mortgages

The website You Walk Away has become pretty popular because it teaches mortgage holders how to dump their properties on banks and get out from under their mortgage without losing everything. Apparently, banks are getting into the act too…

This comes from Angus Robertson of Research Recap.  Expect some major writedowns here going forward: A dramatic rise in delinquencies has led Fitch Ratings to raise its average loss estimates for recent vintage jumbo prime mortgage pools…

The details on Obama' new mortgage relief plan are out. The key parts are the following:

Below is an interview with an expert on the issue of mortgage cramdowns. Basically, this issue is all about debt forgiveness for borrowers and writedowns for lenders. Lenders do not like cramdowns for that reason. See below for a view on…

An Interview with Robert Shiller - The Atlantic

In November, the U.S. federal agencies which oversee the banking system proposed new guidelines for real estate appraisals. One would imagine that these guidelines would be in keeping with the new more stringent regulatory frame of mind…

After meetings with lawmakers, Citigroup has agreed to back legislation that would allow bankruptcy judges to alter the amount due on mortgage principal, so called cram downs. As it stands today, all other debtors including corporations…

If you are wondering why the U.S. housing market is a mess, watch this video about a $103,000 mortgage that was used to finance a shack --literally, a shack. Of course, the mortgage was packaged with a bunch of others into a mortgage…

Jamie Dimon tells it like it is. When asked by CNBC's Erin Burnett's how business is going, Dimon replied "terrible." Here's how Reuters describes his comments: "November itself has been a terrible trading month ... (and) December so far is…

Marshall here. Slowly but surely, the Treasury is beginning to move more aggressively on providing help to homeowners, as opposed to bankers. This makes sense: A financial meltdown and housing deflation cannot be cured simply by pumping…