mortgage

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BofA Moves to Restart Foreclosures
 BofA Moves to 
 Restart Foreclosures 
BRIEF RESPITE
Oct 18, 2010 4:29 PM CDT

BofA Moves to Restart Foreclosures

Bank resubmits affidavits in 102,000 pending actions

(Newser) - Bank of America moved to re-start foreclosures today, moving to resubmit paperwork for 102,000 cases and effectively ending the moratorium it enacted to give it time to look for errors, the Wall Street Journal reports. A BofA spokesman said that so far "no cases" of improper foreclosures have...

Investors Flee Banks Over Mortgage Mess

Analysts estimate huge losses

(Newser) - Investors sent bank stocks plunging yesterday, as they finally started to worry about the mortgage robo-signing scandal. Up until now, investors have mostly assumed the crisis would blow over. But on Wednesday, 50 states announced investigations into mortgage servicing practices, and yesterday a San Francisco hedge fund circulated a report...

Bank 'Foreclosure Experts' Couldn't Define 'Mortgage'

Workers with no experience or training signed paperwork

(Newser) - Work experience as a hair stylist or at Wal-Mart was good enough to get you hired as a "foreclosure expert" at financial institutions rushing through thousands of foreclosures, a Florida court heard yesterday. A lawyer defending thousands of homeowners produced depositions from mortgage company workers who testified that they...

Dozens of States Plan Foreclosure Probe

Joint investigation may force lenders to rewrite large numbers of loans

(Newser) - A coalition of up to 40 state attorney-generals is preparing to launch a joint probe into allegations that mortgage-servicing firms used fraudulent paperwork to kick people out of their homes. Bank of America has already suspended evictions in all 50 states while it looks into "robo-signed" foreclosure documents, and...

Dear US, You're Making the Mortgage Mess Worse
Dear US, You're Making the Mortgage Mess Worse
joseph stiglitz
Sep 9, 2010 2:07 PM CDT

Dear US, You're Making the Mortgage Mess Worse

Stop meddling and the let the private sector take over

(Newser) - Joseph Stiglitz lends his Nobel clout to the notion that the government is doing more harm than good by over-managing the housing crisis. "Government policies to support the housing market not only have failed to fix the problem, but are prolonging the deleveraging process and creating the conditions for...

We Need More Flexible Home Mortgages
 We Need 
 More Flexible 
 Home Mortgages 
opinion
Aug 12, 2010 12:46 PM CDT

We Need More Flexible Home Mortgages

Today's loans 'designed for yesterday's borrowers'

(Newser) - In an op-ed headlined "The 30-Year Prison," Katherine Stone lays out what she sees as a big problem contributing to the housing crisis: "Today's mortgages are designed for yesterday's borrowers." Long gone are the days when people had the same stable job for life, and it's...

US Could See Record 1M Foreclosures in 2010

Numbers 'unprecedented'

(Newser) - More than 1 million American households are likely to lose the roof over their heads to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans. Nearly 528,000 homes were repossessed by lenders in the first six months...

1 in 4 Americans a Credit Risk

Credit scores sink to new lows

(Newser) - Thanks to the Great Recession, the credit scores of millions more Americans have sunk to new lows. New figures show that an astounding 1 in 4 households are now in the lowest credit category, boosting the number of those considered poor lending risks to 43 million. Even more consumers are...

Rich Default Far More Than the Rest of Us

Wealthy 'are more ruthless,' says analyst

(Newser) - Whether they're throwing in the towel on a California beach home or ski chalets, wealthy Americans are currently defaulting on mortgage payments at extremely high rates. One in 7 of those who owe more than $1 million on property are seriously delinquent, reports the New York Times . For those who...

Fannie Mae Won't Lend to Deadbeat Homeowners

'Strategic defaulters' won't be eligible for 7 years

(Newser) - Fannie Mae has decided to deny homeowners who intentionally default on their mortgages any new loans for seven years, the company announced yesterday. About 12% of foreclosures are the result of people who could pay their mortgages choosing not to and walking away, generally because their home is now worth...

