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Five major U.S. banks accused of foreclosure abuses have agreed to a $26 billion settlement with the government, the largest payout from banks arising from the financial crisis. The amount, which will include aid from banks in the form of loan forgiveness and refinancing, is intended to help homeowners avoid mortgage default and foreclosure. Most economists believe this is a step in the right direction, albeit only a small one.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today invited investors interested in purchasing pools of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA foreclosures in the nations hardest-hit metropolitan areas with the requirement they rent them for a period of year to pre-qualify. The purpose of the pilot phase will be to examine investor interest in various types of assets,including the location, size, and composition of pools of assets; the ways in which investors maximize the participation of experienced local firms and organizations that can provide the types of services and support needed to ensure community stabilization; the types of structures and/or financing...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Matt Martin, CEO of Matt Martin Real Estate Management, is eagerly awaiting the introduction of a program that the Obama administration hopes will transform foreclosed properties into rehabilitated rental units and kick-start the economy. He says he’s not alone. “There is a large chunk of capital, billions of dollars, sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what kind of program the government comes up with,” Martin said. At issue is a Federal Housing Finance Agency push to develop a program that is expected to use government financing or guarantees to attract investors to buy up big regional...

Biden on the housing crisis: “I’m going to make a raw political statement here. A guy like Romney is a good guy, he’s a decent honorable man, and I admire his family, but what he doesn’t understand is that we look at the foreclosure rate in the country like somebody going to bed tonight. They stare at the ceiling wondering if they’re going to be in that house a month from now, and what can we do to help? They [Republicans] look at it from a purely economic standpoint. The best thing to get the housing market back up is...

Unemployed homeowners will be allowed to suspend or reduce mortgage payments for as long as a year under a new policy announced by mortgage finance firm Freddie Mac on Friday. The new rules take effect on Feb. 1. Freddie Mac will give mortgage servicers the authority to provide six months of forbearance to unemployed borrowers without prior approval, and the agency can approve an additional six months of forbearance after that. Homeowners are still responsible for paying off their full mortgage plus interest after the forbearance period ends. According to a Freddie Mac news release, unemployed borrowers can now avoid...

This will drive the Enviro-weenies nuts! http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3425246

Bank foreclosures and abandonment are causing high home vacancy levels in neighborhoods across the country. Scott Pelley travels to Cleveland, a city that’s fighting back against blight. Chances are the home you’re in isn’t worth what it used to be. You may not have indulged in the real estate bubble with its liar’s loans and Wall Street greed, but you were stuck with the bill. Home values have dropped so far, so fast, that nearly 25 percent of mortgage holders today owe more than their house is worth. And with unemployment so high, so long, many face foreclosure. If you...

Years after the banking system nearly collapsed from reckless mortgage lending, federal prosecutors have stayed on the sidelines, even as judges point out apparent wrongdoing. The federal government has pursued few criminal cases against major lenders or senior executives for the meltdown. Finding hard evidence is difficult, the Justice Department said. The government hasn't prosecuted dubious foreclosure practices deployed since 2007 by big banks and other mortgage-servicing companies. Meanwhile, foreclosure-related case files in just one New York federal bankruptcy court hold at least 12 promissory notes bearing evidence of recently forged signatures and illegal alterations, according to a judge's rulings....

In more than two dozens cities across the nation Tuesday, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement took on the housing crisis by re-occupying foreclosed homes, disrupting bank auctions and blocking evictions. Occupy Our Homes said it's embarking on a "national day of action" to protest the mistreatment of homeowners by big banks, who they say made billions of dollars off of the housing bubble by offering predatory loans and indulging in practices that took advantage of consumers. In Atlanta, Occupy Our Homes activists went to the courthouses in three of the area's largest counties, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Fulton,...

In more than two dozens cities across the nation Tuesday, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement took on the housing crisis by re-occupying foreclosed homes, disrupting bank auctions and blocking evictions. Occupy Our Homes said it's embarking on a "national day of action" to protest the mistreatment of homeowners by big banks, who they say made billions of dollars off of the housing bubble by offering predatory loans and indulging in practices that took advantage of consumers. In Atlanta, Occupy Our Homes activists went to the courthouses in three of the area's largest counties, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Fulton,...

Obama has less than one year to boost his ratings, and the latest housing bail-out plan is part of his campaign. But will it work in the long run? Let’s take a look. HARP 2.0 (Home Affordable Refinance Program) launched this week with the hopes of helping at least 1 million underwater borrowers refinance into today’s low rates, even if they owe much more on their home than it’s currently worth. While the rules are less stringent than the original not-so-effective HARP program, it still won’t save enough underwater homeowners from losing their homes. Why? 1). It only applies to...

