Free Republic

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - A 90-year-old Ohio woman, facing eviction from the home she has lived in for 38 years, shot and wounded herself this week, becoming a grim symbol of the U.S. home mortgage crisis. Addie Polk was found lying on the floor of her home with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to her shoulder when police came to the home on Wednesday to serve an eviction notice, Akron police spokesman Lt. Rick Edwards said on Friday. Polk survived the shooting and is being treated in a hospital. It was the latest attempt by sheriff's deputies to...

Quote: The NCLR Homeownership Network (NHN), a network of nearly 50 community-based counseling providers, works with more than 30,000 families annually. Our subsidiary, the Raza Development Fund (RDF), is the nation s largest Hispanic Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Since 1999, RDF has provided $400 million in financing to locally-based development projects throughout the country. These relationships have increased NCLR's institutional knowledge of how Latinos interact with the mortgage market and how well the government regulates financial services markets. As foreclosure rates continue to rise in all loan categories, it is clear that current efforts are falling short of their...

QUIETLY, behind the scenes, the Clinton Administration is preparing for the biggest regulatory crackdown of recent years. Attorney General Janet Reno is linking up with banking regulators and with HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros to end the supposed epidemic of discrimination against minorities in making home loans. The implications for society at large are ominous.

More state by state forclosure rates 2006

Referencing my column yesterday on illegal immigration and the mortgage mess, Hans Bader at Open Market shares his experience. I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails with similar stories. Tip of the iceberg: When I and my wife, a legal alien, bought our house, the mortgage company told me that if my wife were an illegal alien, rather than legal, we would have qualified for certain loan programs with big banks. But because she was a legal alien waiting for her green-card (which she had recently applied for), we didn’t qualify. Mark Krikorian, an activist against illegal immigration, argues that...

If you want to get a good handle on the kind of toxic waste Hank Paulson and Congress think we need to buy, read “Behind the Housing Crash: Confessions from an Insider” by Aaron Clarey (better known as “Captain Capitalism”). Clarey was an analyst for several banks in Minnesota from 1998 to 2007 and he witnessed the utter destruction of lending standards over the last decade. Clarey makes an important point — there would be no crisis if individuals and businesses who had promised to pay back their loans were doing so. The vast majority of those who are not...

AS panicked politicians prepare to fork over $1 trillion in taxpayer funding to rescue Wall Street, they've fingered regulation, deregulation, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Community Reinvestment Act, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, both Bushes, greedy banks, greedy borrowers, greedy short-sellers and minority-home-ownership promoters for blame. But there's one villain that has slipped notice: how illegal immigration, crime-enabling banks and open-borders Bush policies fueled the mortgage crisis. It's no coincidence that the areas hardest hit by the foreclosure wave - Loudoun County, Va., California's Inland Empire, Stockton and San Joaquin Valley, and Las Vegas and Phoenix - also happen to...

Excerpt - There is a broad consensus that Congress must act to stave off deeper turmoil on Wall Street. Irrespective of the final agreement yet to be reached, there are several principles that must be part of a broader reform effort that begins this week and continues in the coming months. ~ snip ~ I've proposed a new Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), to launch a national effort to help homeowners refinance their mortgages. The original HOLC, launched in 1933, bought mortgages from failed banks and modified the terms so families could make affordable payments while keeping their homes. The...

Four Democratic senators Thursday urged mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to temporarily freeze foreclosures on loans they hold. The troubled companies, seized by the federal government Sunday, should help struggling borrowers swap their mortgages for more affordable loans and stay in their homes, the lawmakers said in a letter to the new chief executives and federal regulator running Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was the latest sign of mounting congressional pressure on James Lockhart, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to ensure that the companies use their clout in the mortgage market to help homeowners...

US foreclosure rates up 27 percent in August, slower than July and June Foreclosure filings in August increased 27 percent compared to the same month a year ago, a significantly slower pace than in previous months, according to data released Thursday. Nationwide, 303,800 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice in August, up 12 percent from July, RealtyTrac Inc. said. That means one in every 416 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing last month. August's increase, however, was smaller than the two prior months. June and July both had year-over year increases in foreclosure filings of 50 percent or more....

