From HW: The negative equity problem for U.S. homeowners might be worse than previously thought, at least according to a new measure from Zillow. The online real estate data provider, in its first negative equity report, said 15.7 million, or 31.4% of homeowners were...
From HW: The meltdown of the U.S. housing finance system resulted from overly optimistic views on home prices as opposed to a type of gross negligence in the mortgage industry, a new Federal Reserve Bank of Boston report concluded. The report attacks several common...
Thanks Mr T! From cnn.money.com: NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Not only can Costco shoppers find bulk-packs of chicken wings, 24-rolls of toilet paper and large-screen TVs at a discount, they can now land themselves a mortgage. After a year of testing, Costco is rolling out...
Excerpts from the latimes.com: California walked away with the biggest chunk of this week's landmark foreclosure settlement partly because of the state's size but also because of Bank of America's desire to escape the legacy of its Countrywide problems. The nation's...
A few more of these stories and people are going to take it to the streets. From Reuters: Remember Jackie Ramos? She caused a huge stir by going public, on YouTube, with her story of working for Bank of America, which fired her for allowing customers to pay off their...
This guy's opinions are usually suspect, but he's got it right here - though he stops short of fingering the Tan Man specifically - from the WaPo: It wasn’t that Fannie and Freddie made a prescient strategic decision to stay clear of the housing frenzy. They couldn’t...
From HW: A panel on the future of mortgage financing in the United States predicts a government-led initiative to sell distressed properties in bulk. Also, they say Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be around for quite some time despite congressional efforts to wind...
Hat tip to DOB for sending this in, from the Charlotte Observer: As Bank of America Corp. finalized plans to buy the ailing Countrywide Financial Corp., government officials traded emails about the mortgage lender's troubles, rumors that regulators had a hand in the...
From the latimes.com: Could gloomy popular assumptions about how tough it is to get approved for a mortgage be scaring away large numbers of qualified people? You bet. Lenders and economists will tell you flat out: The lack of accurate information about the...
From Bloombergbusinessweek.com: Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most common way U.S. buyers finance a home purchase, isn't the ideal instrument its supporters claim it to be. First, its dominance requires permanent government subsidies....
