Can Obama keep up with falling home prices?

I have a 1997 28X70 mobile home that has been bricked underneath and looks just like a regular house inside and out. Has been on the market for a almost a year. We have been ready to close on this home 4 times. In the end, just before the closing date each time the underwriters have rejected the our buyers. The first time was on the appraisal. The second time was because it was older than 2004, even though it looks better than some of the ones on lots. The third was because it did not have over 10 acres it only has 9 and3/4ths acres. The 4th was the underwriters changed to FHA and found past medical bills on the buyers for their child that is disabled. What is up with this? The home appraised for 92,000 and we are asking less. I don't see why if someone is willing and capable of paying for a reasonably priced place they can't get it. However, they have been told if you find a house we will finace it.
Thanks,
Donnyell
Nettleton, MS

To anyone foolish enough to have voted for Obama. You have sealed your own pathetic fate for letting the rant of Socialist scum sway you. America is screwed. He is turning a disaster into catastrophe. I'm not an economist but when Clinton passed the "Home For Everyone Act in 1998 and GWBush did nothing to crush it our fate was sealed.
I saw what was coming and saw how 20 year old piles of termite infested wood and brick would sell for 6 figure numbers in crime infested neighborhoods
I bought a mobile home a paid it off in a few years. I bought two late model economy cars and don't have credit card debt. I also saved a pile of cash that I am turning into gold, silver, guns and ammo. I don't owe money to anyone and take responsibility for my actions. Soon the reaper will harvest what debt ridden Americans have sown. Look at Detroit. Good Luck and God Bless, your gonna need it.

To those of us who still have debt, rather than trying to refinance and borrow even more money > 100% LTV, it would be better to reduce your debts. We are now in deflation: everybody wants $$$, so the value of money goes up and the value of stuff goes down. This may last until 2016, giving the bubble 9 years to deflate after it took 9 years to inflate beginning in 1998. If you don't reduce your debt, you'll get steadily crushed by deflation. It happened in the 1930s.

Assuming that you want to stay in your home, the simplest and least expensive thing to do is to renegotiate the loan with your lender to a fixed, lower interest rate without refinancing and all of its fees. Very simple. If the lender does not want to negotiate, you may want to move … there are much cheaper homes available, some in your own neighborhood, and they're probably not be laden with so much debt.

Assuming that you don't want to stay in your home, the best options are probably short-selling or walking away.

I'm sure there are other methods of reducing your debts, but these come to mind most quickly.

Okay, this is a little off center, howabout upping the $8,000 down pyments to 25,000, which would bring a lot of fence sitters back.

About 2 decades ago, just starting in my career, I dreamt of homeownership, and still do. At the time my grandpa told me not to view a home as an investment. Although I argued with him that renting was throwing money away for good, I respected his experience, and have come to see his point more clearly over time. I still wanted to buy a home, though, all this time, but never felt that my income could justify it, although undoubtedly I could have qualified for a loan up until 2006/7. Now, I say let the prices drop, I may just buy in in another year or two if the collateral damage to the stock market from this mess isn't too severe.
Part of the reason so many people are in trouble isn't just from buying beyond their means, it's from treating their home like a bank, and using the equity to buy fancy cars and boats and whatnot. Well, they weren't complaining about crooked appraisers at the time, with inflated valuations, now were they? Funny how the chickens always come home to roost, and funny how an old man who worked his way up to a VP position in a major company without the "benefit" of a college education knew a thing or two about value! Thanks, grandpa, for keeping it real.

I don't care if they go to a 200% LTV, the banks cant handle the re-fi and loan mod programs now and frankly they don't want to. All one needs to do is read the stories of people attempting to take advantage of the re-fi and loan mod programs and the horror stories of misplaced paperwork and stall tactics from the banks and this is enough to tell you that until the fed stops putting band aids on gaping wounds and playing nice with the banks, that these programs will not work. Hopefully they will do significant triage before we bleed out.

Increasing the maximum underwater value will only prolong the inevitable and keep the market falsely inflated.

To anyone underwater and considering walking away from their house – PLEASE DO! The government's (and taxpayer's) role is NOT to subsidize YOUR losses. Get over it, stop whining and move on. Walk away from your house if you want – the market will hit a natural equilibrium faster that way and houses will once again become affordable.

The last sentence in this article says it all…that's the money sentence. Obama is evil, and all his tricks to punish people who acted responsibly, while rewarding people who were in business to make money and/or greedy in trying to flip for profit, will eventually fail anyway. Let prices reset naturally, and REWARD prudent people who are waiting on the sidelines to benefit. That's true capitalism. Obama's socialism will lead to fascism and destruction of the American way. I voted for Obama, and now I feel like a fool.

Home Prices?

Although it's somewhat painful it seems we want it both ways. Home prices to stabilize (stop going down) and Americans to be better prepped for retirement. It would seem that in macro more affordable housing (allowing home prices to keep reducing) would allow for a better cost of living and many American's to spend income on something other than house payments and property tax.

I'm not sure why this is not mentioned more other than it does not benefit anyone who makes a living off real eatate transactions.

No LTV guidelines is the only thing that will work!

Why is nobody talking about the tremedous loss of jobs that Obama's heathcare plan will cause? It has been estimated that over 100,000 U.S. jobs could be lost under a government sponsored healthcare system

In my business, we are already seeing signs of a pulback. My web site, http://www,gorllamedicalsales.com , which privides a job board for medical device sales reps to find new jobs, most of the companies have adopted a wait-and-see position towards filling vacant jobs until the specter of the Obama healthcare plan is defined.

The efforts by the administration to stem the downward housing slide are doomed to continue to fail. Housing is a cracked egg that is largely beyond repair, and the efforts being made are like attempts to place a bandaid on a wet wound. It will never take.

Home ownership has been a way of building wealth, but in an indirect way through which you saved some of what you spent. We all need a place to live, and if you were going to spend money on that to begin with, might as well get something for it was the line realtors used. With prices historically increasing homes became defacto piggy banks, and when it came time to retire most people had real value in their home (in fact for many it was, and still may be (just worth a whole lot less) their biggest asset).

But, considering real estate taxes and maintenance, at best, home ownership is a goofy "investment", and in most cases, it isn't an investment at all in the sense that the money you are putting into it will increase in value. Rather, the real "investment" in home ownership is "how much of what you spent are you going to be able to get back?", and today the answer is pitifully little. (Sure, there are some exceptions perhaps, but those are largely for the benefit of speculators and not something ordinary homeowners can participate in). Realtors can peddle their lies about "tax advantages" all they want(since when is paying the bank $1.00 and saving .28 in taxes a smart move?) and they can try to peddle more of their lies regarding home "appreciation", the fact of the matter is that it really is not true for most people.