Local lawmakers believe more federal demolition funds must be found to stop the dramatic drop in northeast Ohio property values. Former Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis said he believes the number of condemned homes and buildings in northeast Ohio has ballooned to 30,000. Rokakis blamed foreclosures and irresponsible banks, investment firms and individuals who have walked away or ignored their distressed properties. The growth in vacant houses comes at a time when federal neighborhood stabilization funds, used to demolish these homes, will soon run dry. Rokakis said vacant homes are one of the leading causes of a dramatic drop in...

Now that Rick Perry and Herman Cain are seeing their stars fade, at least among the pundit class that shapes the popular news, some political observers are speculating that Newt Gingrich could be the next conservative hope for President. In the CNBC Republican Debate on Wednesday evening in MIchigan, Wall Street Journal Editorial writer John Harwood asked Newt Gingrich about his former consultant relationship with the mortgage facilitator Freddie Mac. Conservatives and Libertarians blame the Federal Government for the housing crisis that hit in 2007 and continues today. They believe the Federal Government created the housing bubble by mandating that...

When you're in trouble, nothing beats a helping hand — provided you can reach it. Certain homeowners with "underwater" mortgages are about to find that out. Say you're a homeowner with such a mortgage. The value of your home has dropped over the last few years until it is much less than you owe. It looks like you'll never get any relief. Then the government announces another plan to help people like you — the ones who have struggled to pay their mortgages on time. So you apply. Surprise: there are technical terms (which nobody mentioned ahead of time) that...

On Friday, the law firm of Steven J. Baum threw a Halloween party. The firm, which is located near Buffalo, is what is commonly referred to as a “foreclosure mill” firm, meaning it represents banks and mortgage servicers as they attempt to foreclose on homeowners and evict them from their homes. Steven J. Baum is, in fact, the largest such firm in New York; it represents virtually all the giant mortgage lenders, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The party is the firm’s big annual bash. Employees wear Halloween costumes to the office, where they party...

So the law firm that represents huge mortgage lenders like Bank of America and Citigroup decided to throw a Halloween party. And, like many an awkward office Halloween bash, the employees were encouraged to dress up. Costumes! Fun! Except not. At the offices of Steven J. Baum, things got ugly. Because apparently someone at this firm, the biggest “foreclosure mill” in the state of New York, decided it would be fun to dress up as some of the delinquent mortgage holders whom they’ve thrown out of their homes. And the Baum crew spared no stereotype. This is according to New...

Seeking information/ Anyone a member of a Homeowners association.

SPOKANE, Mo.-- Entire neighborhoods of families in Christian County are being kicked out of their homes. The foreclosures come as quite a shock to the people living in those homes. Ernie and Sharlene Risinger and their 11 year old daughter love their Spokane home and community, but they're being forced out. Their American dream has turned into a nightmare. Nearly four years ago, the Risingers moved into the place they call home. "Sounded like a great deal. He wanted $1,500 deposit or down and we would actually be buying our house," says Ernie Risinger. Or so they thought. The Risingers,...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The percentage of Americans who owned their homes has seen its biggest decline since the Great Depression, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The rate of home ownership fell to 65.1% in April 2010, 1.1 percentage points lower than it was in 2000. The decline was the biggest drop since the 1930s, when home ownership plunged 4.2%. The most recent decade-over-decade drop, however, only tells half the story. Home ownership during the 2000s "was really high in the middle of the decade, up to almost 70% at one point around 2004," said Ellen Wilson, a survey...

By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG LEHIGH ACRES, Fla.—Joseph Reilly lost his vacation home here last year when he was out of work and stopped paying his mortgage. The bank took the house and sold it. Mr. Reilly thought that was the end of it. In June, he learned otherwise. A phone call informed him of a court judgment against him for $192,576.71. It turned out that at a foreclosure sale, his former house fetched less than a quarter of what Mr. Reilly owed on it. His bank sued him for the rest. The result was a foreclosure hangover that homeowners rarely anticipate...

Who’s the largest owner of REO (bank-owned) inventory in the country? The taxpayers! That’s right. You and me. Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), are currently holding approximately 250,000 foreclosed homes. That’s roughly half of all unsold, repossessed properties. Plus, these government-backed agencies may soon be forced to repossess 830,000 more homes currently in some stage of foreclosure. What’s a government to do with so many distressed properties? Unloading them into the market would only further depress values, while damaging the fragile U.S. economy that depends on real estate stability. Holding the...

