photo credit: Adam Sacco

The numbers are in and the bailout of our financial institutions wont affect them, or the rest of us, until 2022. How is that going to save you and me? The short answer, it wont. If the bailout isnt going to help them now, you can bet they will ask for another sum of money, this time like the Orphan Oliver, with his hand out, asking, may I have another please? How will the American people take such a question? For many, it looks like the end of credit is near.

We give financial institutions a bailout, with tax payers money, we loose our jobs and houses, and they raise taxes, and want another bailout, which would cost us more money that we cant afford because we have no jobs.

Because banks are under funded and have a surplus of debit to sell it will soon be reveled and unless they get another bailout they will go down and take everybodys money with them. The scary part is that this is not just an American problem, its happening all over Europe as well.

Read more from the Automatic Earth, Reuters James Saft, and the BBCs Robert Peston

Posted in Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Market Conditions, Foreclosure, Real Estate Industry, Real Estate Industry Trends

photo credit: Jobs with Justice

Now that healthcare has gone through the cost for employers to provide healthcare to employees has increased, causing employers to reduce their staff, which increased unemployment. Now the government wants to extend unemployment benefits, again, and is arguing how to pay for all the unemployed. Then, the government gave people free money to buy a house, but now that thats over the housing market crashed further than it already was, experiencing all time lows, and now everybody wants to extend the governments offer. More free money is sure to fix our problems.

The increasing unemployment rate is dramatically affecting the housing crisis. If you have no job, you cant pay your bills, so then you are forced to walk away form your mortgage, then Fannie Mae can sue you for doing so. How did we get in this mess? So how should we pay for all of this? Should the money come from the stimulus package, a deficit already in place, what is that money earmarked for again? Or should we add the $34 billion cost of unemployment to the total. I dont know how we can handle any more government help.

Read the full article from NSNBC

Posted in Denver Colorado Real Estate, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Market Conditions, Foreclosure

photo credit: darrowwest

The Fannie Mae announcement yesterday has been met with more questions and concerns than support. The idea that they will sue people who intentionally walk away from their mortgages when in fact they have the means to pay their bills is not well accepted in the publics eyes. People have big questions over the Fannie Mae announcement. How will they decide who has some enough money left to take and who will make the decision? If a family has a little money left in savings to start over, is Fannie Mae going to take the last little bit of security that family has?

Critics and experts say its unclear what results Fannie hopes to accomplish with this move. The eventual cost to tax payers for the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout is estimated to hit $400 billion. This is a funny way to pay back the very people who are footing the bill. Some say its a "cruel joke." Lou Barnes, a Colorado mortgage banker, said, "theyre bringing back the debtors prison, Fannie wants to lock people up in jail of negative net worth for much of the rest of their lives."

The Fannie Mae plan is said to be in direct conflict with President Obamas plan to restart our weak housing market. The Obama administration has been lowering interest rates, insuring millions of new home loans, and offering tax credits in hopes of helping the housing market get back on its feet, also attempting to instill confidence in the American people again. A statement from a Treasury Department spokesman said that Fannie Maes plan did not represent official Obama administration policy. This is a difficult road for our country. There has been a lot for the American people to accept the last couple of years; this just might be too much for some.

Read More from the New York Times

Posted in Headlines, Mortgage, Denver Colorado Real Estate, Real Estate Market Conditions, Foreclosure, Real Estate Industry, LoDo Lofts and Condos, Uptown Denver Lofts and Condos, Downtown Denver Lofts and Condos, Denver Loft and Condo Market Reports, Highlands Lofts and Condos, Press, Cherry Creek Lofts and Condos, City Park Lofts and Condos

photo credit: go thunk yourself

A new study by assistant business professor, Stephan Meier from Columbia University finds that people with poor math skills have a high rate of foreclosures, three times higher in fact. Mr. Meier was not surprised with the findings he stated, but he was surprised at the dramatic connection between math skills and foreclosures.

A larger study in Great Britain resulted in almost identical findings when questioned about retirement savings. Roughly 340 borrowers participated in the study. They were asked to divide 300 by 2 and to calculate 10 percent of 1,000. Approximately 16 percent of the participants answered at least one of the questions wrong. 21 percent of the participants with below average math skills were in foreclosure.

It pays to understand math, mortgage rates, and financial processes. Mr. Meier suggested adding math tests to the mortgage lending process or simply helping borrowers improve their financial understanding.

I guess our parents and teachers were right all those years. We undertake a lot of obligations throughout our life, many of which are financial. Richard L. Tracy Jr., Chief executive of Campbell Mortgage in West Haven, Conn. said that borrowers deficient in areas of math would most likely also have weak credit scores.

The idea is that if we learn some basic math skills we can understand our personal finances and budget our money better, and we will be more likely to meet our financial obligations.

Read full article from the New York Times

Posted in Headlines, Denver Colorado Real Estate, Foreclosure, Real Estate Industry

The Obama administration announced that its program to prevent foreclosures is making slow and steady progress, with April 2010 seeing a 13% increase in the number of homeowners who have received permanently modified mortgages, at 295,348 permanent modifications.

The Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, helps to reduce monthly mortgage payments by refinancing existing loans to have a lower interest rate, a reduced monthly payment, and a loan forgiveness for homeowners that have lost equity on their home but yet still owe more than their home is worth.

"The number of homeowners receiving significant relief through a mortgage modification continues to rise," said Chief of Treasury's Homeownership Preservation Office (HPO) Phyllis Caldwell. "Our focus now is on improving the homeowner experience and holding servicers accountable for their performance. Increased transparency through more robust reporting of servicer-specific data will contribute handily to those efforts."

The $75 billion program has been criticized for moving too slowly, and in December, the Obama administration began pushing mortgage services to move more quickly to convert eligible trial modifications to permanent ones. Since then, the number of permanent modifications has nearly tripled.

The Obama administration plans to continue to enhance its methods of holding servicers accountable for their obligation to provide helpful and timely assistance to struggling homeowners in the coming months, and stresses this is but one one part their multi-faceted approach to assisting homeowners and stabilizing the housing market. Other approaches in place use state and local housing agency initiatives, tax credits for homebuyers, neighborhood stabilization and community development programs, mortgage refinancing, and support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Read more in the official press release and from RISMedia, and get the April HAMP report here.

Posted in Mortgage, Real Estate Market Conditions, Foreclosure, Real Estate Industry, National News