Walking Away

One Thing That Still Concerns Us

November 15, 2011

There is no doubt that the housing market is stumbling to a recovery. This past week Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, predicted a 4% increase in sales next year. Last month, Celia Chen of Moody’s Analytics projected sales to increase over 20% in 2012. Any increase in transactions will be welcomed. However, we believe there [...]

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Will Falling Values Lead to More Strategic Defaults?

June 17, 2011

As prices continue to soften, more and more homeowners will fall into a position of negative equity on their homes. This means that the balance on their mortgage is greater than the value of their home. The reason this is important is that people are more prone to strategically default on their mortgage when ‘underwater’. [...]

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Negative Equity: Not Good But Improving

December 15, 2010

Back in October, we posted that falling home prices would drive more homeowners into a negative equity situation where their home was worth less than the amount of their mortgage (also known as the house being ‘under water’ or ‘upside down’). If a homeowner falls further into negative equity, it increases the chances that they [...]

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Will Falling Prices Create Wave of Strategic Defaults?

October 25, 2010

Strategic default: when a borrower defaults on their mortgage even though they have the financial ability to repay it. Strategic defaults lead to foreclosures. It is important to realize that an increase in the number of foreclosures will dramatically impact any possible housing recovery. A loss of income or an increase in negative equity (where the [...]

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Walking Away: New FHA Short Refinance Option

September 7, 2010

The current administration continues to attempt a myriad of policies aimed at bringing about a recovery in the housing industry. It is not their belief in the importance of homeownership that drives this policy. This administration has openly questioned whether the government should continue to support homeownership as an American ideal. Every policy had one [...]

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Will the Government Help Pay-Off YOUR Mortgage?

August 6, 2010

We reported (see below) on a Reuters article saying there was a rumor spreading from ‘Washington to Wall Street’ that the government was considering major cramdowns on the mortgages of ‘underwater’ homeowners. The World Street Journal reports that the rumor is just that – a rumor. Share

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