Foreclosure Nation

NEW YORK -- When Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke holds his first-ever press conference on Wednesday, he will have some explaining to do. Two months from the scheduled end of the Fed's stimulus program, the economic recovery remains weak. Since the Fed's asset-purchase strategy began last fall...

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NOTE: Article has been updated to include jurisdictions where DBRS says most primary mortgage cram-downs are taking place: California, Texas, and Louisiana. The research firm and ratings agency DBRS has learned from various servicers that although Congress never authorized bankruptcy judges to modi...

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The recovery in delinquency rates that began in the second quarter of 2010 appears to have stalled, according to the research firm Trepp LLC, with delinquency rates for the major real estate loan types declining only slightly in some categories and increasing in others during the first three months ...

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Bank of America has assembled what you might call a “Dream Team” of default servicing executivese to head up critical areas within its Legacy Asset Servicing division. Collectively, this new team has more than 70 years experience working with distressed borrowers. John Berens joins the bank as ret...

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US Bancorp plans to launch a new unit for the ultrawealthy in the fourth quarter from offices in Denver and its headquarters city of Minneapolis. The unit, to be known as Ascent Private Capital Management, will focus on clients with at least $25 million in investable assets. Ascent will compete in ...

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Amid a flurry of acquisitions that pushed it past $3 billion in assets, Premier American Bank flipped to a profit in the first quarter. The Miami-based bank has acquired six failed Florida banks since it was formed in January 2010. The bank plans to be rebranded as Florida Community Bank, the name ...

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The epidemic of foreclosures that began in 2008 has been devastating America's families, communities and economy. Nowhere is this more true than in California, where one in five U.S. foreclosures has taken place. Since 2008, more than 1.2 million Californians have lost their homes, and the number ...

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Recent trends in rental housing are creating a dismal environment for many Americans and if public policy doesn't intervene, things will get worse, according to a study from one Ivy League university. The Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies released a report Tuesday, analyzing condi...

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Of the 50 most populated cities in the United States, New York remains the city where it's better to rent than buy. The Big Apple's competition? Fort Worth, Texas. That's according to the recently released Q2 2011 Rent vs. Buy Index by Trulia, an online real estate resource. The site compares rent...

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After two years of no issuance, the credit quality of commercial-mortgage backed securities (CMBS) issued post recession has been strong, according to a new report from Moody’s Investors Service. As the credit cycle continues, however, the New York-based ratings agency expects the leverage of the ...

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The research firm Delta Associates says distress in the commercial sector is maintaining its plateau. The company’s analysts report that despite a $5 billion increase in the volume of commercial properties in foreclosure and lender REO over the last two months, the level of distress has remained i...

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MIAMI BEACH, Florida For the first time in years, credit card executives are looking beyond the losses of the financial crisis -- and they're even losing less sleep over the prospect of tighter government oversight. Losses from credit defaults keep falling, an explosion in smartphone payment syste...

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With the housing crisis still taking its toll, the nation’s homeownership rate slipped further during the first three months of this year. The U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday that the homeownership rate dropped to 66.4 percent at the end of the first quarter. It’s fallen back to a level not ...

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The past 70 years have seen three massive, value-destroying market crashes. After each, regulators have attempted to punish wrongdoers and implement fixes to prevent future meltdowns. It hasn't helped, because regulators have focused on symptoms instead of root causes. The only way we can avoid incr...

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Home sales in the metro Phoenix area are heating up thanks to the popular foreclosure market, according to ForeclosureDeals.com. The site reports that there were more than 10,000 home sales in the Phoenix area in March with nearly 1,500 of those sales foreclosure homes. “Demand is starting to incr...

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Fannie Mae has released new details on its book of business, which shows the share of mortgages it owns or guarantees that’s past due by three months or longer has been on a steady decline for a year now. The nation’s largest mortgage company reported that its seriously delinquent rate on single-f...

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The foreclosure crisis and the economic downturn that followed have undoubtedly touched every corner of the nation. In cities that have been hit particularly hard, it’s not uncommon to see streets lined with foreclosure signs and vacant homes. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke took to the podi...

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Accused mortgage-modification fraudster Howard Shmuckler has lost the website he used to call his accusers “the real scammers.” Even though Shmuckler had been indicted and repeatedly sued for charging homeowners for modifications he never delivered, he maintained his website until a court order wen...

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Today, rising food prices are wreaking havoc in the developing world. While some blame overpopulation, and others ethanol, another culprit has emerged of late: banks and the role of speculative commodity indexes. The primary danger of the indexes, according to a new article by Frederick Kaufman in ...

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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are issuing new guidelines to servicers in order to align their procedures for handling past-due mortgages. The objective is to ensure consistent servicing requirements for loans handled on behalf of the GSEs across four key areas: borrower contact, delinquency managemen...

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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are issuing new guidelines to servicers in order to align their procedures for handling past-due mortgages. The objective is to ensure consistent servicing requirements for loans handled on behalf of the GSEs across four key areas: borrower contact, delinquency managemen...