Consider that real estate taxes make the idea of home "ownership" a misnomer to begin with. Because of those taxes you never really own any land, unless you are tax exempt like the church or the government. Now, we and many others are seeing real estate taxes increase (despite the plummeting value of underlying property). The various government entities at the real estate tax feeding trough still need the money they have become accustomed to spending, and even more is being piled onto the real estate owners back because tax revenue from other sources is decreasing. Even without that phenonemon, those same taxes contribute to undermining home "ownership" real rate of return.

What I think the current financial mess is illustrating (and I am afraid that this is the new reality and it is not going to change going forward) is that home ownership as a way of building for the future is largely an idiot's game.

Our home was appraised at $650,000 in 2002 (our last refinance). The home was purchased as new constuction in 1994 for $250,000, plus the cost of the land ($78,500). The house is now said to be worth $380,000 according to Zillow.com. After 15 years of having "owned" (there is no more mortgage) a new construction house we have negative equity after taking into account acquisition cost and the hard money that has since gone into the house in terms of landscaping and other capital improvements. That statement is even more true when you consider that the hard dollars actually paid were worth more then than they are today. If you add real estate taxes during that period (roughly $120,000 over the fifteen years, and currently $11,500 a year – on a house worth $380,000), you would have to be an idiot to think that today, a home could possibly be an "investment".

The sad part is that a home isn't even a round about way of "saving" money anymore. That is to say, in addition to a significant part of our net worth just have disappeared during the real estate/financial crises, it is not going to come back – ever. Sure, our "value" might go up in raw dollars – but with all the money the government is spending, those inflated "increased" dollars are going to be worth a whole lot less, and we will never again see even the hard dollars put into the house. We would have more had we simply put the money spent into a mattress. My advice to anyone even thinking about buying a home today is don't. Rent (it is much much cheaper over the long run) and you get the privilege of walking away from it when it goes to hell in a handbasket.

Here's another reason someone might walk away – one I haven't seen mentioned here – crime.
My husband and I bought a home four years ago in an up-and-coming neighborhood. Thanks to the insane home prices in the rest of the city it was all we could afford.
But the neighborhood is now riddled with foreclosures. People break into vacant homes to steal and sell the copper pipes, we've got homeless squatters, and falling down houses. The final straw (for us) was a double shooting literally around the corner.
So what do we do now? We kept our payment affordable, we put a lot of money into the house, and behaved responsibly, but it now has negative equity. Even if we wanted to sell at just a breakeven price we couldn't.
So we can't get out responsibly but we're becoming afraid to live there. As much as we hate it, and it goes against everything we've both been taught, we might have to walk away.

As a 9 year seasoned mortgage professional, I can say from experience that our fiat monetary policy under the Federal Reserve is the root cause of the housing bubble.

Sure there were also other facets of the industry that aided in channeling the funds to the housing industry but only one entity has the power to create enough money by keeping interest rates low enough to fuel the engine and keep it running long enough to create an explosive economic meltdown just like when your car engine is pegged at 7K rpm's, eventually the engine seizes and the party is over.

CNN can take down all my comments it likes, it doesn't change the facts & the more people educate themselves and ask critical thinking questions like what the role of government & money ought to be in a free society, nothing will change.

Ther is a lot of blame to pass along to the real estate appraisers for the low value of homes.
Appraisals are not based on the condition, appearance, sq footage or how well maintained. They just compare sale prices to run down foreclousers and short sales. If these sales were elimated ( at least the auction sales )the average price of homes would increase. You don't value all used cars on a used car lot to what other used cars sell for regardless of condition, so why do it to more valuable property ?

The correct approach should be to give each HOUSEHOLD in the US money to correct the economy. According to the last census there are approx. 110,000,000 HOUSEHOLDS in the US. Had we simply deposited $100,000 into each HOUSEHOLD's bank account earlier this year we would have QUICKLY stabilzed our economy. Those who could stave off foreclosure and refinance, would. Those who could pay off credit cards, would. Those who could elimate medical bills, would. Those who could pay off their mortgage, would. Those who could pay off their car, would. Those who could pay off their student loans, would. Those who would buy American products such as a new car, would. The banks would have been flush with the cash they needed to stay solvent and the $11 trillion of money would have circulated so fast thorugh our economy America would not be in the financial difficulties we are in now. Of course any household with any connection the US Senate, House of Representatives or any govenor of a state or state legislature would be exempt from this plan that the government should be implenting instead of the stupid $12 trillion worth of plans they have committed to already. My plan saves us $1 trillion and gets the ecpnomy back on it's feet again.

To: Nikki

Nikki, this program was never meant to help the worst off, it was designed to act as a firebreak between people who were hopelessly underwater and the people who were teetering on the edge.

By attempting to quickly refi the people who were in danger of becoming too far behind the curve, it was hoped that as the market continued to soften, the government could continue to put people who crossed the line into the new program.

People who are already at 150% of value are going to make their payments or lose their houses. If the government stepped in and refi'd or guaranteed all of these loans for say, two years, we'd be in the same boat again in two years. The difference would be that many individuals who now had extra room every month would simply spend the money on consumer products, and not plow it back into the house, because the house is still at risk.

Nikki, Las Vegas;

Please tell me where in the constitution it says that the government is responsible for your home price or bailing you out from a stupid purchase?

All we are doing is pushing back the day of reckoning with all this stimulus and questionable re-financing practices. At the end of the day, throwing money at it will just make it worse. If we can't pay it now, we definitely can't pay it later when we get hit with the massive interest payments.
Pretty soon, I will not be able to pay my mortgage trying to pay mine and others that get crazy refinancing like this….. because we are going to be stuck paying for it in the end.

i do not feel sorry for these pin heads that are loosing their homes ! they have it coming to them ! not my fault they couldnt read the fine print ! most were greedy and hoped to make a quik buck knowing full well they couldnt afford the house they were purchasing ! im looking forward to purchasing their home for 1/3 the price they paid ! thankyou !

How's that "Hope and Change" working out for you?

This is what you fools get when you voted an inexperienced community organizer into the most powerful position in the world.

Changing the LTV ratio from 105% to 125% is a nice thought, but that's still not going to help people in the hardest hit areas of the US. I live in Las Vegas and my current LTV ratio is 150%! What is our government doing!?

