArticleShould We Bring Back Ozzie & Harriet Loans?
It was in 2005 that Bill Dallas — then president and CEO of Ownit Mortgage Solutions, at the time on one of the 15 largest subprime mortgage lenders in the country — said “underwriting guidelines...
View ArticleWhy Aren’t Predatory Loans Illegal?
“Nationally and internationally, we must be on guard against predatory lending. It is nothing more than a scam, a crime, a lie.” Alphonso Jackson It’s doubtful that anyone who has ever looked at the...
View ArticleHow Paper Mortgage Losses Turned Real
The question that keeps coming up is this: If only a small portion of all mortgages are failing how come the general financial impact has been so enormous? To resolve this mystery, let’s go back to the...
View ArticleMortgages & The Unnecessary Crisis
July 14, 2008 should be remembered as a notable date in the long history of mortgage lending. The federal government gingerly stuck its regulatory foot into the warm waters of consumer advocacy and for...
View ArticleBankruptcy Fables Your Lenders Love
Should bankruptcy judges have the right to modify home mortgages? Would that be fair? Or unfair? It’s a political question, of course, and when the time came for the Senate to vote in April the count...
View ArticleAre Toxic Loans Coming Back?
Our good friends at Realty Times report that some in the mortgage industry believe that no-doc loans and other forms of toxic finance “may soon be making a comeback” and that “some people can’t wait...
View Article
