Lender Processing Services (LPS) issued a report Tuesday which puts the number of mortgages that are delinquent or in foreclosure at 6,538,000.
The company’s assessment is based on mortgage performance statistics derived from its loan-level database of nearly 40 million mortgage loans through the end of July.
The grand total of past-due mortgages has risen by nearly 190,000 loans over the past two months. In June, LPS’ tally of loans at least 30 days delinquent or in foreclosure was 6,452,000. In May it was 6,350,000.
LPS says the national delinquency rate — loans that are at least 30 days past due but not yet in foreclosure – rose to 8.34 percent as of the end of July. That’s up 2.4 percent from June but down 10.4 percent from July 2010.
According to the company’s latest report, 4.11 percent of the nation’s outstanding mortgages were part of the foreclosure inventory at July month-end.
The foreclosure inventory rate – which LPS calculates as loans that have been referred to an attorney but have not yet reached the final stage of foreclosure sale – increased 0.4 percent from June, and is up 9.7 percent from a year earlier.
Of the 6,538,000 mortgages going unpaid in July, LPS says 2,156,000 were in the process of foreclosure.
The remaining 4,382,000 were 30 or more days past due but the lender had not yet initiated foreclosures. Of these, 1,899,000 were 90-plus days delinquent.
According to LPS’ study, the states with highest percentage of non-current loans – which combines foreclosures and delinquencies – include: Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, and Illinois.
States with the lowest percentage of non-current loans include: Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Industry's Past-Due Mortgages Climb Above 6.5 Million
Saturday, August 20, 2011
More Signs of the Times
Well, I don't think I can use this restroom if I must wash my own hands!
Change? To change or not to change!
Payback Time!
POSTED BILLS: Bill Cosby, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and Bill Murray
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2027534/Pen-stroke-genius-The-street-artists-make-laugh-poking-fun-signs-litter-lives.html#ixzz1Vb0D8KSlA Glorious Stage History for San Diego's Old Globe Theater
The Old Globe Theatre was built in 1935 for the presentation of abridged versions of Shakespeare's plays as part of the California Pacific International Exposition. At the conclusion of the exposition in 1937, a non-profit producing corporation, the San Diego Community Theatre, leased the theater and adjacent buildings from the City of San Diego (an arrangement that continues today) and renovated the theater for ongoing use.
On December 2, 1937, the remodeled Old Globe Theatre opened with a production of John Van Druten's The Distaff Side. In the cast was a young actor named Craig Noel, whose presence as an actor, director, and artistic leader would guide the theater's growth through more than five decades of continuous production, and whose role as Founding Director continues to this day.
In 1969 the original restaurant facility adjacent to the Old Globe Theatre, known as the Falstaff Tavern, was remodeled to become the 225-seat Cassius Carter Centre Stage, an intimate space devoted to the production of new and experimental theater.
On March 8, 1978, an arson fire destroyed the landmark Old Globe Theatre. Fortunately, the administrative offices, rehearsal hall, dressing rooms, scenery and costume shops, and the Cassius Carter Centre Stage were spared from the flames. While plans to rebuild the Globe were put into action, the immediate need for a space to produce that summer's San Diego National Shakespeare Festival resulted in the construction of the Festival Stage, an award-winning outdoor theater.
In January 1981, the theatre's board of directors established the Globe as a year-round professional company, initiating more than a decade of extraordinary growth. In 1982, the new 581-seat Old Globe Theatre opened with a production of Shakespeare's As You Like It. When the Festival Stage was destroyed by another arson fire in 1984, the new 612-seat Lowell Davies Festival Theatre was constructed in 1985. A decade later, a fundraising campaign retired the debt from the two fires and financed a major reconstruction and remodeling project, unveiling an enhanced rehearsal and administrative complex, box office, gift shop, pub, and landscaped plaza.
The Old Globe has been home to the most acclaimed national artists, designers, directors and playwrights in the Theatre industry. More than twenty productions produced at The Old Globe have gone on to play on Broadway and off-Broadway and continuing this tradition, The Old Globe’s production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was nominated for 11 Tony Awards in 2005, and the 2000 production of The Full Monty garnered 10 Tony Award® nominations for its successful Broadway run. Globe Artistic Director Jack O’Brien received the 2003 Tony Award® for his direction of the musical Hairspray and the 2004 Tony Award® for his direction of Henry IV at Lincoln Center. These awards bring world attention not only to The Old Globe but also to San Diego’s rich cultural landscape.
The Old Globe annually produces 15 mainstage productions from all periods and styles, ranging from Shakespeare to an ongoing emphasis on the development and production of new works, and an annual family musical, Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas!. With a current operating budget of approximately $20 million, the Globe is one of San Diego's largest arts institutions, its leading arts employer, and among the nation's top-ranked regional theatres. More than 250,000 people annually attend Globe productions and participate in the theater's education programs and outreach services.