Senators urge Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac not to foreclose on mortgages they hold and help borrowers stay in homes. WASHINGTON(AP) -- Senate Democrats are urging Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to immediately freeze foreclosures on mortgages they hold. The troubled home loan giants, seized by the government Sunday, should instead work to help struggling borrowers stay in their homes, four senators say in a letter to the firms' new chief executives and the regulator now controlling them. They're calling for a 90-day freeze on foreclosures. Fannie (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie (FRE, Fortune 500) together hold or guarantee some...

Hard Times Hitting Students and Schools By SAM DILLON LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With mortgage foreclosures throwing hundreds of families out of their homes here each month, dismayed school officials say they are feeling the upheaval: record numbers of students turning up for classes this fall are homeless or poor enough to qualify for free meals. “We’re seeing a lot more children in poverty,” said Lauren Roberts, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County school system, a 98,000-student district that includes Louisville and its suburbs. At the same time, the district is struggling with its own financial problems. Responding to a cut of...

When Shaun Yandell proposed to his longtime girlfriend Gina Marasco on the doorstep of their new home in the sunny suburb of Elk Grove, California, four years ago, he never imagined things would get this bad. But they did, and it happened almost overnight. "It is going to be heartbreak," Yandell told CNN. "But we are hanging on." Yandell's marriage isn't falling apart: his neighborhood is. Devastated by the subprime mortgage crisis, hundreds of homes have been foreclosed and thousands of residents have been forced to move, leaving in their wake a not-so-pleasant path of empty houses, unkempt lawns, vacant...

There's a new land grab starting in America. Foreign money, which up to now has focused its attention on investing in iconic commercial real estate - like Barneys New York and the Chrysler Building - is now moving to scoop up tens of thousands of discounted foreclosed homes across the country....

Taking advantage of the foreclosed home glut, it would appear unnamed overseas entities are attempting to gain a foothold, not just in our economy, but soon in our neighborhoods. There's a new land grab starting in America. Foreign money, which up to now has focused its attention on investing in iconic commercial real estate - like Barneys New York and the Chrysler Building - is now moving to scoop up tens of thousands of discounted foreclosed homes across the country. This has an ominous feel to it.

California's battered homes market may be hitting bottom, suggesting a national housing recovery may follow, veteran banking analyst Charles Peabody said on Friday, citing a rebound in home sales as renters become owners. As goes California, the most populous state, so goes the rest of the United States, according to Peabody... Reasons to believe California home prices will firm may be found in data from the California Association of Realtors, Peabody said. Notably, buyers are responding to sharply lower home prices. The realtors' group reports the state's June home sales rose 17.5 percent from a year earlier while its median...

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre said on Wednesday he had filed a lawsuit against Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and its Countrywide unit to prevent the mortgage lenders from foreclosing on homes in his city, which he aims to make a "foreclosure sanctuary."

Selected excertps... IndyMac Bancorp Inc., the failed thrift, reopened its doors under federal control Monday and promptly moved to toss ailing homeowners a lifeline by halting all foreclosures on the mortgages it owns. "We can't make any promises," Ms. Bair said. "We're going to look at each one before we are going to let them continue on to foreclosure, and when we find people who want to stay in their homes, we are going to try to work with them to see if we can modify their loan." What's less certain, for example, is how the FDIC is going to...

I don't know if it was ever pointed out here that this measure passed 63-5, with 32 Senators choosing not to vote, including both McCain and Obama. Click through if you don't know how your Senator voted.

Million-dollar homes, offices, show up on rolls. The foreclosure tsunami is starting to sweep over some of Denver's most exclusive neighborhoods. Homes priced at $1 million or more in places like Cherry Hills, Cherry Creek Country Club and LoDo are popping up more frequently on foreclosure rolls. And it's not just homes. Senior centers, office buildings and even churches have been forced to deal with the threat of losing their million- dollar real estate to the lenders, forcing them to scramble to escape foreclosure auctions. For example, the biggest health club in the metro area, the Lakeshore Athletic Club -...

Vicki Miller bought her childhood home in Altoona, Pa., from her mother's estate for $32,000, using a nice, traditional mortgage from the local savings and loan. Seven years later, her debt has more than doubled, her once-significant equity has shrunk to zero and she's behind on her payments. The lender has begun to threaten foreclosure.

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - There is a link between the high foreclosure rates in some states and the rash of arson incidents involving foreclosed homes, officials say. According to fire safety officials in Nevada, Massachusetts and Ohio, the seven-decade rise in the number of mortgage defaults is connected to the spate of blazes which destroyed the empty homes. In 2006, when the median price of a U.S. home peaked to $221,900 based on data from the National Association of Realtors, 31,000 arson cases were recorded the same year by the U.S. Fire Administration. In Ohio, fires that razed vacant units...

