Special report: The watchdogs that didn't bark

2011-12-22T04:30:19Z

(Reuters) - Four years after the banking system nearly collapsed from reckless mortgage lending, federal prosecutors have stayed on the sidelines, even as judges around the country are pointing fingers at possible wrongdoing.

The federal government, as has been widely noted, has pressed few criminal cases against major lenders or senior executives for the events that led to the meltdown of 2007. Finding ...

Home foreclosures jump in third quarter-report

2011-12-21T07:30:21Z

(Reuters) - The number of new home foreclosures jumped by more than 21 percent in the third quarter as banks moved more aggressively after a pause that began late last year, according to a report released by a bank regulator on Wednesday.

In the final months of 2010 some big lenders, including Bank of America Corp...

Modification blunders bedevil U.S. housing recovery

2011-12-18T05:30:09Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Shirley Burnell, a community activist from Oakland, California, has been trying to get her subprime loan restructured since 2007.

She never missed a payment, but the adjustable rate mortgage she got in 2004 shot up to a monthly paymen...

What’s Ahead for Home Prices in 2012

2011-12-08T11:30:36Z

The bleeding is just about over. But don’t expect a speedy recovery.

The median home price in the U.S. has plunged nearly 40% in a little over five years, but the worst is definitely over: The market has finally wrung out the last excess valuations born of the housing bubble. Before you break out the party hats, note that this doesn’t mean prices across the na...

Mass. AG hits big banks with foreclosure lawsuit

2011-12-01T10:30:12Z

(Reuters) - The Massachusetts attorney general has filed a lawsuit against five large U.S. banks accusing them of deceptive foreclosure practices, a signal of ebbing confidence that a multi-state agreement can be worked out.

The lawsuit was filed in state court in Boston on Thursday against Reuters) - New York's attorney general is investigating potentially illegal home foreclosures on active-duty members of the U.S. military, according to a person familiar with the probe.

The investigation was sparked by data released earlier this month by th...

Helping homeowners

2011-11-01T02:30:51Z

Romney, GOP fail to see Americans' need for help in foreclosure crisis

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney got in trouble recently when he came to Nevada and started talking about housing. Nevada has the highest foreclosure rate in the country, and Romney, a front-run...

Higher rates of depression linked to mortgage woes-study

2011-10-20T14:30:18Z

(Reuters) - Adults who have fallen behind on mortgage payments exhibited higher rates of depression and are skipping meals and medications because they cannot pay the bills, a study published on Thursday found.

More than 20 percent of adults over age 50 who were delinquent on a mortgage developed elevated depression symptoms compared to 3 percent of non-delinquent peers, the study published in the

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

2011-10-20T02:33:12Z

No one in the Republican field is talking about the housing crisis

When the Republican presidential field debated economic policy in New Hampshire last week, the word "foreclosure" was uttered once. One time.

And that lone mention by former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman accompanied no prescription for the crisis that has reache...

National media here for the debate should look into the big story

2011-10-20T02:33:08Z

A message to the assembled national press corps here for the Republican debate:

Welcome to Las Vegas. If at all possible, avoid the following clich≈s in your debate stories: Sin City, "What happens in Vegas" and any and all poker and gambling references.

More important, while I realize the voracious consumers of horse-race political coverage back in Washington and New York demand th...

Foreclosure deal near as banks win more immunity

2011-10-19T09:02:22Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Talks between U.S. states and top banks over mortgage abuses are nearing agreement on a major sticking point that has bogged down settlement negotiations for more than a year.

A deal could be reached by the end of the month, according to three people familiar with the talks.

Under the proposed terms of the settlement -- which could total $25 billion ...

States near foreclosure deal with banks

2011-10-19T08:30:28Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Talks between states and top banks over mortgage abuses are nearing agreement on resolving a major sticking point that has bogged down settlement negotiations for more than a year.

A deal could be reached by the end of the month, according to three people familiar with the talks.

Under the proposed terms of the settlement -- which could total $25 billion -- banks...

Massachusetts preparing to file foreclosure lawsuits

2011-10-05T13:30:21Z

(Reuters) - Massachusetts on Wednesday said it is preparing to sue big banks related to unlawful foreclosures, dealing another blow to the multi-state talks aimed at resolving those investigations on a national scale.

"I have lost confidence that the banks will bring to the table an agreement that properly holds them accountable for wrongful forec...

Foreclosure fraud

2011-09-20T02:30:37Z

New law should give homeowners greater assurance against abuses

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said her office has fielded plenty of complaints about the foreclosure crisis, including many in which homeowners are questioning the fairness of the process.Nevada has been at the epicenter of the nation's fore...

