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The Economic Cost Of Foreclosure – The Atlantic

A few days ago, I wrote about my worry that it’s too easy to foreclose, because banks got too comfortable with the culture of little or no down payment. Adam Ozimek at Modeled Behavior disputes my worry that there isn’t a high enough economic cost to foreclosure. He believes other significant costs exist to deter people from walking away. Let’s look at his arguments.

Are Greek Sovereign Debt Tremors a Start of a New Phase of the Crisis? – Naked Capitalism, Yves Smith

But the Greece problem exposes several fracture lines. The most immediate is the strain on the euro. The monetary union left a lot of critical issues and mechanisms in the “to be sorted out later” category, and “later” has arrived. One long-noted problem is the limits on member nations in using fiscal and monetary policy, and the expected large differences in economic performance have resulted.

Home Front: Gain trumping pain of walking away from mortgage – The Sacramento Bee

Marysville real estate agent Ruben Ramos caught a torrent of abuse in December 2008 when he said at a Bee real estate roundtable that he counsels people to “walk away” from their mortgages.

Housing industry reps and readers current on their mortgages called Ramos irresponsible, a menace who lacked morals and encouraged fraud. Yet his view – that people have the right to walk away if lenders won’t work with them

Predatory Short Sale Negotiators – CE Forward

Once the offer was accepted by the seller, the homebuyer was surprised to learn that there’s a third party involved, a “Short Sale Negotiator” who is charging an additional $9,000 fee on top of the real estate commissions paid to both the agent for the seller and the agent for the buyer. The Short Sale Negotiator is demanding that the homebuyer sign an agreement that the homebuyer will be responsible for paying the $9,000 fee. The homebuyer emailed me asking what I thought of this additional fee and could I offer some advice.

Fears of ‘Lehman-style’ tsunami as crisis hits Spain and Portugal – Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The Greek debt crisis has spread to Spain and Portugal in a dangerous escalation as global markets test whether Europe is willing to shore up monetary union with muscle rather than mere words.

Fiscal Scare Tactics – Paul Krugman

Many economists take a much calmer view of budget deficits than anything you’ll see on TV. Nor do investors seem unduly concerned: U.S. government bonds continue to find ready buyers, even at historically low interest rates. The long-run budget outlook is problematic, but short-term deficits aren’t — and even the long-term outlook is much less frightening than the public is being led to believe.

20,000 Jobs Lost in January as Jobless Rate Falls to 9.7% – The New York Times

The Labor Department revised past data to show that the economy comprised 1.36 million fewer jobs in December than previously thought. The revisions showed the economy lost 150,000 jobs in December — far more than the 85,000 initially reported.

Victim of a Real Estate Scheme? Tell Us Your Story – HuffPoFund

The Huffington Post Investigative Fund would like to shine a light on real estate schemes going on around the country. How widespread are these activities? Who is behind them? And who is getting hurt?

The unburst property bubble – Felix Salmon

It’s not clear to me how living in an appreciating apartment makes it easier to spend money on bars and restaurants and theaters.

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1. You Can Lose That Sacramento Short Sale Home After Acceptance Everybody knows that short sales in Sacramento — or anywhere in the country, for that matter — can take a...
2. Here Are Some of the Red Flags For Sacramento Short Sale Sellers A few days ago, an out-of-state seller emailed me to say the seller’s Sacramento short sale listing had expired, but...
3. Your Agent’s Mistakes May Cost You That Home It seems to be some sort of secret in Sacramento, and perhaps elsewhere in the country, that nobody talks about....
4. Short Sale approvals – 3 approved in 1 day! It’s great to wake up in the morning and realize all of your hard work really does pay off! Yesterday...
5. The Best Day to Buy a Home is Just Around the Corner I was amazed yesterday when I called 2 agents on 2 listings and both agents answered their cell phones. Christmas...