Consumerist
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housing
Need Affordable Housing? What About A Mobile Home?
Mobile homes have a less-than-stellar reputation, deservedly or not. I know my own mom always warned me against them by saying they were just tornado bait, which was enough to make me leery of even stepping foot inside a friend's mobile home growing up. But if you're not irrationally afraid of tornadoes, a mobile home might be a great housing option if you're on a tight budget or looking to save money, writes Michigan Telephone. More » -
bad advice
Homeowner Says Bank Told Him To Skip Payments, Then Foreclosed
When MC lost his second job he had trouble affording his $3,000 mortgage payment. He called his mortgage holder, Flag Star Bank, asking for a break, but the bank told him there was nothing it could do for him unless he skipped payments and submitted a loan modification package. More » -
hot infographics
What Recovery? 937,840 Foreclosures Q3
What recovery? There were 937,840 foreclosures in Q3 in the US, according to RealtyTrac, the highest quarterly level since they starting issuing reports in 2005. Let's take a closer look via giant sexy graphic visualization, inside. More » -
auctions
Nobody Wants To Buy (Four Fifths Of) Detroit
Detroit tried to auction off almost 9,000 homes and lots last week—enough property to fill Central Park—but Reuters says less than 1/5th of what went on the block actually sold. Unfortunately, it sounds like speculators snatched up few decent properties, leaving actual Detroit residents looking for new homes out in the cold.
"Detroit house auction flops for urban wasteland" [Reuters]
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homeowner's insurance
Insurers Drop Homeowners With Stinky Chinese Drywall
If you own a house made with poisonous Chinese drywall, you may soon have one fewer thing to worry about: paying your homeowner's insurance premiums. More » -
foreclosures
How To Buy A Foreclosed House (That You Might Actually Want To Live In)
Buying a foreclosed home may seem like a great deal, since the bank that's selling it would rather unload it at a loss than stay on as owner. But foreclosures come with a lot of risks — including vandalism by former owners or theives who strip vacant homes of just about anything that isn't bolted down — and even things that are (you know, like toilets). More » -
mortgages
Homeowners With Good Credit Are More Likely To Strategically Default
Here's an interesting discovery about mortgage defaults from the LA Times:
More »Research using a massive sample of 24 million individual credit files has found that homeowners with high scores when they apply for a loan are 50% more likely to "strategically default" — abruptly and intentionally pull the plug and abandon the mortgage — compared with lower-scoring borrowers.
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accountability
Party Crazy Wells Fargo Banker Fired
The Wells Fargo banker who turned a foreclosed Malibu beach house intohisher summer party pad has been fired. The couple who originally owned the place were victims of Bernie Madoff, and lost the $12 million house in May. Wells says the banker acted alone, and added, "We deeply regret the activities that have taken place as they do not reflect the conduct we expect of our team members." More » -
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mortgages
Brooklyn Judge Rejects Improperly Documented Foreclosure Motions, Shocks Banking Industry
There's a judge in Brooklyn, NY, who has tossed out nearly half of the foreclosure cases brought before him over the past year, because the lenders have such messy paper trails that they can't prove ownership anymore. More » -
surprise!
Despite Refinance, Homeowner Evicted And House Sold [Updated]
Imagine coming home to find the sheriff on your doorstep with an eviction notice, and then being given 3 hours to get the hell off your property, which is no longer yours because your bank mistakenly sold it out from under you for about a third of its value. Oops! Although we initially assumed WaMu/Chase was behind all of it, NCB Miami reports that actually "a mistake in the Miami-Dade Clerk's Office appears to be behind the mishap, which landed Ramirez homeless for more than 24 hours."
Thanks to reader fantomesq, we now know more of what happened. More »
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recession watch
Bad News: Yet Another Record Month For Foreclosures
For the third time in the last five months a new record for foreclosure filings has been reached says foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac. July saw an increase of 7% from June of this year and, even more telling, a 35% increase from last year. More » -
mortgage meltdown
Family Lives Alone In 32-Story Tower
Thanks to their bank, Victor Vangelakos and his family live by themselves in a 32-story tower. More » -
cash for keys
Banks Pay Foreclosed Homeowners Not To Trash Houses
Stuck as a third wheel at catch-up lunch with my wife and her friend this weekend, my ears pricked up when the friend dropped a tantalizing bit of foreclosure trivia — when it finally comes time to kick you out, banks will hand over a ton of money to bribe you into not vandalizing the place. More » -
foreclosures
FTC Launches First Wave Of Smackdown On Scammy Loan Consultants
Yesterday, as part of "Operation Loan Lies," the FTC and 19 states filed 189 lawsuits, cease-and-desist orders, and other legal actions to shut down loan modification consultants who prey on desperate homeowners. The scammers offer to help solve foreclosure problems for a hefty fee; instead, they fail to modify the loan at all while collecting payments for their services, sometimes even encouraging homeowners to stop communicating with their lenders completely or to send payments to the consultants instead of the bank. More » -
foreclosures
Renter Forced To Move Out Of Foreclosed House, Can't Get Security Deposit Back
Silpa had the bad fortune of renting a house from a deadbeat owner who let the property go into foreclosure. Now that $2,200 security deposit could be lost forever amid the turmoil. Silpa's story: More » -
foreclosures
Your Member Of Congress Can Help Renegotiate Your Mortgage
If your bank isn't willing to renegotiate your mortgage, see if your Member of Congress can't give them a little push. Maxine Waters (D-CA) rings up the C.E.O.s of Bank of America and Wells Fargo on her constituents' behalf, while Elijah Cummings (D-MD) hired a staffer who's helping more than 120 constituents avoid foreclosure. More » -
mortgage meltdown
Foreclosures Hit Another Record High, Up 34% From 2008
One in every 324 households in this country received a foreclosure filing last month, according to RealtyTrac. This marks the all time high since the firm started tracking filings in 2005. Foreclosure filings are up 34% since last year. More » -
housing crisis
Report: Loan Modifications To Date Haven't Been That Effective
A new government report provides a reason why default rates for modified home loans have remained fairly high: in many cases, lenders aren't actually modifying the loans by very much.
Fewer than half of loan modifications made at the end of last year actually reduced borrowers' payments by more than 10 percent... [while] nearly one in four loan modifications in the fourth quarter actually resulted in increased monthly payments.
More »
foreclosures
New York, 6:26 AM
Wed Nov 11
22 posts in the last 24 hours
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