A break for some Mortgage Crisis Humor...

I thought this was funny.

Delinquency Rates Soar According to Bloomberg...

Bloomberg U.S. Mortgage Delinquency, Foreclosure Rates (Table)

2008-11-17 12:33:09.850 GMT

By Alex Tanzi

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The following table shows residential mortgage delinquency rates for U.S. loans as reported by the Bloomberg non-agency database comprised of over 45 million securitized loans.

*T

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10/31/08 09/30/08 08/31/08 10/31/07 10/31/06 =========================================================================

Bankruptcy 1.35% 1.28% 1.23% 0.77% 0.85%

of which Prime 0.60% 0.53% 0.50% 0.18% 0.13%

of which Alt-A 1.06% 0.93% 0.87% 0.35% 0.02%

of which Subprime 2.52% 2.44% 2.38% 1.60% 2.08%

Foreclosure 7.20% 7.10% 6.83% 3.37% 1.34%

of which Prime 3.34% 3.25% 3.03% 0.87% 0.22%

of which Alt-A 6.04% 5.82% 5.56% 1.73% 0.37%

of which Subprime 12.54% 12.39% 12.03% 6.66% 2.80%

Real Estate Owned 4.20% 4.13% 3.96% 1.64% 0.49%

of which Prime 1.66% 1.54% 1.42% 0.37% 0.07%

of which Alt-A 2.89% 2.76% 2.52% 0.70% 0.13%

of which Subprime 7.96% 7.90% 7.67% 3.37% 1.03%

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10/31/08 09/30/08 08/31/08 10/31/07 10/31/06 =========================================================================

Delinq. (30,60,90,REO&Fore) 20.87% 20.22% 19.27% 11.48% 6.09%

of which Prime 10.12% 9.57% 8.80% 3.96% 1.78%

of which Alt-A 18.96% 18.10% 16.74% 7.95% 3.48%

of which Subprime 35.14% 34.23% 33.16% 20.37% 10.85%

Delinquency (30 days) 3.59% 3.56% 3.28% 3.09% 1.97%

of which Prime 2.02% 2.04% 1.81% 1.48% 0.85%

of which Alt-A 4.09% 4.06% 3.64% 3.22% 1.93%

of which Subprime 5.31% 5.18% 4.91% 4.73% 3.15%

Delinquency (60 days) 2.07% 1.99% 1.86% 1.50% 0.73%

of which Prime 1.15% 1.09% 1.01% 0.56% 0.21%

of which Alt-A 2.22% 2.14% 1.93% 1.24% 0.45%

of which Subprime 3.15% 3.02% 2.85% 2.58% 1.37%

Delinquency (60+ days) 17.28% 16.66% 15.99% 8.05% 3.53%

of which Prime 8.09% 7.53% 6.98% 2.26% 0.70%

of which Alt-A 14.87% 14.04% 13.10% 4.68% 1.32%

of which Subprime 29.81% 29.03% 28.23% 15.47% 7.18%

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10/31/08 09/30/08 08/31/08 10/31/07 10/31/06 =========================================================================

Delinquency (90 days) 3.80% 3.44% 3.34% 1.50% 0.97%

of which Prime 1.95% 1.64% 1.52% 0.44% 0.19%

of which Alt-A 3.72% 3.32% 3.08% 1.00% 0.36%

of which Subprime 6.12% 5.68% 5.64% 2.80% 1.97%

Delinquency (90+ days) 15.20% 14.67% 14.13% 6.55% 2.80%

of which Prime 6.94% 6.44% 5.98% 1.70% 0.49%

of which Alt-A 12.65% 11.90% 11.16% 3.44% 0.86%

of which Subprime 26.64% 25.99% 25.36% 12.88% 5.81%

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SOURCE: Bloomberg non-agency database of 45 million securitized loans.

--Editors: Alex Tanzi

Homeowners Find Loan Modifications Slow, Difficult

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― Ask anyone who has tried a loan modification, and chances are the process took months or wasn't successful.

The numbers say it all. HUD's loan modification program was supposed to help 400,000 borrowers. So far it's helped only 42. Countrywide's program was so ineffective the bank was sued.

Greg Jewell, a loan negotiator has figured out the only way to get heard is to go right to the top. He's bombarding bank executives. "That's the person I got a hold of Saturday," he explained to his client, Toni Dalrymple.

Dalrymple bought in Mountain House -- a town southwest of Stockton -- where the majority of homes are underwater. She paid $800,000 and it's now worth less than half that.

The clock is ticking. If she doesn't get payments reduced fast, she'll have to walk away. The delay is caused by a common problem for Bay Area residents. Many have big loans that were sliced up and sold to investors here and overseas.

"My mortgage loan was sold to another investor and there's a problem getting another investor to jump on board," said Dalrymple.

Glen Brown faces similar obstacles. The car salesman lost a third of his income, and went to his bank, Wells Fargo, to adjust his loan payments. The bank told him he wasn't eligible until he went late on payments. So he skipped two payments on purpose to get attention.

Five months later, "It was like a cat chasing his tail. There was always a roadblock. You never talk to the same person," said Brown.

Brown said that's because banks don't want to talk to the homeowner. The call centers are often filled with inexperienced operators. It's a complicated game that has taken him over a year to figure out.

FDIC lays out broad home loan modification plan

By Karey Wutkowski

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal agency that insures most U.S. bank deposits unveiled a plan to prevent about 1.5 million home mortgage foreclosures by promising to share any losses with mortgage companies that agree to refinance certain home loans.

The agency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, said on Friday the plan would cost the government about $24.4 billion, which could be paid from the U.S. Treasury's $700 billion bailout program for the financial industry.

So far, most of the money in the bailout program, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, has been injected as capital into banks.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, who spent weeks unsuccessfully lobbying Bush administration officials for the foreclosure prevention plan, unveiled her agency's proposal two days after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson dismissed the idea of the government underwriting failing home loans.

Paulson told reporters on Wednesday, "That (foreclosure plan) is a subsidy, or spending, program. The TARP was investment, not spending."

The FDIC pushed forward with its plan, posting it on its website Friday morning (http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/loans/loanmod/index.html).

"Although foreclosures are costly to lenders, borrowers and communities, the pace of loan modifications continues to be extremely slow," the FDIC said. "It is imperative to provide incentives to achieve a sufficient scale in loan modifications to stem the reductions in housing prices and rising foreclosures."

The FDIC said its plan would modify about 2.2 million mortgage loans by offering financial incentives to mortgage servicers. It would pay servicers $1,000 to cover expenses for each loan modified to the required standards, and would promise to share up to 50 percent of losses incurred if a modified loan defaults.

Eligible borrowers would include those who have missed at least two monthly payments on loans for homes they live in. Servicers would be expected to lower those borrowers' monthly payments to about 31 percent of the borrowers' monthly income.

The Treasury Department said on Friday that it was aggressively looking at ways to reduce skyrocketing home foreclosures under the TARP.

"We continue to aggressively examine strategies to mitigate foreclosures and maximize loan modifications, which are a key part of working through the necessary housing correction and maintaining the strength of our communities," Treasury Interim Assistant Secretary Neel Kashkari said in testimony prepared for delivery to a U.S. House of Representatives committee.