No surprise as to the direction, down, but single family home prices had their biggest month over month decline in October. Declining home prices further accelerate the sub-prime mortgage crisis by making it more difficult to re-finance or sell, to pay off existing mortgages.
The states that had the speculative boom, [...]

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports today that the Federal Reserve has released a proposal for new rules that impose “tough new restrictions meant to curb unfair and deceptive home-lending practices and prevent a recurrence of this year’s meltdown in subprime mortgages.”

My last article laid out the framework for the bankruptcy real estate cocktail. This article will attempt to predict how that cocktail will be served and its ramifications. Remember, this recipe for disaster requires two things: a “Non-Perfected” Mortgage and a Bankruptcy.

There are many bright Real Estate Attorneys out there. Likewise, there are many bright Bankruptcy Attorneys out there. But I don’t think there are that many bright Bankruptcy Real Estate Attorneys out there. And the few that do exist…..well, I don’t think they worked for the Mortgage Companies.

The fallout from the sub-prime crisis continues.
“Helicopter Ben” Bernanke, so-called because of his statement years ago that the Fed should throw money out of helicopters to prevent recession, is living up to his name.
Today the FED announced a new method to lower world interest rates, of interest here at home [...]

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that foreclosures in the 13 county metro Atlanta area are up 29% in 2007 as compared to 2006. There were 58,076 foreclosures in metro Atlanta, which amounts to over 4,800 per month. By contrast, in 2001, the metro Atlanta area saw just over 20,000 foreclosures.
If you liked that [...]

     In the public mind, individual responsibility still reigns.
Polls show that, by a greater than 2-1 margin, individuals who borrowed more than they could afford are to blame for the sub-prime crisis.
Of course, the key to such statistics is, what exact questions were asked?
That information is not available for free on the Rasmussen Reports web [...]

This question has been bouncing around in my head for the last six months. The question stems from the problem most underwater California homeowners have: they are personally liable for their second mortgages because they are not PURCHASE MONEY LOANS. They want to let it go in foreclosure, but they will be liable to the [...]

The New Hope subprime mortgage plan is “anemic” and helping borrowers seems “incidental”, Tanta says in the initial reaction to the plan post on the Calculated Risk Finance and Economics blog.
“Is it all kind of anemic after all the build-up? Yep. Does it mean contracts are now invalidated in the U.S.? Not as far as [...]

Here is the 34 page executive summary of the Bush Subprime Mortgage Plan, officially called the American Securitization Forum Streamlined Foreclosure and Loss Avoidance Framework for Securitized Subprime Adjustable Rate Mortgage Loans. The devil is in the details as I wrote on the Bankruptcy Law Network.  You judge for yourself.
Commentators are forecasting the [...]