This real estate crisis is far from over. On top of the double dip in house prices that we are currently seeing it has now come to light that the ownership of your mortgage may be in question. During the heyday of mortgage backed security creation the profiteers decided to skip required documentation because that process could not be automated and was slowing them down. Some astute foreclosure victims started looking into their paperwork and found that the lender that was foreclosing on them did not have the documentation naming them owner.
Borrowers have now started suing the lenders that are foreclosing on them. Sheila Bair the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said that the situation is a disaster. She indicated that the banks should put together a multi-billion dollar fund to pay homeowners to accept them as the rightful lenders. This is incredible. First there is the question of the rightful owner of the loan and whether you should be paying the lender at all and now they want to pay you to agree to pay them. What a mess.
If you haven't seen the 60 min. story on the mortgage documentation disaster, click on the YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00b9Awyf5bQ
On the commercial front most banks are still staying away from commercial real estate lending. Some banks are saying that their commercial loan portfolios will increase during the second half of this year. However most banks are either reducing their commercial real estate loan portfolio or they have finished that process and they are content to keep their existing customers.
Jones Lang LaSalle reported that in the first quarter of 2011 office demand in the Atlanta market continues to be concentrated in Buckhead. There was some positive space absorption in the Northwest submarket and in the North Fulton submarket. Several employer expansions were announced in the first quarter both in the urban core and suburban markets so that bodes well for demand going forward. However, the rate of job growth will do little for the unemployment rate and little for the office space vacancy percentage.
