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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: mortgage

mortgage stories: 153 news summaries

1 - 20 of 153 Stories | 1 2 3 4 5 ... 8 Next >>

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Watchdog: Feds Need to Expand Foreclosure Plan

$50B plan proving ineffective as more mortgage holders lose their jobs

Oct 10, 09 5:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Treasury's $50 billion loan-modification program is in danger of being swamped as the foreclosure crisis accelerates, the Congressional Oversight Panel said in a report yesterday. The Home Affordable Modification Program has met its target of 500,000 trial mortgage modifications started by November 1, but the watchdog warned that... More »

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housing market • subprime mortgages • foreclosure • mortgage • subprime crisis • negative equity • Obama administration • TARP • mortgage modification • underwater mortgage • Home Affordable Modification Program

The Next Mortgage Lender Bailout: The FHA

Critics think fallback agency will need a rescue in next couple of years

Oct 9, 09 8:38 AM CDT
(Newser) - Another mortgage lender specializing in low income borrowers is in trouble: the Federal Housing Administration. The agency which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could soon share their fate, as borrowers default on the low-downpayment mortgages it insures, critics told a House subcommittee yesterday. “It appears destined for a... More »

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mortgage • Freddie Mac • Fannie Mae • Federal Housing Administration • mortgage backed securities • mortgage insurance

mortgage meltdown

 Sleazy Middlemen 
 Stiff Homeowners 
 Trying to Refi 

Foot-dragging 'mortgage servicers' step into role of fox in henhouse

Oct 4, 09 3:31 PM CDT
(Newser) - The federal mortgage modification program is mired in trouble, with just 12% of the 3 million eligible loans in the process of modification, the "servicers" that helped create the problem tasked with helping to untangle it, and the Treasury Department falling down on the oversight job. In one... More »

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Iowa • North Carolina • mortgage • Treasury Department • GAO • Government Accountability Office • refinanced mortgages • TARP • mortgage modification • CitiFinancial • Home Affordable Modification Program

analysis

 Banks Yanking 
 Homeowners' 
 Last Hope: 
 Short Sales 

Healthier lenders no longer anxious to cut deals

Oct 3, 09 2:30 PM CDT
(Newser) - As banks get healthier, they're getting stingier with one of the few remaining lifelines for underwater homeowners—short sales. To keep home sales moving in leaner times—and to get bad loans off their ledgers—lenders would forgive the difference between the outstanding mortgage balance and the purchase price. Such... More »

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mortgage • credit crisis • homeowners • housing crisis • banking industry • short sales

 BofA Severs Ties With ACORN 

ACORN Housing advocated for homeowners facing foreclosure

Sep 28, 09 9:08 AM CDT
(Newser) - Bank of America has cut off ties with ACORN’s housing assistance arm following revelations that employees of the community organizing group gave ill-advised assistance to videographers posing as a pimp and prostitute. ACORN Housing has worked with BofA—among other banks—since the '90s to help homeowners in danger... More »

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prostitution • Bank of America • foreclosure • mortgage • homeowners • Acorn • Scott Harshbarger • Michael Shea • Acorn Housing

investigation

Mortgage Scammers Prey
on Strapped Homeowners

So-called rescue firms promise to negotiate lower rates, then take money and run

Sep 24, 09 7:50 PM CDT
(Newser) - Mortgage brokers who made a mint during the housing boom setting up homeowners in toxic loans are now profiting from a different sort of shady deal. So-called foreclosure rescue firms are proliferating across the US, taking money upfront and promising to negotiate with homeowners’ banks for better interest rates. Instead,... More »

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foreclosure • mortgage • scam • mortgage debt • homeowners • housing crisis • interest rates • Federal Trade Commission

Treasury's Secret Formula Slows Loan Modifications

But one thing's clear: it favors banks, not homeowners

Sep 16, 09 8:15 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Obama administration’s mortgage modification program has been a big disappointment, and part of the reason could lie in the invisible hurdle troubled homeowners have to clear to get their mortgages renegotiated: the NPV test. Devised by the Treasury, the secret formula is designed to determine if modification is... More »

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mortgage • Treasury Department • mortgage modification • loan modification

ACORN May
Sue After New Tape Emerges

Second film shows staffers advising fake hooker, pimp

Sep 14, 09 10:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - ACORN is weighing legal action after another undercover sting tape emerged, this time in Brooklyn, the New York Post reports. Like a tape made in Baltimore, the new footage shows a man and a woman dressed as a pimp and a prostitute getting advice on housing loans. “Honesty is... More »

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mortgage • lawsuit • sting operations • undercover video • Acorn

Commercial Real Estate May Set Off 2nd Crisis

Another mortgage-backed securities market gets into trouble

Aug 31, 09 7:27 AM CDT
(Newser) - Just as the economy starts to recover, a second mortgage disaster may be looming. The commercial real estate sector is tanking, with many properties unable to generate enough cash to make mortgage payments. Lo and behold, those commercial mortgages have been sewn into securities—comparable to the packages of home... More »

