Foreclosure community blog resource

Foreclosure Is Latest Challenge for Knicks' Curry

2009-07-01T15:45:00Z

Banks Balk at Agency Meant to Aid Consumers New York Times Banks and mortgage lenders are placing top priority on killing President Obama’s proposal to create a new consumer protection agency that would regulate home loans, credit card fees, payday loans and other forms of consumer finance. The Obama administration fired an opening shot on Tuesday, sending Congress a detailed, 150-page proposal for an agency that would set new standards for ordinary mortgages, restrict or prohibit risky loans...(read more)

Home-Price Declines in 20 U.S. Cities Eased in April

2009-06-30T17:45:00Z

Home-Price Declines in 20 U.S. Cities Eased in April Bloomberg Home prices in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas fell in April at a slower pace than forecast, a sign the plunge in real-estate values is abating. The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index decreased 18.1 percent from a year earlier following an 18.7 percent drop in March. The measure declined 19 percent in January, the most since the data began in 2001. Price declines are likely to keep moderating as demand steadies and distressed properties...(read more)

Paper Avalanche Buries Plan to Stem Foreclosures

2009-06-29T15:53:00Z

Paper Avalanche Buries Plan to Stem Foreclosures New York Times Somewhere on earth, there must be a more difficult task than this: persuading American mortgage companies to lower payments for homeowners who can no longer afford their loans. But as Karina Montenegro struggles to accomplish this feat for a troubled borrower, she strains to imagine a more futile pursuit. Ms. Montenegro, an intern at a local company that seeks loan modifications, dials Washington Mutual to check on the status of an application...(read more)

Unemployment Vexes Foreclosure Plan

2009-06-26T15:58:00Z

Unemployment Vexes Foreclosure Plan The Wall Street Journal Rising unemployment is complicating the Obama administration's effort to reduce foreclosures and stabilize the housing market. The first wave of mortgage delinquencies was sparked by borrowers who took out subprime mortgages and other risky loans that became unaffordable, causing them to fall behind on their monthly payments. But the current wave is increasingly driven by unemployment or underemployment, economists and housing counselors...(read more)

Indiana Courts Set for Foreclosure Change

2009-06-25T22:07:00Z

Indiana Courts Set for Foreclosure Change The Journal Gazette Though it might be August before Allen County court officials see any changes from a new mortgage law taking effect next week, they will be ready July 1. In the spring, the state legislature took steps to try to help stem the tide of foreclosures, which reached a peak in Allen County in 2007 with about 2,700; there were about 2,500 last year. The legislation, signed into law by Gov. Mitch Daniels in early May, requires mortgage lenders...(read more)

Not Paying the Mortgage, Yet Stuck With the Keys

2009-06-24T16:07:00Z

Not Paying the Mortgage, Yet Stuck With the Keys The Washington Post A growing number of American homeowners are falling into financial limbo: They're badly behind on payments, but their banks have not yet foreclosed. The backlog of seriously delinquent mortgages, which so far affects about 1 million borrowers, is a shadow over hopes for a rebound in the nation's housing markets. It masks the full extent of the foreclosure crisis and threatens to depress prices even further just as some parts...(read more)

Lost jobs forcing more out of homes

2009-06-23T16:05:00Z

Lost jobs forcing more out of homes USA Today WASHINGTON — The nation's foreclosure crisis — once largely confined to only a few corners of the country — is spreading to new areas as the economy teeters. The foreclosure rates in 40 of the nation's counties that have the most households have already doubled from last year, a USA TODAY analysis of data from the listing firm RealtyTrac shows. Most were in areas far removed from the avalanche of bad mortgages and lost homes...(read more)

Tax credit for home purchase could rise

2009-06-22T16:10:00Z

Tax credit for home purchase could rise USA Today Lawmakers and businesses are calling for expansion of a tax credit for first-time home buyers that has helped spark home sales in an otherwise dismal real estate market. With the tax credit scheduled to expire in fall, some business groups say the amount of the credit, now capped at $8,000, should be raised to $15,000 and applied to anyone who buys a home. Housing Eludes Recovery as Job Losses, Foreclosures Climb Bloomberg.com Unemployment and consumer...(read more)

DC Dispatch: Lockhart on the Future of Fannie and Freddie, Foreclosure Prevention

2009-06-21T18:16:00Z

About one hour after hearing from Secretary Shaun Donovan of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has seen loan volume skyrocket over the past year to account for about 24 percent of the mortgage origination market, a small group of real estate editors and writers heard from the man who oversees the government lenders that account for almost all of the remainder of the market. James Lockhart, CEO and Chairman of the Oversight Board of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, regulator...(read more)

DC Dispatch: Donovan Reinforces Obama Regulatory Reform

2009-06-20T17:48:00Z

The newly appointed secretary for Housing and Urban Development used an appearance before some of the nation's real estate editors and writers to outline President Barack Obama's new proposal for regulating the financial industry as well as to catalog the success of the president's new foreclosure prevention program. "Our first responsibility is to stem the tide of foreclosures sweeping the country and keep people in their homes," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan at the National...(read more)