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Option ARM Reset Schedule Moves Up As Homeowners Feel Distress
2008-06-06 15:44:00 Business Week has published an interesting article on option ARMs. The general thesis is that they will be the next wave of homes that are entering foreclosure in the United States. With subprime loans wreaking havoc across the United States and world financial markets, the housing market has been suffering. The unsold inventory and foreclosures are ... More About: Investment , Housing Bubble , Schedule , Foreclosure , Mortgage
Feds Approve Bank Of America?s Buyout Of Countrywide
2008-06-06 15:20:00 The Federal Reserve gave it’s stamp of approval to Bank of America to complete their acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp. After the announcement Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America , said that the deal would close in the 3rd quarter of 2008. If I had to guess, there were many in Bank of America’s headquarters ... More About: Investment , Foreclosure , Mortgage
Steven Preston Confirmed as New HUD Secretary
2008-06-06 15:05:00 Steven Preston , a former executive with Service Master, was confirmed as head of the Housing and Urban Development Department. The role will be fairly significant as a 300 billion dollar legislation is going through the Congress presently that will address the present problems with the mortgage industry. Preston is likely to be lead negotiator as ... More About: Real Estate , Steven
Subprime Loss Causes Writedown of 380 Billion Dollars of Assets
2008-06-05 20:12:00 The writedown of assets by financial companies is truly staggering. A report out of Bloomberg Financials says that the write down of assets by Wall Street over the past year is 380 billion. To put the number into terms we could deal with, that is saying that 1,900,000 homes with a value of $200,000 dollars ... More About: Mortgage , Loss , Dollars , Subprime , Billion
California Approve Eminent Domain Restrictions - Prop 99
2008-06-05 16:00:00 Congratulations to the voters in California for passing Prop osition 99. The new ordinance will keep developers and those politically connected from using state and local governments in California from seizing properties in their name. I have no problem with eminent domain being used for public projects. That is the role of it as long as ... More About: Domain , Eminent Domain
MetLife Buys First Horizon?s Residential Mortgage Business
2008-06-05 15:03:00 MetLife has announced the purchase of First Horizon ’s residential mortgage business. The volatility of the market and risk involved has made First Horizon nervous and they felt their shareholders were better served by getting out of the business. Conversely, indications coming out of MetLife is that we are near the bottom of the mortgage crisis. ... More About: Business , Residential , Mortgage
New Look For Summer - The Real Estate Bloggers Redesigns
2008-06-05 14:31:00 Just a word to my readers about the new redesign. After 5 years of blogging, nearly 3 here, I keep running into the same problem. How can I keep the good stuff front and center? Face it, some of the best posts get knocked down to the bottom of the page before many readers can see it ... More About: Estate , Real Estate , Summer , Bloggers , Real
Philadelphia Plans To Blocks Foreclosures With Slight Of Hand
2008-06-05 14:05:00 The power of the government is a wonder to behold, especially when the actions of said government invokes the law of unintended consequences. The city of Philadelphia is about to launch a new plan to help those facing foreclosure. Instead of the sheriff auctioning off the properties as charged to by law, the city sheriff will ... More About: Real Estate , Foreclosures , Foreclosure , Plans
Legendary Ed McMahon May Lose LA Home To Foreclosure
2008-06-04 18:40:00 Ed McMahon, famous sidekick to Johnny Carson, is facing financial turmoil and may lose his house. McMahon has had his Los Angeles mansion for sale for over 2 years but has been unable to find a buyer. Since suffering a terrible accident in which he has suffered a broken neck 18 months ago he has been unable ... More About: Home , Foreclosure , Featured
H&R Sued In Massachusetts Over Minority Lending
