mortgage delinquency

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JPMorgan Covered Up Bad Loans, Emails Show

Lawsuit alleges that firms smoothed over analysis to boost profit

(Newser) - JPMorgan Chase papered over or ignored analysis showing that the loans it was pumping into the financial system were "defective," according to emails and other documents filed as part of a lawsuit against the company. In September 2006, an outside assessment found that "nearly half the sample...

Foreclosures Inch Downward ... a Whole 0.1%

Some very small signs of progress

(Newser) - Banks initiated the fewest number of foreclosures since 2007 last quarter, according to new figures from the Mortgage Bankers Associations. But don't be too quick to don the rose-colored glasses: The number of loans in foreclosure remains stubbornly high at 4.4%—down only a hair from last year'...

Years of Bank Incompetence Led to Foreclosure Crisis

Banks ignored warning signs, hired 'Burger King kids'

(Newser) - As the foreclosure crisis continues, the stories of clueless employees just get worse. Swamped with delinquent customers, banks hired inexperienced walk-ins one former executive called “Burger King kids,” who, for years, processed mortgages at an astonishing rate. Overwhelmed employees not only signed papers without reading them—they sometimes...

Home Repos Hit Recession High

US on track for 1M foreclosures this year

(Newser) - Lenders took back more homes in August than any month since the start of the US mortgage crisis. The increase in home repossessions came even as the number of properties entering the foreclosure process slowed for the seventh month in a row, RealtyTrac said today. In all, banks repossessed 95,...

Church Foreclosures Soar Heavenward

Houses of worship ensnared by same shifty credit as homeowners

(Newser) - Homeowners and banks aren’t the only ones laid low by the reckless mortgage market of years past, as churches across the nation teeter on the brink of foreclosure. Houses of worship ensnared by the promise of low rates and big loans set out on a spree of new construction,...

Octomom About to Lose Home
 Octomom About to Lose Home 
here we go again

Octomom About to Lose Home

Nadya Suleman more than $450K behind on payments

(Newser) - The Octomom finds herself— again —in danger of losing her home. Nadya Suleman is more than $450,000 behind on mortage payments on the La Habra home she bought one year ago, and foreclosure is imminent. The seller—who holds the note on the house—tells TMZ Suleman has...

Hotels Owners Walk Out on Mortgages

(Newser) - Homeowners aren’t the only ones walking away from their underwater mortgages. With the hotel market at its lowest point since the early '90s, many owners, who owe more on their money-losing properties than they’re worth, are simply walking away, the Wall Street Journal reports. Many say they have...

Bad Loan Fees Too Juicy to Give Homeowners a Break

(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...

Confidence Sags; Dow Off 82
 Confidence Sags; Dow Off 82 
MARKETS

Confidence Sags; Dow Off 82

But all indices see gains in second quarter

(Newser) - Stocks fell today on an unexpected decline in consumer confidence, the Wall Street Journal reports, after investors held steady at the open despite data that delinquencies on prime mortgages had increased. The consumer-confidence drop came after two months of positive readings. The Dow closed down 82.38 at 8,447....

Mortgage Rates Hit 3-Month High

Housing and consumer-spending rebound hopes endangered

(Newser) - Mortgage rates jumped to a three-month high yesterday, putting hopes for a rebound in the housing market and consumer spending at risk, the Wall Street Journal reports. The average 30-year fixed rate hit 5.44% from 5.29% the day before and 5.03% Tuesday. The rates make it tougher...

Credit Crisis Traps NYT Economics Scribe
 Credit Crisis Traps 
 NYT Economics Scribe 
Perspective

Credit Crisis Traps NYT Economics Scribe

(Newser) - New York Times economics reporter Edmund Andrews was smart enough to avoid a financial disaster like the mortgage crisis. But “I had two utterly compelling reasons for taking the plunge,” he writes: “The money was there and I was in love.” With a new fiancée—...

Foreclosures Rose 24% in First Quarter

Rate expected to rise through the summer

(Newser) - The number of American households threatened with losing their homes grew 24% in the first 3 months of this year and is poised to rise further as major lenders restart foreclosures after a temporary moratorium, figures out today show. Though the Obama administration has invested $75 billion to help up...

Commercial Real Estate Crisis May Rival '90s Disaster

(Newser) - Commercial real-estate borrowers are defaulting on their loans at an ever-faster pace, and experts now believe the crisis could match or exceed the early-1990s slump, the Wall Street Journal reports. That catastrophe killed off 1,000 banks and savings institutions, with lenders taking $48.5 billion in charges. This time,...

Scammers Set Sights on Desperate Homeowners

Calif. AG: Be 'deeply skeptical' of offers to help refinance

(Newser) - A record 5.4 million homeowners across the country are behind on their mortgages, and scam artists are looking to cash in, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Ads offering help lowering mortgage payments are everywhere. But these "loan negotiators" usually provide services that homeowners can handle on their own,...

Boom-Time Loans Cripple Churches
Boom-Time Loans
Cripple Churches

Boom-Time Loans Cripple Churches

(Newser) - Even houses of worship are facing foreclosures and unpaid bills these days, the AP reports. With credit markets dried up, churches and synagogues—normally rock-solid in recessions—are abandoning half-built properties and scrambling to find a home. "We now have children who don't have classrooms to get into, adults...

Citi Offers Jobless Lower Mortgage Payments

Recently unemployed can drop payments to average of $500

(Newser) - Citigroup is announcing a new program easing mortgage payments to an average of $500 a month for homeowners who have lost their jobs and fallen behind on their debts, reports the Wall Street Journal. Borrowers will be allowed to make the lower payments for 3 months and will pay no...

Octu-Mom, Grandma Face Off in New Vid

Mom rips daughter for irresponsibility

(Newser) - Octuplet mom Nadya Suleman and her own mother, Angela, have been sniping at each other in interviews—and now a video from Radar captures their first face-off. The bizarre sit-down includes an argument over how Nadya could have dealt with her frozen embryos and Angela’s apparent suggestion that she...

Mortgage Plan Relies on Incentives, Lacks Muscle
Mortgage Plan Relies on Incentives, Lacks Muscle
ANALYSIS

Mortgage Plan Relies on Incentives, Lacks Muscle

Proposal does does little to address securitized mortgages

(Newser) - The Obama administration’s foreclosure-prevention plan contains more carrots than sticks, relying heavily on incentives designed to prod mortgage servicers to modify at-risk loans, the Wall Street Journal reports. The plan offers monetary rewards to mortgage companies that lower interest rates on delinquent mortgages, and reduces principal for borrowers who...

Jumbo Mortgage Defaults Soar
 Jumbo Mortgage Defaults Soar 

Jumbo Mortgage Defaults Soar

Banks and investors brace for a new wave of defaults as jumbo loans default

(Newser) - Jumbo mortgages are now going south at an alarming rate, reports the Wall Street Journal, as affluent Americans face mounting layoffs and see their stock portfolios shrivel. Nearly 7% of prime jumbo loans—which average $750,000—were at least 90 days delinquent at the end of 2008, up from...

At-Risk Owners Pay Big Bucks to Mortgage Modifiers

Some take advantage of patchwork laws, charge for services non-profits offer for free

(Newser) - A growing mortgage-modification industry has cropped up amid the housing bust, the Washington Post reports, charging homeowners thousands to help them negotiate better loans. The problem? Non-profit groups already offer those services gratis. “It is very frustrating to find a homeowner who has paid a for-profit company $3,000...

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