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2007

Sales of New Homes in U.S. Fell to 12-Year Low
Bloomberg | Dec 28 2007
Sales of new homes in the U.S. fell to a 12-year low in November, portending bigger declines in construction that will hobble economic growth throughout 2008. Purchases dropped 9 percent to an annual pace of 647,000 that was weaker than the lowest forecast, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. October sales were revised down to a 711,000 pace.

How They Got Housing Wrong
CNNMoney | Dec 26 2007
Before you put much hope in forecasts for a 2008 rebound in the battered housing market, consider this: A year ago at this time many top economists were looking for that recovery to begin in 2007.Instead, the year saw historic declines in nearly every measure of housing strength and home building, and left a trail of predictions from some of the nation's top economists that look - at best - foolish.

Housing Bailout Designed to Avoid Lawsuits but Won't
Reuters | Dec 26, 2007
The Bush administration's strategy of having major lenders help design its plan to handle the subprime mortgage crisis means that it will avoid most litigation -- but not all, according to lawyers who specialize in constitutional and contract law. "Can there be legal challenges based on it? I think that there can," said Don Chase of the New York firm Morrison Cohen LLP. "To the extent that you're compelling a segment of people to essentially swallow the loss ... there's a constitutional argument to be made there."

Study: Selling Price May Indicate Foreclosure Rise
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette| Dec 28 2007
If you live in the city of Pittsburgh or in eastern Allegheny County, odds are the bank will foreclose on one in every seven homes that sold around you since 2000. For Braddock, Wilkinsburg, Homewood, Lincoln-Lemington-Larimer, the Hill District and Central Northside, it's about one in every two or three homes. In Edgewood or Shadyside, that number radically adjusts to one foreclosure for every 153 and 125 homes sold, respectively.

Home prices see record drops in October
USA TODAY | Dec 26 2007
Home prices in 11 large metro areas posted record declines in October, according to data released Wednesday, more evidence that 2007 was one of the worst real estate markets since the year the United States entered World War II.Reflecting tighter lending standards and a huge number of homes for sale, the S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of home prices in 20 cities slid 6.1% compared with October of last year, led by Miami, Tampa, Detroit and San Diego.

This Is the Sound of a Bubble Bursting
New York Times | Dec 23 2007
TWO years ago, when Eric Feichthaler was elected mayor of this palm-fringed, middle-class city, he figured on spending a lot of time at ribbon-cuttings. Tens of thousands of people had moved here in recent years, turning musty flatlands into a grid of ranch homes painted in vibrant Sun Belt hues: lime green, apricot and canary yellow. Mr. Feichthaler was keen to build a new high school. He hoped to widen roads and extend the reach of the sewage system, limiting pollution from leaky septic tanks. He wanted to add parks.

SEC Probes WaMu
The Street.com | Dec 21 2007
Federal regulators are looking into Washington Mutual's involvement in a scandal involving inflated home appraisals on mortgages originated and then sold to investors in the form of securities. The Seattle-based lender acknowledged the Securities and Exchange Commission's informal inquiry in a statement. The nascent probe is looking at several possible issues, including whether the bank properly disclosed to investors of mortgage-backed securities how loans were appraised, in addition to whether WaMu properly accounted for the loans when disclosing financial results to shareholders, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.

Rating Subprime Investment Grade Made `Joke' of Credit Experts
Bloomberg | Dec 20 2007
As storm clouds gathered over New York on July 10, Standard & Poor's started a 10 a.m. conference call to discuss why the credit rating company was about to take its most dramatic action in more than two years.

Fed Shrugged as Subprime Crisis Spread
New York Times | Dec 19 2007
WASHINGTON — Until the boom in subprime mortgages turned into a national nightmare this summer, the few people who tried to warn federal banking officials might as well have been talking to themselves. Edward M. Gramlich, a Federal Reserve governor who died in September, warned nearly seven years ago that a fast-growing new breed of lenders was luring many people into risky mortgages they could not afford. But when Mr. Gramlich privately urged Fed examiners to investigate mortgage lenders affiliated with national banks, he was rebuffed by Alan Greenspan, the Fed chairman.

U.S. Housing Starts Drop, Permits Reach 14-Year Low
Bloomberg | Dec 18 2007
Housing starts in the U.S. dropped in November and permits for future construction slid to a 14- year low as sales fell and lenders made it tougher to get loans. Work began on 1.187 million homes at an annual rate, down a less-than-forecast 3.7 percent from October, the Commerce Department said in Washington. Permits fell 1.5 percent to a 1.152 million pace.

Fed to Unveil Home Mortgage Plan
USA Today | Dec 18 2007
A Federal Reserve plan being unveiled Tuesday would give people taking out home mortgages new protections against shady lending practices. The rules to be proposed are especially geared to providing some future safeguards to the riskiest "subprime" borrowers, already painfully stung by the housing and credit debacles. The proposal is expected to apply to new, or future, loans made by all types of lenders, including banks and brokers. The plan could be finalized next year.

