How the mortgage interest deduction subsidizes the spending of wealthy families at the expense of middle class families. Average California mortgage deduction for filers is over $18,000 versus $9,900 in Texas.
One of the sacred cows of our economy revolves around the mortgage interest tax deduction. Home buying is heavily subsidized in the United States. The Federal Reserve has injected trillions of dollars in purchasing mortgage backed securities and other questionable assets all for the purpose of keeping interest rates low. Yet this is one area […]
The housing documents mess – Why banks are carelessly rushing foreclosures in Florida and not in California. Mortgage foreclosure deficiency judgments.
In the last few weeks the issue has come to the table that in some states, in particular Florida, banks are rushing through the foreclosure process so quickly that they have mismanaged the paperwork process. Apparently the same forged paperwork that got people with very little income into highly leveraged properties is now working in […]
California MLS inventory up 25 percent since April. MLS public data at 144,000 but 742,000 mortgages in California are in foreclosure or one payment behind.
MLS inventory for California has increased by 25 percent since April of this year. Part of this has to do with more foreclosures and short sales trickling their way onto the market. It also has to do with sales declining because of tax credit expiration fatigue. But what is the real inventory if banks were […]
Submarine housing markets – Negative equity map and the 7 metro areas where mortgage balances outweigh the entire stock of housing. Examining underwater housing across the U.S.
Negative equity at such a large scale is a rather unique phenomenon from this housing bubble. Even just a decade ago, a person got into a negative equity position due to a really significant shift in a localized market. For example, a city lost a major manufacturing company that supported most jobs and home values […]