Foreclosure Nation

Press Release FDIC Report Examines How An Orderly Resolution of Lehman Brothers Could Have Been Structured Under the Dodd-Frank Act FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 18, 2011 Media Contact: Andrew Gray (202) 898-7192 E-mail: angray@fdic.gov The FDIC on Monday released a report examining h...

• Read More
• Comments

The FDIC released a report, The Orderly Liquidation of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. under the Dodd-Frank Act, today examining how the FDIC could have structured an orderly resolution of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. under the orderly liquidation authority of Title II of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street R...

• Read More
• Comments

RealtyTrac's March housing study reports a 15% decrease in foreclosure activity > between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, as well as a 27% > decline compared to the same period a year ago. But before you break out the champagne, > the decline is being attributed to exte...

• Read More
• Comments

> Although this is not a joke in the traditional sense, it did make me laugh out loud. > Regardless of bad things get, just be happy you're not a servicing manager in the > District of Columbia trying to comply with the new "District of Columbia Department > of Insurance, Securities, and Banking'...

• Read More
• Comments

News and Information about Financial Education from the FDIC In This Issue • Message from the FDIC • FDIC Updates Money Smart for Young Adults • FDIC Advisory Committee Discusses Financial Education, Low- and Moderate-Income Mortgage Lending • Reminder: HHS Offers Funding, Other Resources ...

• Read More
• Comments

I. President Obama established the Hardest Hit Fund in February 2010 to provide targeted aid to families in states hit hard by the economic and housing market downturn. Each state housing agency gathered public input to implement programs designed to meet the distinct challenges struggling homeown...

• Read More
• Comments

Program Fact Sheet Background In February 2010, US Treasury (Treasury) created the “Housing Finance Agency (HFA) Innovation Fund for the Hardest-Hit Housing Markets” (HFA Hardest-Hit Fund) and allocated funds under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) to five states: Arizona, ...

• Read More
• Comments

Section One On February 19, 2010, President Obama announced $1.5 billion in funding to help families in the five states that have been hit the hardest by the combination of housing price declines and unemployment. Florida Housing Finance Corporation (“Florida Housing”) appreciates the confidence t...

• Read More
• Comments

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE On March 29, 2010, building on the first HFA Hardest-Hit Fund, the Administration announced an expansion of the initiative to target five additional states with high shares of their populations living in areas of concentrated economic distress. This second HFA Hardest-Hit Fu...

• Read More
• Comments

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE On August 11, 2010, the Administration announced an expansion of the HHF to provide additional assistance targeted at unemployed borrowers in states with the highest unemployment rates. This expansion of the HHF will include up to $2 billion in funding for HFAs to offer a stan...

• Read More
• Comments

1) What is Florida HFA Hardest-Hit Fund (HHF)? Florida Housing Finance Corporation (Florida Housing) was directed by US Treasury (Treasury) to create and administer foreclosure prevention assistance programs that address the unique issues of our state. Treasury requires that Florida use a por...

• Read More
• Comments

1) What is Florida HFA Hardest-Hit Fund (HHF)? Florida Housing Finance Corporation (Florida Housing) was directed by US Treasury (Treasury) to create and administer foreclosure prevention assistance programs that address the unique issues of our state. Treasury requires that Florida use a por...

• Read More
• Comments

In what passes for self-restraint these days, House Republicans have been insisting that they do not intend to repeal last year’s Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Not in one fell swoop, anyway. A direct assault on Dodd-Frank would be so blatantly biased toward banks that it would be sure to prov...

• Read More
• Comments

Banks will be forced to keep some risk when they securitize all but the most conservatively written mortgages under rules that regulators are expected to vote on Tuesday, the New York Times reported on Monday. But the banks are likely to be given broad leeway determining what risks they keep, the T...

• Read More
• Comments

WASHINGTON - Elizabeth Warren, the Obama administration's defender of financial consumers, will venture into the corporate lion's den this week, along with Jamie Dimon, CEO of banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. The two will be speakers at an event set for Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ...

• Read More
• Comments

"I made a mistake." ~ Alan Greenspan 2008 Throughout the various policy, scholarly, and media debates over the financial crisis the focus has been on a handful of bad actors. Among the culprits are greedy homeowners, lazy underwriters, asleep-at-the-wheel regulators, irresponsible investors, fraud...

• Read More
• Comments

With foreclosure sales steadily rising, four states are concerned that the use of the foreclosure sale prices in appraisals of neighboring homes is distorting the market. Legislators in Illinois, Nevada, and Missouri have all proposed separate bills that would exclude or restrict foreclosure sales ...

• Read More
• Comments

On Monday the Treasury announced that it will wind down the remaining $142 billion mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolio it carries. This news comes just as the federal government is making plans to drastically reduce its role in the mortgage marketplace. The announcement is prompting many to ...

• Read More
• Comments

Federal regulators proposed a new rule Wednesday that would require certain financial institutions, including large mortgage lenders, to account for risk as they structure incentive compensation packages for executives and employees. New rules for risk-based pay are a mandate of the Dodd-Frank Ref...

