*Transcendental *Logic

Okay, I’ve now heard a number of reports of negotiations that still seem to be ongoing, and one of the ones that was shut down on Monday the 14th has, while not being reinstated or making actual progress, at least successfully had a conversation that didn’t sound like a total dead end. That’s still not much information to go on, but it gives me hope that this is temporary. …On the other hand, when I mentioned this to a loan officer, the reply I got was, "Maybe it is…but things will never go back to as easy as they were before last weekend."

Now, in case you don’t think that sounds too bad, consider this — Six months ago, the company I work for could get successful mortgage modifications and/or refinance opportunities for about half the people we saw. The other half were just too far gone in the process or simply couldn’t afford their house, or were the victims of unreasonable mortgage companies and lenders. As recent months have rolled on, that number has gotten lower, and lower, and lower…It’s now impossible to get refinancing in the redemption period of a mortgage, or for anyone without at least a 640 credit score, or if the value of the home has dropped more than about 10-15% below the value of the mortgage (what they call a "short sale" arrangement). To think that it’s gotten even worse, and won’t get better, is nearly as chilling to me as negotiations stopping altogether.

(Note that some of the effects of the last six months could be exacerbated by this being Michigan … but while our job rates are horrid here, there are places in the U.S. where the real-estate problems are even worse.)

Also, apologies for not having gotten through the slew of comments on the first Black Monday post. I did finish moderating them all, and if you like craziness, by all means

go give ‘em a read

. I approved everything (except obvious duplicates — sorry to anyone who was stymied by the moderation system. You don’t get moderated once you’ve been approved the first time, for what it’s worth). But I happen to think hate mail is hilarious anyway. ;) …There’s also some good information and links buried amid the rubble, too. Thanks to everyone who took the time to participate!

This entry was posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 5:12 pm and is filed under consumer warfare, the root of all wealth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.