HOLC

Apparently, under Utah's "Quiet Title" Law, any Utah mortgages run through MERS are now suspect (via Yves). Mish comments: Read below the fold...

I'm shocked. Felix Salmon:

As of today, Treasury has started releasing a new set of datapoints with respect to its Making Home Affordable program. Look at page 5 of the monthly report on how the program is doing, and you’ll see a page detailing what they call the “disposition path” of the 194,056 trial mortgages which have been cancelled through April.

Read below the fold...

"Nudge theory" explained in one sentence. One mortgage cramdowns: Read below the fold...

Or, to ask the question in a more sophisticated way, who are the "strategic defaulters"? The LA Times asked that question:

Who is more likely to walk away from a house and a mortgage -- a person with super-prime credit scores or someone with lower scores?

The answer may surprise you -- especially if this was your narrative: Read below the fold...

"Mortgage Servicers Behaving Badly":

The New York Times has a story tonight, “Judges’ Frustration Grows With Mortgage Servicers,” which narrowly speaking, is not bad, but illustrates a frustrating propensity of the budget and time constrained MSM to fail to dig into the meaty issues behind its articles.

Read below the fold...

Times editorial today:

Four months into the Obama administration’s antiforeclosure effort, the White House’s best guesstimate is that “over 50,000” at-risk loans have been modified so that homeowners can afford their payments and keep their homes. A Treasury official told The Times’s Peter Goodman there is no precise data because a tracking system has yet to be completed. Still, the official predicted that by the end of August, the program would modify 20,000 bad loans a week.

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Calculated Risk:

Walking away (what the researchers call a "strategic default" and the mortgage industry call a "ruthless default") is when the borrower decides to stop paying a mortgage even though they can still afford the payment [#88]. This has always been difficult to quantify. ...

Read below the fold...

Bernanke Bid to Lift Housing Scuttled by Rising Rates, Defaults.

The Masters of the Universe who run the FKD and the government continue to imagine they can escape the crisis through financial trickeration. Good luck with that. Read below the fold...

Just asking. McClatchy covers Timmy's newest improvisation:

The Obama administration unveiled new programs Thursday designed to make it easier for homeowners who owe far more than their houses are now worth to sell those homes at a loss and have their remaining debt forgiven.

Read below the fold...

I am not an economist, but I can do arithmetic.

Please read first. Read below the fold...

George Soros in The Financial Times:

The hard choice facing the Obama administration is between partially nationalising the banks, or leaving them in private hands but nationalising their toxic assets. Choosing the first course would inflict great pain on a broad segment of the population – not only on bank shareholders but also on the beneficiaries of pension funds. However, it would clear the air and restart the economy.

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Useless:

Frank Says Congress to Release $350 Billion in Deal For Homeowner Relief
Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- [House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said in a telephone interview yesterday that] said legislation is being drafted that will set the conditions on spending the cash after Paulson used almost half the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to boost bank capital. Paulson resisted calls to support foreclosure relief.

Read below the fold...

But what would you expect when Big Money gets two trillion NOW NOW NOW, with no plan, and no accountability?* Bloomberg:

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Timothy Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for U.S. Treasury Secretary, is seeking to push Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair out of office.

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Obama's interview with 60 minutes is interesting, and I recommend studying it; as usual our famously free press gives short shrift to news while focusing on fluff about the very personal nature of yadda yadda yadda. Read below the fold...

In a transcript for tomorrow's 60 Minutes:

[OBAMA] We have not focused on foreclosures and what's happening to homeowners as much as I would like…

And who's responsible for that? And what you mean, "we"? The bailout is the Bush + Reid + Pelosi + Obama + Paulson bill, and though we don't expect anything from Bush or Paulson, I think we had the right to expect a little "change" from Obama, especially, since he was making calls to get the bill passed -- and is now the Leader we've all been waiting for. Read below the fold...