August 2010

Over 62 million mortgages are now held in the name of MERS, an electronic recording system devised by and for the convenience of the mortgage industry. A California bankruptcy court, following landmark cases in other jurisdictions, recently held that this [...]

A group of students in the southern state of Florida is taking its studies to the streets. The law students from Florida A&M University are going door-to-door in low-income neighborhoods to educate residents about property foreclosures and loan refinancing scams.  [...]

The director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority is taking several weeks leave of his $350,000-a-year job amid a threatened foreclosure on his luxury home. Carl Greene, 53, said he needs time to sort out personal issues that he blamed on [...]

The Center for Responsible Lending-a non-profit research and public policy group-released a study, this week, focused on the racial makeup of foreclosures in California. It found that Latinos have experienced notably higher foreclosure rates than non-Hispanic borrowers in the state.

As banks are getting down in the trenches to help borrowers take mortgage debt down a notch, second liens are increasingly becoming a first priority.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, we highlight one of the secrets of the vast American effort to modify home-mortgages to avert, or at least delay, foreclosures: A lot of it depends on dumb luck.

Let’s face it: There is no simple or entirely fair way to deal with the seven million or so U.S. households that are behind on mortgage payments or in the foreclosure process.

Randy Allen, Clint Paulsen and Travis Smith, operators of HomeModifier and owners of APS Northwest Idaho LLC in Post Falls, signed a consent judgment that prevents them from opening a new mortgage modification business in Idaho or dealing with Idaho [...]

Many Bay Area homeowners who have been paying their bills, despite financial troubles, are finding it almost impossible to get a home loan modification.

Encourages Homeowners to Work with the City and HUD-certified Counseling Partners to Obtain Free Foreclosure Prevention Services – Mayor Daley at news conference held at Neighborhood Housing Service Office Mayor Richard M. Daley today joined City officials and community partners [...]

Anyone else amused to see the WSJ smooching BSD Lewis Ranieri for helping homeowners avoid foreclosure? I’m sorry, I thought this was the guy who invented mortgage-backed securities, which made it easy for banks to dice up loans and sell [...]

When Edward Fox’s wife lost her job and they saw their family income shrink considerably earlier this year, he looked for ways to cut expenses. He thought he found one when a company promised to help him cut his hefty [...]

A year and a half after the Obama administration unveiled a sweeping rescue plan for homeowners, surprisingly few have been rescued.

When it comes to mortgage payments, conventional wisdom says there’s a simple algorithm about cash flow: If you don’t have enough, your home is in real danger. And if you owe more than your home is worth – known as [...]

In June 2009, N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue and other officials came to Charlotte for a much-needed economic development announcement. The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, a Boston-based foreclosure prevention specialist, planned to hire 1,014 new workers in Charlotte over five [...]

Homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth have stark choices. The results can cascade through the community and the economy, affecting us all. When it came to buying their first home, the Comos did just [...]

Arkansas Securities Commissioner Heath Abshure on Monday issued a cease-and-desist order against a California company that failed to deliver on a mortgage modification after being paid $1,800 by a Springdale resident.

Anna and Charlie Reynolds of St. George, Utah, were worried about losing their home to foreclosure last year. Then they got a lucky break—from an unlikely savior. Selene Residential Mortgage Opportunity Fund, an investment fund managed by veteran mortgage-bond trader [...]

In light of all the foreclosures, a program was developed by the Obama administration, called Hope Now and Making Homes Affordable. This was started in the spring of 2009. We heard about the program on a news show. I see [...]

Even as foreclosures continue to grow, homeowners and lenders are increasingly using methods to avoid them that were largely unknown before the housing crisis. Many lenders have become more open to loan modifications or short sales instead of foreclosure, said [...]

Debra Caton asks, “How do you file your taxes after a short sale?” What you may not know is that even though the bank will cancel debt, that amount is seen as income. Therefore it is taxed. Brian Gubernick is [...]

By Probublica – Mortgage servicers regularly make errors and break the rules of the government’s mortgage modification program, according to hundreds of homeowners who responded to a ProPublica questionnaire.

Despite the vital interest that both lenders and borrowers have in avoiding money-losing foreclosures, the number of failing mortgages remains stubbornly high. Part of the problem is borrowers who’ve sunk too deeply into debt — they bought homes they simply [...]