August 2011

U.S. May Back Refinance Plan for Mortgages

(Source: New York Times By SHAILA DEWAN and LOUISE STORY) – The Obama administration is considering further actions to strengthen the housing market, but the bar is high: plans must help a broad swath of homeowners, stimulate the economy and [...]


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Fannie, Freddie Takeover Could be Key to Obama Jobs Plan

(Source: FOx News By Chris Stirewalt) – At the center of the Panic of 2008 were defaults on cheap mortgages for Americans with poor credit. The latest idea to reverse the resulting recession is for the government to offer cheap [...]


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New York Spars in Foreclosure Talks

(Source: The Wall Street Journal BY RUTH SIMON AND NICK TIMIRAOS) – Efforts to forge a consensus among government officials seeking to negotiate a foreclosure settlement with banks are stumbling in the face of New York State Attorney General Eric [...]


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Finding Embers In The Ashes Of The Real Estate Market

(Source: NASDAQ by Roger S. Conrad) – The Great Recession officially ended about two years ago, but the  U.S. housing market remains in shambles. According to real-estate information provider Zillow ( Z ), more than 28 percent of  U.S. households [...]


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Banks Shave More Off Home Prices

(Source: By Mary Shanklin, Orlando Sentinel) – Banks appear to be offering bigger discounts on Orlando-area foreclosures and short sales than in the past, according to a new report by RealtyTrac Inc.


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German Investors Second Largest in European Commercial Property

(Source: IB Times) – Commercial real estate investors from Germany remain significant players in the European property market, but are increasingly focusing on their home market, according to the latest data from CB Richard Ellis (CBRE)


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Home Short Sales Increase as Banks ‘More Realistic’ on Market

(Source: Bloomberg By Dan Levy) – U.S. homes nearing foreclosure accounted for 12 percent of total sales in the second quarter as banks agreed to more transactions at prices below the outstanding mortgage balance, RealtyTrac Inc. said.


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More Transparent Bank Stress Tests Are Needed

(Source: New York Times) – Europe and the United States both need to conduct another round of stress tests on their banks, with a model similar to what was done in the United States in 2009, but with a more [...]


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BofA Shares Soar After Buffett Invests $5 Billion

(Source: Salon) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is investing $5 billion in Bank of America, sending its shares soaring by 24 percent.


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U.S. Sharpens Mortgage Suit Against Deutsche Bank

WASHINGTON (Source: The Wall Street Journal BY JESSICA HOLZER) — The Justice Department moved to bolster its accusations that Deutsche Bank AG officials knowingly lied about the quality of mortgages made by a unit of the bank that were guaranteed [...]


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Barry Ritholtz Imagines a Real Government Rescue for Banks

(Source: Wall Street Journal By Shira Ovide) – Earlier we showed you the bull case on Bank of America. Now, courtesy of Barry Ritholtz, we have the very, very bear case on big banks.


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Doubts Drag Down Bank of America’s Stock

(Source: By E. Scott Reckard, Los Angeles Times) – Bank of America Corp. is facing a crisis of confidence on Wall Street as investors sent the stock tumbling to levels not seen since the financial crisis and the cost of [...]


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Florida Congressman West Meets With Ocwen’s Loan Modification Specialists to Help At-Risk Homeowners

(Source: OCWEN) WEST PALM BEACH, FlORIDA- Congressman Allen West (FL-22) met last week with top executives and call center representatives of Ocwen Financial Corporation (“Ocwen” or the “Company”) , a mortgage servicing organization that is working to modify the loans [...]


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Will Bankruptcy Solve Mortgage Crisis?

(Source: Fox Business By Justin Harelik) – Dear Bankruptcy Adviser, After 23 years in good standing with my mortgages, I am in foreclosure. I am 59 years old and ineligible for a modification, as my debt-to-income ratio disqualifies me. My [...]


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N.Y. Bumped From 50-State Foreclosure Committee

(Source: The Washington Post) – Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is leading foreclosure settlement negotiations with the nation’s largest banks on behalf of all 50 states, abruptly removed New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from the coalition’s executive committee [...]


