May 2010

He offered to help struggling homeowners save their Saline homes from foreclosure, but authorities say all Bryan Crevier delivered were empty promises and widespread fraud. Crevier, 48, is charged with multiple counts of larceny for allegedly swindling nearly $10,000 from [...]

In contrast to the commendation of Maryland’s new foreclosure mediation law ["Maryland takes a shot at slowing the flow of foreclosures," May 24] by Chad Williams, executive director of the Coalition for Homeownership Preservation in Prince George’s County, I believe [...]

When Javier Moreno lost one job and had his hours cut back at another, the payments on his family’s Ventura home were suddenly out of reach. Moreno considered giving the house back to the bank, but when advertisements for loan [...]

PORT ST. JOHN, Fla.When Mark Weeks was laid off from his $90,000-a-year construction job 2 1/2 years ago, he vowed to hang onto his family’s house here, where he’d lived with his wife, their three children and two dogs for [...]

The terms “strategic default” and “strategic foreclosure” are somewhat synonymous. Homeowners in these tough economic times are faced with the daunting dilemma of whether or not to deliberately default on their mortgage as a way to secure a loan modification, [...]

NEW BEDFORD — A legal advertisement for a foreclosure auction of a Fairhaven property published in The Standard-Times has drawn an investigation by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination for its “Caucasians only” restriction. Such a restriction, once common across America, [...]

Stuck in a house you can’t afford or can’t sell for more than you owe on it? Beware the Web, where you’ll see plenty of claims that short sales will save your credit, simple as that. But there’s nothing simple [...]

While real estate remains in the doldrums, many older individuals own homes that are still worth plenty. Some of these folks may be “house rich” but “cash poor.” Taking out a reverse mortgage could solve that problem, but what are [...]

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely explains the phenomenon this way: “If you think about it, people are quite trusting.” There are “wonderful things about this trust,” the Duke University professor said Thursday. But as recent history shows, the human tendency to [...]

Let me try to get this straight. The Justice Department announced last weekend that it has dropped its criminal investigation into wrongdoing by the former executives of American International Group Financial Products, or A.I.G.-F.P. — the group inside A.I.G. that [...]

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – New Hampshire lawmakers are hearing from investors who say they were victimized by a failed mortgage firm accused of swindling them out of millions of dollars.

May 27 (Reuters) – Fannie Mae (FNM.N), the largest buyer of U.S. home loans, on Thursday said its mortgage portfolio grew in April after it reduced the March rate of serious delinquencies on single-family loans it guarantees.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Attention delinquent borrowers: If you want to get into the Obama administration’s mortgage modification program, you’d better have your paperwork ready. New Treasury Department guidelines go into effect on June 1 that will require loan servicers [...]

PORT ST. JOHN, Fla. — When Mark Weeks was laid off from his $90,000-a-year construction job 2½ years ago,he vowed to hang onto his family’s house here, where he’d lived with his wife, their three children and two dogs for [...]

For a financially struggling homeowner, the decision to pursue a short sale does not come easily. Homeowners who make that choice generally do so after months of searching and pleading for an alternative that would have kept them in the [...]

All Orlando Eslava wanted from his lender was a loan modification to make his payments affordable. Instead, he got his $207,000 mortgage wiped out — and a crash course in the confusing way foreclosures are unfolding in a court system [...]

1. No gloating. 2. If you must ridicule your neighbors for being stupid enough to get an adjustable rate mortgage, do so in private.

In a report on the Home Affordable Modification Program, the Treasury said cancellations of trial modifications spiked to 277,640 in April from 155,173 in March as servicers moved to purge a backlog of borrowers who could not meet documentation guidelines [...]

Three workshops designed to help people facing foreclosure will take place next week in the Bay Area. The events are free and open to all, no matter which mortgage company holds an attendee’s home loan.

GREENFIELD, Ind. — A woman who said she had no idea that her house had been put up for foreclosure even though the mortgage was paid off is relieved that a loan servicing company has backed off after years of [...]

Waterloo, S.C. –  Bridgette Smith and her family have lived in her childhood home in Waterloo since they purchased it in 2004. Last year they qualified for a home loan remodification through a federal program called HAMP, Home Affordable Modification Program, that [...]

The manager of a Los Angeles-based foreclosure consultation organization with a Santa Maria office has been ordered to stand trial on eight felony charges of committing prohibited foreclosure practices.

A judge says the firm gave false information; state also investigating. A law firm under state investigation for its handling of foreclosure cases could face court sanctions in St. Johns County for giving a judge false information about who owned [...]