October 2009

Still Trouble With Derivatives

Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009

The challenge of controlling the derivative products that contributed to our current economic crisis are still with us. At issue is balancing systemic risk but still maintaining access to reasonably priced products needed by so many, and in particular now in the commercial real estate industry, to ...

Help for Tenants

Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009

May 20, 2009 President Obama singed the Helping Families Save their Homes Act of 2009 which included some tenant protections. The Act requires 90 day notice before a lender can evict a tenant from a foreclosed property and that leases be honored until the end of their term. This applies to all fo...

Some Thoughts on the 1 Year Anniversary of TARP

Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009

Thoughts about the one year anniversary of TARP What does it tell us when even the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel can’t say whether TARP’s working or not? With some of the programs winding down now, the need for mortgage loan modifications and perhaps also small business lending still seems o...

REMIC Revisions...Good News

Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009

In an effort to save the commercial real estate market from pending doom, the IRS has made some much anticipated changes to the REMIC trust rules. REMICs are governed by sections 860A and 860G of the IRC. For an entity to qualify as a REMIC, all interests in the entity have to consist of one or m...

The Case for Mediation

Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009

Some estimate foreclosures can be reduced by 75% if the Fed take a more active role in making mediations happen. 9 states now use mediation 3.4 of all cases avoids foreclosure. ...

Some Idea for Qualifying

Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009

Credit counselors can help homeowners find ways to bring their debt down so they can qualify for a modification; use less electricity, temporarily decrease retirement contribution, withholding tax, etc. ...

Recent Mod Stats

Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009

Less than 3 in 10 mortgages that were modified by servicers in Q1 2008 are still current according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. As mod age the chance of default increases significantly. 48.2% of those modified in Q4 2008 are current. 36% of those modified in Q1 2009 are delin...