May 2010

PORT ST. JOHN — After 20-plus years in the construction business, Mark Weeks earned more than $90,000 a year, had paid off his cars and credit cards and owned a comfortable house with an above-ground pool in Port St. John. [...]

Struggling homeowners: Beware of fly-by-night companies promising to change your loan terms for a couple of thousand dollars. It’s a scam, housing advocates and politicians warned Saturday at a Pilsen neighborhood housing fair. “In my district office, at least once [...]

Strategic defaults are when borrowers who owe more on their homes than they’re currently worth choose to stop paying their mortgage but continue to meet other financial obligations, according to a definition by Morgan Stanley in a research report on [...]

WASHINGTON – Minnesota lawmakers trying to counter the causes of the epic Wall Street meltdown see one piece of the puzzle in a south Minneapolis duplex where 66-year-old Tecora Parks is fighting to keep her home out of foreclosure. A [...]

Answer: In May 2009, Congress passed the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, Public Law 111-22. This law provided important new protections for tenants when their rental property is sold at foreclosure. Tenants in foreclosed properties must be given at least [...]

The foreclosures that led to financial crisis began with homeowners falling behind on their mortgage payments. Yet, have all the factors behind the foreclosures been uncovered? To date, much of the blame has been assigned to predatory lenders. However, a [...]

Americans spend more time researching a car purchase than they do researching a home mortgage, according to a survey that the online lending marketplace Zillow Mortgage Marketplace recently released. The survey results show that, on average, borrowers who obtained a [...]

GRETNA, La. — At a time of rising home foreclosures, many people are turning to loan modification programs to avoid default. But one man told WDSU the program actual cost him one of his investment properties. “Katrina was the initial [...]

Weren’t these creeps supposed to be shut down? The couple claims that they hired the Federal Loan Modification Center in January 2009. The firm was supposed to be shut down well before this date. ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI – FOX2now.com) – [...]

A New York company is facing charges that it violated a new state mortgage modification law when it took $2,955 from a Connecticut resident to assist a modification in October 2009. Universal Mortgage Modification, 84-58 159th St., Jamaica Hills, N.Y. was [...]

A Meriden lawyer was sentenced to prison Thursday for participating in a mortgage fraud scheme that bilked banks out of more than $1 million in home loan money. Douglas Sheehan, 39, was accused with two others of participating in a [...]

Homeowners with unaffordable mortgages are being encouraged to attend the free foreclosure prevention Save-A-Thon under way at McCormick Place around the clock until Monday evening. Attendees should bring: * Mortgage statements

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Pressure is mounting on loan servicers and investors to reduce troubled homeowners’ loan balances…but the two largest owners of mortgages aren’t getting the message. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are controlled by the federal government, [...]

Amending financial reform legislation as it makes its way through Congress, the Senate also voted to outlaw stated-income mortgages — loans made without using tax documents, pay stubs or bank records to verify that borrowers actually earn as much as [...]

South Florida poker superstar Michael Mizrachi, with $6.9 million career winnings, owes almost $340,000 in federal taxes and is facing foreclosure. Mizrachi, 29, who had a record-breaking 2005 World Series of Poker, has been hit with a $339,711 lien from [...]

I have written about this Orange County, California loan modification firm on a few occasions. The first time, one of the firms lawyers, Sean Rutledge was under investigation by the California Bar and FTC. He later surrendered his license under [...]

In response to pressure from a Boston advocacy group, Massachusetts state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill announced plans last month to pull more than $200 million in taxpayer money out of Bank of America and two other major banks that refused [...]

While Nazarian kept up with his mortgage, lenders are also cutting deals with delinquent borrowers or those whose property is worth less than their loan. The trend is called “extend and pretend” by people such as Randall Zisler, managing director [...]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Can it be possible? Despite the housing bust and high foreclosure rates, in some areas real estate agents are complaining that they don’t have enough homes to sell. There is currently an eight-month supply of homes [...]

The U.S. attorney’s office filed documents in federal court Monday revealing an IRS criminal investigation of White Bear Township’s board chairman — a St. Paul attorney — on allegations of mortgage fraud and money laundering in a deal that centers [...]

PHOENIX — A Phoenix woman who was a loan officer has been sentenced to two years in prison in a mortgage fraud scheme.   Federal prosecutors say 46-year-old April J. Lucero pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit [...]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Unemployed? Owe more on your mortgage than your home is worth? Your state might one day pay your mortgage. Giving people free money to cover their home loans is just one of the radical ways that [...]