First, the lenders put a short moratorium on foreclosures because of obvious fraud in the process. Then the FDIC’s Sheila Bair comes along and says she’s worried that law suits involving fraudulent foreclosure practices will take too long to get straightened out. Instead of fixing the problem by doing things the way they should have been done all along by law, she says to just offer the homeowner a 25% reduction (loan mod) in their mortgage payment and everyone goes on their merry way. It’s okay for these large lenders like B of A or Wells Fargo to be putting people out of their homes fraudulently. I don’t get it. How can that be okay?

The latest news in the Wall Street Journal is that Congress will be considering taking away the tax deduction for our homes to balance their budget by 2015. Why not just take away any incentive to buy a home at all?

Then we have the wonderful new SBA package that Obama signed this month. This great package to give loans to small businesses so they can grow and hire people. Great for everyone but the people that build new homes. Somehow the housing sector was “accidently” left out. This has a whole “ripple down effect” of it’s own.

The questions haven’t changed much in the last couple of years. Have we hit bottom yet? I don’t personally think so. We haven’t even felt the fall out of the commercial market yet. The last 2 months housing prices have slipped some more, and “they” expect another 20% slip through the next year.  I hope that’s all it is. Rates are the lowest in forever right now. This is a super time to buy if you’re planning on staying in your home for the next 5 yrs.

Is the housing crisis continuing in California? I think until we feel the full effect of the commercial market downfall, until people are hiring again, there are bound to be more slips in the housing market.

In the meantime, we need to get the government to quit shooting the recovery in the foot. I don’t think more taxpayer bankrolled bailouts are the answer.

If I may help with any of your real estate needs, please feel free to contact me.

I’m curious to know

1. How did the banks spend that money
2. And why aren’t any bailout home loans going through?

Whether you’re purchasing or refinancing, I don’t see the money coming down the pipeline like it was supposed to. While many programs have been put into place by the big bank bailout of 2009 to help the homeowner, there are just a few that have actually received the help these programs were put into place for. (When I say a “few” you have to remember as an individual number it would be a lot. As a number against the number of homeowners in trouble it’s a few).

I read this today in an email from Agora Financial. This is a chart as to bailout money to home loans by the banks, based on the top 5.

Banks vs. Us

Notice how Citigroup is MINUS 21? So if you’re looking for any kind of home loan, don’t go there! LOL.

So let me ask you, what good did it do? If we loaned the banks all this money to save their butts, but they won’t lend it back to the people in trouble even with good credit, what good did it do us at all? And new purchasers? Good luck. You’re living up to a higher standard now than we have ever had to live up to in the whole credit history of this country.  Even when I first got into real estate and interest rates were 19 and 20% (God forbid) the requirements to obtain credit were not as stringent as they are now. You not only have to be golden, you have to manipulate your scores to be perfectly golden to qualify.

What did the banks do with the first round of bank bailout money? Who knows. From what I’ve read they never had to account for it. Any time the public got wind of some bank boondogle or there was a bank scandel, the bank usually relented and called it off (although I don’t remember seeing Wells Fargo call off theirs when they got caught. Oh yeah, it came from “other” funds).