From the monthly archives:

October 2009

California Attorney General Brown’s Letter to Banks & Loan Servicers

by Moe Bedard

The foreclosure crisis continues to plague California homeowners who are trapped in mortgages with exploding monthly payments. While the economy is beginning to improve, homeowners desperate to save their homes have seen little relief. And analysts predict that foreclosures will continue to worsen, particularly as Pay Option ARMs begin to recast.

Economists estimate that about one [...]

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California AG Brown Demands the Banks & Mortgage Servicers Foreclosure Plan

by Moe Bedard

Brown Calls on Banks and Loan Servicers to Detail Plans to Stem New Wave of Foreclosures

Los Angeles – Concerned about a “new wave” of foreclosures, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today called on ten major banks and loan servicers to detail their plans to assist homeowners facing dramatic monthly payment increases on Pay [...]

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Loan Modification Numbers are Fantasy Land

by Moe Bedard

Mortgage expert and one-time Fannie Mae Chief Credit Officer Edward Pinto says a claim made by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner that 500,000 homeowners have entered the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is ridiculous.
In fact, he says, the program is rapidly becoming: “I will pretend to modify your loan if you pretend that you [...]

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Maxine Waters Under Investigation for Husband’s Bank Bailout

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON — The House ethics committee said Thursday it’s investigating whether California Rep. Maxine Waters used her influence to help a bank in which her husband owned stock — and whether the couple benefited as a result.
Waters is the No. 3 Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee and chairwoman of its subcommittee on housing. [...]

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Hundreds of Florida Homeowners File Complaints Against Their Mortgage Servicers

by Moe Bedard

The Attorney General’s Office has logged 452 complaints about Bank of America, Florida’s largest mortgage lender, concerning mortgages and loan modifications. With its acquisition of Countrywide Financial last year, Bank of America had almost 82,000 mortgage loans outstanding in Florida worth $15.3 billion in 2008, according to National Mortgage News.
Next largest is JP Morgan Chase, [...]

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Video: A Trip in Loan Modification Hell

by Moe Bedard

Sometimes loan modifications can be a real pain, others believe that trying to get a loan modification is a form of hell on earth. This video shows you why they lose faxes constantly and who is really in charge of the banks.
Watch this video and decide for yourself.

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Bankers File Lawsuit Against Arizona Governor

by Moe Bedard

Remember when we wrote about a bill that could financially devastate homeowners facing foreclosure, and then we wrote about how it was reversed?
Well, the bill might just be back.
The Arizona Bankers Association — which represents more than 70 banks in the state — has filed a lawsuit in the Arizona Supreme Court against Governor Jan [...]

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New Foreclosure Hot Spots Ravage the US

by Moe Bedard

Among those new hot spots were Boise City-Nampa, Idaho which saw a 142 percent increase in foreclosures in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago. Other new foreclosure hot spots include Provo-Orem (120 percent increase) and Salt Lake City (105 percent increase) metro areas, both of which are in Utah.
 
And in [...]

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Foreclosures Spread to Unemployed Middle Class

by Moe Bedard

What’s this new “wave” in the foreclosure crisis?
The first wave was caused by bad loan products, while the second will be driven by unemployment. Right now, we’re at the beginning of wave two. There are virtually no more foreclosures that are the result of subprime lending. The demographics of the foreclosure crisis are changing and [...]

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Unemployed and Trying to Save the American Dream

by Moe Bedard

SPRINGDALE — Homeowners who lose their jobs and collect unemployment income now have a better chance to modify their mortgages, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
Until recently, unemployment income was not utilized when calculating a loan modification, leaving distressed homeowners with few options.
Because income is the basis for mortgage modification or loan qualification, unless a [...]

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Bank of America CEO Search in Limbo

by Moe Bedard

Apparently Bank of America Corp.’s (NYSE:BAC) search for a new CEO is at a standstill, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The board was hoping to pick a successor for Ken Lewis by Wednesday, but the committee choosing the new CEO needs more time. Lewis actually forewarned that the committee was taking its time during [...]

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Homeowner Told to Stop Making Payments by Mortgage Servicer

by Moe Bedard

When MC lost his second job he had trouble affording his $3,000 mortgage payment. He called his mortgage holder, Flag Star Bank, asking for a break, but the bank told him there was nothing it could do for him unless he skipped payments and submitted a loan modification package.
Can you tell where this is going? [...]

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Desperate Americans Flood Emergency Help Hot Lines

by Moe Bedard

She can feel what the callers on the other end of the line are feeling. Recently it’s been tearing, gripping, throat-tightening.
Giselle Sanchez and 12 other call center operators spend all day answering questions about where to find help. Sometimes it’s help with the rent. Other times it’s help steering away from suicide.
These call-takers are the [...]

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Government Wants School Children and Homeowners to Spot Scams

by Moe Bedard

And it is one of the first places targeted in the homeowner education campaign launched on Monday by government agencies, local leaders and housing advocates to stop scammers preying on desperate borrowers nationwide.
Officials do not know how many scams have been perpetrated among millions of American families who have lost their homes or face foreclosure. [...]

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Maryland Gov. O’Malley Pushing for Foreclosure Mediation

by Moe Bedard

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley plans to introduce legislation that would require mediation efforts before foreclosure processes began, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The bill would provide an incentive for lenders who drag their feet to do more to help struggling homeowners, said Shaun Adamec, a spokesman for O’Malley.
“This is a way to level the playing field,” Adamec [...]

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More Details on Loan Modification Beating and Torture

by Moe Bedard

More disturbing details are  coming out in regards to the  beating, torture and robbery of two loan modification agents. Apparently the victims and the suspects were actually doing business together in a loan modification referral scheme that involved some California Realtors.

This is actually quite common in California for licensed real estate agents to be involved in some type of [...]

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The Housing Gamble

by Moe Bedard

Artificially low interest rates and a government tax credit are luring buyers, but both those inducements are scheduled to end. Defaults and distress sales are rising in the middle and upper price ranges. And millions of people have lost so much equity that they are locked into their homes for years, a modern variation of [...]

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Fed Says Recession Almost Over and Unemployment to Continue. Huh?

by Moe Bedard

The U.S. housing market faces a “difficult” return to normal because government-sponsored enterprises own or guarantee most mortgage lending while alternative sources have disappeared, said an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
“Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae now own or guarantee an overwhelming share of originations,” bank senior economist John Krainer [...]

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Man Fights Chase Mortgage After Wifes Death

by Moe Bedard

Little said he mailed paperwork to JP Morgan Chase seeking a loan modification, but that the bank said he did not qualify. He will be three months behind on his payments in November.
Chase officials said they could not discuss Little’s case specifically because of privacy laws, but that the bank has sent him more papers [...]

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Debtors Revolt: The Banks Do Not Care!

by Moe Bedard

The debtors revolt is gaining steam as the few lenders left in our country send out millions of letters raising the rates on their clients credit cards. Many of these people are now following Ann Minch’s lead and telling their credit card companies to take their cards and shove them where the sun don’t shine.
While this is a [...]

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