Register columnist/blogger Jon Lansner’s most recent edition of his Big Orange Index shows that Orange County bill paying is apparently a lost art.
The Big O’s Banker Index (that’s a graph of this benchmark tracking everything from foreclosures to bankruptcies — click on it for a bigger version) produced this summer the worst result in the 19 years of Big O history. One key reason, Lansner suggests: Unemployment hasn’t been this high in 14 years.
To read Lansner’s full Big Orange report, CLICK HERE!
… and here’s some O.C. business items you may have missed …
- When is Sprint’s 4G Internet coming to O.C.?
- Feds seize billionaire Nicholas’ Gulfstream
- Retailer with big store at The Block files for bankruptcy
- O.C. foreclosure starts plummet amid new law
- Homebuying doubles or more in 17 O.C. ZIPs
- O.C. city has most valuable businesses in U.S.
And in other mortgage news…
- O.C. listings of distressed homes 6% off peak
- Three super banks to dominate O.C. lending
- BofA settling Countrywide’s Calif. suits for $3.5 billion
- Subprime nation
- Mortgage markets yawn at bailout
- Wells Fargo buying Wachovia
- How long should we wait to refinance?
- O.C. home loans sold off at half price
WHERE ARE THE JOBS???????
Going…going…gone!
There is only one hole in the boat. If we sink, we will all go together.
Thanks to everyone who voted for clinton back in the 90’s. If you trace it back this all falls on his leadership. Thanks a lot! Now maybe we should vote in Obama just so we can make it even worse! Yay!
I have decided to stop paying my mortgage and credit cards. F them. You want my house? Come get it.
Ok- we were not in a deficit when Clinton was president ( he left the Country with a surplus)- Bush’s administration has runned our people and country into a great big mess…. Damn straight vote for Obama!
Dave Ramsey’s advice for people who are struggling is: pay basics first. Food, clothing, shelter, and transportation to get to work. All others go to the bottom of the list. Credit cards at the very bottom, although they will scream the loudest, far more obnoxiously than your mortgage provider. If you are truly buried in your mortgage then it may actually make sense to stop paying. You may get an opportunity to make a better deal on your house, but your credit will be completely ruined. Heck my friend hasn’t paid his mortgage in 10 months and still hasn’t had a foreclosure completed. All he had to do was keep trying for a modification. It’s amazing what you can get away with in today’s foreclosure market.
One thing is for sure, prices must fall. The government will do all it can to stop them from falling, but fall they must if they are ever to rise again. People can’t afford to buy, so there’s a dam good reason they are falling. People who thought they would rise indefinitely were wrong, wrong, wrong.
One final word of wisdom from a highly respected SciFi author Robert Heinlein. “Whenever everyone says something and everyone knows it’s true, it’s a sure bet that it’s not true at all.”
Save money by mowing your own yard. Paint your own houses. Wash your own car. Challenge your billing statements. Therapeutic exercises for those of us who know:
BARNEY FRANK STOLED MY RETIREMENT!
Jeff,
Put the crack pipe down.
This falls on Greenspan, Bernanke, realtors, bankers, Bush I and II, Clinton and all the incompetant Congresspeople over the past 20 years.
Fellas, you can blame whomever you want. The real crux of the mortgage lending crisis comes down to the credit default swaps backed by AIG and many other “insurance” houses. Let’s keep in mind that we are not the only country suffering from this money/credit crisis. Greed fueled the fire.
On the point of “stop paying your mortgage…” this may not be the best advice. Your lender really doesn’t want your house back (foreclosure). In most cases, your lender would rather take a short-term loss by lowering your interest rate, maybe extending your term, even reducing the amount you owe on your home in order to keep you in it. Why? Because the loss that a lender might take on your defaulted mortgage could run as high as 45% of the loan balance. Foreclosure is a lengthy and expensive process. And it wraps up a lot of money that the lender could otherwise use for, say, lending. Talk to your lender and see if they’ll work with you. If they won’t, call a good mortgage modification firm. But be careful… there are many out there, but only work with one who is properly licensed.