News

2009

August

13

• California cracks down on foreclosure consultants. State officials are turning up the heat on businesses that target struggling homeowners, ordering nearly 400 mortgage foreclosure consultants to post $100,000 bonds and register with the state attorney general's office or risk prosecution. Authorities acknowledge that

11

• 5 dumb reasons you can't get a loan modification. What's holding up servicers from modifying mortgages? The fax machine. Most loan servicers require that troubled borrowers fax in their applications and supporting documents. Sounds simple enough, but this process is riddled with problems. The

10

• Sacerdote lucha por salvar viviendas. Se reune con políticos y habla con banqueros en un intento de evitar embargos a sus feligreses. La misión de un sacerdote es salvar almas. Pero el reverendo John Lasseigne se ha fijado

09

• The appraisal game has changed. Tim McCarthy remembers what usually happened in the old days - just a few years ago - when a property appraisal would land on a mortgage lender's desk. "The lenders would get a two-page appraisal,

• ¿Puntos o no puntos?. Son incontables las veces que mis radioyentes o lectores me preguntan sobre lo que yo a veces pienso que es "el dilema del huevo y la gallina" de los bienes raíces. ¿Quién vino

08

• Don't cheat on homebuyer's credit. The IRS has an urgent message for would-be home purchasers: Make the most of the $8,000 first-time-buyer tax credit before it disappears Dec. 1 - if you qualify. But if you don't truly qualify, don't try to

06

• Abusive mortgage servicers profit from government help. Billions of dollars the government is spending to help financially pressed homeowners avert foreclosure are passing through — and enriching — companies accused of preying on the people they're supposed to help, an Associated Press investigation has

• U.S. considers remaking mortgage giants. The Obama administration is considering an overhaul of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that would strip the mortgage finance giants of hundreds of billions of dollars in troubled loans and create a new structure to

04

• Several loan servicers have not modified a single loan. Only 15% of homeowners eligible for the Obama administration's $50 billion loan modification program have been offered help so far. In its first monthly progress report on the plan launched in March, the government described on Tuesday

02

• A mortgage watchdog group is born. FEW businesses have trust issues as daunting as those now faced by mortgage lenders; now a new nonprofit group is working to change public perception of the industry. More Mortgage Columns The Fair Mortgage Collaborative,

01

• Will a new agency protect your finances?. Health-care reform has drawn most of the attention on Capitol Hill lately, but for home buyers and sellers and mortgage applicants, the legislative ballgame will really get underway in September. That's when Congress begins serious

July

30

• Help for FHA mortgage holders. Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will be eligible for payment reductions similar to the Obama administration's loan modification program, the government will announce Thursday. Effective Aug. 15, financially troubled homeowners who have an

• Lucrative fees may deter efforts to alter home loans. This week, the Obama administration summoned mortgage company executives to Washington to demand they move faster to lower payments for homeowners sliding toward foreclosure. Treasury officials called on the companies to hire and train more

29

• El alza en los precios de la vivienda ofrece esperanza en EE.UU.. El mercado inmobiliario se estaría estabilizando, pero el desempleo y el bajo consumo no dejan celebrar. Los precios de las viviendas en las principales ciudades de Estados Unidos subieron en mayo por primera vez

28

• Foreclosures often in lenders' best interest. Government initiatives to stem the country's mounting foreclosures are hampered because banks and other lenders in many cases have more financial incentive to let borrowers lose their homes than to work out settlements, some economists

27

• Ventas de vivienda nueva en EEUU tienen su mayor alza en 9 años. La venta de casas y apartamentos nuevos en Estados Unidos subió el mes pasado en su proporción más grande en más de ocho años, en otra señal de que el

• Empresas e inversionistas buscan que casas inteligentes no sean sólo para Supersónicos. Los hogares inteligentes son una idea tan vieja como Los Supersónicos. Pero algunas grandes compañías están apostando que la realidad pronto alcanzará la visión de una vida futurista. El último indicativo

26

• Tu nueva casa... viene con dinero. Dos semanas atrás, comentamos en un breve artículo sobre el crédito fiscal de $8,000 —otorgado por la Ley Estadounidense de Recuperación y Reinversión (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act)— que pueden reclamar

25

• Government push for housing energy conservation. You're probably familiar with some of the federal government's incentives for home energy efficiency - heftier tax credits for solar panels, solar water heaters, geothermal heat pumps, heavy-duty insulation and windows and electricity-saving air conditioning

23

• Vote on consumer agency delayed. House Democrats vowed Wednesday to redouble their efforts to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency and to battle banking lobbyists and other critics who have been chipping away at support for the measure. Rep.