CHESSNOID

I can’t understand how these experts are calling the end of the recession this year.  It definitely has been a long recession at 18 months, but there is no true report or  indicator that I think shows the bottom.  All the major reports coming out are bad (higher unemployment, lower output, higher foreclosures).

As far as some companies being impossibly profitable like the Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, I personally think that has more to do with creative accounting and payment from taxpayer money in the form of bailouts or bailout company counter-parties.  If the government didn’t give away our tax money to these fraud bailouts, it is highly unlikely these companies would have fared any different from their competitors.

This latest foreclosure reports showing an increase would indicate the bottom is not here yet nor will it be anytime soon.

NEW YORK (Reuters) –

U.S. foreclosure activity leaped 46 percent in March from a year earlier, hitting a record high as programs stunting the torrid pace of failing mortgages expired, RealtyTrac reported on Thursday.

A temporary freeze on foreclosures by major banks and government-controlled home finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ended before President Barack Obama’s massive housing stimulus, unveiled on March 6, could take root.

Filings, which include notice of default, auction sale or bank repossession, jumped 17 percent in March from February.

Filings for the quarter also marked a record high, jumping 24 percent from the same period a year ago.

The March and first-quarter totals were the highest since RealtyTrac began tracking them in January 2005, even as bank repossessions declined.

Under President Bush, a new homeowner rescue plan was put into place. It made about $340 BILLION available for loan modifications. The forecast was 400,000 people would be helped, but the result was only 1 homeowner saved.

CNN.Money:

In the five months since it has been in effect, HOPE has helped exactly one homeowner to avoid foreclosure. This despite Congress having made $300 billion available to back these loans and estimating that the program would benefit as many as 400,000 families.

“As it stands now, we’ve only gotten 752 applications,” said Federal Housing Authority spokesman Brian Sullivan. “And only insured one loan. Needless to say, the program isn’t working terribly well.”

Under the Obama administration, they throw out a bigger forecast of how many people will be saved by their new programs. I think the number is about 9 million foreclosures will be prevented because of great loan modification programs.  Unfortunately, the plan has built in flaws at inception.

Bloomberg:

President Barack Obama’s housing-rescue plan is intended to help as many as 9 million homeowners near default refinance into cheaper loans. About 7.6 million mortgage holders don’t qualify because they owe too much more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, according to real estate valuation service Zillow.com.

Obama’s plan allows owners to refinance if their mortgages exceed their property value by 5 percent or less.

Falling home prices and rising unemployment will contribute to further increases in defaults as more homeowners find themselves owing more than their houses are worth, said mortgage consultant David Lykken.

“As long as those things happen, delinquencies will grow,” said Lykken, of Mortgage Banking Solutions in Austin, Texas.

A rise in foreclosure sales won’t be enough to “offset the growing number of foreclosures in the pipeline, accelerated by rising unemployment rates,” RealtyTrac’s Chief Executive Officer James Saccacio said in the statement.

Filings increased 9 percent from the fourth quarter as one in every 159 U.S. households was in some stage of foreclosure.

It’s all politics at this point. There have been claims to create 3 million, then 4 million, then 5 million jobs. Then words of exception are inserted and the claim becomes create or “save” 5 million jobs, so you can’t measure results in numbers. Now there are promises of saving “up to” 9 million homeowners under this plan, but over 7.6 million people are already disqualified from even applying.

President Obama’s plans and actions have been smoke and mirrors. His actions are not what he promised during and after his campaign. He is the Democratic George Bush and the economy will continue to deteriorate under his leadership. This recession will continue to get worse and become the Bush-Obama Depression.