Foreclosure filings up or down? Whose report is right?
Feb. 21, 2012 Miami, FL - Mortgage Lending News: If you were paying attention on Thursday, you saw two different stories about the housing market: The Mortgage Bankers Association said delinquencies and foreclosures fell in the fourth quarter of 2011 while RealtyTrac said foreclosure filings rose in January.
One simple way to account for the difference: They’re looking at different points in time. But it’s also worth noting that the reports are generated using two different methodologies.
Reverse mortgages on the rise.
Feb. 21, 2012 Miami, FL - Mortgage Lending NewsConverting home equity into cash has been a challenge for homeowners since the real-estate downturn, but a growing number of lenders are quietly reviving a loan for seniors that does just that: the reverse mortgage.
Reverse mortgages allow homeowners who are at least 62 years old to draw down on their home's equity in exchange for cash in several ways, including one lump sum, a line of credit or monthly payments.
Mortgage foreclosures and delinquencies hit three-year low
Feb. 16, 2012 Miami, FL - Mortgage Lending News: The percentage of mortgages at least one payment past due fell in the fourth quarter of 2011 and fewer loans entered the foreclosure process, reflecting improvement seen in the economy, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported on Thursday.
The current housing crisis may determined this year's election.
Feb. 17, 2012 Miami, FL - Mortgage Lending News:The housing market has never been a major factor in a presidential election. Sometimes, the topic has hardly garnered more than a passing mention by either political party.
Right now, housing is not yet a front-and-center issue for President Obama or any of the Republican presidential hopefuls. But no less than five national surveys indicate that the issue is a top-of-mind topic among voters. Granted, the polls were undertaken by real-estate-centric organizations — Realtor.com, the National Association of Home Builders, HouseLogic, Yahoo Real Estate and Trulia. But the unanimity of their findings underscores just how worried current and future owners are about their homes.
JP Morgan Chase, and UBS are threaten to be downgraded two levels by Moody's.
Feb. 16, 2012 Miami, FL - Mortgage Lending News: UBS AG, Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and Morgan Stanley’s credit ratings may be cut by as many as three levels by Moody’s Investors Service, which is reviewing 17 banks and securities firms with global capital markets operations.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Citigroup Inc. (C) are among companies that may be downgraded by two levels, Moody’s said in a statement, adding that the “guidance is indicative only.” Moody’s today cut some European insurers’ ratings based on risks stemming from the region’s sovereign debt crisis.
Federal Housing Administration will exhaust its reserves next year.
Feb. 16, 2012 Miami, FL - Mortgage Lending News: The Federal Housing Administration will exhaust its reserves over the coming year, according to budget projections released Monday, which would require a Treasury infusion for the first time in its 78-year history.
But Obama administration officials said more recent developments, including fines that will go to the FHA from last week's $25 billion mortgage settlement with five major banks, could cover any shortfall and obviate the need for taxpayer funding.
San Francisco officials finds foreclosures riddled with errors
An audit by San Francisco county officials of about 400 recent foreclosures there determined that almost all involved either legal violations or suspicious documentation, according to a report released Wednesday.
Anecdotal evidence indicating foreclosure abuse has been plentiful since the mortgage boom turned to bust in 2008. But the detailed and comprehensive nature of the San Francisco findings suggest how pervasive foreclosure irregularities may be across the nation.
The improprieties range from the basic — a failure to warn borrowers that they were in default on their loans as required by law — to the arcane. For example, transfers of many loans in the foreclosure files were made by entities that had no right to assign them and institutions took back properties in auctions even though they had not proved ownership.
| Short Sales object for Fraud |
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| Wednesday, 08 June 2011 13:48 | |||
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CoreLogic, a large real estate and mortgage data research firm in Santa Ana, studied 450,000 short-sale transactions across the country during the last two years and offered these examples of how lenders are losing money: A house in Gilbert, Ariz., sold for $400,000 in 2006. On March 2, 2010, it was bought in a short sale by investors for $220,000 and resold the same day for $267,500 a gain of $47,500. How do investors supervise to turn such quick profits? Are they just super-sharp shoppers or is there something else going on? Regulation enforcement and banking industry experts say it's frequently fraud, and it works like this: Local real estate agents partner with investor groups. The agent's job is to spot borrowers in financial distress usually people who are underwater on their mortgages, meaning they owe more than their homes are worth. They influence the homeowners to sell to investors in a short sale at a low price. Then they contact the bank with the investors' short-sale offer. For the moment, the agent finds legitimate buyers who are willing to pay more for the property, but the agent never presents their offers to the bank. To back up the investors' lowball offer, the realty agent produces an appraisal or a broker price opinion of the distressed home's value that confirms the low valuation. The bank then sells to the investment group. After the closing, the investors sell the house to the legitimate purchasers at the higher price, and the realty agent and the investors split the profits. According to the CoreLogic study, 64% of short sales that are resold within six months for profits of 40% or higher are "suspicious" with a significant possibility the lender accepted a low payoff. Most of these transactions go unnoticed by the banks being defrauded, but some lead to prosecutions and convictions. For example, Connecticut real estate agents McElaney and Natera are awaiting sentencing hearings in July and October in connection with guilty pleas in federal court to short-sale bank fraud. According to the U.S. attorney's office in Connecticut, McElaney and Natera participated in a scheme in which Regions Bank, headquartered in Alabama, agreed to a $102,375 short sale on a house it financed in Bridgeport, Conn. The buyer was BOS Asset Management, an investment company controlled by Natera. Unknown to Regions Bank, however, listing agent McElaney had earlier received a signed purchase contract from a private buyer for $132,500. After closing at the lower price, BOS resold the property to the private buyer, yielding Natera and McElaney a fast $30,125 profit. The unusual federal charges against the two agents alleged short-sale frauds on three other houses, including properties financed by Wells Fargo Bank and a mortgage unit of the global financial services firm Credit Suisse. The guilty pleas, however, solely involved the Regions Bank house in Bridgeport. However banks are the primary victims in short-sale scams, homeowners can be hurt as well. When distressed owners are pressured to sell to investor groups for less than the highest offer available, they can end up deeper in debt to the lender. In the majority of states where banks can pursue borrowers for mortgage balance deficiencies after foreclosure or short sale, homeowners may be subject to debt collection actions by banks.
By: Elizabeth Martinez, Editor
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| Last Updated on Thursday, 09 June 2011 14:59 |
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