CRE and Moral and Social Constraints to Strategic Defaults – Calculated Risk
Tishman and Blackrock tried for a loan modification, but when they couldn’t obtain one on acceptable terms, they choose to walk away because the property is worth far less than they owe even though they could afford to continue to make the payments.
Wall Street Journal Questions Bernanke’s Credibility and Political Will – Mish
While Geithner, Obama, and the Fed apologists are squawking it’s all over, the math suggests otherwise.
Not Having A Mortgage Doesn’t Stop Bank Of America From Foreclosing – The Consumerist
Charlie and Maria Cardoso managed to do something few homeowners can: They own their vacation home in Florida outright, with no mortgage. But that didn’t stop Bank of America from kicking out a tenant who was renting the house, tossing out the Cardosos’ possessions, and, yes, foreclosing on the debt-free home.
Wide Fallout in Failed Deal for Stuyvesant Town – The New York Times
“At the time, it looked like a sound investment,” said Clark McKinley, a spokesman for Calpers, the giant California public employees’ pension fund, which bought a $500 million stake in the property. “When the market tanked, we got caught.”
Foreclose threat hits Hamptons big shots – The New York Post
The number of property owners on the East End of Long Island missing three mortgage payments skyrocketed 230 percent in the last quarter of 2009, compared with the same period a year before, according to court filings compiled by PropertyShark.com
DUMMY BIDDING – Inside auction’s notorious fraud – Jenman
Dummy bidding is a fraud on all consumers. Many consumers may not understand it completely, but they do understand one thing – it doesn’t feel right. As Marsha Bertrand, author of Fraud! How to Protect Yourself from Schemes, Scams and Swindlers, points out, “Often when [consumers] don’t understand something, they think it’s because they’re stupid. But the truth is that they don’t understand something because it doesn’t make sense.”
Forecast says home values won’t regain bubble heights for at least a decade – The Los Angeles Times
HSH is predicting a flat real estate market with no increase in value through June 2010. Then, from July 2010 through August 2011, a period of 14 months, prices are projected to increase at a rate of about 2.5% a year. And from then on out, the company is figuring on a yearly gain of 3%.
With these percentages in mind, let’s look at what would happen to the value of a $200,000 house purchased at the top of the market in July 2006.
By the time the market hit bottom — at least the bottom according to Case-Shiller’s 32.6% figure — that property was worth $134,800. Using HSH’s assumptions, the value of the imaginary house won’t get back to the $200,000 paid for it until July 2022 — 12 1/2 years from now.
