Current Housing Indicators |
| CURRENT | PREVIOUS | ||
| Existing Home Sales | 4.49m | ▼ | 4.74m |
| New Home Sales | 309,000 | ▼ | 344,000 |
| Housing Starts | 583,000 | ▲ | 477,000 |
| Building Permits | 547,000 | ▲ | 531,000 |
| HMI | 9 | UNCH | 9 |
| Existing Home Prices | $170,300 | ▼ (annually) | $199,800 |
| New Home Prices | $201,100 | ▼ (annually) | $232,400 |
More Videos
- First Time Buyers Rescue Housing: Realtors
- Housing Recovery 'Still In Uncharted Territory': HUD Secretary
- Shadow Inventory Dwarfs Loan Mods
- The Battered Businesses Behind Housing
- Watch Foreclosures, Seriously
- Home Buyer Tax Credit Expansion Heads to Obama
- Congratulations America, We're All Landlords Now
- Wells Fargo Bets on Housing Recovery
- Home Buyer Tax Credit Done: Does it Matter?
- Better Times for Mortgage Banking
MOST SHARED
- U.S. May Wind Up Green With Envy
- Japan Third Quarter GDP Jumps; 2010 Growth May Slow
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- Disaster Film '2012' Drowns Rivals at Box Office
- For Investors, The New Green Looks To Be White
- Dipping Into Green Investing
- CNBC TRANSCRIPT: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping America Great
- The Cost of Thanksgiving Dinner 2009
- Analysis: APEC Nations Back Face-Saving Climate Plan
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- U.S. Stocks Rally for the Second Straight Week
- Dollar is Not Plunging—So 'Calm Down': Market Strategist
- Strategists Say Markets Have More Upside — But How Much?
- Hirschhorn: Risk-Averse Traders
- Roginsky: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Financial Reform
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- TV Series Inks Unique Deal For Fight
- First Time Buyers Rescue Housing: Realtors
- Analysis: APEC Nations Back Face-Saving Climate Plan
- Shift Into High-Quality Stocks Could Move Market Higher
- China: Low US Interest Rates Threaten Recovery
- Drug Study Questions Effectiveness of Merck's Drugs
- Buffett: I Haven't Bought AMEX Shares in Years
- Military Arms Race Dominates Dubai Air Show
- Disaster Film '2012' Drowns Rivals at Box Office
- Cities With the Most Home Price Reductions
- Cramer: 5 Earnings Reports to Watch Next Week
RSS FEED
Realty Check
Text Size 
 |
CNBC.com |
] had announced massive layoffs, just after hiring a considerable number of new employees. An analyst joked, “they’re probably in the loss-mitigation department.” Well it’s not so funny anymore. I’ve been hearing for a few months now that one of the greatest impediments to saving troubled borrowers is sheer manpower. There are just not enough loan servicers to help these people work out their loans and work into more affordable alternatives. Today, Fed Governor Randall Kroszner said as much: Challenges remain because of “constraints on servicing capacity to expedite workouts.”
A neighborhood advocate told me this just the other day. He said that all these lenders are so jammed with calls that by the time they get to the troubled homeowner, the house has already been lost. The industry simply can’t handle the onslaught.
I’m also hearing the same thing from the short-sale market. Banks are more willing to make deals with investors who want to buy distressed loans/homes at a discount, but they too can’t get all the paperwork together fast enough.
So while all the politicians are touting their solutions and all the lenders are claiming they’re on board to save borrowers, the enemy, as always is time and efficiency and the lack of both.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes