Hat tip to SM for sending this along from bloomberg.com: When Bank of America Corp. sent letters to 60,000 struggling homeowners offering to slice an average $150,000 off their loans, the lender got an unusual response from most of them: silence. Homeowners who fell...
From HW: Few, if any, borrowers strategically defaulted to take advantage of mortgage servicer relief under the $25 billion settlement struck in March, according to Fitch Ratings. In fact, the percentage of current underwater borrowers moving to delinquent status, or...
Excerpted from Robert Shiller's editorial in the nytimes.com: Traditionally, we think of eminent domain law as applying to land and buildings. For example, a government can use eminent domain to seize real estate along a proposed new highway route so the highway can...
From cnbc.com: A select group of struggling mortgage borrowers are about to get an offer that sounds too good to be true. Executives at Bank of America say they will begin mailing 200,000 letters offering certain customers mortgage principal reduction. “If people get...
The last holdout, Edward DeMarco, caved today on forbidding principal reductions, from HW: Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward DeMarco said principal reductions done under larger incentive payments from the Treasury Department would save Fannie Mae...
Principal reductions are the government's next bailout device, and they are getting pushed hard. Excerpts from an article at thestreet.com: NEW YORK - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to face pressure to reduce principal for homeowners underwater on motgages, but...
From Rueters: Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are being pushed to reduce borrowers' mortgage balances in order to shield U.S. banks from taking losses on distressed housing debt, the companies' regulator said in a Financial Times interview published on...
From the latimes: Reporting from Washington— Bank of America said Friday it would reduce by about $100,000 the amount owed by as many as 200,000 underwater homeowners as part of the recently announced government foreclosure settlement with top mortgage servicers. BofA...
From the U-T: Would you share with online strangers a photo of yourself with how underwater you are on your mortgage? Three advocacy groups hope you will in order to prove a point to the Edward DeMarco, the regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. DeMarco has...
Excerpts from the latimes.com: The federal government's response to the home mortgage crisis always has been an exercise in living down to one's lowest expectations. The $25-billion settlement with five big banks over foreclosure abuses that U.S. housing officials and...
