Scope of foreclosure crisis daunts government

Government programs to help homeowners are specifically designed not to help such investors, though in reality it may be hard to weed them out.

Complex investments
Traditionally, lenders evaluated borrowers carefully because they held onto the mortgages for the life of the loan. That process started to change in the late 1980s, as Wall Street found new ways to package the loans into securities to sell to investors.

Investors were attracted to these new mortgage-backed securities because they paid better returns than government bonds.

At the beginning of this decade, the Federal Reserve started cutting interest rates to historic lows. So investors poured money into the U.S. mortgage market, particularly into securities made up of high-interest mortgages made to borrowers with poor credit records.

The high-interest, risky mortgages, called "subprime," boomed, from $160 billion in new loans in 2001 to more than $600 billion in both 2005 and 2006, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade publication.

Lenders stopped worrying about the creditworthiness of borrowers and offered them ever-riskier mortgages. Most of those loans were made by commission-driven mortgage brokers, who had nothing to lose if the mortgage went bad because it had been resold.

"By the time it defaults, it's somebody else's headache," said Barry Ritholtz, CEO of research firm FusionIQ.

When mortgages are packaged into securities, borrowers' monthly payments are divided up and sent to thousands of investors around the world. With so many owners, helping troubled borrowers is tougher. Many of these investors have been reluctant to agree to drastic loan modifications, such as reducing the principal balance, because they don't want to take a big loss.

"We and others have gone to these investors, and they're just not having it," said Evan Wagner, spokesman for Pasadena, Calif.-based IndyMac Federal Bank, which has been run by the FDIC since July. "They don't want to take more losses than they have to." Without such modifications, many homeowners can't avoid foreclosure.

Democrats on Capitol Hill are frustrated.

On Friday, six House Democrats, including Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., accused hedge fund investors in a letter of blocking loan modifications and called them to a hearing on the issue next month.

"For the hedge fund industry, which has flourished for much of the past decade, to take steps so actively in opposition to what is currently in the national economic interest is deeply troubling," they wrote.

Job losses
The No. 1 reason people fall behind on their mortgage is loss of a job, or some source of income, perhaps from a divorce or death of a spouse. If a borrower is unemployed, lenders don't have many options but foreclosure.

Two years ago, about 36 percent of mortgage delinquencies were caused by loss of income or unemployment, according to research by mortgage finance company Freddie Mac. But that number has risen to 45 percent this year as the unemployment rate has ticked up to a five-year high of 6.1 percent.

Jon Falen, 33, put his four-bedroom house in Olathe, Kan., with high-end appliances, granite kitchen countertops and a landscaped lot, on the market more than two years ago after health problems forced him to leave his job as an air traffic controller.

Falen and his wife, now delinquent on their two home loans, are finally scheduled to sell their house next month.

But there's a big catch: The buyer has agreed to pay only $490,000, which is $70,000 less than what the couple paid for it in 2002.

Economy in Turmoil Jobless rate rises to 26-year high Out-of-work with no place to land, the legions of America's unemployed are growing. The nation's unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in June, a 26-year high. Factory orders rise more than expected in May Calif., other states face tough budget choices Pending home sales climb in May Manufacturing report boosts economic hope

Making matters worse, Falen and his wife owe $675,000 to two lenders because they used their home equity — which soared during the housing boom — to pay off student loans and remodeling expenses.

Though Falen and his family seem to have avoided becoming another foreclosure statistic by cashing out on retirement plans and dipping deeply into savings, he is chastened by the drawn-out experience.

"Any debt right now scares me to death," he said.

Falling behind again
It's hard to fix something that keeps breaking. Roughly one-third of all subprime loans modified in the third quarter of last year were delinquent again within 10 months, according to a Credit Suisse report released this month.

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