December 2010

(Source: By Emily Bregel, Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tenn.) – Leaders of the nonprofit that runs Summit View Senior Community have received preliminary approval for a bond issue that could help the nonprofit keep its doors open. Members of the [...]

(Source: By Erin Zureick, The Augusta Chronicle, Ga.) – As foreclosed homes continue to flood the Augusta housing market , real estate agents and potential home sellers are facing a bleak picture. “The tide is just coming in and there [...]

American Banker’s Kate Berry uncovers a stunning factoid today: the nonprofit Homeownership Preservation Foundation, the official body charged with resolving disputes over HAMP modifications, was founded by ResCap and to this day is run by GMAC and other finance officials [...]

Mortgages: Struggling to pay yours? Oregon’s new payment assistance program, the Oregon Homeowner Stabilization Initiative, is now taking applications. Oregon has a new plan for combating foreclosure, the Oregon Homeownership Stabilization Initiative (OHSI). This is fantastic resource for Oregonians. No [...]

Steven and Tamara Gewecke are three years behind on their mortgage payments, but they’ve fought off foreclosure. The Minnesota couple refinanced in 2006 to start a business. It failed. Debts mounted. The Geweckes went bankrupt and failed to win a [...]

A mortgage modification company that had been illegally charging customers fees before providing emergency foreclosure help has agreed to refund customers and pay a $5,000 fine, Attorney Gen. Ken Cuccinelli (R) said. In November, Cuccinelli filed suit against the American [...]

SOURCE: US TREASURY – As Treasury’s lead operational agency responsible for establishing, overseeing and implementing policies to prevent and detect money laundering, FinCEN offers a number of exciting challenges and opportunities. The mission of FinCEN is to safeguard the financial [...]

(Source: By Tim Grant, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) – Trying to work with a lender to modify an existing mortgage can be so onerous and complex that many borrowers give up. And it’s not much easier for lawyers who work on behalf [...]

(Source: NY Times By Gretchen Morgenson) – ALL the revelations this year about dubious practices in the mortgage servicing arena — think robo-signers and forged signatures — have rightly raised borrowers’ fears that companies handling their loans may not be [...]

“We [made] a lot of sacrifices,” she says. “Sometimes we [didn't] even have food. He got two jobs; I got two jobs. I lost one; he lost one.” And that is when they started falling behind on their payments.

Christopher and Linda Robbins were thrilled to find a buyer for their Watertown condominium this summer, believing they had engineered a graceful way to avoid foreclosure.

(Source: By Carol Hazard, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.) – Dec. 20–Terry and Donna Hunt have never missed a mortgage payment. But their original lender has tried to foreclose on their house in Amelia County three times. The Hunts weren’t involved in [...]

)Source: By Sheena Delazio, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) -  With Christmas around the corner, the last thing Luzerne County Judge Lewis Wetzel wanted was for any of the 12 people present at a mortgage foreclosure proceeding to be put [...]

NAPLES — Five Southwest Florida businesses accused of preying on desperate homeowners have closed up shop. In March, investigators from the Florida Office of Financial Regulation swooped in on those businesses, working out of two different offices, and issued cease-and-desist [...]

(Source: By Steve Gravelle, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa) — Jason Tuttrup is happy to show a visitor around the basement of his family’s home. ‘I’m kind of proud of it,’ he said as he headed downstairs. ‘We put a [...]

(Source: By Steve Gravelle, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa) – The Home Affordable Modification Program, a $50 billion component of the $700 billion Treasury bailout of the nation’s banks — formally, the Troubled Asset Relief Program passed by Congress in [...]

(Source: By Kim Lamb Gregory, Ventura County Star, Calif.) – Joan Locke, 72, considers the reverse mortgage on her Simi Valley home a blessing. Sandy Jolley, 63, considers the reverse mortgage on her mother’s Thousand Oaks home a curse. The [...]

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – U.S. regulators have opened a new line of inquiry in their mortgage foreclosure probe and are asking big Wall Street banks about the beginning stages of mortgage securitization, two sources familiar with the probe [...]