2008-06-04 17:14:00 If you think that this lawsuit is because H&R Blocks mortgage unit, Option One Mortgage , failed to lend to minorities and over charged them, you would be partial right. According to the suit minorities were overcharged. What is interesting is that they are also being sued because they actually made the loans available to people of ... More About: Boston , Foreclosure , Massachusetts , Lending
Cutting Off Your Nose To Spite Your Face, MLS?s in Action
2008-06-04 16:10:00 CondoDomain Boston got itself in hot water. They added new content and features to their site. Yep, they made things better for the consumer. But they also added one last piece to the puzzle, they are now a licensed real estate brokerage. But in reality what does it mean for their business? They now are under the control ... More About: Action , East , Face , Nose , Featured
Baltimore Ground Rent Holder Pleads Guilty In Bid Rigging Scheme
2008-06-04 15:48:00 One of the sleaziest things I have written about since I started The Real Estate Bloggers is how people in Baltimore were buying up ground rents and stealing family houses for non payment. These ground rents go back to British rule of the colonies and many of the homeowners that were losing their homes did ... More About: Ground , Rent , Guilty
PMI Launches Site For Distressed Homeowners
2008-06-04 15:23:00 The PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. has launched a new site for those who are at risk of foreclosure. The site is basic, but if I was at my wits end and worried about losing my home, this is exactly what I would be looking for. HomeSafePMI.com was released to the public today. If you know someone ... More About: Site , Foreclosure , Homeowners
All Real Estate Is Local - Even More Local For Appraisers And Realtors Thes
2008-06-03 14:47:00 If you have ever sold a home you have heard your Real tor tell you about the comps in the neighborhood. This is how real estate agents determine the price of your home. But with falling prices and slow moving sales the job of an appraiser to determine the local comps, or comperative prices, is getting much ... More About: Realtors , Estate , Real Estate , Local
Cash Out Refinancing Leads To Massachusetts Foreclosure Surge
2008-06-03 13:59:00 Way back in 2005 I wrote how Massachusetts families were using their homes as a ATM with cash out refinancing. At that time 14 percent of household income was coming from these cash out refinances. Well, it looks like many of these folks are losing their homes now as they took too much out of the ... More About: Boston , Leads , Foreclosure , Cash
Tenants Get Caught In The Foreclosure Crossfire, 72 Hours To Get Out
2008-06-03 13:48:00 As we well know, many of the homes that are being foreclosed upon are owned by speculators. Once they realized that they could not sell the homes for a profit the owners went and got tenants. When the debt burden on these multiple homes became too bad they declared bankruptcy and the homes are now in foreclosure. ... More About: Foreclosure , Caught , Hours , Tenants
Connecticut Conveyance Tax Causes Battle Between Government and Realtors
2008-06-02 16:52:00 Who is the fool that believes once a new taxes is created the government will ever let it go? For once those affected by a tax are fighting back. Connecticut passed a real estate conveyance tax back in 2003 that was scheduled to sunset, or in real world terms end, on June 30th of this year. ... More About: Government , Realtors , Taxes , Battle
News Flash: As Home Prices In Tucson Come Down, Buyers Emerge
2008-06-02 13:36:00 The lesson of the day is buyers are not stupid, no matter what the latest advertisement from the National Association of Realtors would have you think. The Tucson , Arizona market was a typical market during the real estate bubble. Logical pricing all of a sudden exploded into a gold rush mentality and pricing increased significantly. Hordes of ... More About: News , Flash , Home , Buyers
Los Angeles Century Plaza Hotel Sold To New Century
2008-06-02 13:17:00 The famed Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles has been sold to investor Michael Rosenfeld this week. The hotel has been in the heart of Los Angeles’s movie scene and also was nicknamed the Western White House when Ronald Reagan used to use it’s Presidential Suite as his home base when in Los Angeles. The ... More About: Real Estate , Sold , New Century
Another Political Recession That Has Not Happened?