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Seven Firms Charged in Mortgage Loan Scheme

MATAWAN (Source: GM News) — A borough firm was among seven mortgage loan modification firms targeted by the state Division of Consumer Affairs for illegally offering mortgage modification services to homeowners in dire financial straits.


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Feds Want Foreclosures Sold in Bulk to be Rentals

(Source: by Catherine Reagor, The Arizona Republic) – The federal government would like to sell some of its huge portfolio of foreclosure homes to investors who will rent them out.


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Homeowner Groups Sue to Force Foreclosures

(Source: Bloomberg By John Gittelsohn) – Members of the Vintage East Condominium Association in Miami Beach got tired of waiting for JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) to foreclose on unit 9, so they sued the bank in February to take [...]


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Some Builders Are Ready for the Wave of Seniors

EAST NORTHPORT, N.Y. (Source: New York Times By RONDA KAYSEN) — When the housing market collapsed in 2008, construction of retirement and assisted-living housing ground to a halt, just as it did in most commercial real estate sectors, as access [...]


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Who Got What From Fed Bailout

(Source: Chron) – As the culmination of almost two years of legal wrangling, which included a U.S. Supreme Court decision and a special provision of the Dodd-Frank reform law, Bloomberg News is sifting through the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented lending program [...]


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Fed Secretly Loaned $1.2 Trillion to Biggest Banks

(Source: sfexaminer) – WHAT: A persistent Freedom of Information drive uncovered the long-hidden news that the Federal Reserve lent banks $1.2 trillion to stop the economy from collapsing in 2008.


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U.S. Banks Facing Main Street Squeeze

(Source: Bloomberg By Christine Harper) – Two U.S. Treasury secretaries and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke provided capital and cheap loans to banks during the last three years to help fuel an economic revival. It hasn’t worked out.


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In Fed’s Move on Capital One Deal, a Test of Dodd-Frank

(Source: Dealb%%k By STEVEN M. DAVIDOFF) – Capital One is the latest bank accused of being “too big to fail.”


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Bank of America Names Top Real Estate Banker

(Source: New York Times DealB%%k) – Bank of America-Merrill Lynch has named Jeff Horowitz global head of real estate, gaming and lodging, replacing Ron Sturzenegger, according to an internal memo obtained by DealBook.


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Where Are The World’s Safest Banks?

(Source: Forbes) – For those looking for safe banks to park their cash in these turbulent times or for bargains in the bloodbath of banking stocks, here is a simple quiz: Most of the world’s safest banks are: (a) in [...]


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State Reaches $125M Settlement with Mortgage Company

(Source: Boston Herald By Donna Goodison) – Some 5,500 Massachusetts homeowners will be eligible for loan modification relief as part of a $125 million settlement announced today that resolves allegations of unfair and discriminatory subprime lending practices by the mortgage [...]


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On Shaky Financial Ground? 3 Reasons Why Loan Modifications Won’t Solve Your Problems

(Source: Fox News By Bob Massi) – Let’s assume you live in one of the geographical areas hardest hit by the home mortgage crisis. The economic boom that your lender assured you would continue to boost the value of your [...]


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New York AG Under White House Pressure on Mortgage Settlement

(Source: The Hill By Peter Schroeder) – New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is reportedly under pressure from the Obama administration to support a broad bank settlement over shoddy mortgage servicing practices.


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Judge Allows Intervention in BofA $8.5 Billion Pact

NEW YORK (Source: Reuters) – A New York state judge granted the request of dozens of investors including pension funds, insurers and several Federal Home Loan Banks to intervene in Bank of America Corp’s proposed $8.5 billion settlement with investors [...]


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States’ Foreclosure Talks with Big Mortgage Servicers Stall

(Source: By Alejandro Lazo and Nathaniel Popper, Los Angeles Times) – Reporting from Los Angeles and New York— An effort by state attorneys general to take big mortgage servicers to task over faulty foreclosure practices has stalled as financial institutions [...]


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