April 2011

Officials Revamp Lead-Paint Removal Program

(Source: The Baltimore Sun, Maryland By Timothy B. Wheeler) – City officials said Tuesday that they’ve revamped Baltimore’s struggling program to remove lead-paint poisoning hazards from housing after losing a $3.9 million federal grant, and intend to reapply soon for [...]


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Hot Market for Foreclosures Boosts Sales in Hampton Roads

(Source: The Virginian-Pilot By Josh Brown) – Sales of foreclosed and distressed properties continued to fuel the housing market in South Hampton Roads in March, according to a report released Monday.


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HSBC Offers Tracker Mortgages with Zero Fees

(Source: Datamonitor) – HSBC has announced that it offers HSBC tracker mortgages available with zero fees. All HSBC tracker mortgages will from April 11, 2011 until June 5, 2011.


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Mortgage Rates Are Up

(Source: El Paso Times By Vic Kolenc) – Home mortgage rates may go up slightly in coming months, and getting mortgage loans will probably continue to be difficult for some consumers, a Texas mortgage industry expert said Tuesday during a [...]


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Foreclosures in Santa Clara, San Mateo Counties Take Nearly a Year to Complete

(Source: San Jose Mercury News By Pete Carey) – Banks foreclosed on hundreds of homeowners in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties in March, even as thousands more are stuck in a foreclosure process that is now taking nearly a [...]


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Hearing Resumes on Tribune Reorganization Plans

WILMINGTON, Del. (Source: Associated Press/AP Online By RANDALL CHASE) – A Delaware bankruptcy judge has resumed a hearing to determine whether he should approve Tribune Co.’s proposed reorganization plan.


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Lenders Fiddle As Wpix-TV Stumbles

(Source: The New York Post By JOSH KOSMAN; CLAIRE ATKINSON) – Competing Tribune lenders are still fiddling over the bankrupt company – while its local TV station WPIX burns.


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Preventing Personal Bankruptcy: A Rigorous Process that Requires Professional Support

(Source: Canada Newswire ) – It is imperative that people facing debt problems get a firm handle on every aspect of the matter, so that they can make enlightened decisions” – Marc Bergeron, Vice-President, Recovery & Reorganization In response to [...]


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Bankruptcies Decline for First Time in Five Years

(Source: The Times-Tribune By James Haggerty) – First-quarter bankruptcy filings in the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the court’s Wilkes-Barre office decreased for the first time in five years.


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Bankers Celebrate 15 Years of Savings Education

WASHINGTON, April 12 (Source: ABA) – Today thousands of bankers and young people will celebrate 15 years of Teach Children to Save with financial education events across the country.


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DFI Orders Unlicensed California Law Firm To Stop Offering Unlawful Mortgage Loan Modifications

OLYMPIA (Source: Washington State Department of Financial Institutions) – The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) has taken swift action to stop an unlicensed mortgage loan modification company from continuing to harm Washington consumers.


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HELOC Default Could Lead to Home Loss

(Source: FoxBuisness By Steve Bucci) – I have a home equity line of credit  of $30,000 that came due in December. I could not pay the full amount. Now the bank is threatening foreclosure on my property. I have a [...]


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Hard-Hit Communities Demand Better Loan Modification Practices

(Source: ManassasParkPatch By Erin Gibson) – The sun was shining Sunday and there was not a cloud in the sky, but it was certainly raining voices in one Manassas community as more than 200 people gathered demanding accountability from CEOs [...]


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Residents Tell of Banks’ Disfunctional Loan Modification Processes

(Source: ManassasPatch By Erin Gibson) – Ammyanna Williams lives in Dale City, Virginia. Wells Fargo was her servicer. She lost her home in Feb. 2010 because she had spent six months fighting for a modification two years before, only to [...]


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Developer Wins Modification With Bankruptcy Filing

(Source: Boston Buisness Jounrals) – Apparently Frank Gorman Jr. knows something that other property owners don’t. Regardless, he’s back in action with a loan modification that, just six months ago, seemed like a pipe dream.


