HousingStorm.com

5 Reasons Why The Program Is Doomed To Fail: Like the federal loan modification program that was put into effect just over a year ago, the federally subsidized short sale program, set to take effect April 5 th, is now being touted as the next great hope for homeowners who either can’t afford to, or are choosing [...]

The Tipping Point In a phone interview yesterday with a writer from the New York Daily News, I was asked…”Jon, where exactly is the tipping point? When do people realize it may be better to just walk away?”  This is a difficult question, I said, because it’s not so clear cut.  It depends on many factors. [...]

Today on CNN they talked about these VERY interesting statistics. Here are the highlights below:    ( full transcript ) VELSHI: And one that we’ve had in the last couple ideas has been this — this idea that there are states or efforts to try and curtail the use of your credit report, your credit history by employers [...]

Banks Are Now Walking Away From HOA Fees In an eye opening interview by Chicago Public Radio on Friday, I learned of a Chicago condo owner whose building had turned into an absolute nightmare – 2/3 of the residents were gone, the utilities had been shut off, the place was literally crawling with maggots. Of the [...]

Freddie’s On Crack – A Cautionary Tale It was a cold winter’s day, more than 20 below, When Freddie first saw that his balance was low. Beg, borrow & steal, he tried all the old tricks, But this time was different, no one would help him get his kicks. So he dug in his pockets, but he [...]

Predictions – 2010 The worst economic year in US history More Interesting Quotes From Notable People: 1881 – James A. Garfield – President of the United States 1881 “Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master  of all industry and commerce… And when you realize that the entire  system is very easily controlled, [...]

Predictions – 2010 The worst economic year in US history More Staggering Statistics*: -The present year to date US Federal Budget Deficit is over $206,903,000,000 -We are on track to have a 2010 annual deficit of over $1.4 Trillion -The personal debt per citizen in America is over $53,000, while the personal savings is less than $1,100 Unemployment [...]

Predictions – 2010 The worst economic year in US history Staggering Statistics: In less than the first 2 months of 2010, there have been over 142,000 Foreclosures In less than the first 2 months of 2010, there have been over 221,000 Bankruptcies Presently the US has almost 39 Million food stamp recipients That’s almost 1 in 10 [...]

Jon Maddux wrote a new blog post: Man Bulldozes His Home To Send Foreclosing Bank A Message

“You Bulldoze Away”

Terry Hoskins of Moscow, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, made news a few days ago when he decided to bulldoze his own home to [...]

  2 weeks ago · View

Jon Maddux wrote a new blog post: Making Home Abhor-able

Making Home Affordable: One Year Later
One year ago this week Obama announced the federal loan mod program
“The overarching sense is that the mortgage modification process has not worked that well,” said Bert Ely, an independent banking consultant.
Mr. Ely is certainly not alone in calling the government’s Federal Loan Modification plan, announced a year ago as [...]

  2 weeks, 2 days ago · View

Jon Maddux wrote a new blog post: The Foreclosure Aftershock

According to quite a few experts, among them Moody’s, Standard & Poors, and a number of independent financial analysts, the recent upswing in home prices and downturn in housing inventory could be nothing more than the result of banks and mortgage servicers delaying the inevitable by holding off on foreclosing on millions of loans that [...]

  2 weeks, 2 days ago · View

Jon Maddux wrote a new blog post: Foreclosure= Family. One Dad Walks Away

Here is a letter we received in response to our last weekly newsletter. If you haven’t yet, make sure to sign up for our newsletter on the http://youwalkaway.com/ homepage, we’ll send you insightful commentary from the front lines of the foreclosure crisis as well as some great [...]

  3 weeks ago · View

Jon Maddux wrote a new blog post: Robbing Peter To Pay Peter? A 73 Year Old Man Struggles To Pay Mortgage

Robbing Peter… [...]

  3 weeks, 1 day ago · View

Jon Maddux wrote a new blog post: The McMansion Ghetto

There was a great article written in March of 2008 for theatlantic.com by a very smart fellow named Christopher B. Leinberger, a professor of urban planning at the University of Michigan, real-estate developer, and author of “The Option of Urbanism”.
The article talks about the economic, [...]

  3 weeks, 2 days ago · View

Jon Maddux wrote a new blog post: Strategic Hypocrisy

“We have come to the inescapable conclusion that owning our own building was the smartest long-term investment for the association.”

~ Jonathan Kempner, Former President – Mortgage Bankers Association

“Mortgage borrowers should keep paying their loans even if that no longer seemed to be in their economic interest…. [...]

  3 weeks, 5 days ago · View

Jon Maddux wrote a new blog post: The Incredible Shrinking Steak

One of our readers recently posted “It’s immoral… to walk away… It’s like going to a restaurant, eating a fat steak and then saying…I want my money back.”
I strongly disagree.  If that truly was the case, it would be immoral and theft.  However it’s more like this…<img class=”size-full wp-image-3637 alignright” title=”steak” src=”http://housingstorm.com/files/2010/02/steak.jpg” alt=”steak” [...]

  3 weeks, 5 days ago · View

Jon Maddux wrote a new blog post: Credit Scores Heal, Your Savings Account Won’t!

Fear of bad credit has homeowners paralyzed.
Homeowners who are upside-down on their mortgage and have no equity are kidding themselves if they think their value will come back anytime soon.  Should someone avoid walking away or “strategic default” just because they are worried about their credit?  I don’t [...]

  3 weeks, 6 days ago · View

Jon Maddux wrote a new blog post: Many Homeowners Paid Their Lender For The Right To Strategically Default

Homeowners unknowingly paid more in closing costs because their state laws prohibit the lender from coming after them on underwater or “negative equity” mortgages.
If you live in one of these 8 states:
Alaska, Arizona, California, Oregon, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Washington.
Your lender may have charged [...]

  4 weeks ago · View

Jon Maddux wrote a new blog post: You Walk Away Featured on NBC News

You Walk Away Featured on NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams

<p style=”background: transparent none repeat scroll [...]

  1 month, 1 week ago · View