Bob's Blog

The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer confidence survey dipped to an 11 month low in July on consumer fears of a double-dip recession. Weak income and job loss remain the top consumer concerns. When consumers show deep concern for the economy they tend to pull back from spending which hurts...

Many homeowners are unaware of the fact that if they fail to pay even a few hundred dollars in homeowners association fees they may be jeopardizing their home ownership. CNBC reporter, Diane Olick, cites an example of a man less than $800 behind in his San Antonio, TX homeowner dues who lost his ...

According to real estate investment consultancy, Condo Vultures LLC, 4000 homes per month are being repossessed in southeast Florida. Miami-Dade leads the pack with a 125% year over year spike in bank-owned property during the first half of 2010. The Dade-Broward-Palm Beach tri-county area saw an...

The Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank has studied the link between foreclosure and unemployment and has found in the process that high foreclosure rates are expected to be present for an extended period of time. The Fed analysts have observed that in traditionally boom and bust state like California...

Now that new offers are not being written with any expectation of a tax credit it seems to back in buyers’ market mode. Sellers are having to cut sales prices in order to get houses sold. For homes on the market as of July 1 24% reported having dropped the price at least once according to Trulia....

The FHA is considering rules to tighten lending in order to increase its capital reserves. If the new rules go into effect no one with a credit score under 500 will be considered for an FHA loan. Those with scores between 500 and 580 will need to produce 10% down. Those with scores over 580 will ...

Analyst, Martin Weiss in his blog Money and Markets says we are in a period of economic topsy-turvy the likes of which happens about once in half a millennia. Essentially, the western powers have spent their way into near bankruptcy while the rising eastern powers have saved and conserved their r...

The very rich are now defaulting on mortgages in higher percentages than any other income group. The rich are beginning to lose to foreclosure their primary residences in high value areas like the Silicon Valley in California and high end suburbs of Chicago, as well as their second homes in vacat...

Cities where automatic mediation is required before a lender can foreclose are seeing results. In areas where Lenders are required to negotiate 75% actually participate and a settlement is reached about 60% of the time. These new insights come from a Center for American Progress (CAP) survey. For...

In 2008 Wells Fargo bought itself a boatload of subprime mortgages when it acquired Wachovia. Two years later Wells Fargo has chosen to get out of the subprime mortgage business. It announced last week that it will close 600 mortgage offices nationwide and lay off 2,800 workers within 60 days and...