To avoid further clogging the already sluggish home foreclosure pipeline, some lenders have been offering cash incentives to strapped homeowners at risk of foreclosure to complete short sales and move out of their homes. Chase, for instance, has been quietly offering as much as $35,000 to homeowners who are “upside down” on their loans — meaning, they owe more than the home is currently worth. In a short sale, the lender allows the sale of the home for less than the loan amount and often relieves the borrower of any further obligation. The incentives began late last year and are...

After a yearlong lull, foreclosure filings in the Sacramento region soared 76 percent in August, reflecting a new wave of activity by Bank of America, the nation's largest lender. RealtyTrac said the number of notices of default rose to an 11-month high of 2,432 last month. On Wednesday, the California Reinvestment Coalition and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment – a group started by former ACORN staffers – said a typical foreclosure costs local taxpayers $19,229 in government services. "It's a huge problem for the community," said Angel Picone, regional coordinator for the alliance. "This is taking away resources...

“Forgiving the student loan debt of all Americans will have an immediate stimulative effect on our economy. With the stroke of the President's pen, millions of Americans would suddenly have hundreds, or in some cases, thousands of extra dollars in their pockets each and every month with which to spend on ailing sectors of the economy. As consumer spending increases, businesses will begin to hire, jobs will be created and a new era of innovation, entrepreneurship and prosperity will be ushered in for all. A rising tide does, in fact, lift all boats - forgiving student loan debt, rather than...

You and your fellow U.S. taxpayers own 248,000 homes, the result of record numbers of people defaulting on government-backed mortgages, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek story that quotes a Cleveland housing expert. With even more homes moving toward default, the magazine says, “Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration are looking for a way to unload them without swamping the already depressed real estate market.” They've even issued a public plea for ideas to help do this; you have until Sept. 15 to send ideas to reo.rfi@fhfa.gov. Bloomberg Businessweek says the government's call for ideas is a sign...

Over the past three years the Obama administration has been secretly planning the largest redistribution of wealth in history. When President Obama took office, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac held a staggering $6.1 trillion in subprime mortgages. If you’ll remember just prior to the 2008 election, President Bush signed the $300 billion Toxic Asset Relief Program better known as TARP. Two of the largest beneficiaries of this were the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two companies received a combined $169 billion in taxpayer funds. Upon taking office, the Obama administration gave instructions to the two...

The largest transfer of wealth from the public to private sector is about to begin. The federal government will be bulk-selling the massive portfolio of foreclosed homes now owned by HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to private investors -- vulture funds. These homes, which are now the property of the U.S. government, the U.S. taxpayer, U.S. citizens collectively, are going to be sold to private investor conglomerates at extraordinarily large discounts to real value. You and I will not be allowed to participate. These investors will come from the private-equity and hedge-fund community, Goldman Sachs(GS_) and its derivatives, as...

There have been rumblings for weeks that the economic plan to be offered by President Obama after he returns from his vacation would be aimed, at least in part, at trying to re-inflate the American housing market. The dribbles from the White House on housing have hinted at some big ideas: having the government hold and lease foreclosed homes and even having the government fully take over busted and bailed out mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The trial balloon in today’s New York Times puts the earlier leaks in perspective. The idea is to have the government offer...

Recent falls in the stock market and growing concerns over the cloud hanging over the U.S. economy has prompted more home buyers to cancel real estate deals or continue to sit on the sidelines, analysts say. The National Association of REALTORS® said in a recent report that home buyer cancellations in the last two months increased about 10 percent from a year earlier. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, says the increase is due to low appraisals that do not match the mortgage amount, “overly stringent” lending standards, as well as waning buyer confidence. “The typical home buyer gets rattled when...

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Mortgage delinquencies rose in the second quarter, a development that reflects the deterioration of the job market, the Mortgage Bankers Association's chief economist said on Monday. In the second quarter, the delinquency rate for mortgages on one-to-four unit residential properties reached a seasonally adjusted 8.44%, up from 8.32% in the first quarter, yet still down from 9.85% when compared with the second quarter of 2010, according to the MBA's quarterly delinquency report.

A Huge Housing Bargain -- but Not for You Roger Arnold 08/18/11 - 05:49 PM EDTThis column by Roger Arnold originally appeared on RealMoney on Aug. 11. For a free trial to RealMoney, follow . NEW YORK () -- The largest transfer of wealth from the public to private sector is about to begin. The federal government will be bulk-selling the massive portfolio of foreclosed homes now owned by HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to private investors -- vulture funds. These homes, which are now the property of the U.S. government, the U.S. taxpayer, U.S. citizens collectively, are going...

