Affordable Housing Institute : US

[Continued from previous Part 1 and Part 2.]
 
In my ongoing exploration of Joseph R. Mason’s new article, Mortgage Loan Modification: Promises and Pitfalls, we’ve hit the curious fact that loan servicers affiliated with originators have incentives to keep up appearances. 
 
In this, Professor Mason concludes ulterior motives:
 
One of the key reasons loan modification has grown has […]

[Continued from yesterday’s Part 1.]  

Yesterday’s post introduced and teased Joseph R. Mason’s new article, Mortgage Loan Modification: Promises and Pitfalls, exploring how loans in the subprime mess can be successfully recapitalized — or not.  

Nothing to worry about
 
As I’ve posted six months ago, today’s lending business is intermediated — there are many intermediaries in the money […]

 
“How’s your wife?”
“Compared to what?”  Ba-da-bing!
– Henny Youngman one-liner
 
As the subprime mess continues to unfold, with rate and payment resets looming, Federal and state agencies rushing to offer refinancings or borrower relief, a gradually swelling chorus is advocating loan modifications and restructurings.  As I’ve previously posted, securitization has made loan modification more complicated, and a […]

 
[Continued from yesterday’s Part 1.]
 
Yesterday’s post explored cryptobiotica, the small small-moving life to be found in the soils of America’s southwestern deserts, which I likened to slums in its ability to form a spontaneous community and to stabilize neighborhoods.  As the U. S. Geological Survey phrased the ecology:
 
Cryptobiotic Soils: Holding the Place in Place
 
Cryptobiotic soil […]

No, cryptobiotica is not the newest Las Vegas adult extravaganza.
 

Viva cryptobiotica!
 
It’s a curious form of desert life that has a direct analog in housing and urban development, something very much on my mind since my recent trip to India and Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi. 
 
Nancy and I first encountered cryptobiotica a dozen years ago when we […]