More Homeowners Falling Behind on Mortgages

By JAMES R. HAGERTY

About one in seven American households with mortgages is behind on payments or in foreclosure, according to new data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. That is up from about one in 10 a year ago.

The trade group reported Thursday that 14.4% of first-lien mortgages on one- to four-family homes in the third quarter were 30 days or more overdue or in the foreclosure process. That is the highest since the MBA began reporting such data in 1972 and works out to about 7.5 million households at risk of losing their homes. The percentage is up from 10% a year earlier and 7.3% two years ago.

Loan defaults have been rising swiftly for more than three years. At first, the problem largely reflected loose lending practices during the housing boom that allowed millions of people to buy homes they couldn’t afford. Now the problem is compounded by rising unemployment, which hit 10.2% in October, the highest since 1982.

Unemployment may start gradually declining in next year’s first half, said Jay Brinkmann, the MBA’s chief economist. If so, he said, the percentage of loans that are delinquent could start to decline by mid-2010. But he said the number of loans in foreclosure is likely to remain elevated longer as banks struggle to figure out which borrowers might be able to stay in their homes if payments are lowered.

Largely because of efforts to sort through mounds of paperwork and figure out which borrowers qualify for lower payments, there has been a jump in the number of people far behind on payments but not yet in foreclosure. About 4.4% of the loans were 90 days or more past due but not in foreclosure in the latest quarter, up from 2.2% a year earlier.

The states with an above-average rate of such “seriously delinquent” loans are Nevada (7.8%), Florida (6.1%), Arizona (6%), Michigan (5.9%), California (5.9%), Mississippi (5.5%), Georgia (5.1%) Indiana (5.1%), Illinois (4.8%) and Rhode Island (4.5%).

The states with the highest rate of home loans in foreclosure are Florida (12.7%), Nevada (9.4%), Arizona (6.2%), California (5.8%), New Jersey (5.5%), Illinois (5.3%) and Ohio (4.6%). North Dakota had the lowest rate at 1.1%.

For Full article, click here —–> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125865480793156003.html

Will Bond Plan Have Teeth?

By LINGLING WEI

Demand is expected to be strong Monday for the first sale of commercial-mortgage-backed securities under a government rescue program designed, in part, to ease the mounting stress in the commercial-property sector.

But the strong demand is partly a reflection of the conservative underwriting of the $400 million in bonds backed by 28 Developers Diversified Realty Corp. shopping centers, in terms of the quality of the assets underlying the loan and the loan amount relative to the value of the properties. While the deal may help reopen a vital funding source for some commercial-property investors, it will likely provide little solace to owners of tens of billions of dollars of office buildings, shopping centers and other commercial real estate that are now worth less than their mortgages.

The deal is the first issue of commercial-mortgage-backed securities under the Federal Reserve’s Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, program. Under the program, investors can borrow from the Fed as much as 85% of the CMBS bonds’ value by pledging the securities as collateral. By taking advantage of that leverage, investors will be able to boost their returns.

For full article, click here —–> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704538404574537634133457264.html

It’s been a while… But this hilarious list brought me back with Resolve and a renewed focus!

Random Thoughts From People Our Age
1. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.
2. More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.
3. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.
4. I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?
5. Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.
6. That’s enough, Nickelback.
7. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.
8. Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the “people you may know” feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?
9. Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.
10. There is a great need for sarcasm font.
11. Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.
12. I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.
13. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
14. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
15. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
16. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.
17. A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.
18. Was learning cursive really necessary?
19. Lol has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.
20. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
21. Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.
22. My brother’s Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, “Cuz we beat you, and you hate us.” Classy, bro.
23. Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.
24. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?
25. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!
26. Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using ‘as in’ examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss’s last name to an attorney and said “Yes that’s G as in…(10 second lapse)..ummm…Goonies”
27. What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?
28. While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it…thanks Mario Kart.
29. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
30. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
31. I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.
32. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
33. I would like to officially coin the phrase ‘catching the swine flu’ to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: “Dave caught the swine flu last night.”
34. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.
35. Bad decisions make good stories
36. Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!
37. Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?
38. If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.
39. Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem….
40. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
41. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.
42. There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
43. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
44. “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.
45. I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’
46. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?
47. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
48. When I meet a new girl, I’m terrified of mentioning something she hasn’t already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.
49. I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
50. Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles…
51. As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.
52. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
53. It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.
54. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
55. Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what to do with it.
56. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time…
57. My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day “Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?” How the hell do I respond to that?
58. It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.
59.I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.
60. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
61. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

For Rent: 2BR/1BA Apartment in Akron, OH, $645/month

For Rent: 2BR/1BA Apartment in Akron, OH, $645/month

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Troppe gets Hands on another Downtown Akron Building — “Thank Goodness!”

