My understanding is that the adjustable rate mortgages that proliferated during the housing boom are to blame... is it really a reflection of the "market" or of lending practices?

Both. If it was a boom market and you got into trouble with your adustable rate mortgage, you just sell, pocket your profit, and move on.

But in a slow market, that option isn't there. So you try and try and try and end up in foreclosure.

If you want to follow a bunch of these types of stories, go here:
[ml-implode.com]

I found the site in February, there were 32 mortgage companies on the list, now there are 82.

But....I can get a $200,000 mortgage for $200/month. That's a good idea right?

@mopar_man: only with $0 down :)

Casey Serin has left his wife and fled to Australia. An update to the previous story Consumerist ran on him.

Um, I can't get links to work. Anyway, Casey Serin has left his wife and fled to Australia. An update to your previous story.

[exurbannation.blogspot.com] - Exurbannation

Cool. Pretty soon I'll be able pay cash for a foreclosed condo in downtown Chicago for next to nothing.

Bring on the market crash.

I try to gauge what is going on by my surroundings, because the market is never the same place as any other. However, on my block alone there are two houses in foreclosure and two up for rent. That is out of 10 houses on the block. To me, that looks pretty bleak, considering one of the houses has been on the market for over a year at the foreclosure price and the bank just can't get rid of it.

ha ha

/nelson>

WTF? He left his wife? Wasn't he supposed to get a job unless of course that job is in Australia?

@Chicago7:

Have prices started to drop that much in downtown Chicago?

I bought three condos in Austin, TX for cash in the early 80s when they were at the bottom of the market. Two of them had been in foreclosure for quite some time. The other one the bank wouldn't foreclose because they didn't want it. I was also able to negotiate a pretty good deal with the HOA.

Anyway, I rented them for a while and made back my investment. I sold them just after Y2K. I made enough on the deal to buy my house in San Diego. Now if I can do the same trick again, I can move to my beachfront house in La Jolla just in time to retire. Of course, if I guess wrong, it's a box underneath the freeway overpass. :-)

I thank FSM that we decided to buy less house than we were approved for and that we told them no effing way on the fancy ARM mortgage.

Me, my hubby, and our boring 30-year 5.75% fixed are at home, paying 19% of our net take home on housing, and laughing our asses off. :)

well, since casey serin is now in australia, should we expect their foreclosure rates to skyrocket?

Its simple math...

Poor people shouldn't have houses, they should rent and line the pockets of the upper middle and upper classes...