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• Comments

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are issuing new guidelines to servicers in order to align their procedures for handling past-due mortgages. The objective is to ensure consistent servicing requirements for loans handled on behalf of the GSEs across four key areas: borrower contact, delinquency managemen...

• Read More
• Comments

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are issuing new guidelines to servicers in order to align their procedures for handling past-due mortgages. The objective is to ensure consistent servicing requirements for loans handled on behalf of the GSEs across four key areas: borrower contact, delinquency managemen...

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• Comments

Housing prices slid back in February to their lowest level of the downturn, fresh proof — as if any were needed — that real estate remains one of the most troubled sectors of the economy. The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index for 20 metropolitan areas dropped 1.1 percent from January...

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The Federal Reserve will end its second bond-buying spree – this time to the tune of $600 billion – by the end of the second quarter as planned. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says although the central bank’s second targeted initiative for pumping money into the economy will cease in June, its end is “...

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The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston has filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Superior Court to rescind investments it made in private-label mortgage-backed securities (MBS) issued by 115 securitization trusts totaling $5.8 billion. The suit alleges that the securities dealers, underwriters, i...

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The office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced it filed a lawsuit on Friday against three South Florida companies that allegedly were charging upfront fees for loan modification services to homeowners facing foreclosure, which is illegal under state law. Home Owner Protection Economics,...

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CHICAGO -- Near the end of a two-day summit here that brought together mayors and federal officials to talk about city design, the mood turned confrontational. It started when Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, in the middle of a Friday discussion on the federal government's role in city developmen...

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Corporate pensions, municipal pensions, state pensions — each category has funds that have run out of money and certainly many are running low. The fate of the UAW pensions was a critical part of the US bailout of the auto industry. Eventually, the unions received equity in Chrysler and GM, among ot...

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California legislators put two bills aimed at addressing the state’s foreclosure problem to committee votes this week. Both failed to pass despite the fact that supporters of the proposed laws packed the hearing rooms at the state Capitol, but neither is completely dead. They have both been schedu...

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WASHINGTON -- David Micallef never thought he’d be involved in a labor dispute at age 25, much less assuming a lead role in one. But as president of his local fire union, Micallef has been leading his fellow firefighters in a long-running fight with the city of Harper Woods, Mich. Their beef? They s...

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The recession might have officially ended last year. But to many of America's poorest citizens, the economy certainly feels like depression. According to a new poll by Gallup, 55 percent of Americans believe the United States is currently in either a recession or a depression. Specifically, 26 perc...

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WPTV April 28 2011 8 PM EST Short Sale Homeowner sells home for less than what is owed to bank for mortgage. Bank agrees to accept less than what is owed to satisfy the mortgage. Reasons for Doing: Bank avoids costly foreclosure, home maintenance and resale (usually for a lower price than borrow...

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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are issuing new guidelines to servicers in order to align their procedures for handling past-due mortgages. The objective is to ensure consistent servicing requirements for loans handled on behalf of the GSEs across four key areas: borrower contact, delinquency managemen...

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An estimated 210,000 homeowners received permanent, proprietary loan modifications from mortgage servicers during the first quarter of 2011, according to data released by HOPE NOW on Monday. That’s down nearly 20 percent from the 261,500 private-program mods reported during the fourth quarter of 20...

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WASHINGTON: Small businesses and consumers were wary about taking advantage of easier credit in the first quarter, but loan demand among large firms grew, the Federal Reserve said in a report on Monday that showed credit markets thawing unevenly. The Fed's quarterly survey of senior bank loan offic...

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Precursor to Existing-Home Sales Heads Higher Pending sales of existing homes rose again in March, according to data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The trade group’s monthly reading of contract signings – which is a forward-looking indicator of where sales of prev...

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The Federal Reserve said growth will lag this year as the central bank finally acknowledged Wednesday what most Americans have long since realized: “Inflation has picked up.” The Fed’s statement, a customary event at the conclusion of every policy meeting, is the status update traders, bankers, bus...

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In just one week’s time, the Florida Housing Finance Corporation has received nearly 9,500 applications from unemployed homeowners seeking financial assistance through the state’s Hardest-Hit Fund (HHF) program. Following a successful six-month pilot run in Lee County, the state housing agency lau...

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A record-low one in four U.S. teenagers will land a summer job in the coming months as a result of a still-poor job market and lost federal funding, according to a report issued on Monday. As a consequence, urban studies experts said cities like Chicago—where summer unemployment among African-Ameri...

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This week's biggest economic show occurs tomorrow (Wednesday) when Fed chair Ben Bernanke steps in front of the cameras for the Fed's first-ever news conference. The question on everyone's mind: Will the Fed signal it's now more worried about inflation than recession? Much of Wall Street thinks inf...

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NEWPORT BEACH – It was relegated to the Q&A session, rather than featured prominently in the opening statement, at last week’s first-ever press conference of US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. It is an issue that too many in Washington, DC are willing to dismiss as “transitory,” despite...

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