2008-06-01 16:17:00 This is not aimed to be a political post, but to point out an obvious trend that is affecting us all in the real estate world. First, whether you like President Bush or not, we know the press does not. They have fallen in love with Obama to the detriment of Hillary, McCain, and your pocketbook. Why ... More About: Political , Recession
Massachusetts Borrows 1.27 Billion For Housing Fund
2008-06-01 13:00:00 Ah, a government and their lust to spend money is never quenched. Facing lower property taxes and declining prices, the state of Massachusetts has proudly borrowed 1,270,000,000 dollars to buy new homes for the housing commission and update previously existing housing stock. All this for affordable housing across a state where housing is becoming more affordable ... More About: Boston , Housing , Affordable housing , Fund
Are Hurricane Prone Areas Losing Population Due To Fear Of Storms Or Housin
2008-05-31 12:44:00 Owning real estate in hurricane prone regions of the country has always had it’s risks. So after a particularly bad stretch of storms over the past few years one would expect the population to decline. And it has, by about 1 percent since 2000. Of course, according to the study by USA Today, the regions hardest ... More About: South , Fear , Gulf Coast , Hurricane
50 Cent?s Long Island Home Burns Down - Was It Arson?
2008-05-31 12:33:00 The Dix Hills home of Rap star 50 Cent burned down in what investigators have deemed suspicious. The home was being lived in by Curtis Jackson’s (50 Cent’s real name) former girlfriend, his 10 year old son, and her family. What has raised the concern of investigators was that earlier this week a violent discussion broke ... More About: Home , Island , Long Island , Long
Commmuting Pain Index - Los Angeles and Atlanta Lead The Way
2008-05-30 17:04:00 If you are looking to save your sanity and pocket book, or if you really hate traffic, here are the cities to stay away from. These cities share a high level of traffic combined with a spread out workforce. Long commutes are the norm and it is wearing on those who live there. IBM commissioned ... More About: Los Angeles , Pain , Atlanta , Index , Lead
Patchwork Nation - A New Demographic Study Of The United States
2008-05-29 19:46:00 Patchwork Nation is a new initiative by the Christian Science Monitor to break the country into 11 demographic units by county that best represent the population that lives there. The report has been done primarily for political purposes but the implication for housing and real estate are also included in the report. These categories are: Boom ... More About: United States , Study , United , States
Does It Have A Mouse? An Amazing Video on Where We Are Going?
2008-05-29 18:29:00 Does it have a mouse? That is the question that is sticking in my head after watching this video. It is about how our society is changing from one that has been trained to receive information and be entertained to one which will participate and interact. I want to thank Daniel Rothamel of the Real Estate ... More About: Video , Amazing , Mouse
Realtors 30 Under 30 Announced
2008-05-29 16:50:00 I do not know about you, but when I was in my 20s I was always ready to go with new ideas. Just at that stage raw ambition and motivation were not enough sometimes to get me over the hump. However, the new crop of Realtor Magazine’s 30 Under 30 have the motivation and the ... More About: Realtors , Real Estate
The Later The Subprime And Alt-A Loan, The Greater The Default Rate
2008-05-29 15:50:00 If you are looking for an indicator on who is defaulting on subprime and Alt-A loans, just see when they were written. A 2007 subprime loan has 26 percent chance of being in default. These are some disturbing numbers. Is it because there is no equity in these homes or were the borrowers at the bottom ... More About: Real Estate , Loan , Subprime , Rate
DOJ and NAR Reach Settlement in Suit After Technology Has Moved Forward
2008-05-28 14:33:00 The long running lawsuit that the Department of Justice has brought against the National Association of Realtors has been settled. The big winners were the lawyers. What a surprise. The amazing thing about monopoly and governmental lawsuits against companies over the issues of technology is that by the time the slow gears of justice run ... More About: Technology , Real Estate , Reach , Settlement , Suit
Harry Macklowe Sells GM Building (and others) For 3.9 Billion, Turns Over B
More articles from this author:2008-05-28 14:20:00 Harry Macklowe, the New York City developer who is famous for his Houdini type escapes from impending doom, has sold the GM Building and 3 others to a group led by Mort Zuckerman. Macklowe was on the verge of bankruptcy when the shrinking credit market made it impossible for him to refinance some debt. As ... More About: Real Estate , Harry , Billion 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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