Counterpunch: A housing crash update

Numbers of 'prime' borrowers at least 60 days behind on mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie doubled between October '08 and January '09, when it reached nearly 750,000. Obama's mortgage Modification Program can't keep up with the size of the problem. 'Cramdown' legislation (which would allow judges to mark down the mortgage principal to current market value) is likely to fail because powerful bondholders are against it. Foreclosures. already under-reported because banks re keeping most foreclosed properties off the market, will carry on rising. MW likens the situation to that of Sisyphus, rolling his boulder up the hill only to see it roll back down when the effort became too much. Sisy tried lots of tricks to avoid this punishment but the gods got him in the end.