Nine Chicago neighborhoods riddled with foreclosures will get a blitzkrieg of cash and attention to turn those properties around, thanks to a $20 million loan pool unveiled Wednesday. With foreclosures rising by 20 percent in 2010, and resources steadily declining, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is trying a new approach to combat the epidemic that threatens to tear down entire inner-city neighborhoods. Instead of approaching the problem on a house-by-house basis, the mayor is targeting “small sub-sections” of nine neighborhoods hardest-hit by the foreclosure epidemic: Humboldt Park; Chatham; Chicago Lawn; West Woodlawn; Auburn-Gresham; West Pullman; Belmont-Cragin, Englewood and Grand Boulevard. All nine...

Senior officials with President Obama's administration are looking at the possibility of renting out homes in foreclosure. According to published reports, taking foreclosures off the market and renting them is seen by some as one way to stabilize the housing market. This issue comes up for consideration at a time when monthly rental rates are soaring. They find home prices falling which they attribute to high foreclosure levels. Tupelo Realtor Brenda Estes says there are more than one hundred homes in foreclosure in a six county area of North Mississippi. She says renting them out is not the solution. "I...

The Obama administration is examining ways to pull foreclosed properties off the market and rent them to help stabilize the housing market, according to people familiar with the matter. While the plans may not advance beyond the concept phase, they are under serious consideration by senior administration officials because rents are rising even as home prices in many hard-hit markets continue to fall due to high foreclosure levels. Trimming the glut of unsold foreclosed homes on the market is "worth looking at," said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in testimony to Congress last week. Nationally, home prices in May were...

State attorneys general are negotiating to give major banks wide immunity over irregularities in handling foreclosures, even as evidence has emerged that banks are continuing to file questionable documents. A coalition of all 50 states' attorneys general has been negotiating settlements with five of the biggest U.S. banks that would include payment of up to $25 billion in penalties and commitments to follow new rules. In exchange, the banks would get immunity from civil lawsuits by the states, as well as similar guarantees by the Justice Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development, which have participated in the talks.

At what point is moral hazard trumped by corporate survival and the cold hard need to get people to pay their mortgages? The answer is: Now. As home values continue to fall and more borrowers fall into a negative equity position on their home loans, those who stand to lose, banks and investors, are working to keep borrowers current. To date, they have focused on delinquent borrowers, offering loan modifications and foreclosure alternatives, like short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure. Last fall, New Jersey-based Loan Value Group launched a new business model, offering lenders and mortgage investors a...

BY AL YOON NEW YORK—Bank of America Corp.'s plan to resolve investor complaints about how it treats troubled homeowners and foreclosed properties is the most significant move yet to reconcile the conflicting interests that have stymied efforts to fix delinquent home loans, said a BlackRock Inc. money manager. In addition to a proposed deal to pay $8.5 billion under an agreement with 22 investors, including BlackRock, Bank of America last week agreed to send some of its highest-risk mortgages to so-called special servicers—experts who specialize in assisting troubled borrowers. The new approach adjusts financial incentives to encourage special servicers...

Many conservatives and even some liberals have complained about Obama’s penchant for appointing “czars” in order to avoid accountability under law. One of his most notorious is the Consumer Czar, Elizabeth Warren, who was appointed by Obama to help set up and, many fear, to eventually run the monstrous new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). We recently uncovered documents indicating the CFPB has been intensely involved in a 50-state settlement discussion underway with the nation’s largest mortgage lenders regarding alleged improper foreclosure procedures. (Anti-business zealots in the Obama administration and state attorney general offices are trying to extract a $20...

DICK BOVE: The Losses Bank Of America Is About To Take Are "Historic In Proportion" Joe Weisenthal Jun. 2, 2011, 9:29 AM In a comment out today, Dick Bove predicts huge losses ahead for Bank of America: It is now believed that BAC will lose an additional $32B in the next three years related to the housing crisis. Approximately, $9B of this money will be derived from its reserve. The remaining $23B will be charged to earnings at the rate of $2B per quarter for the next three years. It is likely that the bank will sell additional assets to...

Bank of America and Morgan Stanley have agreed to pay more than $22 million combined to settle federal civil charges on improperly foreclosing on military personnel, The Associated Press reports. The latest home or commercial real estate news Sample Between 2006 and 2009, the mortgage lenders foreclosed on 178 military members in 22 states without getting court approval. The military members affected will each receive $125,562, on average. The banks will also continue to investigate whether improper foreclosures occurred in 2009 through 2010.

