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Refinancing mortgages could get easier

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - Oct. 18 (Other) - Refinancing mortgages could get easier San Francisco Chronicle Jean McGuinness has excellent credit, makes a good income and has never been late on a mortgage payment for the Alameda house she bought eight years ago. She could save several hundred dollars a month by refinancing at today's low interest rates, ... Mortgage rewrites add to debt Cincinnati.com Refinancing Chills US Home Purchases Amid Economic 'Squeeze' Financial Advisor Magazine Getting Mortgage Forgiveness On Home Loan Principal Remains A Focus Amid ... Red, White, and Blue Press Lewiston Sun Journal Authority Empire all 12 news ...

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'Double-Dip' in Housing Prices Even Worse Than Expected

Tue, 31 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - May. 31 (News) - U.S. single-family home prices dropped in March, dipping below their 2009 low, as the housing market remained bogged down by inventory and weak demand, a closely watched survey said Tuesday.

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BofA Segregates Almost Half of its Mortgages Into ‘Bad Bank’

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Bloomberg - By Dawn Kopecki - Mar. 09 (News) - Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the biggest U.S. lender by assets, is segregating almost half its 13.9 million mortgages into a “bad” bank comprised of its riskiest and worst-performing “legacy” loans, said Terry Laughlin, who is running the new unit.

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Councilman Proposes Lowering City Property Tax Rate - Politics News Story - WBAL Baltimore

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

WBAL-TV - Mar. 08 (News) -

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U.S. Pushes Mortgage Deal

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Nick Timiraos, Dan Fitzpatrick, Ruth Simon - Feb. 24 (News) - The Obama administration is trying to push through a settlement over mortgage-servicing breakdowns that could force America's largest banks to pay for reductions in loan principal worth billions of dollars.

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Home Sales Data Doubted

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Nick Timiraos - Feb. 22 (News Report) - The housing crash may have been more severe than initial estimates have shown. The National Association of Realtors is examining the possibility that it over-counted U.S. home sales dating back as far as 2007.

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Housing Crash Is Hitting Cities Once Thought to Be Stable

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By David Streitfeld - Feb. 14 (News Report) - The rolling real estate crash that ravaged Florida and the Southwest is delivering a new wave of distress to communities once thought to be immune — economically diversified cities where the boom was relatively restrained.

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When Irish Eyes Are Crying

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Vanity Fair - By Michael Lewis - Feb. 05 (Special Report) - First Iceland. Then Greece. Now Ireland, which headed for bankruptcy with its own mysterious logic. In 2000, suddenly among the richest people in Europe, the Irish decided to buy their country—from one another. After which their banks and government really screwed them. So where’s the rage?

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Foreclosure activity up across most US metro areas

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Associated Press - Jan. 27 (News) - The foreclosure crisis is getting worse as high unemployment and lackluster job prospects force homeowners in an increasing number of U.S. metropolitan areas into dire financial straits.

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U.S. home prices slide into 'double dip'

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Alejandro Lazo - Jan. 26 (News Report) - After rebounding last year with help from tax incentives, home sale prices fell in November — the fourth month-to-month decline in a row — according to the Case-Shiller Index.

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Stefanos Polyzoides plans to make cities more livable

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Sharon Bernstein - Jan. 23 (News Report) - The architect and his wife, Elizabeth Moule, are among the founders of the New Urbanism movement, a reaction against urban sprawl as well as the so-called urban renewal movement of the 1960s.

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Lawyer advises foreclosed clients to break back into their homes

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Nate Jackson - Jan. 14 (News Report) - Michael Pines, who was baseball legend Lenny Dykstra's attorney, admits to breaking into homes at least half a dozen times, leaving clients to squat while he defends their legal right to possession.

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Real Estate Rage Erupts in Hangzhou

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Jonathan Shieber - Jan. 11 (News Report) - A week after a story by China’s state broadcaster on affordable housing in Beijing set off a round of riotous complaints, a real riot over real estate erupted in the southern city of Hangzhou.

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The Cost of Success: Life in Beijing's Cellars

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Der Spiegel - By Andreas Lorenz - Dec. 26 (Special Report) - As speculators and increasing demand drive up Beijing's real estate prices, those who cannot afford the rent are going underground -- literally. Hundreds of cellars and air-raid shelters are being rented out as living spaces in the Chinese capital.

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Caught by mistake in foreclosure web

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Michelle Conlin - Dec. 08 (Special Report) - By now, you may have heard the stories of bank robo-signers powering through hundreds of foreclosure affidavits a day without verifying a single fact. But most of those involved homeowners who had stopped paying their mortgage. They were genuine defaulters. Now a new species of homeowner is getting pushed into foreclosure hell.

