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	<title>pligg - published -foreclosures-</title>
	<link>http://www.housebubble.org</link>
	<description>Pligg Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
	<pubDate>Mon, 12 Feb 2007 07:20:33 MST</pubDate>
	<language>en</language>
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		<title><![CDATA[New York City Foreclosures Jump 18%]]></title>
		<link>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=New-York-City-Foreclosures-Jump-18</link>
		<comments>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=New-York-City-Foreclosures-Jump-18</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Feb 2007 07:20:33 MST</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>chippy</dc:creator>
		<category>foreclosures</category>
		<guid>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=New-York-City-Foreclosures-Jump-18</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The New York Daily News has a report on foreclosure increases, that while lower than national increases, is surprising to see in the city that 'never goes down in value': &amp;quot;The number of city foreclosures jumped 18% in the last half of 2006 - with as many as 100 homes going on the block each week in both Brooklyn and Queens, according to Crain's New York Business.&amp;quot;The last time I saw it this bad was in the early 1990s,&amp;quot; Jessica David, president of Profiles Publications, which tracks foreclosure figures, told Crain's for today's edition.New York City numbers pale in comparison with the nationwide surge in foreclosures, which are up 45% from the corresponding period of 2005. But the filings here are accelerating and show New York may be catching up with the rest of the country, the report found.Experts charge lenders lure naive borrowers into taking on unmanageable debt by extending loans with rates that start out low but quickly rise.&amp;quot;The [lending] industry is exploiting customers' ignorance and seizing the opportunities offered by the skyrocketing real estate market,&amp;quot; said Sarah Gerecke, chief executive of Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City.Interest-only loans and piggyback loans that let people borrow with no money down also help coax wanna-be homeowners to go out on a financial limb.&amp;quot; &nbsp;&#187;&nbsp;<a href='http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/496871p-418665c.html'>original news</a>]]></description>
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		<title><![CDATA[Who's to Blame for Rampant Foreclosures?]]></title>
		<link>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=Whos-to-Blame-Rampant-Foreclosures</link>
		<comments>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=Whos-to-Blame-Rampant-Foreclosures</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Feb 2007 09:32:02 MST</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>chippy</dc:creator>
		<category>foreclosures</category>
		<guid>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=Whos-to-Blame-Rampant-Foreclosures</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Denver Post reports on local efforts to criminalize mortgage fraud:&amp;quot;Stricter enforcement of existing laws alone won't resolve the state's rising tide of foreclosures, according to testimony provided to state legislators Monday.&amp;quot;You will not eliminate our foreclosure problem in Colorado by eliminating mortgage fraud,&amp;quot; Colorado Attorney General John Suthers testified before a joint hearing of the House Business Affairs and Labor and the Senate Business, Labor and Technology committees.Legislators should consider implementing &amp;quot;suitability&amp;quot; rules for mortgage providers so they offer borrowers loans that are appropriate to their situation, Suthers advised.Stockbrokers and insurance agents already fall under such requirements. Suthers also encouraged simplifying the mortgage process, eliminating misleading mortgage ads and increasing homebuyer education.Democratic Rep. Rosemary Marshall and State Senate President Pro Tem Peter Groff are crafting legislation to address the state's high number of foreclosures.Suthers' office, meanwhile, is backing legislation that would make pressuring an appraiser or submitting a false appraisal a serious crime.The Denver metro area posted a record number of foreclosures in 2006. The Denver Post analyzed the foreclosure wave in a 10-part series, &amp;quot;Foreclosing on the American Dream.&amp;quot;Mortgage brokers said at Monday's hearing that consumers should shoulder their share of blame for foreclosures.Rising foreclosures reflect higher rates of homeownership and consumers' desire for instant gratification, argued Bill Kidwell, president-elect of the Colorado Association of Mortgage Brokers.&amp;quot;As we increase homeownership, we will increase the number of foreclosures,&amp;quot; he said.Many borrowers no longer wait until they save enough money for a down payment before buying a home, Kidwell said.Americans should be willing to accept a &amp;quot;baseline&amp;quot; rate of foreclosures, like the country is willing to accept a certain level of unemployment, he said.His recommendation: Create a blue-ribbon panel to study the foreclosure issue before crafting legislative remedies.Marshall conceded that solid data on the causes of foreclosure are hard to come by, but she said consumer complaints against mortgage providers are on the rise.&amp;quot;We have information that there is a lot of unscrupulous behavior in the business,&amp;quot; she said.Proving fraud is hard when consumers sign a foot-thick stack of documents they don't read, much less understand, consumer advocates testified.&amp;quot; &nbsp;&#187;&nbsp;<a href='http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_5064344'>original news</a>]]></description>
