Bob's Blog

Despite upticks in many recent home price indexes, even its own, Fiserv is bullish on home prices and believes the recent run up in prices in some markets will be short-lived. The Wisconsin-based provider of the Case-Shiller indexes believes the next 12 months will witness a nationwide decline in...

Many investors are hurting from the financial meltdown, especially as they are just getting started in investing. Some of you have suffered a foreclosure or bankruptcy and are strongly motivated to help others avoid what you’ve been through. Others have lost jobs or have seen their hours or wages...

Representative Walt Minnick of Idaho is expected to introduce a loan guarantee program worth $15 to $25 billion to help support refinancing of underwater commercial loans. The bill would introduce a new board at the Treasury Department to prepare underwriting guidelines for the program. The propo...

One of the pieces of pending legislation touted by President Obama last Friday is the $30 billion Small Business Lending Program currently being considered in the Senate. This is Congress’ response to Obama’s State of the Union proposal to create a Small Business Lending Fund. Together with tax b...

Many homeowners feel they must make a decision between two evils—foreclosure or bankruptcy. More often than not, the decision is bankruptcy because it is seen as a way to avoid losing the house. The problem is bankruptcy rarely stops foreclosure for good; it merely delays it. Individuals who fail...

The Treasury Department’s July Housing Scorecard notes that for homeowners with permanently modified loans over the last 6 months only 1.7% has redefaulted (become 90 days or more late.) Fewer than 6% of HAMP permanent loans are now 60 days late. The median reduction among those with a HAMP loan ...

Altos Research in its 10 city report found asking prices unchanged in June and for the 2nd quarter as a whole. Existing home inventory on the market, however, is up. The median existing home sales price for single family homes was down just $146 is June to $477,937 combines for the cities of Bost...

According to the Bank of America Short Sale and REO executive, Matt Vernon, the bank is willing to do everything possible to “liquidate property prior to foreclosure.” Vernon made the statement at REO Expo 2010. In quarter 2 of 2010 BOA had $35.7 billion in bad loans and foreclosed property on th...

The latest National Association of Realtors home sale report gives the bad news that home sales nationwide are on a downward slide. The numbers of home sales are down 5.1% in June to a seasonally adjusted total of 5.37 million units. The home sale numbers are still 9.8% higher than they were a ye...

There is little question that without the Homebuyer’s Tax Credit the housing market would have tanked worse than it did at the height of the recession. The Tax Credit is responsible for hundreds of thousands of home sales during the last 18 months that would not have occurred without it. The tax ...