Mortgage Delinquencies, Foreclosures, Rates Increase

[Joanne98]

Source: Bloomberg

May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures rose to records in the first quarter and home-loan rates jumped to the highest since March as the government’s effort to fix the housing slump lost momentum.

The U.S. delinquency rate jumped to a seasonally adjusted 9.12 percent from 7.88 percent, the biggest-ever increase, and the share of loans entering foreclosure rose to 1.37 percent, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today. Both figures are the highest in records going back to 1972. Fixed rates rose to 4.91 percent, Freddie Mac said, and an increase in bond yields earlier this week shows rates may continue rising.

The three-year housing decline is proving resistant to efforts by the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration to keep homeowners current on mortgages by allowing them to refinance or sell to buyers enticed by affordable terms. Prime fixed-rate home loans to the most creditworthy borrowers accounted for the biggest share of new foreclosures at 29 percent, MBA said, a sign job losses are hurting homeowners.

“If people don’t have a paycheck they can’t support a mortgage,” Jay Brinkmann, the MBA’s chief economist, said in an interview. “The longer the recession lasts the more people run through their savings reserves, leading to higher delinquencies and higher foreclosures.”


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUW60TAkQ5EM&refer=home

---

Here comes an epidemic of homelessness!

[Auggie]

1. Just wait until Option ARMS start to reset

[BlueJessamine]

2. More Shantytowns, Hoovervilles, & Tent Cities. n/t

Southern California Shanty Town / Tent City

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmeHiFZUWtE

[DJ13]

3. ........

[CoffeeCat]

5. I didn't know Wilford Brimley wore pearls...

He's getting uglier and more wrinklier ever day.

[Turbineguy]

20. He looked better

with the mustache.

[OhioChick]

4. But, the recession is over......

:sarcasm:

[CoffeeCat]

6. So true!!

Green shoots and sliver linings everywhere!!

I'm riding my magical unicorn to Target today and I'm going to spend
all of that extra money I have!

The media told me that we hit the bottom a long time ago.

I'm like sooooo psyched to celebrate by giving my credit
card a workout cuz God knows it's all rainbows and fairy dust from here on out!

(Can you tell I'm exhausted from the MSM malarkey?)

[OhioChick]

7. .......

You crack me up. :rofl:

[CoffeeCat]

9. I guess I'm tired of being angry and frustrated...

I'm tired of all of this--and it is outrageously silly.

I mean, our economy is on fire and instead of the truth about what is happening, we get
these outrageous lies and "silver lining stories.

Turning on the news now is literally like watching reporters stand in front of a burning
fire and tell us to enjoy the warmth--and then explain that this is really an opportunity
to break out the chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallows and have a party.

And if you don't see the party--you are positioned as some economic doomsayer.

I've slid past frustrated and now I'm just rolling my eyes---and trying to have a sense of humor.

We have to, right? :)

[OhioChick]

10. I completely agree with you....

I had to stop watching the MSM lately because they're always painting this rosy picture of how the economy is. I grew tired of hearing it all while thinking.....why don't they come out here to Ohio or any of the other harder-hit states and see how ^%$@# rosy it "really" is.

Like you, I now ty to have a sense of humor. It's either that, or give myself a coronary. :)

[CoffeeCat]

12. We can't have a coronary, OhioChick...

...cuz our healthcare system sucks! :)

Yep, I hear you about the bizarre rosy scenario they're marketing to us.

I wonder why they're doing this? Is it for benign reasons--simply because they don't want us to
stuff our money into our mattresses and further erode the economy?

Or, are they completely bamboozling us into spending more and leaving ourselves vulnerable?

I haven't been able to answer that question yet.

I always enjoy your posts OhioChick, and your sig line--about chewing through the restraints--always gives me a chuckle! :)

[OhioChick]

13. Good point on health care!

Having that coronary would probably do me in, financially. :)

I feel that they want us to "spend, spend, spend."

As long as there are so many unemployed, with unemployment rising and no new jobs on the horizon...I expect things to get significantly worse as time goes on. The MSM have to be bought and paid for by corporations.

When I watch our local news, I get the real story on the economy and unemployment. Don't understand why the truth can't be told with the MSM. Must please those corporate masters, I presume.

Glad you like my sig. line. I hoped it would give some a laugh in these tough times. :)

[earcandle]

14. yes, the ability to deal with ambiguity is a sign of mental health! Go paradox, not postal in the

face of crap. 

[napoleon_in_rags]

15. Great rant, CoffeeCat.

I've got to add my voice to this choir, because I too am fed up.