There's a three-year inventory of homes in foreclosure for sale, and that's devastating home prices. Las Vegas has so many foreclosures that 53 percent of all the homes sold in Nevada are in some stage of foreclosure, according to a report from RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed properties. Arizona Foreclosures represent 45 percent of sales in California and Arizona, and 28 percent of all existing home sales during the first three months of 2011. "This is very bad for the economy," said Rick Sharga, a spokesman for RealtyTrac.

A few weeks ago, the National Institute for Money in State Politics published a report showing a marked spike last fall in campaign contributions to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller by lawyers and law firms that represent big banks after Miller announced he was opening an investigation into the nationwide mishandling of foreclosures by Bank of America, Chase and others. On April 20, TIME reported that a lawyer and a consultant for Bank of America, which is in direct negotiations with Miller over its handling of foreclosures, gave a total of $15,000 to Miller’s campaign.

It's four months shy of three years since I penned the post, "A Perfect Storm of Housing and Lending Events.... the crash of the US housing market and economy. Since then, it's been stimulus after stimulus spending... albeit all with different names to disguise the same. In the weeks following the Obama inaugural, economist Chris Low was saying the housing market hit bottom, and that 2009 was a year of stabilization and recovery. It was not to be. Five months later, the POTUS was sticking his finger in the housing dike, promising to stop the flash flood of foreclosures.It...

New York -- Home prices continued to plummet during the first three months of 2011, falling 4.6% from a year earlier. The U.S. median price, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), dropped to $158,700 for a single family house. Condo prices fell even harder -- 10.4% to $152,900. The median home price has now slumped 30% from its 2006 high of $227,100, and prices have fallen nearly 7% so far this year. "We're seeing prices dropping faster than they did in 2010," said Pat Newport, an analyst with IHS Global Insight. "That's troubling. Falling home prices precipitated the...

Home prices in February sank 3.3% to just above the post-crisis lows reached in April 2009. It was the eighth straight month of declines. Home values are down 32% from their peak set in May of 2006, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 cities. "There is very little, if any, good news about housing," said David Blitzer, spokesman for S&P. "Prices continue to weaken, trends in sales and construction are disappointing." The drop has come in two stages. First, the index recorded 36 months of nearly uninterrupted declines after reaching the spring 2006 peak. Then came...

Mortgage mess: Who really owns your mortgage?Scott Pelley explains a bizarre aftershock of the U.S. financial collapse: An epidemic of forged and missing mortgage documents April 3, 2011 6:01 PM Do you know who really owns your mortgage? As Scott Pelley reports on "60 Minutes" this week, that question has become a nightmare for many homeowners since the invention of mortgage-backed securities. Yes, those were the exotic investments that sparked the financial collapse in this country. And the're still causing problems. As it turns out, Wall Street cut corners when it bundled homeowners' mortgages into securities that were traded from...

Jump at the Pump Leaves Consumers FlinchingMarch 04, 2011 07:01 AM (Wall Street Journal) — This Miami exurb flourished in the housing boom but has fallen hard during the bust, with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation for the past two years. Rising gasoline prices are making a bad situation even worse. Home buyers priced out of the red-hot Miami market in the middle of the last decade flocked to places like Homestead, putting up with a longer commute in return for less expensive housing. Mortgages were easy to get and often began with low rates that...

Mozilo's actions in the mortgage meltdown — which led to $67.5-million settlement against him — did not amount to criminal wrongdoing, federal prosecutors have determined.

Earlier today, the White House released a budget proposal that included trimming the mortgage interest deduction for taxpayers in the top income tax brackets. This is the first step in eliminating what many economists view as an expensive and inefficient housing subsidy. Unfortunately, many of the critics of the mortgage interest deduction focus on its immediate costs. If it were eliminated, it might bring in more than $2 trillion of new revenue for the government or—as I proposed this morning—allow up to $2 trillion of new tax cuts for the American people. Actually, I think getting rid of the housing...

At Calculated Risk, Tom Lawler, a real estate economist and former risk policy veep at Fannie Mae, tries to figure out how many people have actually lost their homes to foreclosure, short sales or deed-in-lieu desertions. The answer: Not enough. Lawler (who is now living the life of Riley on a Virginia farm) says the number of foreclosures that have been completed so far is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of loans that have gone bad: On the other hand, the above numbers could well OVERSTATE significantly the number of homeowners who lost their primary...