In answer to Dan from Sacramento regarding his statement: "The sad part is ALL the taxpayers will have to pay for the greed of the ignorant few like you, as well as the banks & the Real Estate Industry who see this pattern every 10 years or so."

I BEG YOUR PARDON, no one is going to have to pay anything on my behalf. My husband and I make extra pmts to principal every month, we are paying our children's college expenses as they go, no loans thank you very much and contributing 20% to our 401K retirement. Please do not lump everyone who is underwater on their loans as irresponsible – some of us are true victims of what has happened in the housing market.

To Dan Vail…

307,000,000 people x $1,000,000,000 each = $307 trillion!!!!!

Duh.

Sorry Dan in OK but I am not a slave to debt. My home is paid off as are my cars and credit cards. I would recommend this life style to anyone. My wife and I did use restraint in our spending for about 10 years to get debt free. Now we have more to spend and to save.

ok Let it Sink – that makes it what?

307 billion?

What have we spent? 750 billion? with trillions more to come. See any results? Is the Social Security system fixed? Unemployment (currently over 9%? Housing/mortgage crisis?

Whatever the number it has to flow from the bottom up.

Everyone is a slave to debt and taxes. If you don't need money – you can borrow it – if you do need it it's almost impossible to get.

I'd just like to thank all the greedy morons who bought houses they could not afford in the first place for giving me the chance to buy over 100 properties for less than what they sold for in the late 90's. The most rewarding purchase, the home my ex took in the divorce. It cost $2.4M to build in 1994, I just got it in foreclosure for $265,000, put $100K into it and let one of my half my age swimsuit models and her girlfriends live there rent free. Meanwhile the kids live with me and the ex lives in her van. Making $20/ hour she got a loan of $2.2M on my house then lost it all when the bubble burst.

FHA has a streamlined refinance program that allows people to refinance who has existing FHA mortgage without appraisal as long as they been making there payments on time. Take that program and offer it to everyone who has a mortgage. Have the government issue special bonds to lower interest rates to fund this.

If not the foreclosures will continue at this rapid pace.

No easy way out. As an ex-real estate appraiser who went through the SL crisis 20 years ago, it will take much time to recover. This boom should never happened and is the result of unregulated lending.

Worse thing to do is to try to prop up values. It is beneficial keeping housing affordable which was not the case 3 years ago. Banks should take the brunt of these losses since they made poor decisions. Learn from Japan whose economy suffered for over 15 years.

Dan, are you an economist with the Obama administration, I think you are as you use democratic math.You were only of by nine zeros, good one.
PS Rusty has the right ideal and I am also out of the USD, buy gold and silver.

Let's start with this premise:

There are approximately 307 million people in the US – can that be right??? Let's use a million dollars each – just counting the people – the most this program is going to cost is 307 million.

But we're not going there – let's use the median age of 37. Let's use 1 million apiece.

Math isn't a real strong point but it would seem to me that number would be somewhere around 150 million to keep it simple.

Now that investment of 150 million would end the albatross of an entitlement program that can't sustain itself. Social Security. Sure an investment program would need to be setup in it's place for those under 37.

Why do I call it an investment?

Simple answer is that for every dollar spent in the local community it multiplies 7 times.

Just a thought – but a right direction to push for – why? The people like John who are busy flippin houses would be in a position to capitilize on the housing boom to follow

We need to lobby Washington to demand a bottom up approach. Top down hasn't ever worked and is much too costly.

Dan Vail

Obama's loan modifications are a failure. They only apply to Fannie & Freddie loans. My fiance will likely walk away from his home so we can get married and actually live together. His house is underwater and he can't sell it or get a principal write down.

Carla, could you and/or your colleagues do a story on this ?

It's my understanding that most of the HARM loans that have been resetting to higher rates and will continue to do so for about 3 more years were sold off to investors by the original lenders. It would be interesting to know who now owns these loans: Americans ? China ? Europe ? Japan ? Others ?

Most of these loans were written during the Bush regime, when policies facilitated vast wealth transfers from poor Americans to the rich. As these loans default when the interest rates go up, this could become the largest transfer of wealth from rich people (back) to poor people in the history of the world: I've seen numbers of up to $4 trillion. This will help our economy a lot by spreading some of the wealth back to people who must spend to live.

This is BIG news.

JIV from florida, I can tell from your hateful lanquage that you want to start a flame war, one in which I have no intention of joining. I live below mine and my wife's means to accumulate wealth for retirement. I have had to shift investments and money to avoid illegal and unconstitutional taxes that Obama wants to use to take away money that I have earned and paid taxes on. I urge all Americans to dump dollars and invest in euro's, silver, gold, platinum, weapons, ammo, etc…Do not buy GM cars as that is also a doomed proposition. If at all possible stay away from liberal hyper taxing states such as Florida, Michigan, and California. They have acted to seal their own nightmarish fate. In case you were wondering which post JIV in Florida is referring to.Here it is…
"My wife and I are blue collar workers who earn about 90 to 100 k per year between the both of us. We live in a mobile home that is paid for. I ride my bicycle to work. We own two cars that are paid for and no credit card debt. We have 2 healthy 401 k’s and 5 years worth of emergency cash in savings. I don’t have a college degree and I saw this coming 4 years ago. Wake up America. The US is doomed. Buy guns, ammo, silver and gold. Also non-perishable foods water and 200 to 300 gallons of gasoline. Every major metropolitan area will be in the same condition as Detroit soon. Good Luck and God Bless, but don’t knock on my door because you have been warned.

What about all those underwater homeowners (?) who are NOT Fannie or Freddie (like Wachovia)…what are we to do other than be ignored by the Simon Legrees at Wells/Wachovia? My mother is about to lose her home and the government just says too bad, can't help you.

Increasing the LTV is realistic given today's environment, but what about those homeowners who have private mortgage insurance and have a ltv of 105%? They CANNOT refinance under the governments program. The mortgge insurance companies are not on board with this. If they were, the majority of homeowners would be able to put themselves in a much better position.

I think people need to realize that a home is just a home and should not marginalize it as a source of income. The primary investment is a stable home for your family. The secondary investment is the opportunity to improve your home for your community. It has been only in until the 20th Century did Americans utilize their home for equity hence creating another market which can be measured on Wall Street and Main Street. Best option for us as Americans is to do what we are suppose to do and bring home prices back to normal levels. These levels are not supposed to be measured for profitable equity which again we continue to sell everything here in America, but provide the most important home value – Stable home for your family. Once that happens, each family in America can improve their standard of leaving living, hence increasing our GDP in the long term. Remember, not everything should be designed or measured the same way. The only true way to stablize anything is on Earth is to ensure each American has their five basic needs: Free Healthcare, Free Legal Representation, Free Education, Free Retirement options, Free Voting.