Investors Own About One-Fifth of Bay Area Homes in Foreclosure
San Francisco Chronicle, | Dec 16 2007
More than one-fifth of 6,557 Bay Area properties that fell into foreclosure from January through September this year were owned by investors, according to a Chronicle analysis of public records compiled by DataQuick Information Systems. Of properties repossessed by lenders, 1 in 6 had been owned by people who had two or more foreclosures in their names. Eighteen Bay Area investors had five or more foreclosures.

Fed Taking on Abusive Lending Practices
USA Today | Dec 16 2007
WASHINGTON — People taking out home mortgages may gain new protections soon against shady lending practices as the Federal Reserve seeks to back even the riskiest borrowers, already hit hardest by the housing and credit crunches. Rules expected to be proposed Tuesday would apply to loans made by all types of lenders, including banks and brokers. The plan from the Fed, which has regulatory powers over the nation's financial system, could be finalized next year. The effective date would be know then.

Subprime Hotline has 45,000 Calls in Three Days
Reuters | Dec 13 2007
A hotline for a program that aims to help about 1.2 million subprime borrowers received 45,000 calls in the three days after President George W. Bush announced the program, the HOPE NOW alliance said on Tuesday. Call volume spiked after Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson cited the counseling center on Thursday in detailing a program to help curb foreclosures.

House Panel Approves Bankruptcy Bill
Forbes | Dec 13 2007
Seeking to provide more aid to troubled borrowers, House lawmakers on Wednesday advanced legislation that would enable homeowners to shrink their mortgages in bankruptcy court. The bill - fiercely opposed by the lending industry but supported by Democrats and consumer advocates - was passed by the House Judiciary Committee 17 to 15, with one Republican supporting it.

White House Repeats Threat to Veto House Terrorism Insurance Bill
Insurance Journal | Dec 12 2007
The Bush Administration has reasserted its opposition to a House bill that would extend the federal terrorism insurance program after it expires on Dec. 31, vowing to veto any final measure that differs measurably from the Senate bill. "The Administration strongly opposes any amendments that move the Senate-passed version of the bill away from the Administration's key elements. Accordingly, if H.R. 2761 were presented to the President in the form to be considered by the House, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill," the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.

Many homeowners with ARMs stand to gain
USAToday | Dec 12 2007
The biggest beneficiaries of the Federal Reserve Board's rate cut will be borrowers with adjustable-rate mortgages linked to one-year Treasury bills, says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com. About 1.8 million subprime adjustable-rate mortgages will reset in coming months, often to rates sharply higher than their initial "teaser" rates.

Conn.: Real-estate suit settled
The Boston Globe | December 10, 2007
HARTFORD, Conn.—A law firm, mortgage company and real estate broker have agreed to pay $700,000 in fines, forfeitures and restitution to settle allegations that they engaged in kickback schemes that cheated hundreds of home buyers for mortgage-related services, state officials said Monday. The allegations expose an "uneven playing field" between the real estate industry, which is involved in numerous property transactions, and less-experienced home buyers, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said.

House ponders mortgage bankruptcy bill
CNN Money | Dec 12 2007
A House committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on legislation that would permit judges to shrink the size of home loans for bankrupt homeowners - a mortgage-mess remedy supported by consumer advocates and ardently opposed by the lending industry.Many Democrats say the proposal is a better way to help homeowners than a plan to freeze interest rates announced by the Bush administration last week and negotiated with lenders and investors.

Dodd to Introduce Lending Reforms
Yahoo Business (AP) | Dec 12 2007
The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee plans to introduce long-awaited legislation Tuesday to bar lending practices widely blamed for contributing to a nationwide surge in foreclosures and defaults. The bill by Sen. Christopher Dodd., a Connecticut Democrat and presidential candidate, comes after months of prodding from consumer advocates who demanded stronger, swifter action to curtail lending abuses in the future.

Court rulings could slow down rate of foreclosures
Lancaster Eagle Gazette | Dec 10 2007
An Ohio court ruling that a bank couldn’t foreclose on a home because it didn’t prove it owned the mortgage was the latest in a series of similar rulings that could slow the tide of foreclosures in a heavily impacted state. Attorney General Marc Dann on Friday filed motions in other cases around Ohio based on the ruling, hoping the state with the highest percentage of homes in foreclosure has found a legal method to address the crisis.

eMortages Offer Speed, Safety and Savings
Credit Unions | Dec 11 2007
In a mortgage market that is unpredictable at best, lenders can tap technology to lower processing costs and provide better pricing and service to borrowers. Going paperless – with all critical documentation created, executed, transferred, and stored electronically – has another benefit: helping the mortgage industry go “green.” Paperless mortgage transactions, including the electronically signed mortgage documents known as eMortgages, offer a fundamentally better way of doing business. We digitize data in countless other applications in our lives, even pay our bills online, so why not take advantage of similar efficiencies and savings in processing mortgages?