BofA Forgiving $3B in Mortgage Debt

45K 'underwater' borrowers to be offered reduction

(Newser) - Bank of America is offering to slash mortgage-loan balances by up to 30% for thousands of delinquent borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth. The plan—part of an agreement to settle a lending-abuse suit—is one of the most ambitious moves yet to ease the foreclosure crisis,...

Octomom About to Lose Home
 Octomom About to Lose Home 
here we go again
Mar 19, 2010 8:25 AM CDT

Octomom About to Lose Home

Nadya Suleman more than $450K behind on payments

(Newser) - The Octomom finds herself— again —in danger of losing her home. Nadya Suleman is more than $450,000 behind on mortage payments on the La Habra home she bought one year ago, and foreclosure is imminent. The seller—who holds the note on the house—tells TMZ Suleman has...

NPR's New Pet: A Toxic Asset
 NPR's New Pet: A Toxic Asset 
'WATCH IT DIE'
Mar 12, 2010 5:54 PM CST

NPR's New Pet: A Toxic Asset

Reporters buy a window into the financial crisis

(Newser) - Despite being widely blamed for the financial crisis, the bundled mortgage bonds commonly known as "toxic" assets still exist, and trading is beginning to recover. In hopes of getting a new perspective on the financial crisis, NPR's Planet Money decided to buy a toxic asset. After some searching—the...

Obama Weighs Foreclosure Ban

Proposal would require HAMP to review all delinquent mortgage loans

(Newser) - The Obama administration is considering kicking up the fight against foreclosures by banning any that haven't been reviewed by its Home Affordable Modification program. The move would prevent lenders from initiating foreclosure unless HAMP had screened the loan and found it unsalvageable. it would also require them to halt existing...

Millions Considering Walking Away From Mortgages

10% of mortgages expected to be underwater by June

(Newser) - The long slide in property values has left huge numbers of homeowners considering just walking away from their mortgages. People start thinking about jumping ship when their home value falls below 75% of what they paid for it, according to new research. Over 5 million Americans are expected to be...

Crush of Foreclosures About to Swamp FHA

Taxpayers may foot the bill for defaulting homeowners

(Newser) - The Federal Housing Administration is staring down the barrel of a rash of foreclosures that could force it to dip into taxpayer money for the first time. The number of FHA borrowers who have missed at least three payments jumped by a third last year, to 9.1%, which means...

Now's the Time to Buy a New Home
 Now's the Time to 
 Buy a New Home 
analysis
Dec 29, 2009 5:35 PM CST

Now's the Time to Buy a New Home

Prices and mortgage rates are down—a 'winning combination'

(Newser) - Today's new stats on housing prices yield one shakable fact amid tons of useless information: If you’re in the market for a house, this could be your moment. “Homes are now cheap,” writes Brett Arends. The combination of a 30% drop in home prices since 2005 and...

Lenders Loosening Up on Mortgage Down-Payments

Max insurable rises to 95% as many markets stabilize

(Newser) - Mortgage lenders and insurers, buoyed by improvement in the housing market, are relaxing their down-payment requirements. As they take more and more markets off the restricted list, the percentage of a property's value insurers will cover is rising from 90% to 95% in many places. Wells Fargo, which has been...

1 in 4 Homeowners Underwater
 1 in 4 Homeowners Underwater 
Nov 24, 2009 6:34 AM CST

1 in 4 Homeowners Underwater

Swell of those owing more than home value a risk to market

(Newser) - Nearly 1 in every 4 homeowners owes more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, a serious obstacle to any kind of housing recovery. According to a report from First American CoreLogic, a real estate information company, nearly 10.7 million households are “underwater,” with 5.3...

FHA Helps High-End Buyers
 FHA Helps High-End Buyers  
Nov 20, 2009 5:34 AM CST

FHA Helps High-End Buyers

Raised guarantee limit may be tough to roll back

(Newser) - When the government last year doubled the amount the FHA will guarantee on a home loan, to more than $700,000, it moved the agency into uncharted territory: backing loans for the middle-class and the wealthy, too. It also moved the FHA, designed to help low-income buyers who can't raise...

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