Nashville TN Banks HurtingAccording to the information contained in these articles (Nashville Public Radio: Pinnacle Backtracks, Saves TARP Funds for Rainier Day and Associated Press: Synovus downgraded on capital, regulation worries.), two Nashville Tennessee area banks are in financial trouble: Pinnacle Financial and the Bank of Nashville (a Synovus company).  According to the ProPublica Financial [...]

Commercial Real Estate ProblemsAccording to this Philly.com article, Commercial real estate facing worse days, the worst for commercial real estate is yet to come. The article cites the contracting economy and worsening financing markets as the main causes of the commercial real estate decline. My opinion is that the real problem is that all real [...]

Nashville Developer Faces ForeclosureAccording to this Nashville Business Journal article, Bank forecloses on property for Crosland’s Griffin Plaza, Crosland, Inc.’s Griffin Plaza property (a 280,000 square-foot mixed-use development) in Downtown Nashville TN (in the Gulch area) is being foreclosed on by Carolina First Bank. The trustee auction sale is scheduled to take place on 11/30/2009 [...]

Foreclosure Problem SpreadingAccording to this SmartMoney article, Beyond California: New Foreclosure Hot Spots, and this The Christian Science Monitor article, Foreclosure surprise: 10 fastest-growing problem cities are newcomers, the foreclosure problem is spreading to previously stable (and largely untouched) cities and towns.  Both articles cite rising unemployment as the main cause of the spreading foreclosure [...]

FDIC Hurting Distressed HomeownersAs set forth in this FDIC publication, IndyMac Shared-Loss Agreement, the FDIC is making so called “Shared-Loss Agreements” (SLAs) with investors who are willing to purchase the assets of insolvent financial institutions.  Without going into all the details, these SLAs basically offer these investors guarantees on huge percentages of any net losses [...]

Our Phony Real Estate Market The “real estate recovery” (or market bottom called), which has been trumpeted by the “drive by media” (translation – they are too lazy to do any real research) for almost a year now, is a fraud, a sham. All we are seeing is the result of artificial government market propping. [...]

Sad Loan Modification StoryIn this Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis article, “Wells Fargo Madness” a Reader Reply to Fear and Shame Tactics, a reader replied to an article on that website (Government and Lender Policies of Fear and Shame Help Keep Homeowners Debt Slaves which I referenced in my blog post Why Lenders Push Homeowners Around) [...]

Why Lenders Push Homeowners AroundAccording to this Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis article, Government and Lender Policies of Fear and Shame Help Keep Homeowners Debt Slaves, lenders offer loan modifications to financially distressed homeowners only if doing so financially benefits the lender (i.e. it as a business decision), while homeowners view walking away from their [...]

US Government Provides Funding For 95% Of MortgagesAccording to this article, Recent Developments in Mortgage Finance, in the October 26, 2009 edition of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco newsletter, the US government (via Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae) are now providing unprecedented support for the US housing market by “owning or [...]

New Subprime Lender: The US Government According to this City Journal article, Our Subprime Federal Government, “President Obama’s mortgage plan imitates the lenders who inflated the housing bubble.” The article references the 10/9/2009 Congressional Oversight Panel report, October Oversight Report: An Assessment of Foreclosure Mitigation Efforts After Six Months, for its data. On 10/9/2009 the [...]

New Home Sales Drop in September 2009According to this Nashville Business Journal article, New home sales drop unexpectedly, “New home sales took a surprising turn downward last month, according to newly released government figures.” According to the article, on 10/28/2009, the US Commerce Department reported that sales of new homes declined by 3.6 percent in [...]

Buying a Foreclosure Is Harder Than It Should BeThis video, How to Buy a Bank-Owned Home (see below), is both hilarious and infuriating because it is true. I really believe that banks choose the most incompetent and ignorant foreclosure and REO agents to market their bank owned foreclosures.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM7oWKgCVo4&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&border=1]If you are a home buyer or real [...]

Terrazzo in Nashville Gulch to Auction Condo Units Due to Slow SalesAccording to this Nashville Business Journal article, Terrazzo to slash prices, auction condos, Crosland, the developers the Terrazzo, a $68 million 117 unit luxury high rise condo project in the Gulch section of downtown Nashville Tennessee, will auction off up to 30 units at [...]

Homeowners Walking Away: Right or Wrong?In my previous blog post, Underwater Homeowners Walking Away From Their Homes, I covered the issue of homeowners who “walk away” from their homes and mortgages (even though they can afford to pay their mortgages) due to the mortgage debt on their homes far exceeding the market value of their [...]

Underwater Homeowners Walking Away From Their HomesAccording to this New York Times article, Homeowners Walking Away, a study produced by the Financial Trust Index (a financial and economic research group formed by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and The University of Chicago Booth School of Business) states that more than 25% of [...]

CitiMortgage: Loan Modifications Increasing Delinquent LoansAccording to this Forbes article, Citi’s Mortgage Problem, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP – the Obama Administration’s Mortgage Loan Modification Program) is actually increasing the number of delinquent mortgage loans. According to the article, CitiMortgage said the Home Affordable Modification Program, which was supposed to reduce the number of [...]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Offer Incentives to Buy Their Foreclosed Homes and PropertiesAccording to this New York Times article, Help From Fannie and Freddie for Foreclosed Homes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are currently offering fairly attractive incentives for buyers who purchase their foreclosed properties. According to the article, and information gathered from the [...]

Loan Servicers Prefer Foreclosure Over Loan ModificationsAccording to this National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) report, Why Servicers Foreclose When They Should Modify and Other Puzzles of Servicer Behavior, and the press release, AVOIDABLE FORECLOSURES CONTINUE DESPITE SERVICERS’ “LOAN MODIFICATIONS”, announcing the report, “(loan) servicers, unlike investors or homeowners, generally don’t risk losing money on foreclosures. [...]

Real Estate Recovery or More Problems (Short Sales and Foreclosures)?According to this RISMEDIA article, 59% of Home Buyers Rely on Low Down-Payment Government Mortgages, of all the home sales that have occurred in 2009, 59% of all buyers relied on low down payment government financing programs, which the article defines as “FHA, VA or USDA [...]