Home values are related to inflationary/deflationary pressures. They are part of the whole. Just like commodities, stocks, etc..

Obamas other big problem with housing is that many populated areas have homes which were too expensive for Fannie to cover, ie Jumbo loans. Either help all homeowners, or help nobody.

Clowns (Rusty and company) should look to commenters like Stephen from Orlando. He had a piece of property and a manufactured home but he went about the process in an educated way and made sure he didn't bury himself. You could learn a thing or two from someone like him.

Rusty, it is nuts like you that continue to drive the hysteria. Keep up the good work from your mobile home. Keep polishing your guns but please… do not ever knock on my door (I have a real door… its not a trailer door like yours).

Dan Vail, Tahlequah, OK: You are right, why not give the bailout money to the people directly and all problems will be solved by itself like you have listed.
Giving to the banks just give the banks more power to screw us again. All of the crisis started from the banks that introduced all the loan programs to homeowners and approved to fund all of them to sell back to investors. Watch America, no more homeowners but all renters because all foreclosures owned by banks are selling to investors for cash only. Investors will rent back to us and we all will be renters!

James in ARlington: you are proposing socialist values. I get taxed 80% because I make a good decision on a home and am able to make money on it in 2 years? Please. Real estate investors are out there buying these houses up in blighted areas, putting $30k into them, and making a profit….and chasing away the crackwhores. You want to stop that with your McGuevara tax?

To F. McNerney, FHA actually isn't imposing the credit scores; the banks are. They are unable to package the loans up and sell the paper if the decision credit score is below 620. HUD actually does not have a minimum credit score on FHA loans, so long as the borrower meets the stated criteria in their credit file. For example, 2 years since bankruptcy discharge with reestablished credit. However, some lenders are charging a premium on the rate/discount even with scores as high as 699. There are a few investors out there that will still buy the FHA below a 620, but they're mostly portfolio lenders and the loans don't come cheap….think 1.5% above market rates with 1-3 discount points. That paper just is not salable right now. If you can't tell, I'm in the business.

If Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations want to demolish this America we all know and love, they better hurry because Obama and company are beating them to it!

Sean , down there in S. Calif., Qualified buyers??? What do you think Pelosi and Reid are doing with your tax dollars? They are giving your hard earned monies to the slackards so they can qualify to purchase a home that some poor family has just been evicted from. Hey all you stupids out there…They are buying votes.
OBAMA in 2012, baby!!!!!!!!!!!

It will take many years for home values to turn around, there will be wave after wave of foeclosures & the greatest generational & unconstitutional theft is taking place right now.

Chris Cantwell

Rusty, out of Houston TX, is absolutely correct. Is everybody forgetting the pictures from New Orleans in the after math of Katrina? Even the local police were looting. When the feces hits the fan, you better be able to ride a horse and live like the Amish Folk. RubyRidge and Waco will be a cake walk compared to what is coming.

Good point about the location of the house. The cost of living in one area does not necessarily translate to another. For example, I can live in NYC without owning or needing a car. Therefore I don't pay for gas, auto insurance or parking fees, or any cost associated with owning a car. Just mass transit when I need to go somewhere (work, shopping, friends, etc.) But the down side is that the other things, cost of food, rent/mortgage, taxes and so forth make it more expensive than living in, say, parts of Georgia or even California. Where you are affects whether the refi, mortgages, etc help or hurt you.

One of the major problems in the housing market are the appraisals. The appraisers are required to take into account foreclosures and short sales in their comparables. These are not only anomalies, but there is no way to know what condition those houses were in at the time of the sale. Most of these houses are in deplorable condition, and in need extensive repairs. On the flip side, the city assessors will not consider a foreclosure sale for the purposes of value. In other words, you might pay $125,000 for a house that was assessed at $150,000 ($300,000 actual value), the assessor will not lower the assessment. We can point our finger at the Democrats, and they certainly had a lot to do with the sub-prime mess, but it happened on the Republicans watch. They're all bums. Obama keeps stating that he didn't know how bad this was and that he "inherited" it. Wasn't he a US Senator prior to President?

The whole thing is convoluted. And now Obama and his administration say they can "fix" the air, and health care. Scary.

How about taking care of yourself instead of expecting the government to do it for you!! I see this as an opportunity for the government to exit the home buying process all together… if people want money to buy homes they can go into the market and get funding at market rates.

somehow we are all doomed by not only the incompetency of Pelosi, Reid and others, saddly Obama doesn't have a clue and he is rushing to do everything in his next 100 days… Hurry up 2010 we need some common sense and not othe old guard

With 33% of existing homeowners underwater, an influx of new, qualified buyers is needed for the economic recovery to succeed. But if interest rates rise…..

At first, I was enthusiastic about the programs that the Obama administration offered to help homeowners. Then I did my research. As a resident of San Francisco, I found out that I did not qualify for any of the widely touted plans. My mortgage is a jumbo loan, and as such, it is not held by Fannie or Freddie Mae. How about some help for those high cost of living, high property value states that helped put you into office, Mr. Obama?

MY HOUSING FIX TO STOP HOUSING NEG EQUITY AND FIX THE ECONOMY…
I posted this idea on googles project10thtothe100th (www.project10thtothe100th.com).
Say I bought a house 5 years ago for $200k. I have an economic downturn (loss of job, income, or not…like everyone who has negative equity due to forclosures in neighborhood.)

First, I have my house reappraised at fair market value. The new appraisal comes in at $114k (not 200k when i bought it.) I then make a life insurance policy makeing the federal government the beneficiary if I die or until the market recovers, Then the subsidzed federal program pays off the negative equity ONLY to my mortgage company (no mortgage mods needed!). I pay the premeium say $20 bucks a month on $86k of negative equity to the federal goverment (multimillions in premium payments) and I can stay in my house because I can afford it, and my morgage is reduced to fair market value ($114k). Everyone is happy everyone is whole again…Mortgage company gets paid completely, I stay in my house because my payment has reduced tremendously, and my consumer confidence is throught the roof! My increased confidence in the ecomony allows me to feel at ease and not feeling underwater because I have the mental side effects of not being financially whole. I can start spending money again, thus helping the economy. This would work…it sets the bottom floor for the housing crisis! Think about it…

Rusty. I commend you for being responsible. I will say this. the US is not doomed. I like the fact that you don't feel entitled. Good luck. Things will get better.

