From the monthly archives:

November 2009

Banks Buying Back Billions in Bad Mortgages

by Moe Bedard

Banks’ Buybacks of Defaulted Single-Family Loans Surge
 
Banks had to buy back $7.1 billion in defaulted single-family loans in the third quarter to reimburse mortgage investors, up from $1.9 billion in the previous quarter. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Call Report information shows that most of the buyback demands fell on JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. [...]

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Attorney Tells Under Water Homeowners to Walk Away

by Moe Bedard

Go ahead. Break the chains. Stop paying on your mortgage if you owe more than the house is worth. And most important: Don’t feel guilty about it. Don’t think you’re doing something morally wrong.
What kind of law school professorial advice is this? Aren’t mortgages legal contracts? In an interview, White said that in so-called anti-deficiency [...]

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Bank Loans Down to 25 Year Low

by Moe Bedard

Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars loaned by the federal government to the nation’s largest banks, the financial industry continues to be stingy with loans itself, creating a big drag on economic recovery. Lending fell by 3% ($210.4 billion) in the third quarter of 2009, marking the steepest drop since the Federal Deposit Insurance [...]

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FHA Goes High End on Home Loans

by Moe Bedard

Legislation last year nearly doubled the maximum mortgage the FHA could insure, to $729,750 for single-unit properties and almost $1 million for multi-unit ones. As a result, the FHA is moving into expensive markets, especially on the West Coast, in which it previously had little or no role. Even some fairly fancy condo buildings are [...]

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Video: FHA Mortgage Probe

by Moe Bedard

FHA, the Federal Government’s home mortgage insurer is at risk of running out of money. As Hari Sreenivasan of CBS reports, a federal agency has been helping the housing market, but this is risky.

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Free Market Mortgages Return

by Moe Bedard

If and when the Fed program does end, mortgage rates will rise – but not by much. The Fed’s intervention is worth upwards of 75 basis points for a conforming loan, says Keith Gumbinger, a vice president at HSH Associates. Without its purchases, that rate might rise to 5.75% or so.
Borrowers should plan for rates [...]

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Getting a Loan Modification Takes Luck & Patience

by Moe Bedard

But five months later, Ms. Thomas, 35, is back at the beginning. She has made her reduced payments on time. She has submitted the proper paperwork, she says, while enduring a bewildering array of conflicting instructions from her bank. But last month, Chase rejected her application for a permanent loan modification and invited her to [...]

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Some Homeowners See Loan Modification Success

by Moe Bedard

Mortgage counselors still caution that most troubled homeowners won’t qualify for a better loan deal, either because their finances aren’t solid enough or their lender isn’t willing to deal. But enough success stories are emerging to provide glimmers of hope.
Janet Davis of Mesa is one, having received a principal deferral on her main loan that [...]

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Name and Shame: White House to Name Ruthless Mortgage Servicers

by Moe Bedard

The US Treasury is planning to announce a new program Monday intended to place pressure on uncooperative mortgage lenders to offer more loan modifications for struggling homeowners. The name of the new mortgage strategy to stem the foreclosure crisis by the White House will be called “name-and-shame.”
For over year, the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable [...]

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Post-Foreclosure Protections Back In Place for Arizonans

by Moe Bedard

Within 23 days, a bill to give lenders more leeway to sue former owners of foreclosed properties had been proposed, considered and approved by the Legislature.
But after hearing complaints about unintended consequences and a lawsuit, lawmakers beat a retreat: They repealed the changes they’d made to the law that generally bars lenders from suing homeowners [...]

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Illinois AG Sues Three Loan Modification Firms

by Moe Bedard

MADIGAN CONTINUES TO CRACK DOWN ON MORTGAGE RESCUE FRAUD
Press Release – Illinois Attorney General Files Three New Lawsuits, Joins Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Department of Justice in Move to Protect At-Risk Homeowners Nationwide
Chicago — Attorney General Lisa Madigan today announced three lawsuits against mortgage rescue fraud schemes operating in Illinois as part of a national [...]

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Option ARM Mortgages: Housing’s Posion Pill

by Moe Bedard

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Option-ARMs: File under, “It sounded good at the time.”
These exotic mortgages allowed homebuyers to come to closing with little cash and choose, monthly, how much to pay: interest and principal, interest only, or a minimum amount less than the interest due.
Of course, the last option is the one 93% of option-ARM [...]

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Permanent Loan Modifications Aren’t Happening

by Moe Bedard

Rick Mullen of Valencia has waited more than a year for his lender, JPMorgan Chase, to finalize a loan modification. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times / November 17, 2009)
 ”I’ve talked to them at least 50 times, and it’s always the same: . . . ‘Oh, we’re missing some documents, your modification is at risk,’ [...]

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Housing Experts Predict 45% Fall in Home Values

by Moe Bedard

The bubble has popped and housing prices have plunged all over the country. Yet, some housing experts claim that there is still a lot of hot real estate air to be released from the past bubble and predict even more agony to come to suffering property owners.
The 10 major cities in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index [...]

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Indymac Bank F.S.B. v Yano-Horoski: Judge Grants Homeowners a Huge Victory

by Moe Bedard

Indymac Bank F.S.B. v Yano-Horoski
2009 NY Slip Op 52333(U)
Decided on November 19, 2009
Supreme Court, Suffolk County
Spinner, J.
2005-17926
Steven J. Baum P.C.
Attorney for Plaintiff
P.O. Box 1291
Buffalo, New York 14240
Diana Yano-Horoski
Defendant Pro Se
8 Oakland Street
East Patchogue, New York 11772-5767
Jeffrey Arlen Spinner, J.
This is an action wherein the Plaintiff claims foreclosure of a mortgage dated August 4, 2004 in [...]

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3,400 Nevada Homeowners Seek Mediation

by Moe Bedard

CARSON CITY, Nev.—The Nevada Supreme Court says more than 3,400 homeowners who’ve received notices of default have requested mediation under a new program that took effect July 1.
Under the program administered by the Supreme Court, homeowners who receive default notices have 30 days in which to seek mediation.
Chief Justice James Hardesty on Wednesday said 372 [...]

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Freedom Foreclosure Prevention Services Settles With the FTC for $5.4 Million

by Moe Bedard

FTC – The Commission has agreed to settlements in its case against Freedom Foreclosure Prevention Services, LLC that, pending court approval, would ban Jeffrey Segal and Michael Workman from working in the loan modification industry and bar them from misrepresenting material facts in selling any goods or services.
The settlements also would impose suspended judgments of [...]

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Kirkland Young – FTC Says Company Lied in Marketing Loan Modifications

by Moe Bedard

Kirkland Young and its manager allegedly misrepresented themselves as consumers’ mortgage lenders or servicers or their affiliate. The firm is believed to be owned by a David Botton of Miami, Florida.
The company left telephone messages for consumers stating that they wanted to approve the consumers for a loan modification. By telephone, they discussed specific interest [...]

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Crowder Law Group – FTC Says They Acted Like the Feds to Dupe Homeowners

by Moe Bedard

Crowder Law Group and its co-defendants allegedly misrepresented themselves as a federal government agency or affiliate. Their personalized postcards to consumers stated, “You may qualify under the new government bailout to refinance your current mortgage . . . ” Some postcards described the defendants’ programs as federal programs and were signed by an attorney in [...]

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