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Mediation Sandwich

(Source: Jacksonville Rusty Collins) – Once upon a time there was a home foreclosure mediation sandwich that all fell apart.  The tomato slice went one way, the lettuce slid another, and pretty soon there was no meat left to hang [...]


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Don’t Bank on Loan Modifications or Debt Aid That Can’t be Promised

(Source: LA Times By David Lazarus) – Like a lot of homeowners, Mar Vista residents Faith and Gary Hunt found money a little tight during the recession and hoped they could work out some more accommodating terms with their lender, [...]


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Struggling Homeowners Get a Lifeline

(Source: Ocala Star-Banner By Fred Hiers) – Shawn and Steven Hallman have tried for the past year to get their home mortgage payments reduced.


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Still No Home Comforts for Draft Saudi Mortgage Law

(Source: Arab News, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia By Mushtak Parker) – Just when we thought that the Shoura Council in Riyadh finally approved last Monday Saudi Arabia’s long-overdue draft mortgage law, it now turns out that the draft law has only [...]


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Q&A With Carolyn Sinnard Who is Going it Alone in Boise-Area Real Estate Business

(Source: Idaho Business Review, The By Bunderson, Gaye) – Carolyn Sinnard recently started a new, one-woman real estate firm called Happy Dog Realty. She has been a realtor since 2006, specializing in residential and multi-family property sales, and owner with [...]


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State Farm Rate Increase Across Florida Means Many Here Will Get Decrease

(Source: The Florida Times-Union By Kevin Turner) – Insurance giant State Farm got some of the homeowners insurance rate increase it asked for on Friday when the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation approved a 18.8 percent statewide increase, but for [...]


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2010 Tax Deadline Looming

BLUEFIELD -(Source: Bluefield Daily Telegraph By Kate Coil) – The final date to file taxes is closing in and the Internal Revenue Service said only a little more than half of the nation’s taxes have been filed at last count.


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Publisher Lee Enterprises to Refinance $1B in Debt

(Source: Associated Press/AP Online By MICHAEL LIEDTKE ) – Lee Enterprises Inc., the publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and more than 40 other daily newspapers, plans to refinance about $1 billion in debt that was due next year. The [...]


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Market Improvement Due to First-Time Buyers

(Source: Belfast Telegraph ) – mortgages llA small improvement in the mortgage market in February was driven by an increase in the number of first-time buyers, newly released figures reveal. The total number of mortgages increased in February, up 8% [...]


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Myrtle Beach Area Home Sales Pick up in March

(Source: The Sun News By Adva Saldinger) – Real estate sales activity is picking up along the Grand Strand at the start of the busy spring season, according to Grand Strand Realtors, who said that March marked a turnaround from [...]


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Hot Market for Foreclosures Boosts Sales in Hampton Roads

(Source: The Virginian-Pilot By Josh Brown) – Sales of foreclosed and distressed properties continued to fuel the housing market in South Hampton Roads in March, according to a report released Monday.


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Out-of-State Homeowner Unlikely to get Modified Loan

(source: Detroit Free Press) – QUESTION: I am in loan modification hell. I signed up with a law firm that got on the modification bandwagon pretty early on.


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Foreclosed Homeowners Find Help in DuPage Courtroom

(Source: dailyherald) – With residential real estate foreclosures increasing across the suburbs, officials in DuPage County are turning to a new pilot program to help families navigate complex court proceedings — and possibly save their homes.


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US Home-Loan Brokers Face New Limits On Pay

(Source: The Wall Street Jounral) – New rules governing how mortgage-loan officers get paid are meant to protect consumers and make it clearer how the mortgage professional is making money off the loan–but some in the industry say the rules [...]


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Mortgage Aid Offered in Kentucky, Indiana

(Source: courier-journal) – Unspent money from the $700 billion federal bank bailout passed more than two years ago will soon go toward mortgage assistance for struggling homeowners in Kentucky, Indiana and 16 other states.


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