The creit scoring now being imposed by the FHA is making it nearly impossible to refi. Either increase the FHA mortgage insurance rates to offset risk or lower the underwriting assiciated with the credit scoring. The majority of homeowners in America did not create this real estate mess. Yes there was a need to correct inflated values, but our government, through lack of oversight allowed the trigger to be be pulled by the well dressed, greedy and conscienceless people on Wall Street, Banking and many persons trading shady investments.

My wife and I are blue collar workers who earn about 90 to 100 k per year between the both of us. We live in a mobile home that is paid for. I ride my bicycle to work. We own two cars that are paid for and no credit card debt. We have 2 healthy 401 k's and 5 years worth of emergency cash in savings. I don't have a college degree and I saw this coming 4 years ago. Wake up America. The US is doomed. Buy guns, ammo, silver and gold. Also non-perishable foods water and 200 to 300 gallons of gasoline. Every major metropolitan area will be in the same condition as Detroit soon. Good Luck and God Bless, but don't knock on my door because you have been warned.

Come on, FOLKS! Admit it, you screwed up! You trusted him, you elected him prez. Garsh! Even Disney's character, "GOOFY", could see through him. Stop your whining and do something about it!

A home is an investment, but for living. Should not be as in "I will make a lot of money". That is not how it works. As far as building wealth. Yes. It does help. Big decision. For example. You pay 300,000 at 6%. Market adjusts. Another person pays 200,000 at 6%. If both make same amount of money for example. One is paying 1800 a month. the other person 1200. The person paying 1200 puts 600 in their 401k at say stable fund value of 4%. They will have 400,000 dollars at the end of 30 years in their account. Big differenc in wealth.

RE: James

Exactly..a home is shelter and the other things you mentioned.

Only in the last 10 years did homes become a ATM and about flipping.

It's long overdue. Correction is needed. Lower prices is needed. Regulation is needed.

We need to get back to a few things.

1) 20% down payment to make people have a stake in the game and to show they can save and afford a home. If you can't save, then you don't deserve to own. This also stops flippers and investors. For those saying 20% is too much, it wasn't too much before the boom. 20% down on a 100K condo is 20k. Save you money over a year and dont eat out and spend on crap and it's easy to save.

2. We need to make a rule that you cannot have a mortgage payment of more then 35% of your take home income. This also makes it so people buy into homes they can afford if things go bad. People right now are paying 50-75% of their take home mortgage..just stupid. If you want a bigger home, then put down more so your monthly payment is 35%.

Lastly, to prevent speculation, we need to put a tax of say 80% on people who flip and sell withing 2 years.

No one owes you a house. It's not meant for most people.

Somebody mentioned social security. Tell me if im wrong. Ponzi scheme? I guess, if you look at the pyramid. but correct me. Once population levels out so will the pyramid. After about 2 generations people will get what they put in. Easy thing about social security. Math problem. You try and reduce angle on reverse pyramid. But that requires sacrifice on everyone. Otherwise a certain group loses. After hitting small point of pyramid it should level off. Whats the road block? Some people think other people should take the bite. simple as that.

You purposely or inadverently disclosed the American problem with housing; people looked home ownership as building wealth. It's not an never was meant to be.

A house is to live in; provide shelter, warm, cook food, bath, dress experience family, friends, neighbors.

Once people and institutions treated homes as investments, well I think the answer is known. You lose!

Just because the government can create an enormous financial mess, too low too long interest rates, deriatives, no regulation, etc… DOES NOT mean that they have the where-with-all to fix it. Natural macroeconomics will, but politicians won't allow it. They are making this far worse. Anyone heard of tariffs to provide for FAIR trade?? Not appeasing mega-corps greed but allowing for some healthy competition. At the end of the day, jobs the create things OF VALUE to sell will save (or not) the day. Or is this the end of the day?

I personally have helped people refinance with the affordable program. There is no way should the tax payers hold the risk on 125% Loan to value products. It is the subprime mess starting all over again. Wait in the next 2 years to see what happens with FHA. That program will blow up too.

I own my own lot about 1.25 acres in Orlando Florida. In 2000 I looked at moving my double wide off and building a custom home. I contracted several builders and even then they were too expensive relative to rents in the area. I wanted a modest home about 1500 square foot. They wanted to build a McMansion as I own my land outright and make several times the areas median wage. They were not interested in building a smaller home (which is what I wanted and needed) as what ever was built sold and they wanted the bigger profit. I refused and bought a new manufacture home instead. I still have equity in my property actually more than half. Neighbors that built houses are now upside down. I knew even back then that a bubble had formed. There are simple rule of thumbs that can predict bubbles. The yearly rent divide by the prevalent interest rate is one way to yield fair price. Also about 14 to 15 times the yearly rent is another way. Also the median wage should be able to buy the median house with out any more than 25% of that wage. When conditions fall to or below these conditions and you can hold on to the home five years or longer it is a good investment to buy a house. Until then I would not buy anything.

Let it fall naturally.

My wife and I recently bought a house that is just 2 years old. We purchased the home for $350,000 or $120,000 less than the sellers initial asked for the house. The interest rate, in addition to the $8,000 credit we will receive for being 1st time buyers were enticing enough, but we also benefit from paying $70-$150k less than the houses are currently priced in our little community (including the ones currently being built with the builder discounts included). After all is said and done our mortgage, taxes, insurance, HOA, etc. will be slightly more than the equivalent home would cost us to rent. After the deduction and equity we will build up over our time in the home, we will come out well ahead even in this economy/market. If you're smart with your money, decide to save until you can put 20% or more down into a home, spend within your means and have a credit score of 800 or better, you will always win. If you can't do the above, don't buy a house, you're not ready and no one should cry for you. There are plenty of people out there that make great livings and still find a way to spend themselves into debt needlessly. Grow up and take responsibility for yourself.

Bob … it is YOUR DEBT. No relief needed, you spent the money. Use the downpayment to pay on your student loan off faster and save for your house after your have less debt. You are NOT entitled to home onwership in America.

