Home Sale Relief

The Wall Street Journal writes that mortgage losses will cause as much as two trillion in losses.
The resulting withdrawal of credit could knock one to 1.5 percentage points off economic growth, compounding the impact of collapsing home construction and softer consumer spending due to lower home wealth, the study said. It was presented Friday at […]

I used to have a line of credit on my last house, a home equity line of credit with a major bank. I always wondered what would happen if the equity fell on my house. Would they take away the line of creidt?
I am the developer of the Mortgage Relief Formula and I talk to […]

More people are walking away from their mortgage.
As this wonder blog Bear Ridge Project post says:
 Walk away from it. Put the keys in the mail and walk away. Sit for a couple of months in your house don’t pay the mortgage, pocket the money. Use those dollars to buy a very cheap mobile home or […]

The Wall Street Journal has an article today about lenders pulling back home equity lines, and problems with home equity lines, second loans and foreclosure.

As home values continue to sink, mortgage companies are increasingly walking away from delinquent home-equity loans rather than pushing borrowers into foreclosure. At the same time, some lenders, in an effort […]

Property taxes are heading for the sky.
The exact environment that created Proposition 13 in California is going on now. But now it’s everywhere in the US not just California.

Housing prices peaked as they did at this time in California.
Assessments soared based upon higher property values.
Local governments geared up their expenses.

And now, even the […]

Irvine Housing Blog is a great blog I read because although Irvine is a small postage-stamp community in California, it is the home of some of the largest mortgage companies and of the worst bubble property values as well.
There was a post on renting versus owning the other day:

The chart above is the inverse of […]

If you owe more than your house is worth, or have a negative amortization loan, or can’t afford your mortgage or all of the above, then you will be thinking of a short sale. A short sale lets you get out from under because you sell the house for whatever it’s worth. The lender gets […]

Everyone wants to get out of foreclosure, stop their house from going to sale, preferably by selling their house or doing a deed in lieu of foreclosure.
A Countrywide deed in lieu of foreclosure would be the best outcome for your Countrywide house assuming you can get them to say “yes.”
This post on Countrywide deed in […]

Jim has words of wisdom today in Don’t use home equity to pay off unsecured debt.
 The primary reason I don’t advocate the transfer of the debt from an unsecured credit card to home equity is because of the downside. If something catastrophic occurs and you are no longer able to service the debt, having it […]

Standards have changed if you are thinking of getting a new loan to refinance. It is much harder than it was.
For one thing, if your FICO score is 680 or less, it is very hard to refinance unless you have at least 20% or more in equity.
Also, if you have excellent credit, buying or refinancing […]

I am getting hundreds of questions from people who cannot afford their payments. They have no equity or owe more than their house is worth. And they are asking if short sales are possible if they have a second mortgage?
Let’s recap what a short sale is. It’s when you sell your house for less than […]

Foreclosures caused by falling house prices?
Really?
That’s what  Ben Jones writes on the housing bubble blog. Go read the whole post…I’ll excerpt some highlights.
The Boston Globe reports from Massachusetts. “The recent spike in home foreclosures in Massachusetts is caused primarily by falling housing prices, and not by rising mortgage payments, according to research released yesterday by […]

Dr. Housing Bubble has a great post about the state of short sales and foreclosures these days:

We can do a 12 days of Christmas list of all the negative news coming out but we’ll branch off and focus on the short sales here in Southern California. It is now the 21st week since […]

I love reading the Loanshak blog and a few days ago, there was a post about foreclosure versus doing a short sale.
 
One of the big concerns that plagues those who are worried about foreclosure is the hit they might take to their credit score. So, even though one may have to give up the home, […]

Deed in lieu of foreclosure is a good option if you negotiate properly with your lender.
First, you want to make sure that you have no junior liens or second mortgage, or else you cannot even consider deed in lieu of foreclosure.
Second, you need to present your hardship case to the lender. This means that you […]

A lot of folks contact me with questions on deed in lieu. So I answered some grant deed in lieu questions on my other blog.
I’ve written recently about grant deed in lieu of foreclosure buy another house and you might find that helpful. And how much does your credit drop in deed in lieu of […]

It is quite common for many of you to have a first and a second mortgage on your house. If this is your situation, and you are in foreclosure, you will want to read this carefully.
I see a lot of first mortgages going through a foreclosure process. The second mortgage holder does not foreclose.
If the […]

Keith writes a great blog and has a post today that I hate to call to your attention but will anyway. A brief item about how home prices are dropping:
Stupid things heard in 2004/2005/2006:
Nah, home prices never go down!
There’s never been a fall in US median home prices, so pay anything anyone asks!
Trust me! […]

If your ARM is resetting, and you fit within the FHA loan guidelines you may be eligible to refinance.
You can’t have been late for six payments preceding the ARM reset. But if you fell behind because your ARM reset was unmanageable, this could be good news.
The nice thing about FHA loans is that they are […]

Someone posted about having $33,000 in credit card debt, as well as a foreclosure situation. What should they do?
Is this your situation?
If you are in foreclosure, chances are you also owe money on your credit cards.
So let’s discuss what you might consider doing and not doing to get out from under.
It’s important that we understand […]