Headline News Archive

2011

November

01

• Nursing home shrinks until it feels like home. Toni Davis spent much of her childhood roaming the corridors of a nursing home in West Orange, N.J., where her mother was the director. Even…

October

31

• Underwater on your home? No problem. One upside to the current economic upheaval is that mortgage rates have fallen to their lowest levels in recorded history. Unfortunately, many homeowners who would…

27

• Ten things to know about buying or selling a home. After staying put during the economic recession, you might be tempted by stabilizing real estate prices and low mortgage interest rates to sell your house…

25

• New rules would help underwater homeowners refinance. Almost 1 million more homeowners over the next two years might be able to refinance their mortgages and save hundreds of dollars a month under…

• A surge in poverty is reshaping suburbs. The poor population in America’s suburbs — long a symbol of a stable and prosperous American middle class — rose by more than half after…

22

• Condo nation: Why so few Americans are buying homes. The housing market is rebounding — at least one piece of it. Construction of multifamily homes such as condominiums and apartment buildings surged a whopping…

21

• Real estate agents learning fine art of 'cash for keys'. When Mary Poland-Smith went into real estate 14 years ago, she never imagined that part of her job would involve handing out “cash for keys,”…

20

• Citigroup to pay to investors in negligence suit. Federal regulators charged a Citigroup unit with negligence Wednesday, saying it sold a $1 billion investment product tied to the weakening housing market in 2007…

19

• Plan would refinance some underwater mortgages. A proposal to allow some creditworthy homeowners to refinance underwater mortgages has become part of settlement talks between government officials and major banks over botched…

• Attorneys general push for Cordray to lead consumer agency. The White House has enlisted a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general to help break a blockade by Senate Republicans of President Obama’s nominee to…

18

• Banks start to make more loans. Despite all the bleak economic news, a funny thing has been happening in the financial industry over the last few months: the banks have quietly…

13

• Sharp rise in foreclosures as banks move in. More U.S. homes are entering the foreclosure process, but they're taking ever longer to get sold or repossessed by lenders. The number of U.S. homes…

• Banks turn to demolition of foreclosed properties. The sight of excavators tearing down vacant buildings has become common in this foreclosure-ravaged city, where the housing crisis hit early and hard. But the…

09

• New addendum could help appraisers give credit for green features. Here's some good news for homeowners who've installed energy-saving features but haven't been sure appraisers will credit them with higher valuations: Thanks to a new…

07

• Homeownership: Biggest drop since Great Depression. The percentage of Americans who owned their homes has seen its biggest decline since the Great Depression, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The rate…

• Conquering with complaints. Consumers today are more empowered than ever after they've been wronged by a company. That's because squeaky wheels have more and better ways to squeak.…

06

• Freddie and Fannie reject debt relief. Home values have fallen so much in Arizona that almost half the people with mortgages there owe more than their homes are worth. So when…

• Secret docs show foreclosure watchdog doesn’t bark or bite. Why has the administration’s flagship foreclosure prevention program been so ineffective in helping struggling homeowners get loan modifications and stay in their homes? One reason:…

05

• BofA may face HUD fraud claims for defective Countrywide loans. Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. lender, should face fraud claims after its Countrywide unit submitted faulty borrower data for federally insured mortgages, according…

• Suit says banks, mortgage companies cheated veterans and taxpayers. Some of the nation’s biggest banks and mortgage companies have defrauded veterans and taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars by disguising illegal fees…

04

• Getting a mortgage workout shouldn't be this exhausting. Jackie Durra and her husband, Pedro Balladares, have been riding out the economic downturn as best they can. For a while they were both out…

• Wall Street protesters hope to plant seeds. New York’s budding anti-capitalism protest movement began last month with a vague sense of grievance over the widening gap between the rich and poor in…

• Fannie Mae knew early of foreclosure abuses. Fannie Mae the mortgage finance giant, learned as early as 2003 of extensive foreclosure abuses among the law firms it had hired to remove troubled…

September

30

• Big mortgages: Harder to get and more expensive. Starting Saturday, the beleaguered housing market will confront the latest hurdle to its recovery: The size of mortgages that the federal government can back will…

29

• Home aid program won't hit its target. A $1 billion federal program to help financially strapped homeowners avoid foreclosure will help 10,000 to 15,000 people — not the 30,000 initially expected, a…