A Nigerian couple who are victims of a mortgage mix-up filed a lawsuit Monday in Williamson County against the company that removed everything they owned from the house, including family heirlooms, furniture and even food from the pantry. Bobo and Joy Dickson are suing Field Asset Services Inc. for failing to return their property. The lawsuit seeks money for the lost property plus compensatory damages, and called the company's conduct "malicious, callous and wanton." EMC Mortgage Corp., the Lewisville company that held the previous owner's loans, has apologized to the Dicksons. On Monday, EMC's parent company, banking giant JPMorgan Chase,...

Fairfax County approved a landmark housing program yesterday to buy foreclosed properties for middle-income families, becoming one of the first communities in the country to tackle the nation's growing mortgage crisis while also addressing the region's increasing demand for affordable housing. County leaders said the program, through which Fairfax will purchase some properties outright and help families buy others through subsidized loans, takes advantage of a unique moment when thousands of homes are entering foreclosure and available for purchase at below-market prices. The program will expand the county's stock of affordable housing and help stabilize areas where clusters of abandoned,...

U.S. foreclosure activity rose 7% in May, or up 48% from the same period last year, RealtyTrac said. The report also shows one in every 483 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month, the highest monthly foreclosure rate since RealtyTrac began issuing the report in January 2005.

WASHINGTON -- The number of U.S. homeowners swept up in the housing crisis rose further last month, with foreclosure filings up nearly 50% from a year earlier, a foreclosure listing company said Friday. Across the U.S., 261,255 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in May, up 48% from 176,137 a year earlier and up 7% from April, RealtyTrac Inc. said. One in every 483 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in May, the highest number since RealtyTrac started the report in 2005 and the second-straight monthly record. RealtyTrac monitors default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. Foreclosure filings...

If you want to buy a home in Sacramento, Calif., the banks have a deal for you. The Sacramento Association of Realtors says that a whopping 65.5% of 1,654 homes sold by Realtors in May were bank-owned, foreclosed, homes. The median sales price in Sacramento County and the City of West Sacramento May was $230,250, down 34.2% from a year ago.The good news for the overall housing market is the inventory of foreclosed homes is starting to move. Realtor sales overall in Sacramento in May were up 76% from a year ago and up 14% from April, the local trade...

Lenders stung by the housing bust are slashing prices dramatically to rid themselves of an unprecedented number of foreclosed properties, sparking bidding wars in some places that harken back to the market's go-go years and may signal the bottom is near. The trend is most dramatic in many parts of California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona, where prices skyrocketed during the housing boom and are now falling precipitously. Sales of foreclosures, vacant new homes and other distressed properties now dominate some markets, causing grief for individual homeowners who need to sell for other reasons, like a job in a new city....

About 4,000 foreclosed homes in Los Angeles County have backyard pools. Health officials fear that many of these pools will turn into perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes -- and the dreaded West Nile virus -- if they go unmaintained.

LOS ANGELES - Ed McMahon, who for decades appeared as Johnny Carson's sidekick on "The Tonight Show," is fighting to avoid foreclosure on his multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills home, according to published reports. The former "Star Search" host was $644,000 behind on payments on $4.8 million in mortgage loans when a unit of Countrywide Financial Corp. filed a default notice Feb. 28 with the Los Angeles County Recorder's Office, The Wall Street Journal first reported late Tuesday. McMahon, 85, has been unable to work as a pitchman for various products since he broke his neck 18 months ago, said his spokesman,...

State Sen. Julia Boseman and her former domestic partner have defaulted on a $1.3 million mortgage on a house in a ritzy subdivision near the Intracoastal Waterway. The house is now expected to be sold at public auction later this month after Boseman and Melissa Jarrell failed to pay months worth of bills on the loan from Regions Bank. Boseman and Jarrell, who lived together and were raising a son together before separating, had the mortgage on the house at 1526 Portsmouth Place in the Avenel Subdivision just across the bridge from Figure Eight Island. According to evidence presented Wednesday...

