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mortgage-meltdown
mortgage-meltdown
(gagilas)
How A Professional Financial Planner Lost His House
By Ben Popken on November 9, 2011 12:00 PM
86 Comments
I've always been fascinated by the old expression, "The Cobbler's children have no shoes." It refers to a person who is so concentrated on using their specific skill set to take care of others' needs that they ignore their own. Carl Richards is a professional financial planner, a guy who people paid to manage their money. He shares how while in the middle of telling people what to do with their cash, he ended up buying way more house than he could afford and ended it up losing it all. It may be a long time before he and his wife can be homeowners again. More »
New Wave Of Mortgage Defaults On Horizon
By Ben Popken on November 9, 2011 11:00 AM
80 Comments
Some of the crappiest mortgages ever made were issued in 2006, and right now those 5-year introductory teaser periods are expiring. That's leading to a 300% increase in monthly payments for already strapped borrowers, and it's what's driving the first increase in delinquent mortgages since 2009, a banking expert tells Credit.com. More »
Drone Helicopters Used To Sell High End Real Estate
By Ben Popken on November 1, 2011 2:00 PM
35 Comments
Helicopter drones looking for work outside the military might look well to apply at their local real estate office for a job. Turns out they're not just good for conducting unmanned aerial strikes against insurgents, drones can also be used to sell mansions, via in-depth tour videos made with cameras mounted to their frames. More »
Triple Dip Predicted For Home Prices
By Ben Popken on October 31, 2011 5:00 PM
65 Comments
Home prices are headed for yet a third bottom, their lowest yet, says a new report by financial analytics company Fiserv. More »
4 Fannie Mae Staffers Placed On Administrative Leave Pending Investigation
By Ben Popken on October 31, 2011 3:00 PM
15 Comments
Four Fannie Mae staffers have been placed on administrative leave while federal investigators probe a series of foreclosed apartments the enterprise sold. More »
SEC Warns S&P It May Sue Them
By Ben Popken on September 28, 2011 1:00 PM
31 Comments
In an unprecedented move, the SEC warned S&P that it might be suing it over its rating of a mortgage-backed bond. It's the first warning a credit rating firm has gotten over its behavior leading up to the financial crisis. More »
(shalf)
Freddie Mac Tells Bargain Hunters To Buzz Off
By Ben Popken on September 14, 2011 2:00 PM
48 Comments
Just because Freddie Mac has a glut of properties on its hands, buyers can't expect Costco prices. Most of the buyers approaching Freddie have been looking to buy at 40-60% off of market price, like the final weeks of a Borders liquidation sale. Instead, Freddie is sending them back this letter which says sorry, we're only taking less than 10% off. More »
(NBCLA)
With Only $37,000 Left On Mortgage, House Gets Foreclosed
By Ben Popken on September 12, 2011 3:00 PM
113 Comments
They only had $37,000 left to go on their mortgage they'd been paying off for 25 years, but now a California family's house is going into foreclosure. More »
Investigation: Banks Took $6 Billion In Home Insurance Kickbacks
By Ben Popken on September 7, 2011 4:00 PM
52 Comments
According to a HUD investigation, big banks raked in over $6 billion in a decades-long insurance kickback scheme that violated RESPA. More »
"Foreclosure Factory" Draws Critics
By Ben Popken on August 8, 2011 2:00 PM
23 Comments
It's a one-stop foreclosure shop. Under one roof is a law office, title company, and auction house. They act as their own notaries and can foreclose. Its owner and several of his top attorneys are even VPs at the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc (MERS) which gives them the ability to transfer mortgages from owner to the other. The Boston Globe profiles a local law firm that has attracted criticism from homeowners and consumer advocates for its vertically integrated approach to foreclosure that can speedily ride over homeowners who thought they were in the middle of working out a deal with the bank. More »
Bank Tries To Foreclose On Gas Station Owner For Being One Day Late With Mortgage Payment