Wronged homeowners may soon seek bank relief

2011-09-19T11:00:19Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Homeowners who believe they were wrongly foreclosed upon will soon be able to request that their cases be reviewed as part of a government settlement with large lenders, a top bank regulator said on Monday.

As part of a settlement announced in April, 14 large mortgage servicers, including President Barack Obama's jobs plan.

The Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank in Washington with close ties to the White House, ha...

Goldman to be fined over mortgage practices: Fed

2011-09-01T16:30:29Z

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay a fine and reform some controversial mortgage practices that sparked the "robo-signing" scandal, the US Federal Reserve said on Thursday.

The Fed's announcement did not reveal the size of the fine, which stemmed from foreclosures carried out in 2009 and 2010 by Reuters) - Mortgage and investment schemes targeting troubled U.S. homeowners jumped in 2010 and may increase further if the economy does not improve, the FBI said on Friday.

The FBI said in an annual report that pending investigations increased 12 percent...

White House seeks ideas to shrink foreclosure glut

2011-08-10T10:00:10Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is looking for new ideas to shrink a glut of foreclosed properties held by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Helping people in need

2011-08-10T02:30:18Z

Program gives Nevadans needed aid to deal with the court system

In December 2009, the Civil Law Self-Help Center opened in the lobby of the Regional Justice Center to help people try to navigate the court system, and it found its services in demand. From its opening through June of this year, the center has worked with 55,000 people.As Steve Kanigher reported in Wednesday's County should push owners of abandoned homes to take responsibility

Vacant and abandoned homes are all too common in the Las Vegas Valley, one of the epicenters of the nation's foreclosure crisis. The problem is noticeable in neighborhoods as homes have been left untended after their owners were forced to leave. As a result, neighbors have to live with houses on their block that have yards filled with ...

Juvenile offenders pitch in with foreclosures

2011-08-04T02:30:58Z

This is what happens when a pool of cheap labor is linked with an eyesore created by the home foreclosure crisis. Thirty-one teens, some of them gang members, weeding and trimming the front yard of an abandoned home in northeast Las Vegas. Clark County code enforcement officials had called Bank of Ame...

6 Sites to Help You Find Foreclosures

2011-08-03T10:30:17Z

You can search online for bank- and government-owned properties.

Bankrate.com recently released a list of the top ten states for foreclosure (based on June numbers). Many on the list aren't a surprise, but a few -- such as Idaho -- are. Nationwide, foreclosure filings ro...

Exclusive: In face of criticism, mortgage registry exits

2011-07-27T13:30:13Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - MERS, the electronic mortgage registry that faces multiple investigations for its role in thousands of problematic foreclosure cases, changed its rules to lower its profile in court-supervised foreclosures.

MERS, a unit of Merscorp Inc. o...

Massachusetts to investigate mortgage registry

2011-07-25T15:00:06Z

BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley will investigate Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, a key player in the U.S. mortgage system, over its possible role in ...

States negotiating immunity for banks over foreclosures

2011-07-20T15:30:29Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - State attorneys general are negotiating to give major banks wide immunity over irregularities in handling foreclosures, even as evidence has emerged that banks are continuing to file questionable documents.

A coalition of all 50 states' attorneys general has been negotiating settlements with five of the biggest U.S. banks that would include payment of up to ...

Special report: Banks continue robo-signing

2011-07-18T21:00:19Z

NEW YORK/IMMOKALEE, Florida (Reuters) - America's leading mortgage lenders vowed in March to end the dubious foreclosure practices that caused a bruising scandal last year.

But a Reuters investigation finds that many are still taking the same shortcuts they promised to shun, from sketchy paperwork to the use of "robo-signers."

In its effort to seize the two-bedroom ranch house of 87-ye...

Behind foreclosure corner-cutting, troves of missing documents

2011-07-18T18:30:21Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Why have sketchy mortgage procedures been so difficult to root out? Some lawyers blame misguided efforts to cut costs. Most foreclosures are uncontested, they note. And so servicers save money by avoiding costly searches for missing original documents or hiring additional staff to deal with the surge in foreclosures.

There are signs, however, that servicers resort to dou...

Another low ranking

2011-07-06T02:30:36Z

Nevada's business environment takes a punch in new CNBC survey

When glamorous resorts opened on the Strip and housing subdivisions sprouted from the desert, the national and international media swarmed into town in droves, eager to write the latest cover story on the magnificence of Las Vegas. There was more t...

Spain to help struggling mortgage holders

2011-07-01T15:30:21Z

Spain's government approved measures Friday to help the soaring number of homeowners, many jobless, who cannot pay their mortgages.