LOS ANGELES, (AP) -- Rep. Laura Richardson, whose Sacramento home was recently sold into foreclosure, has two other homes in Southern California that have fallen into default six times, according to a published report. Five of the defaults totaling nearly $71,000 occurred in the last 13 months for the homes the Democrat still owns in San Pedro and Long Beach, according to county documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. During much of that time, Richardson used $177,500 to finance her campaigns for Congress and the California Assembly, the newspaper said. A call to Richardson, who will face two challengers...

The Richardson mess: She defaulted on three houses, report says U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson was in default this spring on three separate California houses, and lost one to foreclosure, according to a hard-hitting report in today's Daily Breeze. The Daily Breeze's Gene Maddaus: "Rep. Laura Richardson, who lost her Sacramento home in a recent foreclosure auction, has also defaulted on properties in Long Beach and San Pedro, records show." Richardson, a Democrat from Long Beach, has declined to answer detailed questions about her finances, but has blamed her financial woes in part on the distractions caused by her whirlwind political...

With home values continuing to plummet across the country, it's become clear that the real estate meltdown is far from over. Values for single-family homes in 14 major U.S. cities posted double-digit declines from their respective peaks, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, which tracks prices of single-family homes. On a national level, home values are down 12% since December 2006. And according to Beth Ann Bovino, a senior economist at Standard & Poor's, they could drop another 10% by the end of the year. "Things are accelerating downwards [and] in most cases the fall gets steeper...

The number of properties with a filing...declined 5 percent from March. California had the most properties facing foreclosure at 64,683, an increase of 112 percent from April 2007. The number of properties declined less than 1 percent from March. The state posted the second-highest foreclosure rate in the country, with one in every 204 households receiving a foreclosure-related notice. California metro areas accounted for six of the 10 U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates, led by Merced, with one in every 66 households receiving a foreclosure notice.

In a speech Monday night before the Columbia Business School’s 32nd Annual Dinner, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said that, “”About one quarter of subprime adjustable-rate mortgages are currently 90 days or more delinquent or in foreclosure.” He also said that, “Delinquency rates also have increased in the prime and near-prime segments of the mortgage market, although not nearly so much as in the subprime sector. As a consequence of rising delinquencies, foreclosure proceedings were initiated on some 1.5 million U.S. homes during 2007, up 53 percent from 2006, and the rate of foreclosure starts looks likely to be yet higher...

Cannot redistribute...must go to link.

LUBBOCK, Texas - Republican John McCain defended his latest plan to help some homeowners pay their mortgages, saying Friday it was not a reversal of his earlier opposition to aggressive intervention by the government. The likely Republican presidential nominee on Thursday proposed to help 200,000 to 400,000 homeowners trade burdensome mortgages for manageable loans, a plan that would cost $3 billion to $10 billion. Democratic rivals Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama argued that McCain was flip-flopping. Last month, he said he preferred only limited intervention and letting market forces play out, drawing criticism from Democrats and some Republicans...

LEESBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - Million-dollar fixer-upper for sale: five bedrooms, four baths, three-car garage, cavernous living room. Big holes above fireplace where flat-screen TV used to hang. The U.S. housing crisis has come to McMansion country. Just as the foreclosure crisis has hollowed out poorer neighborhoods, "for sale" signs are sprouting in upscale developments so new they don't show up on GPS navigation screens. Poor people weren't the only ones who took out risky, high-interest loans during the housing boom. The sharp increase in housing costs -- and the desire to live in brand-new, spacious houses with modern features --...

MERCED, Calif. (AP) - The end came in a blink outside the Merced County courthouse. Only six people showed up for the foreclosure auction, Janice Pimentel and her son Nick included. By chance, the Pimentels' dairy farm was the first property offered. The auctioneer, a young man in aviator sunglasses and blue jeans, read their address and paused for bids. When none came, the Joe T and Janice R Pimentel Dairy Farm, 21 years in the life of the family, officially became the property of its main creditor, a local lender. "Well," Janice Pimentel said, "that's that." The Pimentels' farm...

WASHINGTON — Homebuilders and the mortgage industry are emerging as big victors in a bipartisan agreement reached by Senate leaders on legislation designed to limit the housing crisis. The $15 billion Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, expected to be debated Thursday afternoon on the Senate floor, is drawing fire from critics who say it would do little to actually prevent foreclosures. The bill contains a $6 billion emergency tax break that would let companies use losses from 2008 and 2009 to offset profits earned over the previous four years, instead of the usual two-year timeframe. That's good news for big...

