By Mike Colpitts In a move that has been awaited more than a year, the Housing and Urban Development Department launched the Emergency Homeowners Loan Program to help unemployed homeowners at risk of foreclosure in 27 states. The program is slated to help only a small number of troubled homeowners during its life-span. The White… Continue reading HUD Launches Emergency Home Loans
Category: Economic Crisis
Banker Sentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison
By Mike Colpitts The former owner of one of the largest privately held U.S. mortgage lending companies and Colonial Bank was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $38.5 million for his part in a massive $2.9 billion fraud scheme that drove his bank and mortgage company into failure. Lee B.… Continue reading Banker Sentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison
Foreclosure Victims Offered New Credit
By Mike Colpitts Former homeowners who have defaulted on their home mortgages and suffered through foreclosure are increasingly receiving offers of credit to obtain credit cards, auto loans and all sorts of other loans. However, the offers of new credit to the foreclosure victims come with a high price. The offers arrive in the mail… Continue reading Foreclosure Victims Offered New Credit
Banks Mortgage Servicers Penalized
By Mike Colpitts Nearly four years after the foreclosure crisis began to make inroads to wreck the U.S. economy and mortgage lenders started foreclosing on homes without proof of ownership, the U.S. Treasury is finally taking action to withhold payments to three of the nation’s largest banks as a way to penalize their mortgage servicing… Continue reading Banks Mortgage Servicers Penalized
Manic Positive Side of Housing Mess
By Kevin Chiu In what seems like the manic side of the housing mess, young couples are sometimes finding themselves as the lucky beneficiaries of the foreclosure crisis. Take Adam and Lindsey Blackmon of Newport News, Virginia for example. The couple wasn’t even shopping for a home when they couldn’t help but notice a two-year… Continue reading Manic Positive Side of Housing Mess
Miami Home Sales Go Nuts
By Mike Colpitts Condominium and single family home sales are surging in Miami, once the nation’s epicenter of the real estate crash. Condo sales jumped 46% in May and single family home sales rose 20% over a year ago. The surge in sales was led by 1,420 condominiums that changed hands during the month, which… Continue reading Miami Home Sales Go Nuts
Glass-Steagall Should Be Re-Adopted, Survey Overwhelmingly Shows
The Glass-Steagall Act that was enacted at the height of the Great Depression to halt “improper banking activity” should be re-adopted to halt the possibility of another financial crisis, according to a new Housing Predictor survey. Respondents to the online opinion poll overwhelmingly support the act’s re-implementation. During the Great Depression when half of all… Continue reading Glass-Steagall Should Be Re-Adopted, Survey Overwhelmingly Shows
ACLU Says Foreclosure ‘Rocket Docket’ Unconstitutional
By Mike Colpitts The American Civil Liberties Union says that Florida’s ‘rocket docket’ designed to speed up the foreclosure process to benefit bankers’ is unconstitutional, and will challenge the system to the fullest extent of the law in court. The U.S. 20th Judicial Circuit operates the system, which covers foreclosures in five Southern Florida counties,… Continue reading ACLU Says Foreclosure ‘Rocket Docket’ Unconstitutional
Mortgage Interest Rates & Applications Drop
By Kevin Chiu Weak economic data and disappointing news on jobs led a drop in mortgage interest rates as the yield on heavily monitored 10-year Treasury bonds slid below 3%. It was the seventh week in a row that mortgage rates saw a drop along with applications for home loans. The Feds quantitative easing program… Continue reading Mortgage Interest Rates & Applications Drop
Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae Bailout Reaches $317 Billion
By Mike Colpitts The cost of bailing out giant mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is actually $317 billion so far, according to the Congressional Budget Office, more than double what the Obama administration has claimed. Before the mortgage giants are cleaned-up it’s likely the government will spend at least $1-trillion on foreclosed mortgages,… Continue reading Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae Bailout Reaches $317 Billion