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Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Rolling Stone - By Matt Taibbi - Nov. 10 (Special Report) - They certainly have no incentive to penetrate the profound criminal mysteries of the great American mortgage bubble of the 2000s, perhaps the most complex Ponzi scheme in human history — an epic mountain range of corporate fraud in which Wall Street megabanks conspired first to collect huge numbers of subprime mortgages, then to unload them on unsuspecting third parties like pensions, trade unions and insurance companies (and, ultimately, you and me, as taxpayers) in the guise of AAA-rated investments. Selling lead as gold, shit as Chanel No. 5, was the essence of the booming international fraud scheme that created most all of these now-failing home mortgages.

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At Legal Fringe, Empty Houses Go to the Needy

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Catharine Skipp, Damien Cave - Nov. 09 (News Report) - Save Florida Homes Inc. and its owner, Mark Guerette, have found foreclosed homes for several needy families here in Broward County, and his tenants could not be more pleased. Fabian Ferguson, his wife and two children now live a two-bedroom home they have transformed from damaged and abandoned to full and cozy. There is just one problem: Mr. Guerette is not the owner. Yet.

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A tale of two housing busts: Why is California recovering and Florida still struggling?

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Alejandro Lazo, E. Scott Reckard - Nov. 06 (Special Report) - California and Florida had a lot in common during the housing industry's last boom-and-bust cycle. Both were overrun by buyers hooked on high-risk mortgages, speculators who helped push prices to historic peaks and builders who didn't know when to stop. When the bubble burst, the two states became leaders in mortgage defaults, price declines and tracts of unsold new homes.

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Mortgage foreclosure uproar sweeps up Northeast Ohioans

Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Cleveland Plain Dealer - By Teresa Dixon Murray - Oct. 17 (News Report) - Tales like these portray the ugly side of the world of mortgage finance, a world embroiled in controversy amid claims of fraudulently signed foreclosure documents. As a result, many major banks have suspended foreclosures; state and federal officials are launching investigations; and experts everywhere fear this could wallop the limping economy again.

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Worries over fast-tracked foreclosures send bank stocks plummeting

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By David S. Hilzenrath - Oct. 14 (News) - Stocks of major banks declined sharply Thursday amid concern that widespread corner-cutting in the foreclosure process could saddle the financial system with a costly and paralyzing mess.

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Foreclosure-Gate's Doomsday Scenario

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By David Indiviglio - Oct. 13 (News Analysis) - The documentation problems surrounding mortgages originated during the housing boom just get uglier and uglier. One of the most recently surfaced worries is also one of the most serious. Bank analyst Josh Rosner envisions a doomsday scenario where banks would have to stand behind most private label mortgage-backed securities (MBS) that they had believed they had no exposure to. This would be disastrous.

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States to Probe Mortgage Mess

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Robbie Whelan, Ruth Simon - Oct. 11 (News) - A coalition of as many as 40 state attorneys general is expected Wednesday to announce an investigation into the mortgage-servicing industry, an effort some of them hope will pressure financial institutions to rewrite large numbers of troubled loans.

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Wealthy lawmakers increased their riches as economy sputtered in '09

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Hill - By Kevin Bogardus, Barbra Kim - Aug. 31 (News Report) - The wealthiest members of Congress grew richer in 2009 even as the economy struggled to recover from a deep recession. The 50 wealthiest lawmakers were worth almost $1.4 billion in 2009, about $85.1 million more than 12 months earlier, according to The Hill’s annual review of lawmakers’ financial disclosure forms. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) tops the list for the second year in a row. His minimum net worth was $188.6 million at the end of 2009, up by more than $20 million from 2008, according to his financial disclosure form. While the economy struggled through a recession during much of 2009 and the nation’s unemployment rate soared to 10 percent, the stock market rebounded, helping lawmakers with large investments. The S&P 500 rose by about 28 percent in 2009.

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Housing Fades as a Means to Build Wealth, Analysts Say

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Streitfeld - Aug. 22 (News) - Housing will eventually recover from its great swoon. But many real estate experts now believe that home ownership will never again yield rewards like those enjoyed in the second half of the 20th century, when houses not only provided shelter but also a plump nest egg.

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Property Insurance Crisis in the Sunshine State

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - Jul. 31 (News) - This First Coast Forum looks at the property insurance crisis in the Sunshine State. Some have warned that the state is on the verge of economic disaster if a major storm blows through. A large number of homeowners in the state are now covered by Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, potentially opening the state up to huge liability claims.

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