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As the shape of a political compromise on the Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act  emerges, I wonder why modifications for homeowners will come hedged with prerequisites and conditions.
For the past three decades, a debtor in bankruptcy could modify a mortgage on anything but his home.  That included a vacation home.  No need [...]

A vote on HR 1106 was delayed Thursday as conservative Democrats tried to reduce the number of mortgages impacted by the legislation.  When I looked at the composition of the Blue Dog Democrats and The New Democrat Coalition, I’m amazed at the number of Northern California Congressmen in those groups.
These Northern and Central California Representatives [...]

He was a little old man, standing alone before the bankruptcy judge in Oakland yesterday.  The lender on his home sought the judge’s permission to foreclose on his house.
He told the judge that he had been working with the lender on a loan modification since September and had just gotten papers to complete in January.  [...]

The emotional opposition to efforts to keep individual families in their homes  through government intervention talks about homeowners who bought more house than they could afford.
My experience, as a bankruptcy specialist, is that far more of the troubled loans I see are refinances.  These are people who “bought” the idea that equity in their home [...]

Opponents to legislation to allow bankruptcy judges to modify home mortgages scream that such a prospect would raise the cost of everyone’s home loans in the future.  If contract isn’t sacrosanct, they argue, lenders will have to raise the interest rate to cover the risk.  Pretty scary stuff, if true.
But the claim is wrong on [...]

One of the arguments against judicially supervised mortgage modification is that we should not “reward” those who took loans they cannot now afford.  We should not rescue borrowers who overbought, goes the charge.
I see both policy arguments and personal observations for why we should care, and act,  to make it possible for some of those [...]

One arm of the government’s bank regulators has called for the thrifts  to halt foreclosures. Meanwhile, yesterday Treasury and HUD talked with the banking industry in search of ways to stem the cascade of foreclosures.
The thing that was striking was the uniformity of support for the idea that we can no longer rely on a [...]

Saving homes from foreclosure via the mortgage modification bill was the theme of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys as they visited legislators on its annual lobby day February 11.  Members visited their representatives  about bankruptcy issues impacting constituents.
Matt Mason, NACBA board member, pointed out that some 160 homes a day went to foreclosure [...]

The report on the Senate version of the stimulus bill is that it includes incentives and credits for new home buyers, but nothing that directly helps prevent foreclosures of existing homeowners.
Until we stop the slide of home prices, greased by foreclosures, new buyers will be hesitant to jump into the housing market.  Buy now without [...]

Not only are 14% of homes in Santa Clara County worth less than the debt on the property, 27% of houses purchased in the last five years are underwater according to the San Jose Mercury.
In my practice I’m seeing a substantial number of long time homeowners who have refinanced loans that are either now larger [...]