October 2009

Millions of homeowners are struggling to make their monthly mortgage payments and the continued deterioration in the job market guarantees millions more will be at risk in the coming months. That is putting a huge burden on mortgage-modification programs, both [...]

Banks will push the Obama administration to expand its mortgage-modification program to allow interest-only periods on reworked loans, seeking to bring more homeowners into the initiative while recognizing concern that it may only postpone defaults, according to JPMorgan Chase & [...]

Maybe our state Attorney Generals will have to take a look at this article and recent MERS cases. It looks like many state laws may have been violated on a massive scale in the sale of millions of securitized mortgages [...]

“Some investors will not allow Making Home Affordable modifications because they cut the value of their investments too much — enough so they are losing money on their investment,” the spokeswoman said. “Investors don’t have to tell us why they [...]

Now, servicers face challenges in turning 500,000 trial modifications granted into permanent ones with steps including document collection, Desoer said. Borrowers’ responses are part of the problem, she said. “I listen to these calls every week, and we’ve got somebody [...]

The mortgage industry remains “relatively fragile,” in part because it has been bolstered by government aid, the head of Bank of America Corp.’s home-loan unit said. “Clearly there are some green shoots and early indicators” the mortgage and housing markets [...]

Never mind that Bank of America seemed to think it was “entitled” to tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. Now the bank suddenly thinks that other people being “entitled” is such a bad thing? Who set the example? The article [...]

But economists said the true test will be how many trial modifications become permanent and how many borrowers default on their new loan arrangements. “What has surprised us is the numbers that have made three, four, or even five payments, [...]

Citigroup is the only large bank still using the FDIC’s program. Two weeks ago, the bank sold another $5 billion worth of guaranteed debt, bringing its total issued under the program to $49.6 billion. The bottom line is that the [...]

The facts are that NACA, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America have done a lot to help struggling homeowners in this devastating foreclosure crisis. However, it appears that this group led by their fearless leader, Bruce Marks is forgetting one key component in [...]

The first is this “we need big banks to serve global corporations” line. I’ve heard this before and I don’t buy it, for a number of reasons. First (sorry, I have this habit of embedding numbered lists inside numbered lists), [...]

The loans behind Maui Prince were financed by commercial mortgage-backed securities, or CMBS. The resort’s failure reflects the troubled market for these bonds, which are backed by a pool of mortgages on commercial properties. The market for CMBS is one [...]

Many of these banking vampires used to operate their businesses on serving consumers a high fee and toxic loan platter to their CEO Overlords for consumption daily. Now, they seem to be bit bummed out on banking lately and having to do [...]

Under U.S. accounting rules in place since 1995, banks are supposed to report the value of their mortgage-servicing rights on a fair-market basis, or roughly what they would fetch in a sale. A bank must record a loss whenever it [...]

Particularly mind boggling are mortgage servicers who plunge ahead with foreclosure filings, and then, when called on it my activist groups, say they have no power to stop the proceedings since they don’t own the real estate! Now it appears [...]

The majority of cases were adjourned, meaning homeowners will get another chance to try to reach a deal with their lenders. Nonetheless, the results are “deeply disappointing,” said Michael Hickey, the center’s executive director. “We had high hopes that face [...]

They don’t have to worry about whether they’ll lose their homes, Linda resident Mary Carter said. Former executives with the Bank of America and Countrywide, once the largest mortgage lender in the nation, who were involved in the financial crisis [...]

A year has passed since the peak of the great financial panic of 2008. Regulators and analysts alike spent much of September pontificating about the economy’s regained stability. Debt: Life in Oregon after the bubble Thanks to a multitrillion-dollar bailout, [...]

Never ones to let an opportunity go unexploited, mortgage lenders are taking advantage of a market fueled by low interest rates and massive government subsidies to turn record profits. Their secret: The return of “junk fees.” The Mortgage Bankers Association [...]

There is nothing immoral about ditching your mortgage. A solid two years into the housing bust, the national foreclosure wave doesn’t show the least signs of abating. Banks that had called a foreclosure moratorium are now back to the business [...]