housing crisis

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Lenders Loosening Up on Mortgage Down-Payments

Max insurable rises to 95% as many markets stabilize

(Newser) - Mortgage lenders and insurers, buoyed by improvement in the housing market, are relaxing their down-payment requirements. As they take more and more markets off the restricted list, the percentage of a property's value insurers will cover is rising from 90% to 95% in many places. Wells Fargo, which has been...

House-Flippers Target Foreclosure Sales

Big profits loom as lenders offload homes at auction

(Newser) - House-flipping is making a comeback as investors seek fast profits from foreclosure auctions. Lenders are overwhelmed with property, especially in foreclosure hotspots like California, Nevada, and Arizona, and their haste to sell off their huge supplies of homes can mean big flip profits for investors with knowledge of local markets,...

Banks Yanking Homeowners' Last Hope: Short Sales

Healthier lenders no longer anxious to cut deals

(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...

Mortgage Scammers Prey on Strapped Homeowners
Mortgage Scammers Prey
on Strapped Homeowners
investigation
Sep 24, 2009 7:50 PM CDT

Mortgage Scammers Prey on Strapped Homeowners

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

(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,...

Troubled Securities Threaten to Drown Banks

Feds set to seize Texas' Guaranty

(Newser) - Bad loans have been killing off banks at the fastest rate in 17 years—but now, securities purchased from other banks are a mounting threat, the Wall Street Journal reports. Thousands of banks nabbed securities dependent on mortgages and the financial industry. “Under most scenarios, they were good and...

How Board Games Screwed Up Your Fiscal Sense
How Board Games Screwed Up Your Fiscal Sense
ANALYSIS
Jun 16, 2009 3:50 PM CDT

How Board Games Screwed Up Your Fiscal Sense

Games teach excessive lending, scarce saving

(Newser) - It’s really no wonder Americans fouled up the financial system—fiscal irresponsibility was instilled in us at an early age by board games, observes Caitlin McDevitt for the Big Money. Among the poor lessons imparted by money games:
  • In Monopoly, the game’s bank can never go bust—if
...

Manhattan Teeters on Brink of Housing Crash

(Newser) - As foreclosure sales begin to lure buyers back to the housing market in some parts of the country, realtors in New York are finding the market crisis has come home to roost, Reuters reports. Things are bad and could soon be much worse. Condo sales in Manhattan have plummeted 71%...

Cure for Dead Lawns at Foreclosures: Green Paint

Recession has left entire neighborhoods in need of quick spray

(Newser) - California’s Riverside County is looking a little greener these days—just don't look too closely. The area has been so racked by foreclosures and unsold homes that parts of it look like a ghost town, complete with very dead grass. That’s where Insta-Green comes in. The start-up has...

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...

Foreclosures Draw Eager Buyers, but Banks Drag Feet

Red tape and bureaucracy hinder efforts to buy repo'd properties

(Newser) - Bargain hunters are turning to foreclosed homes for deals, but many are finding that buying repossessed properties from banks is a bureaucratic nightmare, the Washington Post reports. Though the housing market cannot stabilize until the unprecedented volume of foreclosures is sold off, banks are sluggish to act and fraught with...

Freddie Seeks $31B in Aid After Posting Big Loss

(Newser) - Freddie Mac said today it will ask the government for nearly $31 billion in additional aid after posting a gargantuan loss of more than $50 billion last year as the US housing market worsened. The mortgage finance company posted a loss of $23.9 billion, or $7.37 per share,...

Most Foreclosures Come From a Few Counties
Most Foreclosures Come From a Few Counties
ANALYSIS
Mar 6, 2009 12:05 PM CST

Most Foreclosures Come From a Few Counties

Crisis affects former boom areas the most

(Newser) - The majority of US home foreclosures last year happened in just 35 counties, USA Today reports. Though the effects of the mortgage crisis have been felt nationwide, foreclosures have been from the start clustered in formerly booming areas in Florida, California, Nevada, Arizona, and around Washington DC. The 35 most-affected...

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...

Gap Narrows Between Mortgage Payments, Rents

Housing slump prompts shift

(Newser) - During the housing boom, mortgage payments held steady, consistently topping rent levels; now, with the market cratering, they’re returning to historical levels, the Wall Street Journal reports. After-tax mortgage payments averaged about 26% more than rent over the past 18 years; during the boom that figure surged to 66%....

Mortgage Plan Relies on Incentives, Lacks Muscle
Mortgage Plan Relies on Incentives, Lacks Muscle
ANALYSIS
Feb 19, 2009 9:14 AM CST

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...

US May Subsidize Lenders Who Cut Mortgage Rates

(Newser) - Details are emerging on the Obama administration's plan to help homeowners: One idea is to give strapped borrowers a lower interest rate, then have the federal government chip in to defray the lenders' loss, the Washington Post reports. The Treasury Department is expected to outline its overall plan in the...

McMansions, Like Everything Else, Are Shrinking

Average home size declines in what analysts call 'right-sizing'

(Newser) - Confirming what industry professionals have long suspected, builders and buyers alike are foregoing super-sized “McMansions” for smaller, more economical homes, the Wall Street Journal reports. The average home started in 2008’s third quarter was 2,438 square feet, down from 2,629 in the second quarter. The median...

All Options on Table in Fight to Halt Foreclosure
All Options on Table in Fight to Halt Foreclosure
ANALYSIS
Jan 26, 2009 8:54 AM CST

All Options on Table in Fight to Halt Foreclosure

Obama considering moratorium, gov't-sponsored refinancing

(Newser) - The Obama administration is considering plans to stem the tide of foreclosures ranging from doubling the mortgage interest deduction to a six-month foreclosure moratorium to government-sponsored refinancing, reports the Los Angeles Times. But a strategy is still at least several weeks away and, regardless of what bandages are applied, “...

Realtors Friend Facebook for Boost in Rough Market

Networking site is useful way reach out to friends—and to buy and sell properties

(Newser) - Facebook has been reviving more than long-lost friendships—it’s proving a useful tool for struggling real-estate agents, Daniel McGinn writes for Newsweek. Agents are increasingly using the site to promote themselves, pitch listings and keep track of potential clients. “I’m trying everything in a market like this,...

Chicago Real Estate Mogul Kills Himself

High-profile exec led expansion of Good family firm

(Newser) - A Chicago-area real estate mogul has been found dead after shooting himself in a wildlife preserve, CNN reports. Police say they don't know why 52-year-old Steven L. Good took his life; a rep said the local sheriff's department had no "concrete evidence if this had anything to do with...

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