August 2010

If the U.S. enters a double-dip recession, home prices could fall by another 20% before they stabilize in early 2012, according to a new forecast by Moody’s Analytics. That compares to the baseline forecast that calls for another 5% decline [...]

Atrios on the Obama administration’s weak response to the recession: I’m sympathetic to the argument that a bigger stimulus couldn’t have gotten through Congress. So what did they do wrong? They failed to actively support judicial bankruptcy for primary residence [...]

Home prices rose in two-thirds of U.S. metropolitan areas in the second quarter as the expiration of home-buyer tax credits spurred sales, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. Separately, the Obama administration said Wednesday it was making $3 billion [...]

The topic of short sales is much talked about, but the talk is necessary because lawsuits involving this type of transaction are on the rise, according to Dave Hamerslough, an attorney with Rossi, Hamerslough, Reischl & Chuck and board attorney [...]

By Probulica – New York regulators have crafted new laws to give the state authority to punish mortgage servicers — something the Treasury Department, in administering its struggling mortgage modification program [1], has so far failed to do. The new [...]

The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, aiming to corral more scammers preying on struggling area homeowners, announced an expansion of its real estate fraud unit Monday.

There’s federal assistance available for homeowners who are “underwater” — people who owe more than their houses are now worth. But those who are struggling, but not underwater, are finding it increasingly difficult to get any help.

Is a little common sense too much to ask from the do-gooder set? With foreclosure rates spiraling out of control, it would seem an odd time for the federal government and various state housing authorities to be promoting zero-down mortgages.

The Florida Attorney General’s office announced today new investigations into three of the state’s biggest law firms handling foreclosure cases, otherwise known as “foreclosure mills”—including the law firm run by multimillionaire David J. Stern, the subject of a Mother Jones investigation [...]

Better Business Bureau recommends that cash-strapped consumers save their money by trying to work out a deal with the lender directly before paying out hundreds in upfront fees to a loan modification company.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife After my trip to Washington DC, and the promise that there might be a reply from Fannie Mae regarding my loan modification in as little as a week, what have I heard? Nothing. Well, [...]

A smaller percentage of U.S. homeowners were saddled with “underwater mortgages” in the second quarter as more homes entered the foreclosure process even as price declines slowed, real estate website Zillow.com said Monday. Fewer homeowners with so-called underwater mortgages — [...]

Wall Street is even simpler than religion. Your entire worth as a human is defined by one number: the compensation number your  boss tells you at the end of the year. See, pay on Wall Street works as follows: your [...]

The region’s rental market has tightened in recent months, with apartment vacancies falling and rents rising for the first time since the beginning of the economic crisis. Analysts said the changes, while small, signal a market shift that is making [...]

It’s not often that something truly inspirational appears in the news these days, but the dedication and abilities of Zeenat Ali — the former medical student who has singlehandedly fought Deutsche Bank to save her parents’ Diamond Bar home from [...]

The department revoked, suspended or accepted the surrender of 886 real estate licenses from July 2009 through June 30, 2010. That’s a 60 percent jump during the past three years. The department has nearly 5,400 open investigations, many for scams [...]

EVERY single day, for the last one and half years, I’ve talked to homeowners who have been frustrated in trying to get a loan modification with their lender but not getting anywhere. Nightmare stories continue to come in droves from [...]

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) has called on House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to convene a hearing in September on whether Fannie Mae executives improperly implemented the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) in order to benefit from incentive payments [...]

The struggling housing market has brokers looking for clients anywhere they can find them, and that includes the internet. A little over two weeks ago Carol Lackey, a real estate broker for Coldwell Banker, The Lackey Team found a client [...]

“Can I get more time?” she asks Kane County deputy Jim Seidelman. “I can’t, I can’t,” Seidelman says, pointing to the court order that set the eviction for 8:30 a.m. June 16. “I don’t have the power. These people” — [...]

SAN FRANCISCO – After sitting through two hours of testimony at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, plumber Carlos Moreno can barely contain his anger. In January, he lost his home in Menlo Park to foreclosure, after his adjustable [...]

After her husband lost his tech job in 2008, Lisa Eidner of Mahwah, N.J., asked the couple’s mortgage servicer to lower their monthly payments. The company agreed to a temporary cut but sent the Eidners on a frustrating, 15-month journey [...]

When Karol Enferadi finally received a contract for her home-loan modification, she wrote “rejected” on it in large letters and mailed it back to Wells Fargo. Under the contract, the 65-year-old’s monthly payments would have been reduced for several years, [...]

Millions of homeowners are trapped in a bizarre real estate limbo, living in houses but no longer paying for them, waiting and wondering if someone will help them – or throw them out.