After four months of leaving the benchmark interest rate for standard mortgage modifications (not including HAMP mods) at an 18-month high, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently announced that they are cutting the benchmark rate. Back in January, Fannie and Freddie increased the standard mortgage modification benchmark rate from 3.875% to 4.25%. That level is the highest the benchmark rate has been…[...]

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Tags: Fannie MAe, Freddie Mac, standard mortgage modification
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Steve Mnuchin’s Old Company Just Settled for $89 Million for Ripping Off the Government on Dodgy Loans David Dayen For four years during Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s tenure as chair of OneWest Bank, its reverse-mortgage subsidiary Financial Freedom ripped off the government by receiving unlawful federal insurance payments on reverse mortgages, according to an $89 million Justice Department settlement made…[...]

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It depends who you ask, when you ask and where you ask. The Wall Street Banks have been very effective at putting out stories to make it appear that foreclosures are all but over. You can read story after story about how foreclosures are "lowest since" 1991 or whatever. But in an age of 140 characters you need to read…[...]

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When the great call comes for pension benefits that are unfunded workers who depended on using their retirement money to survive will find that the money managers have been taking outsize fees while investing in world class scam on Wall Street. Banks win, everyone else loses. Everyone is kicking the can down the road to avoid a revolt. The "shortfall"…[...]

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By K.K. MacKinstry, LendingLies Blog Chronic Stress, Cortisol, and the Brain Neuroscientists have long known that chronic stress and elevated cortisol damage the brain. While no formal studies have yet examined the health consequences of foreclosure battles, prolonged litigation, and post-foreclosure trauma, the parallels are clear. Years of unresolved stress leave homeowners vulnerable to anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),…[...]

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Posted in Eviction, Fabrication of documents |

By John McDermott jmcdermott@postandcourier.com Ocwen Financial Corp. isn't a household name in South Carolina or most other states, at least not to anyone outside of the mortgage or foreclosure business. But its profile is quickly rising. While the pain from the last residential real estate crash has largely subsided, the hangover is just starting to intensify for the Florida-based company.…[...]

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The Housing Bubble isn’t a Bubble- it’s a Blister. by K.K. MacKinstry It’s going to hurt when it pops. Low interest rates have reflated the housing bubble by enticing buyers to enter the market or buy bigger homes while rates are low, with the looming Fed threat that rates will rise quickly. During May 2017 debt, auto loans, and the…[...]

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Tags: housing blister, housing bubble, housing market
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Thursdays LIVE! Click in to the The Neil Garfield Show Or call in at (347) 850-1260, 6pm Eastern Thursdays Bill Paatalo's Handout: TX - Foreclosure Task Force Transcript 2007 First, an apology.  Over the past month we have experienced technical difficulties that have prevented host Neil Garfield from broadcasting live.  We hope these issues have been resolved and we apologize…[...]

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Lots of loans have provisions that are illegal. As far as I know the only illegal provision of a loan that could make debt, note and mortgage go away, i.e., becomes void in its entirety (versus the provision containing the illegal language), or that entitles the borrower to recover all his payments or more is a usury statute in a…[...]

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It should come as no surprise that 10 years after the crash, Bloomberg reports that most U.S. homes are worth less now than before the crash, with many homes worth less than when they were purchased or refinanced long before the crash. Appraisal fraud was thus institutionalized to the dismay of the licensed appraisers and subsequent “drive-by” appraisals done by…[...]

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