World News Trust World News Trust
World News Trust World News Trust
  • News Portal
  • All Content
    • Edited
      • News
      • Commentary
      • Analysis
      • Advisories
      • Source
    • Flatwire
  • Topics
    • Agriculture
    • Culture
      • Arts
      • Children
      • Education
      • Entertainment
      • Food and Hunger
      • Sports
    • Disasters
    • Economy
    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Government
    • Health
    • Media
    • Science
    • Spiritual
    • Technology
    • Transportation
    • War
  • Regions
    • Africa
    • Americas
      • North America
      • South America
    • Antarctica
    • Arctic
    • Asia
    • Australia/Oceania
    • Europe
    • Middle East
    • Oceans
      • Arctic Ocean
      • Atlantic Ocean
      • Indian Ocean
      • Pacific Ocean
      • Southern Ocean
    • Space
  • World Desk
    • Submit Content
  • About Us
  • Sign In/Out
  • Register
  • Site Map
  • Contact Us
  • How Palestinians Defeated Netanyahu and Redefined ‘Unity’ | Ramzy Baroud
  • Transphobia | Wikipedia
  • Did Entheogens Cause Human Intelligence? | Bard
  • How To Deinstitutionalize The Practice Of Human Warfare | Bard
  • How Khader Adnan Unified Palestinians from His Prison Cell | Ramzy Baroud
  • European Cities Boycott Apartheid Israel | Ramzy Baroud
  • No Respite from the Slow-Motion US-China Collision | Nouriel Roubini

Homeowners, Lenders Skirt Default, May Curb U.S. Housing Slump (Kathleen M. Howley)

More items by author
Categories
Edited | News -- WNT Selected
Tool Bar
View Comments

   Homeowners are finding their mortgage companies eager to accept a sale price that falls short of a property's loan balance -- a so-called mortgage short sale.

  By Kathleen M. Howley

  March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Rolando Ruiz and Stephanie Rodrigues telephoned their mortgage lender two weeks ago and offered to hand over the keys to their three-bedroom house in Providence, Rhode Island. They lost their jobs and haven't made a loan payment since January.

  ``I told the bank to come get the keys and just let me know when we need to be out, but they said why not put it up for sale and we might be able to work something out,'' said Rodrigues, the 22-year-old mother of two girls.

  Homeowners such as the Rhode Island couple are finding their mortgage companies eager to accept a sale price that falls short of a property's loan balance -- a so-called mortgage short sale. The number of U.S. loans entering foreclosure reached an all-time high in the fourth quarter, according to the Washington-based Mortgage Bankers Association. That's spawning a cottage industry of real estate investors who profit as lenders try to avoid adding properties to their portfolios.

  ``Banks don't want to be real estate managers,'' said Doug Duncan, chief economist of the mortgage association. ``The fact that delinquencies are rising means we're going to see more pre- foreclosure sales.''

  Almost 5 percent of U.S. mortgages had payments overdue by 30 days or more at the end of last year, the highest since 2003, Duncan said. No one tracks or estimates the number of borrowers who avoid foreclosure with a short sale, according to Duncan and David Berson, chief economist of Washington-based Fannie Mae, the largest buyer of mortgages. There's ample evidence that the number is increasing, they said.

more

READ MORE: Bloomberg  

back to top
  • Created
    Wednesday, March 21 2007
  • Last modified
    Wednesday, November 06 2013
  1. You are here:  
  2. Home
  3. All Content
  4. Edited
  5. Homeowners, Lenders Skirt Default, May Curb U.S. Housing Slump (Kathleen M. Howley)
Copyright © 2023 World News Trust. All Rights Reserved.
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU General Public License.