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A House panel is investigating the role of mortgage lenders in the financial crisis and is seeking information from some of the biggest U.S. companies to determine if they used deceptive practices to lure borrowers into the housing boom.
Towana Gooch, a single mom who lives with her 10-year old daughter, was on the verge of losing her town house in suburban Maryland after her mortgage lender kicked her out of a government loan modification program. The problem, she says she was notified, was a 7-cent error.
The stalled pace of the government's effort to head off home foreclosures has left families looking for other ways to save their homes. There are people out there who can help. But you have to pick very carefully.
Lenders are ramping up efforts to avoid home foreclosures, but a report by bank regulators says more than half of borrowers who get help fall behind again.
The IRS issued new rules Tuesday designed to make it easier to refinance some commercial real estate loans in an effort to curb the number of defaults.
The head of the government agency that packages federally backed mortgages into investments is stepping down for a new job, people familiar with his plans said.
The Senate ethics panel cleared Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad Friday of breaking rules by getting mortgages through a VIP program, but it scolded them for not being more careful to avoid the appearance of sweetheart deals.
Two influential Senate committee chairmen were told they were getting special VIP deals when they applied for mortgages, an official who handled their loans told Congress in closed-door testimony. Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad had denied knowing they were getting discounts when they negotiated their loan terms.
Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation's largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony.
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank is defending Democrats' oversight of struggling mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The Federal Reserve on Thursday approved proposals designed to make it easier for Americans with mortgages, or shopping for them, to better understand how the loans work.
If President Barack Obama gets his way, consumers who take out mortgages would automatically get a "plain vanilla" loan — such as a traditional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage — unless they opted for a riskier variety.
President Barack Obama said homeowners facing foreclosure would have a second chance under a measure he signed into law on Wednesday, but he added consumers still must live within their means.
The 45-51 roll call by which the Senate on Thursday defeated a measure that would have given bankruptcy judges authority to reduce the costs and terms of mortgages for homeowners threatened with foreclosure.
The Democratic-controlled Senate on Thursday defeated a plan to spare hundreds of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure through bankruptcy, a proposal that President Barack Obama embraced but did little to see through.
Negotiations between the banking industry and Senate Democrats on a mortgage relief plan hit a snag Wednesday after a trade association representing credit unions said it could not endorse the proposal.
The Obama administration on Wednesday named the first six companies participating in a $75 billion program designed to help millions of struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Though lenders are boosting their attempts to curb record-high home foreclosures, fewer than half of loan modifications made at the end of last year actually reduced borrowers' payments by more than 10 percent, data released Friday show.
Regional bank Huntington Bancshares Inc. says it has cleared its books of troubled mortgages inherited through a merger.
As rates on 30-year mortgages fall to their lowest levels on record, President Barack Obama is pointing to refinancing as a lifeline for homeowners being stung by plunging home values.
Disagreement among Senate Democrats over how many struggling homeowners should qualify for court-ordered mortgage relief has stalled a key part of President Barack Obama's foreclosure prevention plan on Capitol Hill.
With foreclosures continuing at a rapid pace, the House has passed a measure to let debt-strapped homeowners seek reduced monthly mortgage payments by filing for bankruptcy. The legislation, passed Thursday, is not yet final and more changes may be made. Some questions and answers about the bill:
The head of a panel overseeing bailout money is giving high marks to legislation that would let debt-strapped homeowners seek reduced mortgage payments by filing for bankruptcy.
The 234-191 roll call Thursday by which the House passed a plan to give debt-strapped homeowners a chance to lower their mortgage payments through bankruptcy courts.
A plan to give debt-strapped homeowners a chance to lower their mortgage payments through bankruptcy courts won House approval Thursday as a report revealed that foreclosures and past-due home loans hit a record 5.4 million last year.
States to Banks: Foreclose At Your Own Risk | Real Estate | Foreclosures | Get the best rates on mortgage, home equity loans, CD, money markets and checking accounts | BankingMyWayHere is the back story.
Goldman takes on new role: taking away people's homesGoldman spent years buying hundreds of thousands of subprime mortgages, many of them from some of the more unsavory lenders in the business, and packaging them into high-yield bonds.
Documentary: American CasinoAnyone who already understands the current economic disaster will find little new in "American Casino." But for the rest of us, this "Frontline"-esque documentary is at turns eye-opening (a former mortgage broker smilingly admits that he, and everyone he worked with, regularly al …
President Obama's administration is shocked, shocked at the continuing trouncing of jobs throughout the country. The stock market has entered into the promise land of the 10,000 plus, corporations from Amazon to J. P.
