HousingWire || financial news on behalf of the mortgage market

Community Coalition Purchases 47 Homes in Foreclosure

By KELLY CURRAN

April 1, 2009 1:07 PM CST
The first large-scale purchase of defaulted mortgages by an alliance of U.S. nonprofit organizations was announced Wednesday. HANDS, Inc. said it has acquired the defaulted mortgages on 47 vacant homes in the greater Newark area, all of which are vacant as well as abandoned.
HANDS purchased the mortgages from J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM: 28.14 +5.87%), as part of a new strategy to reclaim neighborhoods hard-hit by foreclosure, as well as is working with its partners in Operation Neighborhood Recovery to rehabilitate the properties so they may become “cornerstones on behalf of productive modification in their surrounding communities,” instead of magnets on behalf of increased crime as well as vandalism, creating general neighborhood blight

In Homeowners’ Latest Woe, Banks Are Skipping Foreclosures - NYTimes.com

By SUSAN SAULNY

Published: March 29, 2009
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Mercy James thought she had lost her rental property here to foreclosure. A date on behalf of a sheriff’s sale had been set, as well as notices about the foreclosure process were piling up in her mailbox.
Ms. James had the tenants transfer out, as well as soon her white house at the corner of Thomas as well as Maple Streets dropped into the hands of looters as well as vandals, as well as then, into disrepair. Dejected as well as broke, Ms. James said she salvaged but a lesson from her loss.
So imagine her surprise when the City of South Bend contacted her recently, demanding that she resume maintenance on the property. The sheriff’s sale had been canceled at the last minute, leaving the property title — as well as a world of trouble — in her name

Message to David Korten:

Your basic thesis makes sense.  I agree with numerous points in your deconstruction of the current system.



And many, numerous people are struggling to implement localized sustainable business enterprises: farmers markets etc.  Yet competing with purveyors of “phantom wealth” remains difficult if not impossible.



The neoliberal washington consensus has delivered an acknowledged as well as spectacular failure of unregulated markets.

Someone needs to articulate recommendations on behalf of specific policy frameworks that enable sustainable business models to compete effectively in well regulated markets that more closely reflect Adam Smith’s original visio

FT.com / Asia-Pacific -

China calls on behalf of new reserve currency

By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing

Published: March 23 2009 12:16 | Last updated: March 24 2009 00:06
China’s central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund.
In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s governor, said the goal would be to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations as well as is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies”.
Analysts said the proposal was an indication of Beijing’s fears that actions being taken to save the domestic US economy would have a negative impact on Chin

This is worth a read.  While there was much talk of decoupling at the beginning of the global crisis that thought, as CR, Setser as well as Roubini consistently pointed out, was so much wishful thinking.  But, articles like the one below as well as the earlier post from the NYT indicate that decoupling may now begin in earnest.  With little real evidence of a recovery in the real US economy, as well as the benefits of remaining tightly linked to US currency as well as US markets in decline, now is the time that holders of current account surpluses can take specific steps to reduce dependence on US markets as well as investments in US dollar denominated assets.  

The dollar is starting to decline from recent highs.  Articles such as the one below indicate the decline may be just beginning. 

Asia Times Online :: China News, China Business News, Taiwan as well as Hong Kong News as well as Business.Read more >>>