2007 USA Realty Meltdown

Our economy is about to relapse into the disease that sent us into the Great Depression: Part Deux. Subprime loans caused the initial illness. Option-ARMs will cause the relapse. In the first half of the past decade, subprime loans were king. They were cheap and easy to get approved. Along with the subprime boom came subprime adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), which were equally easy to afford…for a while. Of course, the “A” and the “R” in ARM...  

Remember the mortgage losers -- all those irresponsible Americans who took out loans they could not afford at the height of the housing boom, but then got caught with their pants down by the bust? They're an ever-popular scapegoat for those whose preference is to blame the financial crisis on the moral failings of individual American homeowners, rather than on the lenders and financial institutions who created the incentives for so much bad...  

New York Gov. David Paterson signed new foreclosure legislation protecting homeowners, tenants and neighborhoods. The new law expands on the governor’s subprime lending reform law enacted last year in an attempt to assist homeowners on the verge of foreclosure and minimize the impacts foreclosures have on communities. The law expands the 90-day foreclosure notice currently sent [...]  

The Furman Center at New York University found that the probability that individual borrowers receive risky, high-cost subprime loans increases depending on the racial composition of the neighborhood or metropolitan area where they live.  

Real estate news and views from around the globe that make you go, “Really?” A collection of reports on today’s SEC suit accusing New Century execs of covering up mounting financial woes. LATEST SUSPECTS: The New Century executives charged in the civil-fraud case are among several targeted by federal authorities looking into alleged wrongdoing tied to subprime [...]  

More than $200bn of outstanding pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) originated and securitized from ‘04-’07, according to market commentary by Moody’s Investors Service this week. This sector shows “dismal” performance, with more than 40% of borrowers 60 or more days past due on payments. And many of these loans have yet to experience a recast event, when [...]  

1) That's Community Reinvestment Act.2) Passed under Carter.3) CRA mandates applied to depository banks4) Subprime lending was primarily a problem of non-depository-bank financial institutions, who collected commissions for hooking up borrowers to banks without having to share in any of the risk of the subprime loans they negotiated.5) The bank collapses that brought about the economic collapse are investment banks, not depository banks.6...  

Calpers burns in subprime fire 24 Oct 2009, 0000 hrs IST, REUTERS SAN FRANCISCO: Faced with huge losses on subprime loans, Calpers is suing the rating agencies which it said misled them by giving top ratings to mortgage bond funds which later turned out to be a house of cards. Calpers also was overcharged for foreign exchange transactions, says state Attorney General Brown, who is suing bank State Street. The market rally this year also has...  

Katherine Coble is scaring me: From everything I’ve been reading and seeing of late, the Student Loan is in many ways the new subprime mortgage. The idea behind student loans is great. These loans are supposed to level the playing field a bit and make it possible for people without ready funds to be able to [...]  

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Many exotic Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) will recast in 2010, leading to a mortgage crisis as large as subprime in the New Year, according to the Consumer Mortgage Audit Center.  

An ex-subprime lender employee of a sent us the scripts they used to cold-call homeowners back in 2005 to get them to ditch their 30-year fixed mortgages for risky sub-prime loans. One of them is called, "Wholesale Gangsta Script," which I think about says it all right there.  

von Kent Cherny und Yuliya Demyanyk * The global crisis is said to have originated in the US subprime mortgage market. This column argues that many of the most popular explanations that have emerged for the subprime crisis are, to a large extent, myths. Subprime mortgages have received a lot of attention in the US since 2000, when the number of subprime loans being originated and refinanced shot up rapidly. The attention intensified in...  

Jesse Jackson aims at 'banksters' to stop foreclosures in Toledo, USToledo BladeSome may not agree with Mr. Jackson's tactic, but he's gathering troops on the US front to march against joblessness, homelessness, and foreclosures. ...JESSE JACKSON WANTS FORECLOSURES HALTED FOR HOLIDAYS: Rev. asked Georgia banks ...Eurweb.comJesse Jackson comes to VictorvilleVictorville Daily PressJesse Jackson returns to ToledoToledo Bladeall 11 news articles »  

DSNews.comUniversity Study Forecasts Foreclosures to Fall by Nearly 35% in 2010DSNews.comHe predicts the number of foreclosures to hold at 1.75 million in 2011, before declining further to less than 1.5 million by early 2012. ...Look for foreclosures to drop in 2010Middle East North Africa Financial Networkall 3 news articles »  

NH Home Foreclosures Hit Record HighWCAXThere were 359 home foreclosures in October, a 25 percent increase over September and 8 percent over the same month last year. ...NH foreclosures hit record levelBoston Heraldall 10 news articles »