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mortgage • debt • mortgage debt • mortgage backed securities • commercial real estate • financial crisis

(AP) - An anonymous bidder paid more than $4.6 million to win an online auction for the crypt directly above the actress' final resting spot at a Los Angeles cemetery. Bidding started at $500,000 on Aug 14. The final bid was $4,602,100. The Los Angeles Times reported earlier... More »

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entertainment • Los Angeles • mortgage • Marilyn Monroe • Joe DiMaggio • crypt • Richard Poncher • Elsie Poncher

(Newser) - Nearly half of US homeowners will owe more than their house is worth by 2011, Deutsche Bank analysts said yesterday, predicting that the number of such “underwater” mortgages would nearly double from today’s 26% to 48%. Their report stated that home prices will fall another 14% between now... More »

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housing market • foreclosure • mortgage • home prices • underwater mortgage

(Newser) - The White House’s National Economic Council will meet today to discuss a drastic overhaul of beleaguered nationalized mortgage dealers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Washington Post reports. Among other proposals, officials are contemplating a “good bank, bad bank” split. Fannie and Freddie would dump their troubled... More »

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mortgage • Freddie Mac • Fannie Mae • Treasury Department • financial crisis • bad bank • National Economic Council

BofA, Wells Fargo Rank Worst for Loan Modifications

Treasury report rates banks' performance

Aug 4, 09 11:44 AM CDT
(Newser) - Bank of America began modifying just 4% of its loans eligible under the Making Home Affordable Act, according to a Treasury report on big banks' performance, while Wells Fargo started just 6%. JPMorgan Chase led the pack with 20%, Bloomberg reports, while Citigroup had 15%. “Some of the servicers... More »

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Bank of America • foreclosure • mortgage • loans • Wells Fargo • home loans • Treasury Department • mortgage lender • Obama administration • President Obama • loan modification

(Newser) - The government's foreclosure prevention program is failing largely because of mortgage companies who can make more money when loans go delinquent, industry insiders tell the New York Times. Companies servicing mortgage loans charge many lucrative fees as loans go bad—recoverable, if necessary, out of the proceeds when the foreclosed... More »

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foreclosure • mortgage • mortgage loans • mortgage lender • mortgage delinquency • Obama administration • mortgage modification

(Newser) - There’s a big problem with government efforts to keep delinquents in their homes by modifying mortgages: Banks would usually rather foreclose, economists tell the Washington Post. Lenders are only interested in modification for the small group of borrowers who will keep paying only if they get help. For those... More »

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foreclosure • mortgage • default • mortgage defaults • Obama administration • banking industry • mortgage modification

(Newser) - The Obama administration's plan to help millions of homeowners avoid foreclosure has so far been a major failure, Politico reports. It's reached just 160,000 of the 3 to 4 million homeowners it was supposed to protect, and another 2 million homes are expected to be foreclosed upon before the... More »

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housing market • foreclosure • mortgage • mortgage loans • Senate Banking Committee • Obama administration

(Newser) - Would-be homeowners with good credit are finding themselves shut out of the mortgage market by stiff restrictions from wary lenders, the New York Times reports. Many believe that in an effort to move away from the laxness blamed for the financial crisis, lenders have gone too far the other way... More »

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housing market • mortgage • credit crisis • mortgage loans • mortgage lender

(Newser) - As many as 26% of mortgage defaults are deliberate moves by homeowners who owe more than their house is worth, finds a new study that asked 1000 people if they knew anyone who had defaulted even though they could still make payments. Researchers caution that the study isn’t precise,... More »

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study • foreclosure • mortgage • mortgage defaults • Obama administration

Congress Weighs Wider Home Tax Credit

$8K for first-time buyers may jump to $15K, apply to all sales

Jun 22, 09 9:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - With the tax credit for first-time homebuyers set to expire in November, congressional efforts to increase it and broaden its reach are ramping up, reports USA Today. Chris Dodd, who leads the Senate Banking Committee, supports a proposal to raise the credit to $15,000 and extend it to all... More »

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real estate • mortgage • home sales • Chris Dodd • real estate values • homeowners • tax credit

Burgeoning Interest Rates Threaten to Stifle Recovery

Demand for refinancing shrivels as 30-year rates hit 5.75%

Jun 11, 09 7:30 AM CDT
(Newser) - The steady rise in interest rates over recent weeks is threatening to trample the green shoots of recovery in the housing market, the Wall Street Journal reports. Rates on 30-year mortgages hit 5.79% yesterday, more than a point above the 4.75% "trigger" level analysts say spurred the... More »

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inflation • mortgage • US economy • mortgage rates • interest rate • refinanced mortgages

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