• Read More
• Comments

If you want to buy a $300,000 house, you’ll need $60,000 as a down payment to get the best interest rate on your home loan, according to a proposal released Tuesday by federal regulators. A group of federal agencies announced a high standard for home buyers to get the best mortgage rates: Only thos...

• Read More
• Comments

SAN DIEGO - New financial regulatory reforms should help reduce the edge that large banks have over smaller ones because of their implicit support from government, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday. Bernanke argued the Dodd-Frank reform legislation will address the issue of fi...

• Read More
• Comments

NEW YORK -- On Wednesday, the Treasury Department celebrated the fact that its $250 billion investment in the nation's banking system has officially made money. What's more, the entirety of the federal government's efforts to rescue a financial system that sowed the seeds of its own demise will also...

• Read More
• Comments

Take your pick: A $100 billion loss. A nearly $24 billion profit. A $100 billion profit. When it comes to calculating the bill for the government’s bailout of banks, insurers, automakers and the ailing housing market, the numbers have been all over the map. But on Wednesday, Treasury officials l...

• Read More
• Comments

Washington TWO and a half years ago, Congress passed the legislation that bailed out the country’s banks. The government has declared its mission accomplished, calling the program remarkably effective “by any objective measure.” On my last day as the special inspector general of the bailout progra...

• Read More
• Comments

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve will publish new details about its emergency lending to banks during the 2008 financial crisis after the Supreme Court on Monday rejected an industry appeal for secrecy. The Fed said it would release detailed information soon about its main emergency aid program, t...

• Read More
• Comments

David N. Miller, the chief investment officer of the Treasury Department’s bailout program, is planning on leaving the government at the end of the month to return to the private sector. Since the onset of the financial crisis, Mr. Miller, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, has worked for tw...

• Read More
• Comments

WASHINGTON: The Supreme Court let stand a ruling that the U.S. Federal Reserve must disclose details about its emergency lending programs to banks during the financial crisis in 2008. A group representing major commercial banks had asked the high court to reverse a ruling by a federal appeals court...

• Read More
• Comments

American International Group (AIG.N) expects others to bid for the mortgage-backed securities that it has offered to pay $15.7 billion to buy back from the U.S. government, the insurer's chief executive told the Wall Street Journal. AIG disclosed the offer it made to the Federal Reserve earlier thi...

• Read More
• Comments

Big banks may be too big to save, writes Simon Johnson: "People sometimes talk about “systemic risk” as if it were intrinsic to the financial system. But modern financial history, including in emerging markets, strongly indicates otherwise. When banks and other financial institutions get into troubl...

• Read More
• Comments

NOSTALGIA is running high on Wall Street for the days when junk mortgage underwriting and opaque derivatives trading juiced bank profits. As regulators continue to devise the machinery of the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform law, major financial institutions are working overtime in Washington to bring t...

• Read More
• Comments

The Federal Reserve stress test results come out Thursday. Early reports indicate that as many of the 19 large financial institutions surveyed may need to raise more capital to satisfy regulators that they can deal with the current economic challenges. How should individuals view the stress test re...

• Read More
• Comments

NEW YORK -- The nation's five largest mortgage firms have saved more than $20 billion since the housing crisis began in 2007 by taking shortcuts in processing troubled borrowers' home loans, according to a confidential presentation prepared for state attorneys general by the nascent consumer bureau ...

• Read More
• Comments

The banks may have weathered the financial crisis, but the rest of the country hasn’t. Taxpayers are still on the hook for federally guaranteed bank debt. Homeowners’ equity continues to erode. Small businesses still have trouble getting loans, and savers are still getting hammered by near zero inte...

• Read More
• Comments

What I described as "Malpractice at the Bernanke Federal Reserve" has now turned into billion dollar annuities to the stock holders of the large banks. The Bernanke Fed began paying interest on reserves held by the banks in October 2008 when the financial crisis heightened after large financial firm...

• Read More
• Comments

Gensler Discusses Staggered Approach to Implementing “Mosaic” of Dodd-Frank Rules Citing improved profitability, loan quality and borrower demand, as well as a flattening out or slowdown in the rate of bank failures, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair on March 22 said the c...

• Read More
• Comments

New York City Comptroller John Liu announced this week a victory for the members of the New York City Pension Funds who have long been calling for banks to conduct an independent audit of their mortgage foreclosure practices. The NYC Pension Funds called for an audit of the banks’ practices in Nov...

• Read More
• Comments

Cities that had been hard-hit by the housing market crash now offer some of the best buys in real estate and where it makes much more sense to buy than rent, according to a new report from Deutsche Bank. The bank’s study measures affordability by the share of income that Americans are paying to own ...

• Read More
• Comments

The recession and economic woes caused once-booming cities to never reach the potential that some builders had forecast in housing. Overbuilding during the housing boom era and some cities' high unemployment has left several cities across the country facing a high number of vacant homes that are bla...

