The days of exotic mortgage programs like “no doc” and balloon loans may be over.
Earlier this month, the long awaited (and by many lenders and experts, dreaded), lending restrictions codified in the Dodd Frank Act...more
Former North Carolina congressman and the new head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Mel Watt, has given the public a sneak peek of how he will lead the FHFA. On December 20 he released a statement expressing his...more
Last Friday, the Federal Housing Administration announced that it will reduce the maximum threshold for the high-price mortgages it is willing to insure. This change was called for by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of...more
We recently commented on JPMorgan Chase’s blockbuster agreement to resolve a class-action lawsuit for $300 million brought by more than a million homeowners nationwide. The dispute centered on allegations that Chase profited...more
JPMorgan Chase and Assurant Inc. recently agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit initiated in June 2012 for $300 million brought by a class of 1.3 million homeowners nationwide who claimed that they were overcharged for...more
As of June 30 of this year, Wells Fargo & Co., this nation’s largest mortgage lender, had received demands to repurchase $1.4 Billion out of the $343 billion of residential-mortgage loans Wells Fargo sold to Freddie Mac and...more
Richmond, California’s leaders approved a controversial plan earlier this month to become the first municipality in the nation to use eminent domain to rid itself of underwater mortgages. The plan was approved by the Richmond...more
It should be no surprise that the private mortgage insurance industry was nearly decimated in the wake of the housing crisis. During that tumultuous time, the private mortgage insurers that survived lost a combined $20...more
The civil division of the Justice Department has preliminarily concluded that JPMorgan broke federal laws in connection with its sale from 2005 to 2007 of subprime and Alt-A residential mortgage securities, and the bank is...more
President Obama officially threw his support behind a bipartisan push to replace beleaguered housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during a speech to an Arizona crowd on Tuesday....more
In 2011, in an effort designed to prevent a repeat of the often times shoddy underwriting practices that were pervasive during the years leading up to the current mortgage crisis, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and...more
The Future of Housing Reform -
A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators recently proposed a bill that would replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next 5 years....more
$968 Million Settlement -
During the aftermath of the financial crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been aggressively demanding that Wall Street and big bank aggregators repurchase millions of defaulted and...more
During the aftermath of the financial crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been aggressively demanding that Wall Street and big bank aggregators repurchase millions of defaulted and distressed loans for alleged breaches of...more
As widely reported, in the latest Lehman bankruptcy “fundraiser,” managers of the Lehman estate are now demanding millions of dollars from non-profit retirement homes, colleges and hospitals. Lehman claims that it was somehow...more
As widely reported recently, close to 1.2 million borrowers (about 30% of the more than 3.9 million households that faced foreclosure proceedings by the 11 leading financial institutions in 2009 and 2010), had to battle...more
Any follower of this blog or the mortgage crisis at large will — sadly — not be surprised by the seemingly never-ending news of foreclosure misdeeds by the nation’s biggest banks. Recent news reveals a particularly...more
In his State of the Union Address on February 12, 2013, President Obama called on Congress to make it easier for families to refinance their mortgages. Specifically, the President urged Congress to pass refinancing...more
Bank of America’s $8.5 billion settlement in 2011 to resolve claims over Countrywide’s mortgage abuses may be in jeopardy. Last week, a group of investors, the Triaxx funds and the Federal Home Loan Banks of Boston,...more
According to a recent report from Hype Park Capital, Florida had the 4th most mergers and acquisitions transactions by volume in the United States in 2012 with 517 completed M&A transactions. Despite being better known for...more
1/30/2013
Think your house has been foreclosed? Think again…
As reported by Michelle Conlin at Reuters, when banks fail to follow through on foreclosure of homes, this has serious, often dramatic ramifications for the homeowner....more
Just about every time I think that the demands being asserted on residential mortgage loan originators for mortgage loan “repurchases” or indemnification payments (on account of loans that were originated years ago during the...more