By Ben Popken on August 4, 2011 11:00 AM
59 Comments
A gas station owner in Florida's monthly mortgage payment bounced on October 12th. The next day he put the money required into the bank account. In November and December he tried to make his mortgage payments as normal, but BB&T wouldn't take his money. 10 months later, they still won't take it. Instead, they want to foreclose on his gas station. All for being one day late. More »
(tobo)
BofA Bulldozing Foreclosed Homes
By Ben Popken on July 29, 2011 10:00 AM
106 Comments
Now here's one to reduce the oversupply in the housing market. As the reluctant owners of vast amounts of foreclosed and abandoned houses it can't sell, Bank of America is going to start bulldozing patches of them. More »
(Debs)
Four Charged In Alleged $2.5 Million Reverse Mortgage Racket
By Ben Popken on July 11, 2011 3:00 PM
32 Comments
For their victims, the phone call sounded like salvation. Seniors, living on a fixed income and having trouble with the bills, they were glad to hear someone offering them a reverse mortgage that would allow them to turn the equity in their house into cash. But the four mortgage professionals charged with perpetrating a $2.5 million reverse mortgage fraud scheme are anything but angels. Their aftermath has left those who signed up with them impoverished and close to foreclosure. More »
Retiree Loses Everything After Bank Mistakes His House For Foreclosure
By Ben Popken on June 27, 2011 10:00 AM
198 Comments
An eighty-two year old Tampa Bay man has lost everything he owns, including pictures of his dead wife, after a clean-out crew hired by Bank of America mistook his house for the foreclosure next door. More »
Will Take NY 62 Years to Get Through All The Foreclosures
By Ben Popken on June 20, 2011 5:00 PM
34 Comments
At their current pace, it will take New York State lenders 62 years to repossess all the houses currently in foreclosure or severe default, NYT reports. That's good news for some homeowners looking to get a break while they try to get out from behind the eight-ball with their debts. Some of them could even be dead by the time the house repo man comes to collect. More »
Court Threatens BofA Bank Manager With Jail Over Foreclosure
By Ben Popken on June 3, 2011 10:00 AM
62 Comments
A Bank of America bank manager could end up in jail if the bank doesn't demolish a fire-damaged eyesore, a Georgia court has warned. More »
Class Action Suit Against BofA For Deceptive Loan Mods Goes National
By Ben Popken on May 26, 2011 1:00 PM
24 Comments
Olly, olly, oxen, free. A class action lawsuit against Bank of America claiming they were less than above board with their loan modification practices has been certified for national participation. More »
Dumping 2nd Mortgage Through Bankruptcy Is No Cake Walk
By Ben Popken on May 10, 2011 5:00 PM
22 Comments
For anyone considering getting rid of their second mortgage in the manner described in yesterday's post, bear in mind that it is by no means a painless process. One of our readers is a staff attorney for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee, and he writes in with more details about what this process entails. More »
Homeowners Exploiting Bankruptcy Loophole To Dump 2nd Mortgages
By Ben Popken on May 9, 2011 3:00 PM
65 Comments
Some homeowners are taking advantage of a little-known loophole in the bankruptcy law to get rid of their second mortgage and also avoid the pain of foreclosure, reports the San Jose Mercury News. Here's how it works: More »
Regulators Hatch Plan To Pay Back Victims Of Bad And Illegal Foreclosures
By Ben Popken on April 21, 2011 5:00 PM
58 Comments
It's no secret that foreclosures in America have been a royal mess. Missing paperwork, faked documents, turbo-charged courts that just rubberstamp foreclosure orders, robosigners, the list goes on. Along the way, a number of homeowners have gotten foreclosed on improperly and, in some cases, even illegally. So regulators are putting together a plan for grand-scale recompense. They've laid down decrees that servicers have to start following the law, for really reals this time, banks need to hire outside firms to review their foreclosure actions between 2009 and 2010, and then pay back their victims. More »