• Read More
• Comments

In January, first-time home buyers made up 29 percent of the market, the lowest since the National Association of REALTORS® started tracking first-time buyers on a monthly basis in 2008. In a healthy market, first-time buyers generally make up 40 percent to 45 percent of all purchasers. So with ...

• Read More
• Comments

Generation X — adults ages 31 to 45 — are expected to lead the recovery in the housing market, according to real estate experts in a recent webinar produced by the National Association of Home Builders. During the event, speakers highlighted results of a survey of 10,000 buyers in 27 metro areas. ...

• Read More
• Comments

Bargain prices on housing combined with low interest rates below 5 percent may bring the real estate market its busiest spring season in years, economists say. Distressed sales continue to put downward pressure on home prices, which may lure more buyers off the fence and ready to snag a deal dur...

• Read More
• Comments

WASHINGTON — A new home, the dream of many would-be buyers, makes less and less financial sense in many places. A wave of foreclosures has driven down the cost of previously occupied homes and made them even more of a comparative bargain. By contrast, new homes have become more expensive. The medi...

• Read More
• Comments

Performance of commercial real estate in the United States is bifurcated, according to Moody’s Investors Service, with larger properties in major markets recovering value while distressed properties remain well off the peak. When looking at the commercial real estate sector as a whole, the New York...

• Read More
• Comments

For many homebuyers, mortgage financing is hard to come by these days. Lenders have tightened up credit requirements in an about-face from the lax lending of pre-crisis days that put people into mortgages they couldn’t afford and fueled record-high delinquencies. Evidence of constricted mortgage cr...

• Read More
• Comments

Federal regulators, seeking to outlaw a leading cause of the financial crisis, voted on Tuesday to propose new rules that would prohibit Wall Street banks from selling packages of risky mortgages to investors without holding onto a stake in the loans. The proposed rule would require banks to retain...

• Read More
• Comments

The Treasury Department will lead the way testing the $4.6 trillion mortgage-backed securities market. Timothy F. Geithner, who leads the agency, said on Monday that the Treasury would begin offloading $142 billion of mortgage bonds accumulated during the financial crisis. The gradual sale of the po...

• Read More
• Comments

U.S. lenders would have to offer mortgages with at least a 20 percent down payment if they want to repackage the loan to sell to other investors without keeping some of the risk on their books, according to a proposal U.S. bank regulators endorsed on Tuesday. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp boar...

• Read More
• Comments

Banks will be forced to retain some risk when they securitize all but the most conservative mortgages under rules that regulators are expected to vote on Tuesday. But the banks are likely to be given wide leeway in determining what risks to keep. Major banks, hoping to revive the mortgage securiti...

• Read More
• Comments

How often are you asked to sign something? I don't mean autographs or birthday cards, but documents that are legally and financially binding. It could be something as simple as signing a sales receipt or endorsing a check, or a life-altering action like buying a house. Either way, they are all contr...

• Read More
• Comments

> SBA Opens Temporary Refinancing Program to Real Estate Mortgages Maturing after December 2012 > > > WASHINGTON, D.C. –Small business owners with eligible commercial real estate mortgages maturing after Dec. 31, 2012, will be able to secure more stable, long-term financing through the U.S. Small...

• Read More
• Comments

Although commercial real estate prices dipped in December and January after three straight months of gains, they are up 4.2 percent from an eight-year low in August, and the overall trajectory for a commercial real estate recovery remains positive, according to reports this week in Commercial Real E...

• Read More
• Comments

Put another nail in the coffin for debit card rewards. Chase is notifying customers that they will no longer be able to earn points after July 19. The points accrued up until then will not expire. Chase had already closed off enrollment in the rewards program to new customers as of Feb. 8. Backgro...

• Read More
• Comments

Yes, it’s a roof, and yes, it’s an investment. But it’s far more than that. I wanted to live on our block from the first moment I saw it. I wish I could tell you that some quirky, perfect detail captured my heart, but there was no such “movie moment.” Somehow, the genteel dilapidation of its creaky...

• Read More
• Comments

A few weeks ago, when the Justice Department decided not to prosecute Angelo Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide, I wrote a column lamenting the fact that none of the big fish were likely to go to prison for their roles in the financial crisis. Soon after that column ran, I received ...

• Read More
• Comments

Judges have signed off on more than 5,000 warrants allowing borrowers who don't pay to be jailed since the start of 2010. Portfolio Recovery Associates, a debt buyer, made $44 million last year on $281 million in revenue, a 16% net margin. You wouldn't be crazy to think that debtor's prisons are a ...

• Read More
• Comments

Lennar, one of the nation’s largest home builders, reported lower quarterly orders on Tuesday, signaling continued weakness in the housing market. Shares fell 3.4 percent as the company said the important spring selling season, which began in early February, was not shaping up into a recovery from...

