The regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said today it might make sense for the mortgage finance companies to write down loan principal under an Obama administration plan but that further study was needed.
The state’s banking industry is keeping a close eye on the way the $25 billion federal settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and the five largest banks in the country is handled in theory and practice.
In the alphabet soup of federal agencies with their mitts stuck in to the housing crisis, four lesser-known letters may have the biggest pull of all – FHFA, or the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Attorney General Martha Coakley has sent a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) urging Fannie and Freddie to engage in principal forgiveness and loan modifications for struggling homeowners.
Lurking in a proposed mortgage fraud settlement with state attorneys general is a clause that could be worth billions for the big banks.
The Iowa attorney general, who is leading the 50-state probe into mortgage foreclosure problems, said he hopes to have a settlement with the nation’s biggest banks in the next two months.
Bank of America Corp. has been sued by investors who want the nation’s largest bank to buy back mortgage loans that underlie more than $1.06 billion of securities they hold, citing misrepresentations by its Countrywide home loan unit.
Investors are flocking to home foreclosure sales in California and other states where banks have rescheduled auctions postponed last year to fix loan-servicing flaws.
Borrowers – stymied by lenders that refuse to cut their mortgage principal to market levels – should just keep trying, as lenders may have a change of heart, an Obama administration official said on Thursday.
Conflicts of mortgage investors and servicing companies gumming up the nation’s housing recovery could be avoided in the future by rules defining the safest mortgages, a top regulator said on Wednesday.
The country’s mortgage industry must do more to establish trust with consumers and take stronger steps to participate in government programs to help struggling borrowers, the head of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) said today.
The bidding war had gotten more heated than expected, and the guy in the damp trench coat needed a break. He turned his back on the dozens of onlookers standing around an office suite with scuffed walls and dated carpeting, stepped into a corner, and asked the person on the phone for some more money. Again.
Almost 70 percent of Massachusetts homeowners who purchased during the housing boom with second liens are now underwater, according to a recent Banker & Tradesman analysis of data provided by our parent company, The Warren Group. The numbers indicate the threat second liens pose to hopes of a housing recovery.
A few little bits of disturbing real estate news have come out over the past week – not enough to shake the markets on their own, but reason enough to fear that these little tremors might be first sign of a long-awaited elephant stampede.
An Obama administration program to help struggling homeowners modify their mortgages has more than one million active borrowers, though fewer than 10 percent have obtained permanent loan modifications, according to a Treasury Department report released on Friday.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has abruptly put eminent domain at the stalled Filene’s redevelopment site back on the table, according to a caustic letter Menino sent to Vornado Realty Trust Chairman Steven Roth yesterday, and distributed to media outlets last night.
Work at the stalled Filene’s redevelopment project could resume well before Boston’s wounded commercial market rebounds, under a breakthrough construction phasing plan now being weighed by developers Vornado Realty Trust and Gale International.
Ratcheting up pressure on the largest bank in the country, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has subpoenaed five current or former Bank of America Corp directors to learn what they knew about Merrill Lynch & Co.’s problems as the companies prepared to merge.
The prolonged swoon that commercial real estate is currently suffering through hasn’t just been afflicting lenders and property investors. Recession and a dearth of meaningful credit have delivered a serious blow to the brokerage houses charged with leasing and selling commercial real estate – and the brokers who do the selling.
The issuer credit ratings for Springfield-based Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual) have been downgraded to “aa+” from “aaa,” according to rating company A.M. Best Co.
