- US Bonds Pare Losses After 7-Year Auction
- New-Home Sales Jump to Highest Level in Over Year
- Judge Erases Couple's $525,000 Mortgage Payment
- Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- Airlines Hit With Penalties for Stranding Passengers
- Consumer Mood Improves, but Anxiety Over Finances
- Jobless Claims Below 500,000, Durable Orders Slip
- US Said It Will Reduce Emissions by 17% by 2020
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- 4 Food Stocks to Stuff in Your Portfolio: Analyst
- S&P at 1050-1200 Trading Range Next Year: Strategist
- Treasury On Mortgage Modifications
- Blue Jeans Expected to See Another Green Christmas
- Investors Thankful for Gains This Year
MOST SHARED
- Ritz-Carlton ?Struggling? in the US: President
- Garlic Price Rises Surpass Gold, Stocks in China
- Half of Banks' Losses May Still Be Hidden: IMF Head
- New-Home Sales Jump 6.2% To Highest Level in Over Year
- Oil Price to Average $75.40 in 2010: Poll
- Jobless Claims Below 500,000, Durable Orders Slip
- Americans Ditch Planes for Trains this Thanksgiving
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Consumer Mood Improves, But Anxiety Over Personal Finances
Text Size 
Experts say it is in everyone’s interest to settle these loans, but doing so is not always easy. Consider Randy and Dawn McLain of Phoenix. The couple decided to sell their home after falling behind on their first mortgage from Chase and a home equity line of credit from CitiFinancial last year, after Randy McLain retired because of a back injury. The couple owed $370,000 in total.
After three months, the couple found a buyer willing to pay about $300,000 for their home — a figure representing an 18 percent decline in the value of their home since January 2007, when they took out their home equity credit line. (Single-family home prices in Phoenix have fallen about 18 percent since the summer of 2006, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index.)
CitiFinancial, which was owed $95,500, rejected the offer because it would have paid off the first mortgage in full but would have left it with a mere $1,000, after fees and closing costs, on the credit line. The real estate agents who worked on the sale say that deal is still better than the one the lender would get if the home was foreclosed on and sold at an auction in a few months.
“If it goes into foreclosure, which it is very likely to do anyway, you wouldn’t get anything,” said J. D. Dougherty, a real estate agent who represented the buyer on the transaction.
Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for CitiFinancial, declined to comment on the McLains’ situation, citing privacy considerations.
“We strive to find solutions that are acceptable to the various parties involved,” he said but two lenders can “value the property differently.”
Other lenders like National City, the bank based in Cleveland, have blocked homeowners from refinancing first mortgages unless the borrowers pay off the second lien held by the bank first. But such tactics carry significant risk, said Michael Youngblood, a portfolio manager and analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, the securities firm. “It might also impel the borrower to file for bankruptcy,” and a judge could write down the value of the second mortgage, he said.
A spokeswoman for National City, Kristen Baird Adams, said the policy applied only to home equity loans originated by mortgage brokers.
Underscoring the difficulties likely to arise from home equity loans, a Democratic proposal in Congress to refinance troubled mortgages and provide them with government backing specifically excludes second liens. Lenders holding a second lien would be required to write off their debts before the first loan could be refinanced. That could leave out a significant number of loans, analysts say.
People with weak, or subprime, credit could be hurt the most. More than a third of all subprime loans made in 2006 had associated second-lien debt, up from 17 percent in 2000, according to Credit Suisse. And many people added second loans after taking out first mortgages, so it is impossible to say for certain how many homeowners have multiple liens on their properties.
“This is turning out to be a real impediment to solving this problem,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com, “at least, solving it quickly.”
Print
Email
- Here's how key provisions of the health care reform bill would impact your insurance and how you'll pay for it.
- Remember when auto shows were major events where new models could generate buzz?
- It may be the most unusual guide to business you'll read.
- After nine years the NBA’s minor league equivalent is finally coming into its own.
- Bill Griffeth is taking a leave of absence from CNBC and Power Lunch for a year. Here's a message from Bill.
- For nearly three decades, these on-call experts have been dishing advice on how to – and not to – cook turkey.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes