Strategic default is often the wisest course of action for a family to take. Lenders are hoping to escape disaster while borrowers and attorneys partner to leave their mark on lender’s balance sheets. In the future, the threat of strategic default should make lenders more reluctant to make stupid loans with payments greatly exceeding comparable rents (more on that soon). However, after a strategic default, what is the borrower to do? I think they should get out and move on [Read More...]

Is shadow inventory all in your head? Is it real? Are there really debt zombies roaming the shopping malls spending the money they should be putting toward their mortgage? Home ownership in California means you gorge on HELOCs when times are good, and squat in luxury when your creditors cut you off. Its a great system for Californians. They get to spend as they please and pass the bills off to the rest of America in taxpayer bailouts. I see [Read More...]

I recently wrote that squatting is becoming a way of life for many delinquent borrowers. Of course, this doesn’t meet the technical definition of squatting which is possession of real estate without the owner’s permission. In this instance, the squatters are technically still the owners of property, so there is nothing illegal going on, but these owners are generally hopelessly underwater and failing to make their mortgage payments. They are in possession of real estate that can be called to auction at [Read More...]

When the Clash wrote their smash hit about a relationship on the rocks, they had no idea they would be speaking to the fortunes of millions of homeowners in the aftermath of the housing bubble. The question posed by this song, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” is on every struggling homeowner’s mind. If they go there will be trouble, but if they stay it could be double. With the fate of so many borrowers now in the hands [Read More...]

In the housing bubble debate, the bears clearly won the first round. People defaulted, banks foreclosed, and prices crashed just as predicted. However, round two has gone to the bulls. Banks stopped foreclosing, people squatted, interest rates went down, and the few buyers that remained pushed prices up slightly. Now we are on to round three: the Great Housing Liquidation. Distressed sales equal lower prices The general concept is obvious to everyone including the lenders: distressed sales cause lower prices. Statistical [Read More...]