[snakeoil]

I keep hearing about how the banks are taking such a beating when a house goes into foreclosure. Let's look at a typical situation. Six years ago the average mortgage rate was 5%. The median home price was $268,000. If the home owner kept the home for 6 years (the average) the mortgage would have been paid down to $241,027. The interest paid to the bank in the six years would be $76,611.46. There were also numerous fees paid at mortgage origination.

A recent report says that 60% of the foreclosed homes are being kept off the market to keep the market from becoming saturated. (I know of two very nice homes in my area that are sitting and deteriorating. I suspect that the banks are sitting and waiting for the government to bail them out. If not, why doesn't the bank allow a well-qualified person to assume the mortgage?

[BilboBagend]

Not to mention standard accounting practices required by FASB and ignored by the banks.

The "bad assets" should have been written down to market, taking a one time loss and making the bank more profitable in every year after that point. One year of booking keeping pain, followed by many years of higher profits.

Ah, the egos and short term profit of the executives are the only thing that matters to any corporate executive.