• Read More
• Comments

Lenders could bypass plenty of legal legwork when they foreclose on some homes, including abandoned houses, investment properties and vacation homes if a bill in the Florida House becomes law. The law would create an "alternative foreclosure procedure" that lenders could impose on owners of non-hom...

• Read More
• Comments

New data released by Lender Processing Services (LPS) Monday show that while delinquencies continue to decline, an enormous backlog of foreclosures still exists with overhang at every level. As of the end of February, foreclosure inventory levels stood at more than 30 times monthly foreclosure sal...

• Read More
• Comments

Fitch Ratings has reviewed all U.S. subprime mortgage securitizations rated by the agency and found little change in expected losses for the bond investors as default risk improved slightly. However, the agency says loss severities have increased due to longer foreclosure timelines and still-declini...

• Read More
• Comments

Mortgage servicers were plagued with lawsuits in the last quarter of 2010, according to an industry resource. A quarterly report conducted by Mortgage Daily shows the percentage of legal actions against servicers rose 42 percent in the last three months of 2010. Actions associated with loan modifi...

• Read More
• Comments

Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) gave the media an advance look Monday at the company’s February mortgage performance report to be released later this week. In what can be viewed as an anomaly of the current housing crisis, LPS’ data show that both the national mortgage delinquency rate and t...

• Read More
• Comments

Washington, D.C. (Source: FBI) – Today the FBI and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) entered into an agreement to combat Mortgage Fraud. The FBI and the MBA will make available a Mortgage Fraud Warning Notice as a proactive means of educating consumers and mortgage-lending professionals of the ...

• Read More
• Comments

Apparently seeing an opportunity in the wave of mortgage foreclosures, opportunists are using vacant homes as an invitation to work a scam, Florida officials say. By filing a fraudulent quit-claim deed they can tie up the title and either live in the home themselves or rent it out while the true ow...

• Read More
• Comments

Data released Monday shows an increase in mortgage related fraud in areas with high rates of foreclosure activities and underwater borrowers. Risk analytics firm Interthinx released its annual Mortgage Fraud Risk Report which analyzes loan applications and determines the most significant mortgage ...

• Read More
• Comments

The FBI and the MBA entered into an agreement to combat mortgage fraud, and will > make available a Mortgage Fraud Warning Notice as a "proactive means of educating > consumers and mortgage-lending professionals of the penalties and consequences of > this criminal activity." FBIMBAFraud [http://r...

• Read More
• Comments

When Mohammed Shukran took some time off from driving his cab to care for two ailing family members in 2009, he began worrying about the mortgage on his Flushing, N.Y., home. He enlisted the services of a company called Save My Home, which charged him $3,000 for a promise to get his bank to lower hi...

• Read More
• Comments

The financial meltdown has not slowed loan scams, as South Florida ranked first in mortgage fraud suspicious activity reports (SARs) per capita, according to the latest report from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Mortgage fraud can be added to the list of other financial crimes f...

• Read More
• Comments

The 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated Japan last week sent a ripple through the U.S. mortgage markets causing interest rates to lower this week. "With the crisis in Japan, investors rushed to buy the security of U.S. Treasury bonds, which lowered its yields and other interest ...

• Read More
• Comments

WASHINGTON — House Republicans announced a package of eight bills on Tuesday that would wind down the mortgage finance giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, more quickly than the Obama administration proposed. The proposals would dismantle Fannie and Freddie in a most ironic manner. The mortgage gia...

• Read More
• Comments

The GOP will hold votes on dismantling Fannie and Freddie next week, reports Peter Schroeder: "House Republicans are ready to take on the troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a series of bills that would likely chip away at the federal government’s role in the housing market. Ear...

• Read More
• Comments

Fannie Mae was warned in a 2006 internal report of abuses in the way lenders and their law firms handled foreclosures, long before regulators launched investigations into the mortgage industry's practices. The report said foreclosure attorneys in Florida had "routinely made" false statements in cou...

• Read More
• Comments

Freddie Mac issued new policy guidelines to its servicers this week that prohibit foreclosures in the name of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. (MERS). MERS was developed by the industry to keep track of the servicing rights on home loans. It was designed as a paperless property regist...

• Read More
• Comments

The nation’s second largest mortgage company says early workouts are central to its game plan for 2011. This “nip it in the bud” mindset can be key to getting in front of delinquencies before they turn into lost-cause foreclosures, and Freddie Mac says it’s making changes to the way it evaluates t...

• Read More
• Comments

In a legislative hearing scheduled for Thursday, the House Financial Services Committee will listen to eight proposals centered around winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on a faster timeline than proposed by the Obama administration last month. Among the eight proposals are measures to raise ...

• Read More
• Comments

In suburban Chicago, it's paradise to be a homebuyer. At the Millbrook Pointe development in quaint and pristine Wheeling, a $269,000, brick-and-stone townhouse comes with $25,000 in free upgrades, including wood-burning fireplaces, all-stainless steel kitchens and marbled bathrooms tricked out ...