Dan,
the issue with giving the tax payers a direct bailout/stimulus on top of what we've already gotten (and no, I'm not saying ~$50 a month in reduced federal taxes in our paychecks is alot, not at all) is that we've seen the results of the last two such stimuli. When it was done under Bush as a tax rebate and when it was done this past April through June: people have been putting the money towards decreasing their debt. Credit card companies have been "complaining" that people have paid down their debt at a rate not seen for nearly a decade.
I'm not saying that there wouldn't be people that would go out and make a small (more dinning out), medium (new washing machine) or even big (new car/house down payment) purchase. But I do agree with one interpretation of the sales and GDP numbers that we've been seeing over the past 6 months: people are spending less. they are spending more cautiously. They are shopping around and asking themselves _before_ they make a purchase "Do I need this? Is this the cheapest I can get it? Can I wait and get it later?" As long as those view points have set in and people still have significant debt, they will not, as a whole, just go out and spend the economy back to good health.
Really.
If you have the choice right now between throwing $5,000.00 at a $20,000.00 mound of debt versus a $15,000.00 new car (when your current one runs fine) which would you do?

I agree. My education loans are strangling me. The interest rate is very high.

Refi.????? WHAT ABOUT HIS MODIFICATION PROMISE??? The banks aren`t living up to that promise, nor is Obama..Modifying is the key at this point in time. With out modifications first by adjusting everything to real life /current values now… you won`t ever be able to get back to refi`s when the market actually does correct itself.

How about some student loan relief? (and not just for civil servants!). I have great credit, a down payment, and would like to buy a foreclosure house. But with my student loan debt I can't ever dream of getting financed. It wouldn't be so bad, but I don't make any more money than I did before my "Education". I guess I can always immigrate to Canada to get the "American Dream"(they don't recognize 3rd world debts. I can't be the only one in this position.

The current plan is like chasing after a bus that has already left the station.
What the hell does the US Govt expect…?? For years, Corporate America has been eliminating American jobs, hiring H1-Bs / L1-Bs, and offshoring customer service and tech support jobs to call centers outside the US. The US Congress has ALLOWED this to happen, with no second thoughts that this might be a BAD THING in the end. Until we have good-paying / permanent jobs in the US for American workers that will NOT be downsized / outsourced / offshored, we will NEVER be able to save, buy homes, retire or anything else.

I'm not a money expert – but it seems to me that if the government is going to invest in getting this economy going that the best place to invest is in the people – directly!!

economy stalled – no-one has money!!!

solution – give it to the taxpayer – they'll spend it.

The more I think about it – the more it makes sense.

Social Security – baby boomers retiring – need to end this PONZI SCHEME. The question is how?

How about a buy out??? Use this as a starting point. Pick an age that makes sense and offer a buy out. Cash money – lump sum.

With this money you would want to accomplish the following:

You give up your right to retirement benefits.

You pay off your house (Mortgage Crisis solved) or build a new energy efficient one

You pay off your debt (banks saved)

Buy a new hybrid vehicle (car companies saved) Gas Companies hurt

and invest the rest in your local community.

I'm sure the cost would be a whole lot less than what isn't working now.

Start at the mean age of 37 and work it from there. I'm just a country boy using just a little horse sense. Maybe one of you Guru's can come up with a number that makes sense.

Too much everyone would retire – wait a second there's how many people begging to come work????

immigration solved!!!

Instant middle class!!

My FL properties have lost more than 60% of the value since I bought them. I desperately keep paying up additional principal so they are not underwater. I live way way below my means. But the bank has not been helpful in refinancing them. I can only imagine how grave the problem is.

"Perhaps it would be faster and less expensive to let the housing bubble naturally deflate, rather than try to keep propping it up."

Amen.

Had the ever idiotic Feds not tried to patch and prop up this swollen elephant, perhaps we could have endured the short term pain of the collapse. This further nonsense will only make the precipice far greater and widespread.

Obama can solve anything. He prints money.

When are the prices of everything else … like automobiles … going to come down along with the housing market? People — your days of impressing your family and friends with how much your house is worth are over. Get a grip on your new reality.

First of all people should honor their debts. I do feel however that they are entitled to the lowest interest rates available if they are paying in good faith. Even if its more than 25% under water. Also I have no problem if that underwater debt is used as leverage. If you buy at the wrong time which I have done in the past you can never recover from that. Add the fact that you are paying a higher interest rate than the going average puts your future wealth even further back.

dg sez:
"We put 10% down during construction in 2005. When we took out our mortgage in Feb 2006 – the value of our newly built home had increased 20%, giving us 30% equity".
People…. "EQUITY" is not value over a short term period. It's something that's built over years of paying down the mortgage and the VALUE of real estate over long term. And I mean years, many years…not a spike from demand & speculation during an inflating frenzy over a short time like we just experienced.
(I correct my previous quote to Angi):
"The sad part is ALL the taxpayers will have to pay for the greed of the ignorant few like you, as well as the banks & the Real Estate Industry who see this pattern every 10 years or so."

I don't think that Obama will be able to keep up with the falling home prices because whatever he has done so far has helped a bit but hasnt turned around anything in the housing market yet.

Government efforts are not helping the falling housing market

I think the main reason why he wont be able to keep up is the Job Losses in the whole nation. Even though the interest rates were down but many people are holding on because they are scared that they might loose jobs in coming months.

Secondly, many people who have lost30%-40% of their home values, they dont want lower interest rates. The fact is that they just want give up on their home so that they dont have to pay 30% extra money to the banks. When they foreclose their house, it goes for a lot cheaper rate which brings the housing market more down. It is a vicious circle….

This is just another bailout. It's time to kill off all of these bailouts.

We should not be refinancing loans to higher than their current market prices, which are probably still going back down to normal 1998 price levels. Instead, we should be pressuring lenders to stop raising rates on HARM loans (which they are now doing). There should be a rate freeze without any refinancing and without any fees. It's a cheap, quick, and simple solution.

We should also be doing LOTS of short sales to get the prices back down to affordable 1998 levels. Otherwise, those who cannot sell may just walk.

This is a serious crisis. The old tricks will not work, and they are hurting us. Any finance executive who gets in the way should be fired immediately by the FDIC.

This is still the best country in the world for the common man. We have CD's, Bonds & Money Markets to save our money safe and sound. We have Stocks & Funds & Muni's to get ahead with risk of loss. How anyone got caught up into thinking your home is net worth, boggles my mind. Was everyone asleep in economics? You need a home to rest your head and live. To see any worth other than feeling you own it and are not paying rent, you will have to move 6 feet under or become homeless. Back in the 1980's I bought a home at the peak, before the bust. I paid $ 70K and 3 years later it was worth $ 25K. I held it until I doubled my money and sold it in 2005. All my neighbors let theirs foreclose because of simple greed. Two of them live in simple trailers now and I pay taxes on $488K house assessment for my free and clear present home. It is all a frame of mind. Do what feels honest and right in your gut.