LANDMARK RESCUED

Tony Troppe renovating historic Kaiser Building for use as cafe, offices across from Canal Park

By Betty Lin-Fisher
Beacon Journal staff writer

Photo credits (Ed Suba Jr./Akron Beacon Journal)

A downtown Akron building whose last owner lost it to foreclosure after a failed attempt to sell it on eBay is getting new life under the eye of historic building renovator Tony Troppe.

Plans call for the Kaiser Building, across from Canal Park on South Main Street, to have a cafe or store in two slots on the first floor, offices on the second floor and a mix of offices and loft apartments on the third floor.

”I did not like that vacancy across the street from the ballpark,” said Troppe, who has renovated several historical buildings in downtown Akron. ”I felt for some time that a building of that stature should be brought back.”

Troppe said he wants to create ”a positive node of knowledge workers,” referring to downtown workers and students who soon will be living at the 22 Exchange Place project a few hundred feet away. He believes they will be looking for places to hang out, eat and work.

The building, believed to have been built in 1877, formerly housed a German-American Family Club and had a grand ballroom on the third floor with 18-foot-high ceilings.

Troppe envisions a world-cafe type of eatery on part of the main floor, with coffee, beer, food and live music. He also wants to create an outdoor eating area on a brick patio to the side or possibly a drive-through window. Troppe said he is in discussions with potential tenants and might run the cafe on his own, similar to Mocha Maiden on Maiden Lane off East Market Street.

Troppe, with private investors under the name Kaiser Hall Revival Group, bought the building from the mortgage lender after a sheriff’s sale for $365,000, according to public records. They have financed the project through Portage Community Bank.

The building’s previous owner, Jeremy Caudill and his company, JJC Investors Inc., had purchased it in 2005 for $650,000. But Caudill was unable to renovate the building or sell it, including an unsuccessful listing on eBay, before losing it to foreclosure for delinquent taxes and back payments to the lender.

The building, at 323 and 325 S. Main St., needed a lot of internal demolition, Troppe said. Crews began in March, and Troppe hopes to have the first floor done and open for business by fall.

FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE <—–

AIG agrees to sell 2 NYC buildings

The embattled insurer American International Group Inc. is selling its headquarters building in New York and a nearby building in a deal expected to close at the end of this summer, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

But the person said that AIG is not disclosing the price or who the buyer is. The person asked for anonymity because the sale has not been made public yet.

The building sales are the latest move by AIG, which has received $182.5 billion in financial support from the government since September, to shed assets to repay the loan package.

The buildings are at 70 Pine Street and the adjacent 72 Wall Street in lower Manhattan.

Why do I have the feeling that the reason AIG is keeping this quiet and confidential is they are making a substantial profit on the sale and somehow are going to circumvent delivering those profits to the shareholders (The taxpayers!!!) and instead keep them for themselves.

You wait and see, I believe that will be the case.

It’s not destiny… The fortune cookie read, “Cav’s to win NBA Title”

The Cavaliers already have a global star. A clutch-shooting global star at that. Soon they may have a global partner that could help secure that global star’s future in Cleveland.

According to multiple sources within the Cavs, franchise majority owner Dan Gilbert has a tentative agreement in place to allow a group of Chinese investors to purchase a significant stake in the Cavaliers Operating Company, the entity that owns the Cavs and operates Quicken Loans Arena. The group is led by JianHua (Kenny) Huang, a Chinese businessman who has become successful by linking American and Chinese companies.

