According to the New York Times, states have finally negotiated a settlement with large lenders over alleged foreclosure abuses: After months of painstaking talks, government authorities and five of the nation’s biggest banks have agreed to a $26 billion settlement that could provide relief to nearly two million current and former American homeowners harmed by the bursting of the housing bubble, state and federal officials said. It is part of a broad national settlement aimed at halting the housing market’s downward slide and holding the banks accountable for foreclosure abuses. So what does this settlement look like?  From the Wall…
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Unpaid mortgages aren’t the only reason homes are foreclosed on, they can also be foreclosed on for unpaid taxes.  West Allis, Wisconsin was in no hurry to foreclose on a vacant home, leaving a deceased man undiscovered for four years. [Thanks L!] The body of a Wisconsin man was discovered inside his home more than four years after he reportedly killed himself with a handgun. The “nearly skeletonized body” of David Carter was discovered inside his home in January by a real estate agent sent to deliver foreclosure papers to the house. But his actual death is estimated to have…
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Here’s a great CNBC interview with Sam Zell on CNBC on what government “assistance” has done for the housing market. [Thanks L!] As sales languish and prices continue to fall, the head of Equity Group Investments and numerous other ventures pinned the blame on policies that refused to allow market forces to take hold. “Rather than let the elements of the business world take care of the problems, we basically stopped the process of creating market clearing,” Zell said in a CNBC interview. “Had we allowed the market to clear without trying to stop reality…we would have a healthy housing…
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CBC TV’s Sunday 10PM news package The National featured problems with libraries transitioning to e-readers, a dark contrast to the breathless promotion of this technology in today’s local fibre-based paper: Halifax Chronicle-Herald (2/5 ’12): “Of books and e-readers” The compelling question right now is which e-reader to buy — the Kindle or the Kobo? It’s not whether to make the leap, but choosing which to make the leap with … Well, there are lots of other questions that come to mind, not the least of which is in whose hands that e-book’s page history ends up.  Will I have to…
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Poor L gets all kinds of real estate related spam, but he graciously sorts through it and sends the more interesting stuff.  I did think that the following chart on “When Can I Buy A House”, sent out by an Arizona mortgage broker, might be interesting to some of our readers:   If you go to the webpage, there’s info on how long after Chapter 13 as well.  Of course, if you aren’t buying a house because you are still waiting for that job to come through (and don’t feel bad, you’ve got a lot of company.) it will be…
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Oh dear, somebody tell Oda’s people to break out the crank-o-sign machine. Looks like we’re going to need a few more back-dated permissions, and it’s not just Kenney running amok this time. Wowsers, hadn’t been following the antics of the Thirteenth District / FRBO (you can say that again ) for a while, but yesterday the amero gap closed to just -4 bips. And you thought Keystone was dead, Igor: bwahaha! Fed’s own MBS holdings grew a meaningless $0.388 billion while the foreign cenbanks meekly swallowed nearly $1B / day of assorted US obligations. A real snoozer. December 29th Reuters…
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Anonymous blogger Lexington wants tomorrow to be the last shot.  Somewhere, Parker is starting to wonder why he even bothered.

Sometimes the camera doesn’t lie (Onion-ready pic from the article, I’m so tempted to make it my desktop background): NYT (1/27 ’12): “New Fraud Investigation Group Issues Subpoenas to Financial Companies” Mr. Donovan said that a separate settlement being worked out between state attorneys general and mortgage servicing companies would not thwart the new group’s investigations, even if the settlement released companies from further law enforcement efforts related to mortgage servicing. // “We would not be standing here today if we were not absolutely confident,” Mr. Donovan said, adding that any releases being contemplated “are narrow enough to allow us…
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News reader Peter Armstrong’s efforts this morning on CBC Radio 1 were most instructive. Someone important needs the GOP nomination process to come to a conclusion. Now. Well, the Fed’s own MBS holdings swung to a strong $11.810 billion reduction, but that might have simply been a few re-po’d chickens going back to roost at some banks that didn’t want to admit to owning the stuff during year-end reporting season Except for that it was a pretty dull week, with small increases all around in foreign cenbank holdings of risk-free paper. December 29th Reuters report1 was, as usual, based on…
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I confess that I didn’t watch the State of the Union address last night. I don’t even like baloney in my sandwiches– I can’t take it in large quantities. I did however, read the summaries this morning, particularly the housing proposals. This is the one that stood out to me: Obama proposed that “every responsible homeowner” be able to refinance. The existing refinancing program (HARP) lets borrowers who are current on their mortgages refinance even if they’re way underwater — but only if their loans are guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Obama’s proposal would extend refinancing to borrowers…
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Here at Housing Doom blog we’re always on the lookout for really worst case scenarios, especially the ones where grownups, the MSM and recognized authorities all get together and say: “Why are we even bothering to debunk something that dumb?” Which is why we’ve got a soft spot in our heart (hearts for pet dragon Igor, head for yours truly) concerning the idea that a tidal wave is supposed to engulf Mt Everest at the next Winter solstice  But on the other hand … 12/21 ’12 just happens to be smack in the middle of a US congressional / presidential…
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Following up on yesterday’s episode of the new reality TV show “Who Wants To Lead The World Through Years 5, 6, 7 and 8 Of The Present Long Depression” here is tomorrow’s skill testing question … Please Choose The Best Candidate: A) Pompous B) Wooden C) Fluffy D) Gone Igor thinks there’s a good chance “D” finishes better than fifth (sic), at least that’s how he’s voting At “the Fred”, America’s most solvent housing GSE, holdings of MBS surged up $7.160 billion. Meanwhile foreign cenbanks’ holdings of agencies were flat, but they bought enough treasuries to reverse most of the…
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Sometimes these guys are way too smart for their own good … Economist (1/19 ’12): “Perry exits” … You have to wonder why a man of such towering ignorance ever thought he had the right to aspire to the White House.   Meanwhile, Igor credits WaPo with the most dangerous 51 seconds of MSM coverage yet in the present primary cycle. Plus 10 for [candidate's name redacted] if SC ever sees that one

Worried about losing your home to foreclosure?  There are a number of companies out there that are willing to help you, or rather, help themselves to your money. [Thanks L!] If you want to try and modify your loan, pick up the phone and call your lender.  You might be an amateur, but at least the price is right, and you can be confident that you have your best interests at heart.

I’m not a US person, or at least not anymore, so Housing Doom’s pet dragon Igor had to clue me in about this plant that’s been in the news so much recently. It grows in South Carolina, and Igor also tells me that it’s there, over the next six days, that most of the juice of this year’s presidential election will be squeezed.  Pollsters predict primary election or caucus outcomes by measuring the intentions of likely participants / voters, but this week’s Republican party aspirants are depending so heavily on un-likely supporters that the statisticians are severely off-balance.  So some…
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