• Read More
• Comments

A group of Bank of America Corp. shareholders filed suit Monday against the bank over its foreclosure paperwork practices. The suit was filed in the N.Y. Supreme Court in Manhattan. The Charlotte-based bank (NYSE:BAC) “did not properly record many of its mortgages when originated or acquired, which...

• Read More
• Comments

Perhaps in preparation for the meeting between bank representatives and lawmakers scheduled for Wednesday, servicers have reportedly drafted their own proposal in response to the robo-signing settlement they were given earlier this month. Ron D’Vari, CEO of asset management and capital markets adv...

• Read More
• Comments

Today Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a first-of-its-kind settlement against attorney Marshall C. Watson and his law firm, one of the largest foreclosure firms in Florida, for alleged improprieties in the prosecution of foreclosure cases throughout Florida. This settlement, which calls ...

• Read More
• Comments

State attorneys general say they are willing to work with mortgage servicers to reach a settlement deal that would resolve the joint investigation of industry practices that led to last fall’s robo-signing scandal and widespread foreclosure moratoriums. But no slap on the wrist will do. The group ...

• Read More
• Comments

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) filed a lawsuit last week against three former Washington Mutual (WaMu) executives and two of their wives, alleging that they ran the bank into the ground in order to increase their own compensation. The lawsuit names former WaMu CEO Kerry Killinger,...

• Read More
• Comments

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said last week that Bank of America, along with several other major servicers, must give shareholders a vote on whether or not the company must open up its foreclosure practices for an independent audit. The SEC ruled that BofA must include the option o...

• Read More
• Comments

After reports that the largest mortgage servicers, some attorneys general, and even some government agencies are not comfortable with the terms in the servicer proposal, there has been renewed effort to try to come to a solution that works for all parties. The proposal was given to servicers with t...

• Read More
• Comments

The nation’s top mortgage servicers met Wednesday in Washington with the attorneys general from five states as well as Obama administration officials, beginning negotiations in earnest over new rules for homeowners who are in default. The one thing everyone seemed to agree on was that an agreement...

• Read More
• Comments

To the Editor: In “Another Inside Job” (column, March 14), Paul Krugman endorsed the proposed settlement between the state attorneys general and five of the largest mortgage servicing firms in the nation, and condemned those policy makers who have questioned or criticized the proposal. Let’s be ...

• Read More
• Comments

Embattled foreclosure attorney David J. Stern has filed about $15 million in claims against eight lenders he formerly represented. Stern recently filed eight lawsuits in Miami-Dade and Broward counties against the very lenders that once hired him to handled tens of thousands of foreclosures. The l...

• Read More
• Comments

Opposition to the proposed servicer settlement developed a stronger stance this week as four attorneys general released a letter to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is leading the states’ investigation. Attorneys general Kenneth Cuccinelli of Virginia, Greg Abbott of Texas, Pam Bondi of Florid...

• Read More
• Comments

A plan to resolve a nationwide probe of foreclosure and mortgage-servicing practices is being opposed by four more Republican state attorneys general, who say the terms of a deal may foster a “moral hazard.” In a letter to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat who has taken the lead in the i...

• Read More
• Comments

Bank of America is about to give the students at Baldwin Preparatory School in North Palm Beach an economics lesson that could send them packing. The banking giant (NYSE: BAC) filed a foreclosure lawsuit March 11 against the for-profit Baldwin Preparatory School, along with managing members Gena S....

• Read More
• Comments

NEW YORK - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) could be forced to repurchase thousands of home equity loans, after a judge ruled in favor of a bond insurer that argued it could build its case based on a sampling of loans. The ruling against EMC Mortgage Corp, once a un...

• Read More
• Comments

Another lawsuit centered around mortgage securities backed by faulty loans may be brewing. The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has threatened to sue four banks and investment firms unless they refund more than $50 billion for mortgage-related bonds that went bad, according to the Wall...

• Read More
• Comments

After reports that the timeline to iron out final details of the robo-signing settlement is “ambitious,” representatives from several major servicers, attorneys general, and some federal regulators are said to have a meeting planned for Wednesday, marking their first face-to-face discussion of terms...

• Read More
• Comments

> According to a story in the Financial Times, "The five biggest US mortgage servicers > were told this week at a private meeting with regulators to consider paying delinquent > borrowers up to $21,000 each as part of a broader settlement of the foreclosure > crisis...The industry-wide "cash for...

• Read More
• Comments

Palm Beach Circuit Chief Judge Peter Blanc has advised foreclosure attorney David J. Stern that he gave improper notice to withdraw from his firm’s cases and will consider dismissals as a last-ditch solution if no one picks up cases for mortgage lenders. In a March 4 letter to Blanc, Stern begged...

• Read More
• Comments

The state budget squeeze is fast becoming a city budget squeeze, as struggling states around the nation plan deep cuts in aid to cities and local governments that will almost certainly result in more service cuts, layoffs and local tax increases. The cuts are widespread. Ohio plans to slash aid to...

