November 2010

“There is a huge wave of homes set to come on to the market,” Pepka said. “It will increase inventory and lower price for 24 months out, minimum.”

Servicing mortgages used to be a dull but reliable business. Today, it is neither. The foreclosure debacle has thrown a public and regulatory spotlight on servicing—the collection and distribution of mortgage payments as well as foreclosure of delinquent borrowers. That [...]

“I couldn’t get in touch with anybody who knew anything about our loan, knew anything about what was going on,” Joey Sutorius said. “It just basically showed that we weren’t paying enough money each month, that we were delinquent.”

Two women accused of illegally charging an estimated 15 customers money upfront for loan-modification services reached a plea deal Friday that could leave them with no conviction.

RANCHO BERNARDO, Calif. — While forced foreclosures remain all-too common, more homeowners are choosing to walk way from their homes even though they can afford the mortgage payments. Peter Safronoff called the condo in Rancho Bernardo he bought five years [...]

A Tipton couple has filed a lawsuit against Fannie Mae and several local contractors, reports the Adrian Telegram. Gary and Katherine Clark had their home foreclosed by Fannie Mae, and had until June 14 to clear out their belongings. They [...]

WASHINGTON – The nation’s homeownership rate remained at its lowest in more than a decade, hampered by a rise in foreclosures and weak demand for housing. The percentage of households that owned their homes was unchanged at 66.9 percent in [...]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Josh and Tayla Thomforde thought they had a deal to buy a three-bedroom house with a fenced-in backyard and room for their family to grow. But the nation’s latest foreclosure quagmire scuttled their plans. Three days before [...]

Image via Wikipedia WASHINGTON — For almost two years, home foreclosures have swept the nation, spreading misery among once-buoyant families, spattering lenders with red ink and undermining efforts to restart the economy. How could that be a source of future [...]

WASHINGTON (RNS) A national network of faith-based organizations, homeowners and community organizers met with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday (Nov. 3), urging him to tackle problems with fraudulent foreclosures. Organizers from the group People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO) [...]

Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) — PNC Financial Services Group Inc., the sixth-largest U.S. bank by deposits, said investors are less interested in acquiring mortgage assets because of concern that foreclosures may have been mishandled.

TAMPA – The law offices of David J. Stern and an associated company are laying off 70 percent of its combined staff, according to an email sent to employees Thursday. The terminations come two days after mortgage giants Fannie Mae [...]

ABC – The Making Home Affordable Program was supposed to help many qualified homeowners save their homes by lowering their payments. Instead, the program led many Utahns deeper into debt, and foreclosure for some.

Ally Financial Inc., the auto and home lender, said it will keep its mortgage business and that the company was “embarrassed” it used so-called robosigners to fill out foreclosure documents. “We have looked at various alternatives,” Chief Executive Officer Michael [...]

SOUTH JORDAN — Cody and Davi Livingston thought it was odd when a representative of the bank that held the mortgage on their South Jordan home told them to deliberately stop making house payments.

Joyce Dellinger and her husband have been struggling to make their monthly $1,000 mortgage payment after he lost his job.Wells Fargo approved them for a three-month trial loan modification that dropped their payments more than $100, Dellinger said.

Kina and his wife made numerous calls to Chase which were never returned. Finally, out of desperation they turned to the St. Louis Branch of Legal Aid, and a local activist group, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE), in [...]

Fix the foreclosure mess The recent revelations that big banks and mortgage servicers have used robo-signers to expedite foreclosures has created a major scandal, and rightly so. Some of the same people who brought us the financial crisis and then [...]