March 2010

Even as legions of homeowners default on their mortgages and await eviction, many still remain in their homes — even 18 months after getting an eviction notice? How is this possible? Banks and lenders are reluctant to pull the trigger [...]

Five people, including the son of Cape Coral’s police chief are set to take a plea deal in a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud case. Court records show former Cape Police Officer Stephen Petrovich, along with Troy Bossert, Tyler Forrey, Ryan [...]

Commercial property foreclosure filings in the Dallas-Fort Worth area top $1 billion for the upcoming April sales. That’s much higher than commercial foreclosure posting totals in recent months.

Fannie Mae (FNM.N) instructed companies that service loans it guarantees to allow modifications to borrowers who made payments during a trial period but did not meet all income document requirements under the initial terms.

1. More troubles coming for Portland commercial real estate: I wrote in yesterday’s Business section about the office vacancy troubles among suburban office parks. There’s 14 major office buildings in Portland that are completely vacant. By any measure, that’s a [...]

Each weekday morning, a troupe of opportunists who hope they have the Midas touch unfold camping chairs in front of the old Riverside County courthouse. On sunny days, the gathering of about 40 men and women in jeans and shorts [...]

Lou began meeting with homeowners who were in danger of losing their homes. She put together hand-written budgets for them. “It worked,” she says.

Three of the properties were bought from Cranberry Associates LLC, a company partly owned by Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa that built two-family homes on lots it acquired from the city. The chief said his company only sold the properties [...]

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Bank of America(BAC), Citigroup(C), JPMorgan(JPM) and other U.S. banks face claims of $10 billion from bond insurers, which allege misrepresentation and fraud. Bond insurers including Ambac Financial Group(ABK), Assured Guarantee(AGO) and MBIA(MBI) anticipate recovering more than [...]

California should follow the lead of federal government and forgive the levy. Gov. Arnold Schwarze-negger and legislative Democrats are in another one of their political spats, and this one could cost Californians caught up in the mortgage modification mess a [...]

In a wave cresting through the coming two years, most of the estimated 900,000 borrowers who have option ARMs will lose their ability to make these teaser payments, according to First American CoreLogic, a Santa Ana real estate research firm.

Duchemin and Ashraf are an extreme example because they’ve gone through foreclosures on two homes and are in danger of losing a third. They aren’t alone: Flimsy lending practices mean that thousands of other borrowers face the prospect of repeated [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lenny Dykstra filed a $100 million lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co alleging he was fraudulently induced into borrowing more money than he could afford, leading to the former star baseball center fielder’s bankruptcy.

There’s no shortage of work for Grupe and his team. Mortgage fraud is on the rise, as are bogus job counseling services and frauds conducted over the Internet. Since the financial crisis erupted in 2008, the FBI’s 1,000-agent New York [...]

Amid the layoffs, cutbacks, furloughs and foreclosures, one notable silver lining has emerged from the recession: It’s a great time to rent. Gone are the days of renters struggling to find a decent unit and rushing to open houses in [...]

The problem is, Oakland County resident Tracey Briggs said, people aren’t getting the help they need; rather, she said, many banks are giving homeowners the runaround — in her quest to save her family’s home through HAMP, Briggs said, her [...]

The family was nearly evicted by the mortgage con, and has been living in limbo ever since. Theirs was one of the first homes stolen in what became a common scheme. Mortgage companies promising to save a family from foreclosure [...]

Former KB Home chief Bruce Karatz engineered a massive stock option scheme that made him millions of dollars and then fought to keep it secret from investigators, a longtime company executive testified Wednesday.

Yes, Octomom, Nadya Suleman  is in foreclosure for a home she just purchased in Orange County, CA last year. In a March 2009 article it stated that she bought the home with a down payment of $110,000 from her father.  Suleman was unemployed and [...]

Federal prosecutors have said Nanan was part of a short-sale scheme with fellow Taylor, Bean & Whitaker employee Victor Cedeno. Nanan and Cedeno worked with real-estate agents, homebuyers, lenders and title agents during sales financed by Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.

With less than a month until tax filings are due, struggling Californians who received mortgage modifications or lost their homes in short sales or foreclosures last year face the prospect of huge state tax bills. That’s because legislation that would [...]

Like thousands of others in Stockton, the retired Tinney faces declining value in his home and was struggling each month to make mortgage payments. He wanted to modify so badly, however, that he fell for a scam – and it [...]