Physics at San Diego Comic-Con International
Each July fans of science fiction, fantasy, and horror convene in San Diego, California, for Comic-Con, a four-day celebration of invented realities. Originally focused on Superman, Spider-Man, and other comic books, Comic-Con now encompasses TV, film, anime, manga, toys, card and video games, e-comics, and novels.
I went to Comic-Con for the first time last month—as a member of the press. Besides enjoying the spectacle and learning from attendees about their enthusiasms and from vendors about their products, my goal was to hunt for physics in and around the conference hall.
Some Comic-Con physics lies more or less in plain view. At least two notable comic-book characters are physicists. Bruce Banner, who morphs into the Incredible Hulk, designed and oversaw the testing of a gamma bomb, a fearsome physics-based weapon. Charles Xavier, the X-Men patriarch, is the son of a nuclear physicist and earned a PhD in biophysics (in addition to PhDs in genetics and psychology). Attendees who strolled along aisle 2200 of the exhibit hall would have encountered the American Physical Society's booth, where six members of the Physics Central team, including Laser Girl, handed out free, physics-themed comic books.
Hidden physics
But I was more interested in less obvious manifestations of Comic-Con physics. At booth MZ 18, I found one—in the person of a Rebel Alliance fighter pilot, who was staffing the fan table of San Diego Fan Force, a club for the city's Star Wars enthusiasts.
The pilot, a young woman, turned out to be an engineer in real life. She works on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. What struck me was how naturally our conversation passed from the meager merits of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace to the challenge of operating an IR observatory from a modified Boeing 747. The bridge between science fiction and science fact was, I think, her dedication to both.
I found more hidden physics when I attended the live broadcast of the Nerdist podcast, which took place at 4th and B, a small concert venue in downtown San Diego. After warming up the crowd, Nerdist Chris Hardwick introduced his first guest, Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher for the first four seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Wheaton has forged a post-Trek career as an engaging and amusing writer, both online and in print. But despite his popularity among Comic-Con attendees, the audience at the Nerdist podcast had come to see two other stars of science fiction TV, Doctor Who's Karen Gillan and Matt Smith (shown below; thanks, Jenny, for the picture!).
According to their biographies, neither Gillan nor Smith has much of a background in physics, or even in science. Both actors decided to pursue careers in drama while still in high school. But when a member of the audience asked Smith whom he based his portrayal of the Doctor on, Smith replied, "Albert Einstein." The actor keeps a book of the physicist's quotations in his bathroom for inspiration.
Star Trek, Doctor Who, and other science fiction franchises depend increasingly on sophisticated computer-generated imagery (CGI) to depict worlds that are too elaborate to re-create in any other way. Achieving verisimilitude, or at least a convincing sense of disbelief, requires adhering to familiar physical laws even in microgravity and other unfamiliar settings. How do CGI artists ensure their animations are physically plausible?
I found my answer from the extension school of the University of California, San Diego—or, rather, at the school's Comic-Con booth. Most of the CGI that ends up on the screens of movie theaters, TVs, computers, and game consoles is created with the help of a powerful software package called Maya. "The physics is baked in," one of the school's staff explained to me.
Maya is made by Autodesk of San Rafael, California. Hoping to find the source of Maya's physics power, I looked at its latest brochure, where I found this sales pitch:
Take advantage of the multi-threaded NVIDIA® PhysX® engine to create rigid-body simulations directly in the Maya viewport—and if you use PhysX in your game engine, you’ll be matching the runtime solution. The new Digital Molecular Matter plug-in from Pixelux Entertainment™ enables you to create highly realistic shattering simulations with multiple interacting materials. Meanwhile, further development of the Nucleus unified simulation framework and its associated modules means that convincing pouring, splashing, and boiling liquid effects are easier to achieve.
In case it's not clear from the paragraph above, PhysX is a microprocessor whose architecture is designed specifically to calculate the physics that underlies realistic animation. Video games need such physics processing units (PPUs, as they're known) to keep up with the action. Animators, I presume, need them to speed the creative process.
Although physics doesn't pervade Comic-Con and the media it showcases, physics has a strong and diverse presence there. What's more, like George R. R. Martin's Westeros, Iain M. Banks's Culture, and other richly imagined alternative worlds, physics repays those who immerse themselves in it—with fascination, if not with money.
Charles Day
via: PhysicsToday.org
HAFA Completed Transactions up 55% in June
Servicers completed 2,213 pre-foreclosure short sales and deeds-in-lieu (DIL) under the government’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program during the month of June.
While barely a dent in the number of homes in the pre-foreclosure stage, Treasury’s latest report shows the program is beginning to pick up steam.
