October 2010

Facing foreclosure on their Natomas home a year ago, Mike and Carolyn Durbin were intrigued when they got an official-looking letter saying their bank was under investigation.

PBS Airdate: September 22, 2010 Nightly Business Report profiles a homeowner who enjoyed the benefits of a reverse mortgage, but unknowingly put his mortgage in jeopardy. Know your HECM responsibilities. For more information visit: http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/features/…

My wife and I come from long lines of homeowners who value their home’s equity. Aside from my wife’s brother, we are the only renters in our extended family, and we constantly find ourselves defending our choice. But for us, [...]

Image by Getty Images via @daylife The government is trying to introduce new evidence at the upcoming trial of former Countrywide Financial Corp. Chairman Angelo R. Mozilo and two former top executives to show that they knew about the company’s [...]

Millions of U.S. mortgages have been shuttled around the global financial system – sold and resold by firms – without the documents that traditionally prove who legally owns the loans.

For mortgage investors, the recent suspension of foreclosures could potentially cause further losses in the already-battered $2.8 trillion market for residential mortgage-backed securities. In the past two weeks, three major loan-servicing companies put thousands of foreclosure sales and evictions on [...]

(CN) – California Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Jerry Brown on Wednesday filed a $60 million lawsuit against two Sacramento companies that he says targeted hundreds of desperate homeowners with bogus promises to modify their loan mortgages through futile lawsuits. [...]

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb police executed a search warrant at Matrix Capital Resources Tuesday. They are sorting out the details of the sale pitch that lured in hundreds of unsuspecting mortgage clients. Police hope the evidence will seal their [...]

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a state bill into law Oct. 1 prohibiting mortgage holders from pursuing deficiencies after a short sale is accepted. Before S.B. 931 was signed, distressed borrowers who sold their homes for less than the owed [...]

Ohio’s top lawyer is asking a federal court judge to halt all foreclosure proceedings sparked by servicer GMAC Mortgage LLC amid allegations the company moved foreclosure affidavits through the courts without reviewing them. Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray on Wednesday [...]

Some Washington state homeowners who face foreclosure because of a loss of income might be eligible for a $50,000 federal loan to help them make their mortgage payments for up to two years. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban [...]

A San Diego police officer and his wife pleaded not guilty Wednesday to accusations that they trashed their foreclosed home in French Valley and made off with appliances and fixtures when they moved out. Robert Conrad Acosta, 39, and Monique [...]

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — The foreclosure moratorium, part deux, is generating a lot of negative attention that may not be fully deserved. Several major banks have said they will halt foreclosure proceedings due to a raft of litigation from homeowners [...]

California’s Democratic congressional delegation has joined the call for investigations into delays and possible irregularities in the loan modification and foreclosure process. In a letter Wednesday signed by the California representatives and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the delegation [...]

SACRAMENTO, CA — The California Department of Real Estate (DRE) has reported a sharp increase in the number of cases involving short sale fraud. In response, the Department has issued a new consumer alert detailing the perils and pitfalls of [...]

I used to work for a couple of small mortgage lenders a few years ago. We probably closed somewhere between 150 and 200 purchase and refi loans a month at the smaller one, and maybe 800 to a 1000 loans [...]

The woes in the mortgage market are complex, deep and structural. This is more than just a few shortcuts taken by paralegals here and there — there are endemic structural problems within the US real estate and mortgage markets.  (Yesterday, [...]