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		<title><![CDATA["Customers miss mortgage payments in record numbers"]]></title>
		<link>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=Customers-miss-mortgage-payments-in-record-numbers</link>
		<comments>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=Customers-miss-mortgage-payments-in-record-numbers</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 28 Jan 2007 15:07:15 MST</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>elliotw</dc:creator>
		<category>foreclosures</category>
		<guid>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=Customers-miss-mortgage-payments-in-record-numbers</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Many of Orange County's boldest lenders are struggling to stay in the black - and in some cases to stay in business - as their customers miss mortgage payments in record numbers.These lenders, experts say, exercised poor judgment in a bid to maintain loan volume last year. They lent money to borrowers with spotty credit, known as the subprime market, without proper regard to their ability to repay, experts say.&amp;quot;What's become clear is a whole bunch of people signed up for loans or were sold a loan they really couldn't afford,&amp;quot; said Richard Eckert, an analyst with Roth Capital Partners in Newport Beach.Sluggish home prices, rising interest rates and lax underwriting spurred defaults on subprime loans made just last year to the highest level in six years.Perhaps most troubling, loans made by Orange County companies in 2006 were among the quickest to see defaults, data show.And many of those subprime companies - which tend to cluster here in Orange County - are in trouble.H&amp;amp;R Block's Option One in Irvine is up for sale. So is Ameriquest Mortgage in Orange. ECC Capital of Irvine is selling its loan-making operations to New York's Bear Stearns Cos., although the sale has been delayed.UBS Investment Bank, the London-based unit of Switzerland's largest bank, UBS AG, analyzed subprime mortgages made in 2006 and found that borrowers were missing payments on loans made that same year at the highest rate since 2000.In fact, UBS found subprime loans made in 2006 are on track to be the worst-performing loans ever issued.Brea-based Fremont Investment &amp;amp; Loan, a unit of Santa Monica's Fremont General Corp.,topped UBS' list of poor performing loans. By late last year, 7.26 percent of Fremont's subprime loans made that same year were 60 days or more delinquent.Argent, a unit of ACC Capital in Orange, which also owns Ameriquest, scored high on the list with a delinquency rate of 5.86 percent.Option One landed closer to the middle with a 4.54 percent delinquency rate, and Irvine's New Century Financial Corp. had a 4.33 percent default rate.So what went wrong, exactly?Lenders made two mistakes, according to UBS and other analysts.They didn't scrutinize borrowers' incomes, and they allowed subprime borrowers, who by definition have had past problems with their credit, to take on lots of risk.Borrowers took advantage of &amp;quot;stated income&amp;quot; loan programs, where they simply tell lenders what they earn, said David Liu, director of UBS' mortgage strategy group.And many first-time homebuyers made a small down payment or none at all. Often they took out simultaneous second mortgages to avoid paying mortgage insurance.Borrowers gambled on rising home prices to bail them out of trouble, analysts said. Consumers thought home prices would keep climbing, which would enable them to sell or refinance if they got into a jam, analysts said. &nbsp;&#187;&nbsp;<a href='http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/money/homepage/article_1556536.php'>original news</a>]]></description>
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		<title><![CDATA[California Mortgage Defaults Spike]]></title>
		<link>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=California-Mortgage-Defaults-Spike</link>
		<comments>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=California-Mortgage-Defaults-Spike</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:31:23 MST</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>god</dc:creator>
		<category>foreclosures</category>
		<guid>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=California-Mortgage-Defaults-Spike</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Santa Cruz Sentinal reports: &amp;quot;Mortgage defaults in Santa Cruz County jumped 36 percent last year, part of a statewide trend coinciding with a slowdown in sales and lagging home appreciation.Last year, 452 default notices were sent to homeowners, compared to 333 in 2005. In neighboring Monterey County, default notices have doubled.&amp;quot;It's crazy out there,&amp;quot; said Liese Varenkamp, publisher of the Santa Cruz Record, who supplied the data Wednesday. Her weekly publication tracks housing statistics.The notices serve as an early indicator of possible foreclosures. When home appreciation slows, it makes it harder for homeowners who fall behind on their mortgage payments to sell their homes.The number of foreclosure sales also is up, Varenkamp said, noting 151 sales in 2006 compared to 39 in 2005. Those figures include Santa Cruz and Monterey counties; she did not have a breakdown by county.Other statistics indicate more shakeout in the housing market.In the first two weeks of the new year, 16 foreclosures have already taken place, up from two last year.