ShareAnnaly Capital Management’s blog has a good piece up on foreclosures, inspired by yesterday’s Case-Shiller data (hat tip Scott). If you missed it, The S&P/Case-Shiller index showed a pretty steep 1.2% month-on-month increase in U.S. house prices in its latest figures (for August 2009). This is the fourth consecutive month of increases, signaling to some [...]

ShareThe latest data from the S&P/Case-Shiller house price indices shows house prices increasing in 17 of 20 major residential markets. The overall composite index are up for the fourth month in a row but year-over-year comparisons still show a double-digit decline in prices. A snapshot of the data is provided below.

The three lagging markets are [...]

ShareThree years ago, MetLife agreed to sell the community of Stuyvesant Town (Peter Cooper Village) to Tishman Speyer and BlackRock for the exorbitant sum of $5.4 billion at the top the market. That deal has now gone completely pear-shaped and bankruptcy is expected soon in another bizarre chapter in the history of one of the [...]

ShareThere is mounting evidence that bubbles are forming again everywhere across the globe as easy money makes itself felt in asset prices. The latest evidence comes from Sweden where Europe’s lowest home loan rates have pushed up the price of residential property.
At issue is the extremely loose monetary policy in Sweden that is an outgrowth [...]

ShareThis is probably my fourth post on the tangled web woven by securitization, which puts a considerable distance between home owners and mortgagees which own a mortgage.  The issue is causing huge problems in bankruptcy and foreclosure in courts around the U.S. 
This morning, Gretchen Morgenson has another good piece out describing how a judge [...]

ShareThis is good. H/T Michael Panzner.

ShareAfter I published the recent story on the case against servicing agent MERS in the Kansas Supreme court, I noticed a lot of chatter about some mortgage servicing line items in Wells Fargo’s earnings report. So I wanted to quote a few blurbs from the Kansas Appeals Court and Supreme Court decisions as background for [...]

ShareIn August, the Kansas Supreme Court issued a ruling against a mortgage tracking service which may prove very costly to banks in foreclosure, leading to massive writedowns. It could be a life saver for many trapped in the foreclosure process. The case goes to the core of the functioning of massive markets in securitization and [...]

ShareJim the Realtor is back with a bunch of foreclosures, REOs and short sales on the market in North County San Diego.  Some of these places look pretty nice.  In this particular video, the property is in Carmel Valley and on the market for $1.249 million. It is interesting for a couple of reasons.
The guy [...]

ShareFurther proof that the reflationary efforts of policy makers is taking hold comes from London in the form of record high house prices.  The Guardian reports:
Property asking prices in London have broken through the record high set in November 2007 as the drought of homes for sale around the country continues to distort the market. [...]