First of all, the sunshine up our asses I believe is coming from a philosophy which states that if people have faith in the market, the market will be healthy. This is hooey, mixing up cause and effect. The reality is that when the market is healthy, people have faith in it. When people get worried and stop spending there are usually tangible reasons why. I am just so disgusted after I saw this show, House of Cards, which detailed the events that created the sub prime mortgage crisis, and it was caused by a vast amount of people attempting to screw each other, and all of them succeeding to the point where there was a crisis. The losers in this scenario were those who had faith, the winners were the skeptics who knew it was too good to be true. When market conditions are such that skeptics win, people will follow the winners like they always do, and the economy will crash with everybody hording and afraid to invest. So they try to treat this by trying to get people not afraid of the financial monster under the bed, blowing sunshine up our asses. But what they are missing is that when there actually is a financial monster under the bed and they refuse to deal with it, they are only damaging their own credibility. What they need to do is clean up the pandemic corruption and regulate: Get rid of the monster, and then they can tell us to get happy. That is if they have any credibility left when they finally figure this out.

Anyway, that's my theory, and my rant of the morning.

Peace! :)

[cascadiance]

8. Which is why the REAL fix is not to give bank bailouts, but to flatten the wealth gap!

A lot of that could be done by reforming income tax and payroll tax. Increase the top marginal tax rates to pre-Reagan era times. NO "death tax" "reform"! Remove the cap on payroll tax and drop the rates so that everyone under $250k gets a tax cut (as well as the companies matching tax for them also gets cut) and everyone over $250k gets a tax increase (as well as what the companies have to pay for their payroll tax too).

This would:
a) increase revenue for helping us with getting more money to spend on other programs.
b) flatten the demand at the high end of things like housing, etc. that over time should also bring down the price of housing at the lower end, and increase building of housing that are targeted at lower salaries.
c) give more tax breaks to those under $250k that helps them increase the demand in the marketplace to start to overcome their debt that will allow the value of American currency to start a healthy growth cycle again instead of being pushed downward like it is now with falling interest rates chasing non-existent buyers of loans now...

[earcandle]

16. wasn't that part of Obama's campaign rhetoric?

Is he still going to do this? 

[CatholicEdHead]

11. Yes, some of this is do to extended unemployment

I attended a couple job networking groups, I run across some older people in their 50s and 60s, who while very talented have had horrible luck in the job search. Age discrimination is out there, one former/current midrange IBM server administrator/programmer I know has had a couple offers pulled out from under him because of his age.

Many are going into foreclosure because they cannot find a job, they would love to be working and paying their bills and being productive.

[earcandle]

17. yep....

[Grinchie]

19. Enrons fleecing of California and the DotCon bust was the Catalyst

For My so called extended unemployment.

After a while, you begin to realize that the system is a sham, a forced participation in the Rat Race where your trade your life away for the opportunity to transfer your wealth up the food chain.

When you finally start working for yourself, providing as much as you can possibly can for yourself and your family, you find that you have a full time job that is pleasant, driven by needs and not some marketing hype. Your life takes on the benefits of Flex-Time, the ability to defer projects and take the time to plan and budget properly. The ability to sleep on major decisions and dream on the outcome. The ability to take arbitrary moments of time out of the day to relax and enjoy a bird, insect, or plant without the prssing need to scurry back to a cubicle to prepare the daily TPS Report.

The ability to laugh at the IRS and the need to file a tax return to retrieve the wages they witheld from you for the last year. The ability to know that you are not supporting an illegal war and the War profiteers that continue to sap the wealth of the nation. The ability to pay attention to the real world and be able to apply independant thought and analysis that is a luxury for many in the Rat Race.

I've never been happier, nor have I ever felt wealthier in my life than I do now after transitioning out of the Fraudulent economic system that the Social norms and expectation impose upon each and every one of us. No stress, no debt, better health all add up to a wonderful life. I'm actually thankful for being so fortunate to be a victim of the fallout of Enron, although at the time I was emotionally deeply harmed by the lack of any safety net for so called "Productive Taxpayers". The only product I had was my Property, which they happily confiscated and sold for a modest compensation.

Luckily, the modest compensation was enough to catalyse the change for us. I feel for those that will be left with nothing during this cycle, since they will be forced to drag on and on with the new Bankruptcy law before they can file Chapter 7.

Extended Unemployment is another term for "Productive Happy Retirement", it just takes a different set of knowledge and skills that is well hidden by the Corporate educational systems, and implementing them is hampered due to the continued deprecation of hand tools in favor of power tools, chemicals, and plastics. The truth is out there.

[Grinchie]

18. Don't worry, there's plenty of room in the Military for the homeless

After all, they are cranking up the action in Pakistan, Korea, Afghanistan, along with huge arms deals for India. The writing is clearly on the wall for an "Enhanced" U.S. Military presence in the near future.

What better way to force people into military service, with its:

Free Three square meals a deal (Highly processed GMO of course),
Free Medical Care (Forced Immunizations and Medications too.),
Free Clothing (Military Uniforms),
Free Education (Learn how to care and feed for Multi-Billion Dollar Corporate Toys),
Free Housing (Shared Dormitories with backed up toilets),
Free Religion (As long as you conform to what the majority practices),
Free Air Travel (To and from the Theatre of War, and weekly 14 hour round trip flights to drop a load of smart bombs. Amphetimines for the boredom included free of charge)
Freedom to not think (Except when your life depends on it)

My advice, read the contract, then take it to a good lawyer for his advice before you sign up.