An influential member of the Federal Reserve called for more financial education to help low-income mortgage borrowers Monday. In a speech given at the National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference in San Francisco, Janet Yellen, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said the mortgage crisis could hit lower income and minority communities the hardest. Community impact "The foreclosure crisis is likely to have a profound impact on the communities you work in, with effects that go well beyond the housing sector," she said. A rise in foreclosures could drive down property values and increase crime, as well...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - The white bus rumbles into the quiet suburban neighborhood, heading toward a foreclosed home that sits empty. Neighbors, young and old, cock their heads in curiosity or point at the slow-moving coach. Once the vehicle stops, about 20 potential buyers file out and become detectives, opening and closing cabinets and drawers, knocking on walls and asking about the price, the previous owners and what repairs may be needed. Welcome to the Foreclosure Bus Tour, a six-hour expedition to show Orlando-area homes and educate potential buyers on the vagaries of snatching foreclosures in a state where the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of existing homes rose in February for the first time since July as prices posted a record drop from their year-ago level, but economists said it was unlikely the market had reached a bottom. The National Association of Realtors on Monday said sales of previously owned homes rose 2.9 percent in February to a 5.03 million-unit annual rate, bucking expectations on Wall Street for a decrease. While the rise broke a six-month streak of declining sales, prices continued to slip. The trade group said median prices fell 8.2 percent from their year-ago level to $195,900. It...

Hello, Hillary? Hate to wake you, but it's 3 o'clock in the morning, and we have a real crisis. It's your campaign, senator. It's Hail Mary time. You've lost the bid for a revote in Florida and, it seems, in Michigan, which means your prospects for prevailing over Barack Obama in the primary popular vote by June are vanishing fast. The Illinois senator, meanwhile, has just delivered a JFK-like speech on race in America--a savvy move that may well have stanched the hemorrhaging of his campaign over the controversial remarks made by his pastor, Jeremiah Wright. The mood could be...

Foreclosures at record as household wealth falls By Joanne Morrison Thu Mar 6, 5:12 PM ET U.S. home foreclosures hit a record late last year amid a shakedown in the subprime mortgage market that is taking its toll on the broader economy, and the net wealth of U.S. households fell for the first time in five years, data on Thursday showed. The Mortgage Bankers Association on Thursday also said the mortgage delinquency rate hit its highest since 1985 in the final three months of 2007. While the rate of failing loans swelled across most mortgages, it was led by a...

... You Walk Away is a small sign of broad changes in the way many Americans look at housing. In an era in which new types of loans allowed many home buyers to move in with little or no down payment, and to cash out any equity by refinancing, the meaning of homeownership and foreclosure have changed, economists and housing experts say. Last year the median down payment on home purchases was 9 percent, down from 20 percent in 1989, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors. Twenty-nine percent of buyers put no money down. For first-time...

Mortgage Firms Must Notify the State Citing an "alarming" rate of mortgage foreclosures in Maryland, Gov. Martin O'Malley announced emergency regulations yesterday requiring loan service companies to tell the state when residents are in danger of losing their homes so the government can offer preemptive help. O'Malley (D) said the mortgage industry has failed to help troubled homeowners, pointing to poor customer service at major loan service companies, which collect mortgage payments and are authorized to negotiate and modify loan terms. The governor has summoned industry officials to meet with him in Annapolis next week. He said the state has...

All Things Considered, January 30, 2008 · The booming city of Fontana, Calif., is a thick sprawl of closely packed subdivisions. People who couldn't afford a home in Los Angeles or San Diego could buy one here — in San Bernardino County, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles. But as housing values tumbled — and subprime mortgages ballooned — Fontana became one of the many epicenters of foreclosures in Southern California. In San Bernardino County last year, more than 7,700 homeowners lost their homes to foreclosure — a 719 percent increase in just one year. Janice Rutherford is a...

Salgado, 40, one of many renters who found themselves homeless after their cash-strapped landlords stopped making mortgage payments and their houses or apartment buildings were foreclosed upon. The California Apartment Assn. estimates a quarter of all foreclosed single-family residences are occupied by renters. This "shadow market" of renters isn't being tracked by organizations that compile statistics on established rental properties. Salgado, works as a service manager at a San Bernardino boat dealer. He returned to his rented Hesperia house 1/23 to find a notice from his property manager, Century 21 Fairway Realty, informing him the property had been foreclosed upon....