May 2010

Editor’s note: the name of the lender has been withheld.) Smoke and mirrors — that’s what Charles Swarthout, an Oakland firefighter living in Oakdale found when he attempted a loan modification on his home that later ended in foreclosure and [...]

More than 7,000 homeowners at risk of foreclosure were able to land same-day mortgage modification or forbearance agreements with lenders at a five-day, 24-hour-a-day home Save-A-Thon event that concluded at McCormick Place on Monday, planners said. Most of the agreements [...]

Really bad, at least if you believe new data out of the Mortgage Banker’s Association. One in every 10 mortgage holders is now officially “delinquent” — that is to say, late on at least one payment. That’s an all-time high. [...]

The number of American households behind on mortgage payments appears to be leveling off at a high level, a survey showed Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association, a trade group, reported that 14% of mortgage loans on one- to four-unit homes [...]

Have you received an offer that guarantees to rescue you from foreclosure if you pay a hefty fee? If so, watch out – you could be a targeted by a scam. Mortgage loan modification scams have become so prevalent, that [...]

California’s real estate association is warning people who lose — or are in danger of losing — their homes to foreclosure that they could face a hefty lawsuit from the lender, even after handing over the keys. California law has [...]

A 37-year-old Miami man has pleaded guilty to taking part in a foreclosure investment scheme that authorities say netted him $3.6 million. Diego L. Siman, 37, sold what he told investors were “reservations” on property he claimed would soon fall [...]

The government’s mortgage-modification program has left some struggling homeowners worse off than they were before. The Treasury reported Monday that nearly one in four homeowners who were offered lower payments under the Obama administration’s 15-month-old effort have been weeded out [...]

While some groups, like NACA, have bypassed the HAMP modification process – to great success, says Alayon – others have worked within the program’s framework to help distressed borrowers. And for all the criticism over the program’s sluggish achievements, the [...]

By Peter Miller - With all the yelling and screaming in Washington regarding financial reform the fact remains that predatory lending remains perfectly legal and will be perfectly legal once a financial reform package is passed. “The Wall Street reform bill [...]

When you’re seeking lower house payments through a loan modification, don’t lose hope if the bank denies your application. Housing counselors interviewed by 12 News say there are several ways to appeal that decision and get it reversed. The first [...]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The number of troubled homeowners falling out of President Obama’s foreclosure rescue plan soared in April. More than 122,000 borrowers had their trial mortgage modifications canceled in April, bringing the total to 277,640 since the

Mia Parry, meet Michael Cast. If I were in charge of sorting out the mortgage-default crisis, one of my first acts would be to arrange for these two people–both of whom strike me as friendly and reasonable–to sit down across [...]

Jim McConville needed help to pull off a massive mortgage swindle. He couldn’t let the banks making the mortgages know that he was sucking at least $120,000 each out of more than 80 condo sales in Escondido and San Marcos [...]

The lawsuit’s plaintiffs argue in a complaint filed May 11 in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona that three large professional-services firms intentionally helped Mortgages Ltd. and former investment partner Radical Bunny LLC defraud investors. The three firms, [...]

GREENBELT, MD. — More than 100 people who say they were victimized by a mortgage fraud scheme would get only a few thousand each under a proposed settlement. Ten people have been convicted in the Metropolitan Money Store scheme, which [...]

Florida’s borrowers in trial and permanent loan modifications, representing 12.3 percent of the nation’s total For the second month in a row, Florida had the second highest number of loan-mortgage modifications among the states under the Obama administration’s Making Home [...]

A small but growing portion of mortgage-loan defaults are from homeowners who can afford to make their monthly payment but choose not to because their home’s value has fallen off a cliff and they’ve decided to invest their money elsewhere.

NAPLES — It was a motley crew that arrived at the Fort Myers courthouse, and it had one thing on its mind — profit. Men and women wedged themselves into a windowless second-floor room and spilled into the neighboring jury [...]

“It’s a feeding frenzy right now,” says Shawn Jardine, a real estate agent in Colorado Springs, Colo., who lists properties for a major bank in addition to renovating and flipping homes herself. “On one property listed for $65,000, I had [...]

Columbia Heights, Minn. — With the foreclosure crisis continuing, banks are struggling to clear foreclosures from their books. To help speed the process, many mortgage lenders are offering people cold hard cash to vacate their homes more quickly. Here’s how [...]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Bi-polar is what comes to mind when diagnosing the post-homebuyer tax credit market. There are two separate forces pulling it in opposite directions, and experts aren’t yet sure which path the market will take. On one [...]

Florida’s attorney general is investigating whether Jacksonville-based Lender Processing Services and Fidelity National Financial were involved with forging real estate documents for foreclosure lawsuits. The probe deals with a Lender Processing subsidiary that “seems to be creating and manufacturing ‘bogus [...]