Shaun Donovan, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), dropped a bomb shell in a speech to the National Association of Realtors today. HUD, the administrator of FHA will soon allow the 8,000 first time home buyer credit to be“ monetized” …

You would be hard pressed to find a lender who will refinance your mortgage or give you a home equity loan on a home that is currently for sale. While lenders have different policies on the subject, a lender is going to be cautious about lending money …

It is being reported that American Home Mortgage will cease business today and is declaring bankruptcy. In the very near future Accredited Home Lenders will also probably file. Both cite recent losses and their inventories of less than high quality mor…

Might be of interest.

Thank you for your comment. As you may know, over $4 billion of the state budget crisis comes from the foreclosure crisis.

Your suggestion that I and other members of the state legislature are not paying attention to the budget is factually wrong. Both the Assembly and Senate Democrats have put out a balanced budget proposal for this year and the years to come. We fully fund education and do not suspend Proposition 98, and we restore many of the Governor’s cuts to health care and social services. The Republicans currently have no budget proposal, although they do have a nice looking website.

The problem, which you may not be aware of, is that we need a two-thirds vote. This means we need Republicans to vote for the budget. So my advice to you is that you lobby Republicans because that is what is holding up the budget.

In addition, the risk of a bad budget that violates core Democratic values is far worse than a late budget.

Ted W. Lieu
Assemblymember (D-53)

I suggest that you, as a member of the California legislature, pay attention to the “risks” of not having a California budget rather than lecture us on mortgage risks.