Obama and his socialist henchman in Congress will save us. Wait, I forgot that they are all incompetent.
Homeowners that are now under water – YOU MADE A BAD INVESTMENT AND OVERPAID, IT'S THAT SIMPLE. TAKE YOUR LOSSES AND MOVE ON WITH A VERY EXPENSIVE LESSON LEARNED: IF YOU OVERPAY FOR SOMETHING, AND BORROW TO DO SO, YOU'RE BOUND TO LOSE.

Hey Menzel (post 6/27), I trust a used car salesperson more than I trust you giving me financial advice when you can't properly construct a sentence. I originate mortgage loans for one of the largest banks in the country. The thought that all home sales are distressed sales right now is completely absurd. Many buyers in my market area are shunning distressed sales to buy well kept homes that are ready to move into. These buyers plan to raise families in the homes and are taking advantage of the lower home prices. The sellers of many of these homes are willing to take a percentage loss on their existing smaller homes in order to buy a larger home at the same percentage discount, which is greater than the initial loss due to the higher price. Both properties are "on sale" right now, which makes the prospect of moving up appealing. Hopefully this trend is a sign that the housing market is skidding off a bottom right now. I would love to see values stabilize in the near future, and I'm sure most Americans are rooting for the same.

A comment on What the government's done:
Okay, so we've read the article that, to me at least, suggests that the housing situation has just gotten worse and worse from the period of mid 2007 to, let's say, early 2009. What the government and associated industry/economic folks thought, collectively was the reasonable catch goal of homeowners underwater, or moving towards being underwater (let's say owing %5 more than they originally agreed upon when they signed their mortgage due to the current value of the home in question)would catch enough people to prevent a sudden and deeper melt down in home ownership which would ripple out and affect other aspects of the economy. Let's first agree as to why the government wanted to do this. The idea was that if a person/family lost their home because they could no longer pay their mortgage (fixed or ARM) then it would effect them in other ways. If they _could_ pay, barely, it would move their ratio from the suggested 30%- 35% of income being applied to housing costs per month, to 50% or even more. They would not be able to save money for the future or have disposable income to help the economy as a whole begin to recover. That would be an income locked up in housing for who knows how long. That's _if_ they did not lose their job. If they lost their job, they'd have to either file for bankruptcy or walk away from the mortgage, returning the deed and keys instead of paying the mortgage.
Okay, are we good so far?
Whether the bank is able to resell the property quickly or not, while it sits there it is vulnerable to vandalism and regular deterioration. The bank has to pay the costs of upkeep (if it chooses too) and certainly real estate taxes. Because it's sitting vacant with a for sale sign (in most cases, but not all) outside, it causes the property values around it to decrease and thus can cause another property that was doing fine, to suddenly _also_ be underwater due to the reassessment value of the nearby house. (See the issue now?)
Okay, stopping there, let's go back to the government's attempt at the catch goal. They aimed at a moving target that was speeding up. At the time of discussion 5% was reasonable. By the time it was enacted 15% would probably have been better with a margin of error. But, we're seeing now that 20% or even 25% may be needed.
But, yes, the question _is_ should the government have stepped in as far as it has and as far as it may still do? And again, let's make sure we recognize that it's not just a few guys that are making this decision. It's the White House, Congress and the Treasury. Not one person will be to blame if this fails _or_ works. It's a _group_ of people, on both sides of the political fence.
Now the question is if the government had done nothing would things be better versus doing a little less versus doing what they are doing versus doing even more sooner?
That's a good question.
(And yes, I hate it when people interviewed say that too, but it's think time, so we let it pass)
If there was less recourse for home owners that suddenly found themselves, through no faults of their own, underwater (they paid their 30% of income fixed mortgage on time, but reassessed home values still dropped them under water) what would they do? It's a great jolt to The Plan of the American Dream (one part of The Dream, I might add, but that's another topic) but it's survivable, as long as nothing else goes wrong. (Health, natural disaster, burglaries, etc.) But for those that are not that "lucky" it could be devastating. Both financially and emotionally. And it's that sector that could lead to further snowballing of other issues that effect the local economy/society and the larger economy/society.
So.
If you have a better plan, don't just knock the current one without looking closely at the issues.
Come up with and propose a better one.

Angie sez:
"My home has gone from having nearly 150k in equity during the housing peak to being 30k underwater today…"
Angie. That is the issue with what people consider "equity" during a housing bubble. All those homeowners who used their houses as ATM's were bound to get burned. Housing bubbles inflate & they deflate. People thinking that they have "150k" equity in an overly priced/overly inflated real estate market should have seen the writing on the wall. The sad part is ALL the taxpayers will have to prop up and pay for the greed of the ignorant few like you.

Actually, many people will and are walking away from their homes if they have 'negative' equity.
One reason is that with the housing 'boom' plenty of people who shouldn't have owned houses are doing this.
Then, I do know of stories of people who supposedly played by the rules (though, an 80/20 mortgage isn't really that, but I digress) – and they are walking away. They know that it would be at least 90 days before anything would happen, so without paying a mortgage payment, well, they have plenty of money (and my friend who IS paying her mortgage, but would like to move, is kinda angry about that).
So there are all sorts of people who are angry that they didn't double their money in 2 years, so they *are* walking away. I suspect the vast majority of people are not doing this, but, ya know, one bad apple and all that.
I know – one never says about a car: hey, I owe more than it's worth!! I'll just let them repo it. It's so strange how the car companies have done that to us…but we don't see the same thing regarding houses. You paid your money, you take your chances as they say. you took some risk, you should live with it, but hey, that's no longer the american way.

The answer is across-the-board reduction of principal for every mortgage on a primary residence in the United States. It is simple mathematics! These guys seem to understand the problem: http://lawreview.wustl.edu/slip-opinions/beyond-fairness-the-economic-and-legal-case-for-a-sweeping-federal-mortgage-modification-mandate/

Hey Carla Fried, that's such a smart article that I'm going to go and look to see what other stuff you wrote.

(Why doesn't CNN have a link from your byline to an index of your articles???)

I agree that home prices should bottom out for recession to end ..OR we wll keep seeing negative growth . We are following Japan way of protecting home value and see how that turned out… Hope fully they we learn the lessons.. By propping up and bailing out we are just helping the home flippers and investors. Btw why r we still giving 6% to the Realtor .. ..The Association bread and butter is based on propped up value and why suffers is responsible home owners and citizens.

