Judge Thomas P. Agresti of the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh on Tuesday approved an inquiry into “the impact of Countrywide’s bankruptcy procedures on the integrity of the bankruptcy process” by the Office of the United States Trustee, a Justice Department arm that polices bankruptcy filings.
real estate
Justice Department Will Investigate Countrywide's Lending Practices
By 4.3.08
How To Get An "Iffy" Loan Approved
By 4.1.08
Sometimes when you’re trying to get a borrower approved for a mortgage the system will tell you something stupid like “this person is not qualified.” Luckily, this internal document from Chase shows a few tips and tricks you can use to tweak a borrower’s profile so they can get a stated-income asset loan (which recently has received the unfair pejorative of a “liar’s loan” by the sensationalist media apparatchik) a piece of The American Dream. It’s specific to Chase’s internal loan approval system. Irregardless, many of the principles have universal application, no matter what level of the fast-paced exciting field of sub-prime mortgages you work. Highlights:
By 3.28.08
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New trend: organized bus tours of foreclosed properties for potential buyers. [AP]
Identity Theft + Mortgage Fraud = Home Stealing
By 3.28.08
* From time to time, it’s also a good idea to check all information pertaining to your house through your county’s deeds office. If you see any paperwork you don’t recognize or any signature that is not yours, look into it.
Thankfully they also say that “home stealing” so far does not appear to be very common.
By 3.27.08
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The Minnesota Financial Crimes Task Force has given up on investigating mortgage fraud. “We don’t have the staff or funding to address it,” said Mike Siitari, Edina police chief and oversight council chairman. “We have hundreds of cases of backlog.” [Pioneer Press via Caveat Emptor]
PricewaterhouseCoopers Real Estate Expert Doesn't Own Much Real Estate
By 3.26.08
Marketplace had a telling interview with Susan Smith of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the editor-in-chief of a new report about the commercial real estate market titled “Rough Road Ahead for Investors.”
Comcast Is Renting Your Land And They're Not Paying Their Bill
By 3.26.08
When you don’t pay your bill Comcast cuts your cable off, but what happens when Comcast doesn’t pay its bill to you?
By 3.24.08
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Some ex-Countrywide executives are starting a new company that will buy mortgages, restructure them, and sell them at a profit. [Martketwatch]
Mortgage Meltdown Woes Spread To Home Builders
By 3.21.08
Bill Whitlatch, longtime owner of one of the leading home builders here in northeast Ohio, is among the casualties. Three years ago, he borrowed from regional banks to start six developments in the Cleveland area. Soon the region’s home market turned cold. Buyers vanished. Mr. Whitlatch drained his personal savings of $2 million to keep his company going.
Is Your Pleasant Suburb The Next Slum?
By 3.19.08
At Windy Ridge, a recently built starter-home development seven miles northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina, 81 of the community’s 132 small, vinyl-sided houses were in foreclosure as of late last year. Vandals have kicked in doors and stripped the copper wire from vacant houses; drug users and homeless people have furtively moved in. In December, after a stray bullet blasted through her son’s bedroom and into her own, Laurie Talbot, who’d moved to Windy Ridge from New York in 2005, told The Charlotte Observer, “I thought I’d bought a home in Pleasantville. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that stuff like this would happen.”
Just Because There's A Housing Slump Doesn't Mean There Are Any "Motivated Sellers"
By 3.19.08
Reader Eric is pre-approved and ready to buy a house in South Florida. You’d think it would be a piece of cake considering the, uh, climate down there. Apparently not.
The market down here is really bad. I’d say that more than 75% of the houses we’ve seen are short sells or foreclosures. People are really down about the housing situation. You are constantly hearing on the news about how horribly hard it is to sell a house. Houses are selling way under their purported value.
By 3.18.08
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Some of the same strategies that landed sub-prime borrowers in trouble are becoming increasingly popular among the rich as wealth-management tools. [NYT]
Subprime Meltdown As Told By Stick Figures
By 2.25.08
If, despite the news telling you every day, you still don’t understand how the subprime meltdown happened, perhaps this stick-figure slideshow will help. If even flatlanders can’t see through these scams, what hope is there for the rest of us? Warning, uses naughty words.
33% Of Homeowners Say Their Homes Depreciated In Value In February
By 2.23.08
A new survey from Reuters and the University of Michigan found that a third of homeowners felt their homes lost value in February, compared to 16% a year ago.
By 2.15.08
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Smaller cities that missed the housing bubble have also missed its burst, and people are actually making money off the sale of their homes. [NYT]
Goldman Sachs: By 2009 You May Owe More Than Your Home Is Worth
By 2.14.08
Home prices experienced the steepest drop on record for a single quarter says the National Association of Realtors:
The national median price drop of 5.8%, to $206,200 from $219,300, was the steepest ever recorded by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which has been compiling the report since 1979.