&amp;quot;Look at that difference,&amp;quot; Varenkamp said, adding the 80 percent of the homes go back to the bank that made the loan.It appears the trend is continuing.This year, 29 default notices have been mailed to Santa Cruz County homeowners compared to 20 at this time last year.The San Diego-based DataQuick Information Systems said Wednesday that default notices statewide more than doubled on an annual basis in the last quarter of 2006. Most of the troubled loans were taken out by homeowners within the last two years, the firm said.The 37,273 default notices mailed between October and December was up 145 percent compared to 15,196 in the same period in 2005. The number of defaults last quarter marked a 37 percent increase compared to the third quarter of 2006, and was the highest for any quarter since the third quarter of 1998, the firm said.&amp;quot; &nbsp;&#187;&nbsp;<a href='http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2007/January/25/biz/stories/01biz.htm'>original news</a>]]></description>
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	<item>
		<title><![CDATA[Housing Defaults in California are "rising rapidly"]]></title>
		<link>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=Housing-Defaults-in-California-are-rising-rapidly-1</link>
		<comments>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=Housing-Defaults-in-California-are-rising-rapidly-1</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jan 2007 01:38:48 MST</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>chippy</dc:creator>
		<category>foreclosures</category>
		<guid>http://www.housebubble.org/story.php?title=Housing-Defaults-in-California-are-rising-rapidly-1</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[From the Los Angeles Times: &amp;quot;The number of Californians defaulting on their mortgage loans is rising rapidly, according to figures released Tuesday, providing striking evidence that more people are at risk of losing their homes.Default notices jumped 145% in the last three months of 2006, accelerating a trend that began in late 2005 as home sales started to cool.It was the largest number of default notices in any three-month period since 1998.Analysts said the increase was not worrisome - yet. But if the number continues to escalate, it could drag down home values in certain communities, they warned.&amp;quot;So far, this isn't alarming,&amp;quot; said John Karevoll, chief analyst at DataQuick Information Systems, which compiled the data. But if default notices &amp;quot;keep going up at this rate, it could get nasty fast,&amp;quot; he added.Home markets that are most vulnerable include the Inland Empire and the Central Valley, both of which drew throngs of first-time buyers even as the housing boom was ending.Such homeowners are the most at risk of losing their homes because they have relatively little equity in their properties, making it harder to refinance their mortgages.Default notices are the initial step in the foreclosure process. In the fourth quarter of last year, lenders issued such notices to 37,273 borrowers across the state, warning them that they were at risk of foreclosure, compared with 15,196 during the same period a year earlier, DataQuick said.Not every notice of default leads to a foreclosure, when a property is seized and sold to pay the mortgage. But foreclosures also are on the rise. There were 6,078 in the last quarter of 2006, up from 874 a year earlier.Defaults and foreclosures fell steadily starting in the late 1990s as housing prices took off. In those heady days, practically anyone needing money to pay bills could refinance, cashing out equity from what seemed to be an endlessly refilling piggy bank.In a stagnant or falling market, that option isn't available to recent buyers or those who have visited the pig once too often. Instead, many of those who are unable to make their payments must either sell the property or let the bank take it over.During the mid-1990s, this process reached its peak as quarterly default statistics routinely exceeded 50,000 and foreclosures topped 15,000. (The housing stock has grown since then, making the 1990s numbers even worse by comparison.)...Lenders have invented all sorts of newfangled loans, many of which are reset to higher interest rates after a fixed period. The ability of borrowers to repay such loans, particularly in a weak market, is untested.&amp;quot;People are living on the edge, and they can't help it with the price of houses,&amp;quot; said Barbara Swist, a Costa Mesa mortgage broker who is helping Brown sort through his options. &amp;quot;They have good jobs but they bought over their heads, buying into the American dream.&amp;quot;That's also the opinion of the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Durham, N.C.Last month, the center issued a lengthy analysis explaining how millions of so-called sub-prime loans would soon turn bad. Sub-prime loans are made at higher rates - and include more onerous terms - to borrowers who don't qualify for lower-cost &amp;quot;prime&amp;quot; mortgages.Sub-prime foreclosures would increase the most, the authors concluded, in states that had seen strong price appreciation during the boom. That would include New York, Virginia, Maryland and particularly California.The borrowers most at risk are naturally those who bought most recently. The center estimates that a quarter of the sub-prime loans made in the Central Valley city of Merced last year will result in foreclosure. That would be the highest rate in the country, based on the center's calculations.&amp;quot; &nbsp;&#187;&nbsp;<a href='http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-foreclose24jan24,0,655580,full.story'>original news</a>]]></description>
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