A comment on Flipping Wealth.
Unlike most of you, I'm not a home owner. I'm sitting by the wayside and watching with interests though. Several of my friends who are homeowners have been talking to me about how now's the perfect time to swoop in and buy several distressed properties at rock bottom prices. I remind them that getting a loan together will be difficult, not impossible, but difficult right now whether it's bank or gov sourced. I remind them that to flip a house there has to be another buyer who's able to afford the 10% to 30% markup in price they'd want to charge to profitably flip the house. Then I remind them that while they wait for a buyer in an area that may have or still be losing lots of jobs, thus decreasing the likelihood of an able buyer showing up, they are still paying the cost of owning that property (real estate taxes, their loan costs, etc) and that it will be a money pit for them until they do sell. Will they be forced to sell at a lower price than they hoped just to get out from it? This, in turn, if there are a lot of people that go this route, could produce another median price drop in the not-so-distressed but getting there market in the coming years.

Like Let It Sink in Portland, OR home prices in Orange County, CA have been buoyed by the low rates and FHA first time buyer programs. Low priced REO/distressed homes have been under bidding wars with many all cash buyers, with the "kool-ad" is back and the feeling is that the bubble is to be reinflated to get us out of this mess. But unfortunately the underlying economic fundamentals aren't there to support the prices when the rates increase or the programs expire. My fear is that all the first time buyers who used the low down payment programs will be our next foreclosure "victims" when they decide to walk away as well.

I also live in South Florida and can tell you that the situation down here is not good. Almost all of the recent sales have been distressed and in the sub-$200K market. Back on the day, the median home price in Palm Beach County was nearing $375K so many homes that are now bank owned in the this range are still on the market b/c prices are still falling. Many prime mortgages are also defaulting at high rate down here too. I have a prime-rate mortgage which has lost 33% of it's value in the last 22 months since I bought the home. I bought the house after the bubble burst and negotiated 7% off the asking price think the most it would further drop would be another 5%. Was I wrong! Now I can't refi under the Obama Plan and how does a 5 year reprieve under Obama's modification plan help me in the long run when we know that it will take many more years for the values to return to break-even. Just do the math and you will see that it does not make sense to be making interest/principle payments on a house that is, and never may ever be, upside-down by such a large amount. For the money I would be spending on my mortgage payment I could rent a house just as nice for 60% less and put the difference into savings for a future down-payment on a house that is priced appropriately. Sure, my credit will take a beating but there are millions of people in this situation. If you have appropriate down-payment, a steady job and the only blemish is your short-sale/foreclosure I believe that is will be possible to own a home again in the next 5-8 years. In the meantime, what is so bad with renting? Especially when almost every tax assessment on your home is going up despite the continued loss of equity in your home…I could go on and on but it seems clear to me that I will be walking away.

My wife and I bought our house in 2000 and resisted taking out any home equity when our equity hit $500,000. The only criteria to buy our house is to be able to cover all the expenses after mortgage and property tax with only 1 income. We could get a house that is a lot bigger and expensive but we didn't. Now my wife is out of her job since January, we are not struggling financially. My point is we need to make a lot planning before you jump in to big expense like owning a house.

It is time to rip the band aid off and get this over with. Right now they are delaying the inevitable.It will not get better until we dump all of the empty foreclosures. We need to stop living in a blue sky world and let the market correct. We have dropped almost 50% from the top in values so the idea of only being upside down by even 25% is not based in reality.

Angi, our family is in the same boat, up in the Panhandle. We put 10% down during construction in 2005. When we took out our mortgage in Feb 2006 – the value of our newly built home had increased 20%, giving us 30% equity, just enough to sock it to us property tax-wise. It has slowly decreased over the last 2 years, until last month; we owed exactly what Zillow valued our home at. THEN IN THE LAST 2 WKS IT HAS DROPPED ANOTHER $20,000!!! We are now officially underwater, but we don't intend to walk away, we love this house and hope to one day see grandchildren in it, please God.

I bought my home in 1997, paid my mortgage always on time and did not let greed play in to the equation in 2004-2006. Where's the problem? Oh, and I still wait on the bailout of main street promised by our elected official. Didn't take long for big brother to cover the losses of the bankers and stock brokers.

House prices in the Portland Or area are still highly inflated, propped up by all these stimulus plans and it is keeping people like me away from buying.Houses on short sales are 10-15% off of there all time highs which was so ridiculously over priced for the median wage. Let them fall back to the 2002 levels, which they eventually will, and then I will agree the bottom will be in.If interest rates have to go back to 10% than so be it, at least my debt burden will be less. I will continue renting, watching my tax dollars going down the toilet bailing people out , but I certainly won't compete against someone with my tax dollars, to buy.

Wow…finally a rational thought….I have been saying since they introduced the first modification that we need to just stand back and let the housing prices bottom out on their own….otherwise we are only prolonging the inevitable as well as the period in which we will experience negative growth……
But we are too political correct for any politician to say this…they may not get elected next term and thats all that seems to matter today

I live in Florida. My home has gone from having nearly 150k in equity during the housing peak to being 30k underwater today… I can only imagine how far underwater other homeowners who did not have much equity to being with are feeling.

I don't get this assumption that I keep reading that if you have negative equity in your house you are bound to walk away and default. I think it depends on the circumstances. If someone bought their home as a place to live for them and their family, and can afford the mortgage payments, I don't think they would be so quick to ruin their credit and walk away. The fact that they are "underwater" would have no bearing on their cash flow. On the other hand, it would be a different story if you were an investor (i.e. speculator or flipper), you are running a negative monthly cash flow in your property, and you have negative equity. So it all depends on the circumstances.

First of all, owning a home HAS NEVER BEEN A REALISTIC STRATEGY OF BUILDING A WEALTH. Yes, building a wealth is part of AMERICAN DREAM but home ownership is independent part of the same dream.

Second of all, According to Harvard studies distressed properties sales is ONLY ACTIVE part of real estate market. Everything else is just NAR dreams… Do you trust your used car dealership sales person? How you can trust realtors (NAR) after what happened to you. They lie on their monthly reports to make handful of buyers left on market to make wrong buying decision.

Predatory property taxes based on fraudulent tax-value assessments by Miami-Dade County are canceling any efforts by the Federal Government to help make home mortgages more affordable and avoid foreclosures. Obama's foreclosure prevention program has ALREADY failed, as more than an additional 1 Million homes are already delinquent and in the foreclosure pipeline only in Florida.

Things will get worse before they get EVEN worse…