• Read More
• Comments

To date, not a single mortgage lender has been sent to prison for their role in the financial crisis. At least one borrower hasn't been so lucky. Charlie Engle, the drug addict-turned-ultra-marathoner profiled by New York Times columnist Joe Nocera this week, is currently serving a 21-month sentenc...

• Read More
• Comments

There was once a time when the biggest defenders of Meredith Whitney's over the top, doomsday prediction that 2011 would be the year that municipal bonds defaulted in cataclysmic proportions were to be found at a certain business television network headquartered in New Jersey looking to have her app...

• Read More
• Comments

U.S. banks are resisting efforts by state attorneys general to force them to cut the amounts owed by some borrowers facing foreclosure. Yet mortgage companies already have reduced home-loan balances for more than 100,000 borrowers. How much larger the number will grow is likely to be at the cent...

• Read More
• Comments

Last summer, as President Obama’s premier plan to save millions of Americans from foreclosure foundered, the administration tossed a new life preserver to homeowners. Officials unveiled a $1 billion program to offer loans to help the jobless pay their mortgages until they could find work again. It...

• Read More
• Comments

UPDATED to reflect vote count of 252 to 170. The count was incorrectly stated previously as 218 to 109. The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Tuesday evening to end the administration’s flagship foreclosure prevention initiative, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The...

• Read More
• Comments

A push for servicers to implement principal write-downs and provide screening for as many modification options as possible before proceeding to foreclosure has been met with stiff resistance from servicers and some lawmakers. Meanwhile, the number of loan modifications pales in comparison to the nu...

• Read More
• Comments

Timothy Massad, acting assistant Treasury secretary, said this week that beginning next month Treasury will start publishing a scorecard grading the largest servicers based on their compliance with the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Though members of the House voted yesterday to end t...

• Read More
• Comments

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to terminate the Obama administration's signature anti-foreclosure effort, the beleaguered Home Affordable Modification Program. The 252-170 vote broke down mostly along party lines, with Republicans in favor of ending the program. HAMP, as it's kn...

• Read More
• Comments

Last summer, as President Obama’s premier plan to save millions of Americans from foreclosure foundered, the administration tossed a new life preserver to homeowners. Officials unveiled a $1 billion program to offer loans to help the jobless pay their mortgages until they could find work again. It...

• Read More
• Comments

The mortgage default risk index from University Financial Associates LLC (UFA) registered a reading of 141 for the first quarter of 2011. The index’s baseline of 100 correlates to the default risk of loans made during the 1990s. Translation – under the current economic conditions, investors and le...

• Read More
• Comments

Title insurance premiums increased slightly in 2010 compared to the previous year, according to the American Land Title Association’s preliminary 2010 Year-end and Fourth-Quarter Market Share Analysis. According to the report, the title insurance industry generated $9.61 billion in title insura...

• Read More
• Comments

In terms of market share, Fidelity held about 38% of the market in 2010, First American had about 27%, Stewart 14%, and Old Republic clocked in at 11%. The rest was held by regional underwriters. The release can be found at ALTAShare [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy6u9cdab&et=1105015193164&s=6013...

• Read More
• Comments

Lauderhill couple say Chase locked them out of their house John Ferrari came home after work one night to find the locks on his Lauderhill home changed and a sign on the window declaring that the property was being managed by Chase Home LLC. Ferrari and his wife, Lisa, knew their house was to be ...

• Read More
• Comments

Stepping up their attacks on Elizabeth Warren and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week, House Republicans painted a picture of an all-powerful agency -- Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus called it "the most powerful agency that's ever been created in Washington"-- whose di...

• Read More
• Comments

WASHINGTON -- Eighteen Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives sided with Republicans in a symbolic vote to terminate the Obama administration's signature anti-foreclosure program. Among those Democrats was California Rep. George Miller, a member of House Democratic leadership and a key ally ...

• Read More
• Comments

Bill Daley is recusing himself from picking a head of consumer financial protection, report Brady Dennis and Zachary Goldfarb: "President Obama’s new chief of staff, former banker William M. Daley, has recused himself from the search for a nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a ...

• Read More
• Comments

Last week, at a House hearing on financial institutions and consumer credit, Republicans lined up to grill and attack Elizabeth Warren, the law professor and bankruptcy expert who is in charge of setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Ostensibly, they believed that Ms. Warren had o...

• Read More
• Comments

If you were about to get a check for $3,000, what would you do with it? If you've already thought about it, you're not alone. It's tax refund time and two thirds of Americans have received or are anticipating a refund. Last year 119 million Americans received refunds totaling more than $358 billion....

• Read More
• Comments

The industry’s shadow inventory of repossessed and soon-to-be repossessed homes that aren’t visible as properties for sale has contracted, according to CoreLogic. Analysis released by the company Wednesday shows that the shadow inventory of residential properties as of January 2011 fell to 1.8 mill...