The number of completed HAFA transactions climbed 55 percent compared to the 1,428 transactions completed in
May. Earlier this year, between the months of March and April, HAFA deals jumped 70 percent.
HAFA has been in place since April of 2010. According to Treasury’s latest report, which covers program activity through June of this year, a total of 10,438 short sales and 316 DILs have concluded through HAFA.
Servicers started 3,631 new HAFA transactions during the month of June, which means an agreement has been extended to the homeowner for terms of a potential short sale or DIL.
Treasury notes that the short sale process lasts at least 120 days under the program, and requires both a third-party purchaser and cooperation of junior lien holders and mortgage insurers.
JPMorgan Chase has completed the most HAFA transactions among participating servicers with 3,596, but Wells Fargo is not far behind with 3,123.
Bank of America has finalized 1,873 HAFA agreements, Select Portfolio Servicing has completed 591, Litton Loan Servicing has finalized 483, and the tally for all other participating servicers comes to 1,088
Thursday, August 18, 2011
July 2011 Foreclosures 35% Fewer Than July 2010 Levels
Foreclosure activity has fallen to its lowest level in over three-and-a-half years, according to RealtyTrac.
The company released its July foreclosure market report on [last] Thursday, which showed a 4 percent decline in filings from the previous month and a drop of 35 percent when compared to July 2010.
Last month, foreclosure filings – including default notices, scheduled auctions, and REO bank repossessions – were reported on 212,764 U.S. properties. That figure equates to one in every 611 housing units with a foreclosure filing.
The latest numbers from RealtyTrac mark the 10th straight month the company has recorded year-over-year decreases in foreclosure activity and the lowest monthly total since November 2007.
James Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s CEO say while the string of declines was initially triggered by the robo-signing controversy back in October 2010, the downward trend in foreclosure activity “has now taken on a life of its own.”
“It appears that the foreclosure processing delays, combined with the smorgasbord of national and state-level foreclosure prevention efforts – including loan modifications, lender-borrower mediations, and mortgage payment assistance for the unemployed – may be allowing more distressed homeowners to stave off foreclosure,” Saccacio said.
“Unfortunately, the falloff in foreclosures is not based on a robust recovery in the housing market but on short-term interventions and delays that will extend the current housing market woes into 2012 and beyond,” Saccacio continued.
Filings were down in all stages of the foreclosure process — by single-digits on a month-over-month basis and double-digit decreases in the 20-40 percent range on an annual basis.
RealtyTrac’s data show that default notices (NOD, LIS) were filed for the first time on a total of 59,516 U.S. properties in July. Foreclosure auctions (NTS, NFS) were scheduled for 85,419 homes last month.
Lenders repossessed a total of 67,829 properties (REO) in July. While the overall number represented a decline, RealtyTrac said it recorded a spike in REO activity of more than 20 percent in a few states, namely New York, Massachusetts, Georgia, Virginia, and Illinois.
Nevada posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate for the 55th straight month, even with a 28 percent decline in filings compared to a year ago.
California claimed the No. 2 spot on RealtyTrac’s top-10 list, with Arizona taking the third highest position. Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 include Georgia, Utah, Florida, Michigan, Idaho, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
RealtyTrac reported that it’s seeing a spike in foreclosure activity in some especially hard-hit cities.
In Florida, for example, the Naples-Marco Island metro area posted an 83 percent increase in filings from June to July, and the Ocala metro’s foreclosure activity jumped 60 percent.
In California, the Stockton metro saw a 57 percent rise in filings month-over-month, and in Vallejo-Fairfield the increase was 33 percent
Rates on 15-Year Fixed Lowest Ever Recorded
August 11, 2011—The average rate for a 15-year fixed loan dropped to 3.54 percent last week from 3.66 percent the week before, according to Freddie Mac—the lowest result since 1991.
The average rate on the 30-year fixed loan fell to a yearly low of 4.39 percent from 4.55 percent the previous week.
Mortgage rates tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. A weakening U.S. economy has led many investors to shift money from stocks to bonds, which are seen as safer bets. That has pushed Treasury yields to their lowest level this year. Bond yields fall as demand increases.
Low mortgage rates and depressed home prices have done little to revive the moribund housing market.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac collects rates from lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.
The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage fell to 3.18 percent, its lowest level on records that go back to January 2005. Last week’s reading of 3.25 percent also was a record low.
The average rate for one-year adjustable-rate loans rose to 3.02 percent from 2.95 percent last week. Last week’s average rate matched the record low set two weeks earlier on records dating back to 1984.
The average fees for the 30-year and 15-year fixed loans and the 5-year adjustable loan were unchanged at 0.8 point, 0.7 point and 0.6 point, respectively. The average fee for the one-year ARM fell to 0.5 point from 0.6 point last week.
