Headline News Archive

2007

April

25

• Property taxes up as house prices fall. Property taxes will keep rising nearly everywhere for homeowners even as house prices are falling in many parts of the country, according to a USA…

23

• Lenders criticized for role in foreclosures. Consumer advocates have begun criticizing major mortgage lenders, such as Countrywide Financial Corp. and GMAC Financial, that also have in-house foreclosure businesses. It is "mind-boggling"…

• Electric deregulation's promise fails. BENTON, Ill. — This wasn't supposed to happen with deregulation. Electric bills were supposed to go down. Instead, Ellie Dorchincez can almost see the dollars…

21

• Negative impact of appraisal inflation. Have inflated appraisals helped fuel the surge in foreclosures on credit-strapped borrowers? Are such appraisals at the core of many mortgage-fraud schemes? The four largest…

20

• Home sellers end up owing in 'upside down' sales. Jeffrey Taylor and his wife bought their dream home in Purcellville for $538,000 last August. Now they have to sell it because they are getting…

19

• Safeguard your home from flooding. Some parts of the Northeast are still swimming in water from the weekend storm. We're going to tell you what you can do to protect…

• Freddie Mac helps homeowners refinance subprime loans. Freddie Mac, one of the nation's largest mortgage investors, plans to buy about $20 billion worth of mortgages that would primarily refinance the loans of…

18

• Regulators urge cautious approach in foreclosures. Federal regulators Tuesday urged lenders to be flexible with borrowers who are behind on their home payments, as mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie…

• States can't regulate national bank mortgage subsidiaries. The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that states may not regulate the mortgage-lending subsidiaries of national banks, in a case that pitted all 50 states and…

14

• Mortgage Mod Squad saves homes. With large numbers of homeowners falling behind on mortgage payments, lenders across the country are seeking ways to keep delinquent customers out of foreclosure. One…

12

• $1 Billion pledged to help fend off foreclosures. Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, an 18-year-old housing advocacy group, yesterday announced it would commit $1 billion to refinancing the loans of lower-income people at…

11

• Wall Street makes subprime restructuring tough. As lawmakers and regulators try to help strapped homeowners with "subprime" mortgages stave off foreclosure, they face an unexpected hurdle: Wall Street. Millions of subprime…

10

• New web sites aim to educate borrowers. At a time when many families are losing their homes to foreclosure, mortgage experts are offering new tools to help home buyers avoid making the…

• Lax lending aided mortgage fraud. Atlanta, GA — The man was one slick fraud artist. Phillip Hill lured people to fancy cocktail parties in a $1.9 million mansion. He asked…

07

• Would mortgage suitability standard protect loan applicants?. Many borrowers who write me about refinancing are about to close on deals that would make them poorer, but they don't realize it. I also…

• Credit scores for sale. When your credit scores don't qualify you for the home mortgage you want, where do you turn? That's an especially timely question now, as lenders…

04

• Tax friendly places: Income, sales and property taxes vary widely. Fed up with your tax bill? Maybe you should consider moving to Alaska. For the 17th year in a row, the far Western state earned…

• Predatory lenders targeted moderate-income homeowners. One in 30 homeowners in Philadelphia has been hurt by predatory lenders who target people who live in moderate-income neighborhoods and whose homes are often…

03

• Gulf insurance cost becomes 3rd storm. Robert Lynn Green Sr.'s sign stands outside his FEMA trailer here in the Lower 9th Ward [of New Orleans], a neighborhood flooded after Hurricane Katrina,…

March

31

• Lack of escrow accounts hurts subprime borrowers. As financial regulators and Congress probe more deeply into delinquencies and foreclosures in the subprime home loan market, one contributing factor is receiving increased attention:…

30

• Buying foreclosure homes: risks or rewards?. You're a would-be buyer who's been sitting stubbornly on the sidelines, having seen home prices soar to nonsensical levels, waiting for their inevitable fall back…

• House panel backs bill to restrain Fannie, Freddie. Long-running efforts to tighten oversight of Fannie Mae Mae and Freddie Mac took a step forward yesterday as a House committee passed a bill that…

28

• How to fend off a foreclosure. As the subprime mortgage meltdown sends delinquencies soaring, up to 1.2 million homeowners could lose their homes this year. But in some cases, that doesn't…

• FDIC backs efforts to regulate subprime lenders. A top federal regulator Tuesday endorsed congressional efforts to pass legislation cracking down on predatory lending. "We believe that the time has come for national…

• States eye ways to help subprime mortgage holders. A growing number of state housing agencies are developing or considering issuing bonds to assist subprime mortgage holders to refinance their obligations at fixed rates,…