The National Deficit- of LeadershipIt is fashionable these days to decry the quality of American leaders, and why not? Not long ago, we celebrated our CEOs as the new masters of the universe; some paid themselves as if they thought so, too, and their faces graced the covers of magazines everywhere.
Ruling could undo thousands of foreclosuresA real estate judge is refusing to reverse a landmark ruling that opens the door to voiding tens of thousands of Bay State foreclosures dating as far back as 1989.
TARF - It's here, it's expensive - IT'S FINANCIAL SUICIDE!!! In a newspaper that I will not name because they refuse to allow posting of complete articles without a subscription, there was an article about TARF - the government's Toxic Asset Rescue Fund.
More Mortgage Loans for Unqualified BorrowersHere we go again. $4.2 trillion in loans to unqualified borrowers - a financial meltdown and how to we respond? The Community Reinvestment Modernization Act. HR 1479 encourages banks to once again lend to unqualified borrowers.
FHA may be setting up repeat of housing bubble, lawmakers worryThe percentage of loans backed by the agency that are delinquent or in foreclosure hit nearly 8% at the end of June. Critics say borrowers don't have enough of a stake in keeping up with payments.
Report: 1 in 3 loan applications denied - Yahoo! NewsLast year, about 17 percent of blacks and 15 percent of Hispanics got high-priced loans, compared with about 7 percent of whites.
Dems debate shielding banks from state laws WASHINGTON – Moderate House Democrats are drafting a proposal that would continue to shield big banks from potentially tougher state regulations when it comes to selling products such as credit cards, mortgages and savings accounts.
The Banking System Is Insolvent. by Karl Denninger. 13:56, Tuesday, September 29. 2009Cure rates for these distressed loans remain low. Amherst noted a near 0% cure rate of all loans in foreclosure, 0.8% for 90 plus days delinquent, 4.4% for 60 days delinquent and 26.5% for 30-day delinquencies.
Barney Franks Pares Back Consumer ProtectionWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Financial consumers would have fewer protections than originally envisioned under a draft of a bill being circulated on Capitol Hill.
A Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card For 60 Million Mortgages?Could half of all U.S. mortgages -- some 60 million -- be protected from foreclosure? That's how some are interpreting a ruling from the Kansas Supreme Court.
Say goodbye to the recession. Fed chair Ben Bernanke made the announcement on Tuesday.
"Option" mortgages to explode, officials warnWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government and states are girding themselves for the next foreclosure crisis in the country's housing downturn: payment option adjustable rate mortgages that are beginning to reset.
'American Casino': How Our Nation's Financial Sector Became a Massive and Unregulated Gambling Operation Well, originally, whole areas of the population, specifically African Americans and other minorities, were "red-lined." There would literally be a red line around areas on realtors' maps. And you don't make a loan to people living inside those lines.
Now It's the Prime Borrowers Who Are In Deep Trouble From The Recession.excerpt: ""These are the ostrich people who thought if they ignored it, it would just go away. Still buying the big LCD TVs, still going on nice vacations, still pretending it's all going to be okay. Well, it isn't.
"What's HVCC?" I believe those were the exact words I used in response to being asked by the editor of The Niche Report to write a July cover story on the Home Valuation Code of Conduct.
During this historic economic time, more disturbing news was announced this week that will have a disastrous effect on my afternoon coffee and candy habit: Sugar is at its highest price since the 1980's! Starbucks is already adding 30 cents to my favorite low fat beverage, with …
The world has not seen such a global recession in a long time. It seems to have been around for ages without an end in sight.
What Size Shoe Is Dropping? CRE woes threaten EconomyExperts agree that the sea of maturing commercial real estate mortgages is the next shoe to drop in the nation's recession. But the size of that shoe remains to be seen, and just how far it falls is anyone's guess.
Lenders willing to help struggling homeownersAs home foreclosures mount, mortgage companies are knocking on doors, sending letters and making phone calls with a simple message for struggling homeowners: They'd rather modify your loan than foreclose.
Administration, Servicers Commit to Faster Relief for Struggling Homeowners through Loan Modifications Senior Obama Administration officials met today with top executives from servicers participating in the Making Home Affordable loan modification program to discuss ways to improve effectiveness and efficiency of the program.
Criminal Probe Time for Dodd and ConradBut former Countrywide exec Robert Feinberg says otherwise.
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