• Read More
• Comments

If you thought the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had its hands full remedying the victims of mortgage abuse, guess what's probably next? Once the stock market starts sizzling again and Boomers may be deluded into thinking they can retire, there's not much that will stop a broker or insurance ...

• Read More
• Comments

DES MOINES, Iowa — Americans who were afraid to open their 401(k) statements during the recession are finding good news inside the envelope now: For the most part, their accounts have come all the way back and then some. Nine in 10 of the popular retirement plans are at least back to where they wer...

• Read More
• Comments

Twenty five banks failed in 2008, and, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the number of banks at risk of failing has almost doubled in the last two years. Because many of us are concerned about other banks that could also fail, we want to tell you how to protect yoursel...

• Read More
• Comments

Americans' desire to save more could slow the U.S. economic recovery, according to a study released Thursday by the Federal Reserve, which said wealthy families were hit hardest by the financial crisis. Most Americans saw their wealth decline from 2007 and 2009 as home and stock prices fell, but th...

• Read More
• Comments

60 Minutes Gets A Rare Look At How The FDIC Takes Over Banks And Reassures Depositors A lot of people are worried about their banks these days. Devastated giants like Citigroup get bailed out again and again and again. Recent stress tests show some banks need billions more, and many smaller banks a...

• Read More
• Comments

Editor's Note: On Oct. 3, 2008, Congress raised the FDIC and NCUA insurance amount to $250,000. This change has been extended to Dec. 31, 2013. To say it's disconcerting to find that your bank has been shut down by authorities is probably an understatement. We asked David Barr, spokesman for the F...

• Read More
• Comments

I. With so many banks failing this year (115 as of last Friday) and with predictions that the rate will not likely slow for at least the next few years, people are starting to wonder if maybe their bank will be next. While it is hard to determine if a bank will close or not, there are a few things ...

• Read More
• Comments

WASHINGTON — Home construction in the United States is all but coming to a halt. Americans are on track to buy fewer new homes than in any year since the government began keeping data almost a half-century ago. Sales are now just half the pace of 1963 – even though there are 120 million more people...

• Read More
• Comments

NEW YORK - High residential vacancies are killing many housing markets, as foreclosed homes sit on the market and depress sale prices and property values. And it's only getting worse: The national vacancy rate crept up to just over 13% according to last week's decennial census report. That's up fr...

• Read More
• Comments

Reports have recently emerged of homeowners being sued for mortgage fraud after taking out "no-doc" loans -- mortgages that require very little documentation. Courts have even turned to a new form of "debtor's prisons." WASHINGTON -- More Americans signed contracts to buy homes in February, but s...

• Read More
• Comments

The housing market remains mired in trouble, with plummeting prices and slumping sales. First-time buyers are fleeing, sellers are frustrated, builders are depressed and lenders are skittish about making new loans. “The numbers are gloomy, no question,” said the economist Karl E. Case. “We’re boun...

• Read More
• Comments

A recent report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reveals interesting information regarding the shadow inventory of the hardest hit states. It is pretty well known that Arizona, Nevada, California, and Florida have been most affected by the foreclosure crisis. Together the four states ...

• Read More
• Comments

Although the foreclosure crisis at times appears like an all-encompassing national problem, there are states and metropolitan areas that are harder impacted than others. From the onset of the foreclosure crisis, four states have continually had relatively worse foreclosure problems: Arizona, Califor...

• Read More
• Comments

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell sharply in February, after several months of increases, according to a report released Monday, in an another blow to a sagging housing market that may have further to fall. Existing home sales dropped 9.6 percent from January to February to an annual rate ...

• Read More
• Comments

A gain in the number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes in February failed to make up for the ground lost a month earlier, a sign the U.S. housing market has yet to join the economic recovery. The index of pending home resales increased 2.1 percent after a 2.8 percent dro...

• Read More
• Comments

Washington - Pending home sales increased in February but with notable regional variations, according to the National Association of Realtors®. The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator, rose 2.1 percent to 90.8, based on contracts signed in February, from 88.9 in January. The inde...

• Read More
• Comments

The number of home sales now pending is up in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. Miami-Dade is experiencing the biggest boost, with total pending sales – including single-family homes and condominiums – rising 18 percent, year-over-year in March, to 11,...

• Read More
• Comments

The latest RPX Composite price from the New York-based real estate data and analytics firm RadarLogic, which tracks home prices in 25 metropolitan areas, declined to $179.50 per square foot in January, its lowest level since 2007. According to the company’s January 2011 RPX Monthly Housing Market ...

• Read More
• Comments

Data released this morning by Standard & Poor’s show that the 20-city composite reading of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index fell 1.0 percent in January 2011 when compared to the previous month. The 20-city composite is down 3.1 percent from its January 2010 level. San Diego and Washington D....

• Read More
• Comments

The much-feared "double-dip" in housing may finally be here, as home prices in 11 major U.S. cities reached new lows in December, according to data released today. Home prices across 20 major U.S. cities have fallen drastically over the last year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index ...