The government has since mid-May faced demonstrations across the country from "indignant" protesters who have won broad public support in decrying the state of the economy and corruption.

Among their demands are changes to Spain's strict mortgage foreclosure laws.

Under Spanish law, banks have the r...

Distressed home sales fall in Q1: RealtyTrac

2011-05-25T21:30:06Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sales of distressed U.S. homes fell in the first quarter as demand remained weak, but they still made up about 28 percent of total sales, the highest amount in a year, a RealtyTrac report said on Thursday.

Sales of homes owned by banks or in some stage of foreclosure totaled 158,434, ...

Mortgage servicers get subpoenas

2011-05-25T11:30:15Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The attorneys general in California and Illinois have subpoenaed Lender Processing Services Inc, and Nationwide Title Clearing Inc as...

Foreclosures fall in April amid paperwork issues

2011-05-11T21:30:09Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans who lost their homes to the bank fell in April as faulty paperwork continued to slow foreclosure activity, which fell to a more than three-year low, a closely watched survey said on Thursday.

Banks seized about 69,532 homes in April, down 8.6 percent from March and a drop of more than a third from a year earlier, real estate data firm

Shareholders give BoA heads a bashing

2011-05-11T20:30:14Z

Shareholders and home loan customers ran roughshod over Bank of America's management Wednesday, as its chief executive said it was still struggling with its mortgage portfolio in a deeply troubled housing market.

"We are a much stronger company than last year," CEO Brian Moynihan said at the largest US banks shareholder meeting in Reuters) - Major banks are willing to pay as much as $5 billion to settle claims by federal and state officials of improper mortgage foreclosure practices, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

The banks' offer comes as mortgage companies and state and federal officials conti...

BofA to slash $850 billion bad loan portfolio by half: report

2011-05-09T16:31:28Z

(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp plans to reduce its $850 billion portfolio of troubled home loans by about half over the next three years, the bank's new mortgage unit head told the Financial Times.

The bank looks to do this as it seeks to quickly resolve problems related to the housing crisis and ...

Wells warns of higher foreclosure suit costs

2011-05-06T08:00:17Z

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co on Friday raised its worst-case estimate for litigation losses by 42 percent to $1.7 billion because of its exposure to foreclosure-related legal issues.

The FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank said efforts by the City of Los Angeles to sue Germany's largest lender for its alleged role in loan foreclosures...

Six questions Economist delves into foreclosure fallout

2011-03-29T02:30:34Z

Economist delves into foreclosure fallout

Nasser Daneshvary took a roundabout route to Las Vegas real estate expertise.

He left Iran more than 35 years ago to pursue a degree in economics in the United States with the intention of returning to teach there.

Obama would veto bill killing foreclosure prevention

2011-03-15T14:30:14Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama would veto a Republican-backed bill killing his signature mortgage foreclosure prevention program if Congress passes it, his administration said on Tuesday.

The Republican-controlled Reuters) - Foreclosure filings dropped to a 3-year low in February due to an ongoing backlog following last year's halt in activity, according to a RealtyTrac report on Thursday.

Notices of default, auctions and bank repossessions tumbled 13.9 percent from January to 225,101, the lowest since February 2008. ...

Florida lawyer David Stern ends foreclosure law practice

2011-03-07T07:30:06Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A prominent Florida lawyer accused of mishandling many foreclosure cases in that state is shutting down his foreclosure law practice at the end of the month, a regulatory filing shows.

The decision by the lawyer, David Stern, was announced by DJSP Enterprises Inc

Foreclosure Good For Business

2010-11-22T12:58:49Z

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010, a foreclosed home is shown on Pine Island in Lee County, Fla. Across the nation, troubled home owners are cheering the prospect that some foreclosures are slowing so banks can review questionable documents. Then there are places like Lee County, Fla. There, not everyone is applauding. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Foreclosure Rates

2010-11-11T03:01:56Z

An auction signs sits in front of a foreclosed home Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010 in Valrico, Fla. The number of U.S. homes repossessed by lenders last month fell by the sharpest margin this year, as several major lenders temporarily halted most or all of their foreclosures amid allegations thousands of foreclosures were handled improperly. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

...

Foreclosures How Risky To Buy

2010-10-15T12:34:16Z

In this Sept. 22, 2010 photograph, a home has a foreclosure auction sign displayed in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

...

Foreclosure How Risky To Buy

2010-10-15T12:34:15Z

In this Oct. 13, 2010 photo,realtor Teresa Sciubba, left, and real estate investor Kristin Grag approach a foreclosed property for viewing, in Chandler, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

...

Mortgage Default Information