Tom Wurdack

I hate beating a dead horse but underwater mortgages are here for a while.

Underwater Mortgages Increase to 11.3M: First American

Negative equity continues to diminish the severity of foreclosure for many homeowners. Numerous industry studies show that borrowers become more likely to default their mortgage or simply walk away from the debt obligation when they owe more on the home than it is worth. Despite that home values appear to be stabilizing in some markets, the number of underwater homeowners continues to grow.

Read entire article here.

Good news is hard to come by on the home front. Foreclosures still loom and they will continue to drive down prices.

The Coming Foreclosure Flood

By Alyssa Katz

Feb 17th 2010 @ 9:45AM

Filed Under: News

Heartened by the recent rise in home prices? Don’t get too comfortable. Standard & Poor’s, the credit-rating agency that tells investors what mortgage-backed securities are worth, reports that the increase was just an illusion. It predicts the nation is about to see a deluge of new foreclosures that will drive real estate values back down.

Blame the “shadow inventory” – nearly 1.8 million homes that are on the road to foreclosure but for all kinds of reasons haven’t gotten there yet.

Many homeowners have fallen behind on their mortgages or stopped paying, but foreclosure has not yet arrived. Mortgage servicers, the folks who send you the bills and file for foreclosure when you can’t pay them, are overwhelmed. Courts, too, are backed up. Mortgage modifications and foreclosure moratoriums have put off the day of reckoning for borrowers, but not forever. And unemployment is sabotaging more homeowners every day.

Read entire article here.

I apologize to all of those of you that have been following me. It has been awhile since I last updated but I wanted to let you know that I will be posting more often now. With all the new rules and regulations taking effect January 1, 2010 I had to make sure that I was up to speed. So check back and I hope all is good.