• Read More
• Comments

WASHINGTON Existing-home sales fell in February following three straight monthly increases, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Existing-home sales1, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, dropped 9.6 percent to a seasonally...

• Read More
• Comments

Americans face two very annoying prospects in the next few weeks. One is that the government may shut down because elected officials can't agree on a federal budget that begins trimming the country's routine deficits and spiraling federal debt. The threat of a gridlock-induced shutdown just makes th...

• Read More
• Comments

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has issued a notice to the chief executives of all the lenders it regulates warning them of the risks involved in real estate-owned exchange programs. The agency notes that deterioration in asset quality due to the weak economic environment has le...

• Read More
• Comments

Subject: Co-Sponsor H.Res 25. Preserve, Protect, & Defend the Mortgage Interest Deduction. Dear [Decision Maker], As both your constituent and as one of more than one million members of the National Association of REALTORS, I remain steadfast in my belief that economic recovery depends in large m...

• Read More
• Comments

In 2009, the Internal Revenue Service announced plans to unleash a new enforcement unit called the Global High Wealth Industry, the goal being to better investigate the complex finances of America's wealthiest taxpayers. They weren't kidding. Recently released IRS statistics indicate that the fede...

• Read More
• Comments

Lets face it. Although the current job market is improving nationally, things are still tough. Many around the country are still out of work and struggling. For a new feature called HuffPost Social Jobs, we've gathered some of the best positions recommended by our readers. Below, check out some of...

• Read More
• Comments

While the number of planned layoffs did fall in March in the US, the rate of joblessness is still alarming. When jobs are scarce and hopelessness is rife, what can you do in a down economy where you cannot see any obvious options for return to work? How does brain science and psychology research hel...

• Read More
• Comments

Michigan moved Thursday to significantly cut its unemployment program, becoming the first of what could be a flurry of debt-laden states to reduce aid even as high jobless rates persist. The Michigan measure reduces the maximum period a person can receive state unemployment benefits from 26 to 20 w...

• Read More
• Comments

The current high rate of unemployment in the United States is primarily due to cyclical factors, not structural changes in the economy, according to researchers at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. The study runs counter to worries among some top Fed policymakers that undesirable upward press...

• Read More
• Comments

Inflation is back, and it's not limited to America. Prices in developed countries are rising at the highest rate since the financial crisis first started in 2008, caused largely by increasing food and gas prices, according to figures released on Thursday by the Organization for Economic Co-operati...

• Read More
• Comments

WASHINGTON — For all the talk of recovery, Americans are growing increasingly pessimistic about the economy as soaring gas costs strain already-tight budgets. But so far, people aren't taking it out on President Barack Obama, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows. Even so, the survey highlights a c...

• Read More
• Comments

Seven years ago a judge in California ruled that women suing Wal-Mart for sex discrimination could move forward as a class. That meant the women with various claims wouldn't have to go it alone, each with a separate lawyer and separate expenses. Essentially what the judge said is that the six women ...

• Read More
• Comments

A few weeks ago, the White House released a report on the status of American women: "Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being." This was a big deal: it's the first comprehensive federal report on women since 1963. Yes, you read that right: The last time the federal government p...

• Read More
• Comments

If the questions earlier this week at the Supreme Court hearing about the huge discrimination suit again Walmart are any indication -- and, with this court, they usually are -- it looks like hundreds of thousands of women are about to lose. The case is the largest employment discrimination case in...

• Read More
• Comments

WASHINGTON -- Christine Kwapnoski hasn't done too badly in nearly 25 years in the Wal-Mart family, making more than $60,000 a year in a job she enjoys most days. But Kwapnoski says she faced obstacles at Wal-Mart-owned Sam's Club stores in both Missouri and California: Men making more than women an...

• Read More
• Comments

Working class and African Americans families suffered disproportionately in the Great Recession, says a new study by economists at the progressive-leaning Economic Policy Institute. According to the report, the distribution of wealth in America after the official end of the recession in 2009 was t...

• Read More
• Comments

Florida v. U.S.: Primary Distinction: Above U.S.supply (5 years) but also demand Supply Side: Credit to boom, higher than U.S. for construction and investors. • Statistical Indicators: Now exceed U.S. in foreclosures, negative equity (45% v. U.S. 27%), adverse feedback and price dec...

• Read More
• Comments

CoreLogic has found additional loans, numbering around 2 million that are upside-downto the point that the owners have a mortgage at least 50% greater than the valueof the home, possibly adding to the shadow inventory in the future and doublingit. Lender Processing Services (LPS) estimates that, giv...

• Read More
• Comments

Sample Conditional DIL Agreement [Name of Servicer] (“Servicer”) [Name of Borrower(s)] (“Borrower”) [Property Address] (“Property”) [Loan #] (“Loan”) CONDITIONAL DEED-IN-LIEU AGREEM...

• Read More
• Comments