I live in the Seattle Area. If one looks at the absorption rate for homes over $1M for the last decade it’s running under 2% per month on average (this means that very few million dollar homes sell each month). There’s less cost in just leaving the borrower in the house.

Under Basel Accord rules and US regulation, mortgages are given a preferential credit risk weighting of 50 percent

What’s so disturbing is that I know of “regular” folks who after missing just a few payments are flung into foreclosure and inevitably out of their homes rather quickly.

I think the rich just have more buffers, so the foreclosures take longer to show up. But even in high end areas (Atherton, Woodside) multi-million dollar foreclosures are slowly showing up on Google maps. No personal anecdotes of old money running out, but there is some new money with the recent recovery in tech.

I live in Portola Valley, Woodside area and personally know of several homes that have been quietly taken back by the banks, but almost a year later have not been put on the market. These homes are in the $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 dollar range. The reason must be the weak market, but how long do they plan to keep them? the market hasn’t improved in the last year. the banks are not being generous to large mortgage holders in delaying foreclosure, they are only looking out for themselves, and their own balance sheets.

I think that where the loan ended up is significant. Portfolio loans the banks don’t mind holding. The sub prime loans were sold (the banks knew a high percentage would go bad – it was a hot potato). The banks are scrambling to get back all those houses that they ‘sold’ but never transferred over.

With banks already under-capitalised, marking to market on jumbo mortgage means a bit hit which dents the bank’s ability to do other business leveraging its capital

This means the bank reserves only half as much against a mortgage loan as a corporate loan or consumer loan. As a result, if the bank is forced to recognise that a mortgage is not performing, they take an immediate hit to capital and reserves for which it has not provisioned in advance.

Add to that the cost of taxes, housing association fees, etc., and a foreclosure at the high end means committing a large chunk of cash while cutting into the bank’s future business scope.

Is this the first time this drama has played out? Maybe the banksters are letting some Mississippi pay day loan of the more prominent main streeters know who really is in control. The message seems to be: Play ball with us (politically) and forbearance shall be yours. Fuck with us (politically) and you will find yourself homeless on the street. We made you, and we can destroy you.

Silver, silver certificates, and Treasury bonds (that is to say, all the Government’s money) must be retired, and National Bank notes made the only money.

You will at once retire one-third of your circulation (your paper money) and call in one-half of your loans. Be careful to make a monetary [emergency] among your patrons, especially among influential businessmen.

The future [of our debt-based system] depends upon immediate action, as there is an increasing sentiment in favor of Government legal-tender notes and silver coinage.

I’d be a little leery of diving into a noted anti-semite and Nazi sympathizer’s oeuvre at this time. Okay, a lot leery, considering Lindbergh was associated with an American Fascist movement and got a medal from Hitler. Just saying, big grain of salt. Not saying banks are perfect or that capitalism hasn’t failed repeatedly because it is a self-corrupting system.