RECENT BLOG POSTS
Market Corrections In the afternoon of May 6th 2010, The Dow Jones Industrial Average went from approximately 10,850 to below 9,900. At the lowest point of the day, it had dropped 997 points. The majority of move happened in only a few minutes, and it moved back up over 500 points from the lows j...
05/15/2010
Distressed homeowners no longer have to pay California state income tax on debt forgiven in a short sale, foreclosure, or loan modification. Enacted into law yesterday, Senate Bill 401 generally aligns California's tax treatment of mortgage debt relief income with federal law. For debt forgiven o...
04/14/2010
Proposed change to mortgage interest deduction President Obama yesterday presented his proposed budget plan for fiscal year 2011. Included in the proposed plan is a provision to reduce the mortgage interest deduction for those earning more than $250,000. Another "Robin Hood" type of policy. ...
02/05/2010
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FHA Getting More Expensive Well, we already knew that the FHA reserves were below the minimum level required. Now the agency is taking action to address this risk by raising the upfront fee. Currently the upfront fee on an FHA loan is 1.75% of the loan amount. They plan to raise this fee to...
01/19/2010
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Foreclosure Moratorium for the Holidays GSE's (Government Sponsored Enterprises) Fannie and Freddie will be suspending foreclosure evictions from Dec. 19 - Jan 3rd 2010. This temporary moratorium was enacted in order to allow struggling families to remain in their homes for the holidays. Citigrou...
12/23/2009
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Signs of Commercial Real Estate Crumbling Capmark goes under. Not unexpectedly, troubled commercial real estate lender Capmark filed for bankruptcy protection recently, wiping out the private-equity investments of KKR, Goldman Sachs (GS) and Five Mile Capital, which bought 75.4% of Capmark for $1...
11/20/2009
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"Deed For Lease" Program In a new effort to slow down foreclosures, Fannie Mae is now implementing a "Deed For Lease." It is basically a deed in lieu, where the title is transferred back to the lender (subordinate liens must be removed), then Fannie Mae will lease the property back to the owner (...
11/06/2009
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Another One Bites The Dust. After Bondholders tried so valiantly to get a deal done with the company in order to avoid bankruptcy or government intervention (both which would likely wipe them out), CIT Group Filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. The U.S. Government injected about $2.3 billi...
11/01/2009
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Are Banks Acting in Bad Faith? When dealing with distressed property there are many parties involved who all want what is best for themselves. In a short sale transaction it can often be difficult to get the lender(s) to agree to a sale, especially in a timely manner. There are various reasons fo...
10/26/2009
Important Considerations When Buying a Short Sale The first thing to keep in mind when making an offer on a short sale is that it can be a longer process than normal (and by "can be", I mean almost always). The reason for the delay is that the seller cannot just accept an offer and sell you the...
10/22/2009