News

2011

March

19

• As remodeling rebounds, caveats for homeowners. One part of the housing market is experiencing a rebound that will probably continue even if the rest of the market remains sluggish: remodeling. A recent report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at

• AGs target lenders' poor loan mod record. When you take out a home mortgage, do you expect to be treated fairly and competently by your bank or loan servicer? Most likely you do. But the widely publicized “robo-signing” and foreclosure scandals suggest

17

• New normal for retirement. Two just-released surveys find that a record number of workers have lost faith in their ability to afford retirement. The 2011 Retirement Confidence Survey, conducted by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), the American Savings

• Elizabeth Warren defends consumer agency in mortgage talks. Federal consumer bureau head Elizabeth Warren made no apologies Wednesday for the new agency’s involvement in ongoing settlement negotiations with some of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers, whose widespread flawed foreclosure practices drew

15

• Hacker group says BofA tried to hide loan information. A hacker group that calls itself Anonymous released a trove of e-mails Monday from a Bank of America unit in which employees discuss altering information in loan files. The e-mails, which were related to loans

11

• Major changes ahead for U.S. mortgage system. Fundamental changes are probably ahead for the American mortgage system as the federal government pushes to unwind its unprecedented involvement in the housing market. These changes could significantly raise the down payments demanded by lenders,

10

• Concern over delay to help jobless pay mortgages. The Obama administration has delayed for several months the launch of a $1 billion effort to help unemployed homeowners avoid foreclosure, sparking fears the program is running out of time to help many borrowers. Congressional Democrats

08

• A.G.s and protesters seek sanctions for mortgage servicers. The state attorneys general investigating abuses in the mortgage servicing industry said Monday that as they hammer out details of a massive settlement with banks, their main objective remains fixing a system that has subjected

07

• Homeless children: the hard times generation. Unemployment improved a bit last month but it is still nearly nine percent and the trouble is job creation is so slow, it will be years before we get back the seven and a half

• Promised relief, many instead deeper in debt. Davidson O. Calfee thought a temporary mortgage loan modification was the break he needed to keep his home. It allowed the Sandwich insurance agent to start saving $500 a month in 2009, when his income was down

06

• MERS? It may have swallowed your loan. For more than a decade, the American real estate market resembled an overstuffed novel, which is to say, it was an engrossing piece of fiction. Mortgage brokers hip deep in profits handed out no-doc mortgages

05

• Picky first-time buyers losing out on homes. Picky, picky, picky! Are today's first-time home buyers passing up great deals because they insist on flawless "move-in ready" houses requiring little or no changes - even at the starter-home price levels at which shoppers

03

• U.S. may force banks to meet loan-modification quotas. As part of a settlement with banks that engaged in shoddy foreclosure practices, the Obama administration is weighing whether to impose quotas that would force the firms to modify a specific number of mortgages for

• Officials disagree on penalties for mortgage mess. Even as state attorneys general and regulators in Washington approach the end of their investigation into abuses by the nation’s biggest mortgage companies, deep disputes are emerging over how much to punish the banks

• U.S. House may kill foreclosure-prevention programs. The Obama administration's main initiative to help struggling borrowers avoid foreclosure could soon be killed in the House, where many Republican lawmakers have complained about the program's lackluster results. The initiative, known as the Home

01

• Geithner wants housing finance overhaul bill. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is telling Congress that the Obama administration wants Congress to approve legislation overhauling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation's troubled housing finance giants, within two years. In remarks he planned

February

25

• How to end housing mess. In most U.S. cities, housing prices are falling again. They were down in 18 out of 20 metropolitan areas in December, according to the Case-Shiller index released Tuesday. The Boston metro area did “better’’ than most —

• BofA's woes from Countrywide worsen. More than three years after Bank of America Corp. agreed to acquire Countrywide Financial Corp., the legal mess the bank inherited from the mortgage giant seems only to grow. It was no secret that the

24

• Is Congress crippling consumer finance reform?. Has Congress found a way to exert its political will on the supposedly independent Federal Reserve Board? And, in the process, murder the infant Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? If so, say goodbye to future, broad

• Experian adds rental histories to credit reports. Renters who need to build their credit histories are getting a leg up from a major consumer credit-reporting firm. Experian is incorporating rental payment data from its recently acquired RentBureau unit into its traditional credit