I remember a story I heard when I was in high school about a coach who sent a play in at a football game and told the guy that was running the play in to tell the quarterback to give the ball to Willey.  It was 4th and 2; they were in the huddle and the quarterback says, we are giving the ball to Willey.  Willey says no, that he does not want the ball, so the quarterback calls time out and heads to the sideline.  The coach asks what seems to be the problem, I told you to give the ball to Willey.  The quarterback says, Willey doesn’t want the ball.  This reminds me of what is going on in the present foreclosure market.  I was reading in the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal about the massive effort to save mortgages.  JPMorgan Chase has launched a plan to modify the terms of $70 million in mortgages for borrowers who are behind on their payments or soon could be behind in their payments. 

It has been my experience from looking at foreclosures in our area, that most people do not want the houses.  For example, if someone owes $600,000 on a house that is presently worth $400,000, they do not want the house.  They do not want their loan modified – they just want out from under the obligation.  This is why so many people are “leaving in the middle of the night” and dropping the keys to their house in their bank’s drive through deposit.

I’m sure there are some people that would like to stay in their homes, but I think bankers need to realize that there are a lot of people that “don’t want the house”.

Sincerely yours,

James Wedgeworth