Lenders hesitating to repossess California homes

Lenders hesitating to repossess California homes
The Los Angeles Times

The backlog of California homes in default, but not yet repossessed, keeps growing.

At some point, many of these properties will be repossessed and put back on the market. Until then they remain, clogging the system as "shadow inventory," most likely to be foreclosed and sold again.

Courant Probe: Marshals Charged Unnecessary Fees From 2007 Until Recently
Hartford Courant

Connecticut homeowners facing foreclosure have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary marshal fees since 2007, when a select group of marshals who serve foreclosure papers boosted their incomes by changing the way they billed for deliveries, an investigation by The Courant has found.

The higher fees came just as those same marshals were facing a threat to their earnings. Principals of the state's two main foreclosure law firms — Hunt Leibert Jacobson and Reiner, Reiner — had quietly set up a private bookkeeping company and were asking marshals to pay money to the new business for every foreclosure suit they served.

Home sales rate is down year over year
The Los Angeles Times

Despite falling prices, U.S. home sales continued to lag behind last year's levels, according to data released Wednesday by the National Assn. of Realtors.

The industry group's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, called the second-quarter sales figures, which are based on a survey of its members, "a hopeful sign for the economy" because sales were up compared with the first quarter.

Fed Set to Trim Major Lifeline
The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve, saying economic activity is "leveling out," on Wednesday sent its loudest signal yet that it's about to wean the economy off a major lifeline.

Two years after it began an extraordinary series of interventions to stave off a repeat of the Great Depression, the Fed said it would conclude its purchases of $300 billion in U.S. government debt -- designed to lower long-term interest rates -- by the end of October. The central bank will slow the pace of remaining purchases in order to "promote a smooth transition in markets."

Recession and debt hurt commercial real estate
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- Even as the housing market starts to show signs of recovery, fortunes for commercial real estate are looking increasingly grim -- and that could spell trouble for the fragile U.S. banking sector.

The weak economy and rising unemployment have forced businesses to cut back on rental space, resulting in declining revenue for many landlords. And tighter underwriting standards and falling real estate values have made it much harder for them to refinance.