Huang and several of his partners were in Cleveland and attended Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference finals this week. He sat in Gilbert’s courtside box Friday night and watched LeBron James hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to even the series with the Orlando Magic at one game apiece.

Article found on Cleveland.com (Click Here for full article) and written by Brian Windhorst/Plain Dealer Reporter

NAR issues “cautionary” advice in its Commercial Real Estate numbers

The National Association of Realtors issued predictions for four major sectors of commercial real estate this week. According the report, national office vacancies are expected to increase from 16.1% in 2009 to over 20% in 2010 with rents falling about 7% this year and 0.8% next year.

Retail vacancies, which were just under 10% in 2008, are projected to rise to 12.1% in 2009 and 15.8% in 2010. Rents are expected to fall 2.1% in 2009 and 1.5% in 2010. Industrial vacancies are expected to increase to 11.9% in 2009 and 12.6% in 2010 with rents falling 3.4% this year and 4% in 2010. Multi Family is expected to fare the best; vacancy is expect to increased to 6.8% this year and 6.7% in 2010 from 5.7% in 2008 with rents slightly growing this year and next.

If these predictions are accurate or close to accurate, there will be more pain in commercial real estate, and we are nowhere near a bottom — especially in office and retail. Loan delinquencies have been increasing in both segments in early 2009 and they could spike over the next two years.

Going forward, overweight multi-family, which continues to benefit from lower home ownership rates and less new supply. Invest in retail and office selectively; only companies that have a handle on their debt maturities over the next couple of years which will help them withstand a prolonged downturn.

Article found on Seeking Alpha (Click here for site) and written by By Greg Sukenik

“WITNESS” this

Embedded video from NBA Video

The Dark Angel of Akron drops some more Demonic News ~ #1-Chrysler plans to close dealerships #2-Forest City Enterprises reveals big job cuts #3-Shiloh Industries eliminating 111 jobs

#1-Chrysler plans to close 14 dealerships in Cleveland-Akron market

Northeast Ohio stands to lose 14 Chrysler dealerships from Elyria to Wadsworth, according to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court filing this morning by Chrysler LLC.

Dealerships targeted for closing include five Spitzer dealerships in Akron, Lakewood, Mayfield Heights, Parma and Sheffield Lake; three Ganley dealerships in Cleveland, Middleburg Heights and Wickliffe; and two Axelrod dealerships — Axelrod Chrysler in Parma and Axelrod-Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep Inc. in Wadsworth.

Also on the closing list are Abraham-Chrysler-Jeep in Elyria, Crestmont Chrysler Jeep in Beachwood, Great Northern Dodge in North Olmsted and Medina World Cars in Medina.

As the automaker’s bankruptcy unfolds, expect dealers to combat the closings.

Alan Spitzer, chairman and CEO of Spitzer Management Inc., could not be reached this morning and did not return a call. Nick Abraham, owner of Abraham-Chrysler-Jeep, also did not return a call.

#2-Forest City Enterprises reveals big job cuts in posting fourth-quarter loss

Forest City Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: FCEA, FCEB) has reported sizable net losses for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended Jan. 31, while also revealing that it reduced its nationwide work force by nearly 500 full-time positions during the fiscal year as part of a cost-cutting drive to increase its liquidity.

The real estate giant said its net loss in the latest fourth quarter totaled $45.1 million, or 44 cents a share, and compares to a year-earlier profit of $12.6 million, or 12 cents a share. Revenue in the quarter fell 20%, to $323 million from $404.4 million.

#3-Shiloh Industries to close Medina County plant, eliminating 111 jobs

Shiloh Industries Inc. will shutter permanently its Liverpool Manufacturing Plant this summer, putting 111 employees at the Medina County operation out of work, according to a company filing with the state of Ohio.

Valley City-based Shiloh on Monday notified the state, via a required Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act filing, that it will close the plant. The company in March told the state that it was laying off 83 workers from its Medina Blanking Division, although those layoffs were termed “temporary.”

Shiloh, which primarily supplies U.S. domestic automakers and their vendors, has been hit hard by declining auto sales.

For full articles and more Angels & Demons type news, click here to visit Crains Business <—-

Articles above written by Stan Bullard, Dan Shingler