Fannie Mae Plan to Raise Housing Finance Costs Highlights Need for Congressional Action
RISMEDIA, | Dec. 11, 2007
In response to Fannie Mae’s announced plan to impose an “Adverse Market Delivery Charge” for all mortgages purchased after March 1, 2008, National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Executive Vice President and CEO Jerry Howard issued the following statement: “Fannie Mae’s new fee is a broad tax on homeownership that ultimately will be passed along to consumers. It’s certain to be more difficult for the housing market to regain its footing when steps are being taken to drive up mortgage costs. This is the exact opposite of what needs to be done and underscores the importance of Congress quickly enacting legislation that would strengthen regulatory oversight of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while also preserving their vital housing mission.

Americans split on mortgage bailout
CNN Money | Dec 11 2007
Americans are nearly equally divided on whether those facing defaults on their mortgages should get special help, with most believing the borrowers are to blame for their own problems. A poll conducted for CNN by Opinion Research Corp. found that 51 percent of Americans surveyed believed that those at risk of defaulting on their mortgages and losing their homes "should receive special treatment." But 46 percent said there should not be any special treatment afforded to those in trouble.

Lawsuit against title company won’t be a class action
Kansas City Star | Dec 11 2007
Two Kansas residents who sued Chicago Title for charging $6 more in recording fees than it paid have lost their bid to bring the case as a class action.

Court rulings could slow down rate of foreclosures
Lancaster Eagle Gazette | Dec 10 2007
An Ohio court ruling that a bank couldn’t foreclose on a home because it didn’t prove it owned the mortgage was the latest in a series of similar rulings that could slow the tide of foreclosures in a heavily impacted state. Attorney General Marc Dann on Friday filed motions in other cases around Ohio based on the ruling, hoping the state with the highest percentage of homes in foreclosure has found a legal method to address the crisis.

Mortgage lender Freddie Mac adjusts its measures for repurchasing loans to better reflect credit losses.
CNN Money | Dec 10 2007
Mortgage financier Freddie Mac said Monday it altered its criteria for repurchasing delinquent loans that are at least 120 days past due so it can better reflect credit losses.

Legal tangles surround hidden cemetery
The Kansas City Star | Dec 10 2007
Mike Bauer bought his property near Longview Lake without being aware of the small cemetery in the middle. He plans to move the graves, but legal obstacles to his plan remain. Five years ago, developer Mike Bauer didn’t notice any tombstones when he walked a tranquil south Kansas City hill where he planned to build a spacious home. The small stones lay hidden beneath dead leaves and brush under a copse of bare trees. And the bones buried there spelled trouble that would haunt Bauer for years.

Subprime freeze plan: Who's left out
CNN Money | Dec 9 2007
Distressed borrowers looking for relief from the recently announced White House foreclosure prevention plan may be in for a disappointment. In announcing the Administration's plan, which includes a five-year freeze on interest rate hikes for some subprime borrowers with adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), the White House estimated it would offer relief to 1.2 million families out of the 1.8 million facing higher interest rates. The initiative comes at a time of record high foreclosure rates. But there are very strict limitations.

States' investment strategy scrutinized
USA Today | Dec 8 2007
State treasurers from Florida to Maine to Montana have found themselves in the awkward position this past week of having to explain why they parked taxpayer money in some of the most opaque investments on Wall Street. More than a dozen state-run cash pools that manage money for local governments have some exposure to mortgage-related and other high-risk holdings that roiled credit markets this past summer, according to rating agency Standard & Poor's.

Mortgage plan: How does it work? Who does it help?
USA TODAY | Dec 8 2007
The Bush administration, banks, bond firms and mortgage servicers rolled out a proposal Thursday to help people with higher-cost adjustable-rate subprime mortgages more quickly and easily refinance or modify their loans — including freezing interest rates at the initial teaser rate for five years. Following are questions and answers about the initiative.

Fannie Warns Investors on 2008 Losses
Washington Examiner | Dec 05 2007
Fannie Mae warned investors Wednesday that its losses would mount next year from bad home loans, even as the mortgage finance company took steps to stabilize its finances.A day after announcing it would sell stock and slice its dividend, Fannie Mae also disclosed in a regulatory filing that its mortgage investments declined by $9 billion in November, compared with the prior month, as it sold some off to raise capital.

New York subpoenas Wall St on mortgages
Reuters | Dec 5, 2007
New York state prosecutors have sent subpoenas to Wall Street firms seeking information related to the packaging and selling of debt tied to high-risk mortgages, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The subpoenas, sent by the office of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, requested information from a number of Wall Street firms. The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that Merrill Lynch & Co , Bear Stearns Cos and Deutsche Bank AG received subpoenas, citing unnamed sources. Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch declined to comment, while a Bear Stearns spokesman did not return calls.

Slower, Eteady Economic Growth Outlook Predicted
Dec 5, 2007 | The Washington DC Examiner
WASHINGTON Top CEOs have an ever-so-slightly rosier economic outlook than they did last quarter, according to a new survey. Expectations for better sales inched up but the outlook remained the same for capital spending, and employment over the next six months.

New Report Reveals Future Exposure to Coastal Flood in Key Cities
Insurance Journal | Dec 4, 2007
As many as 150 million people in the world's major cities could be reliant on flood defenses by 2070 – more than three times the 40 million people today – as a result of climate change and urban development. This is according to a major new study by the OECD and jointly authored by Risk Management Solutions (RMS) and leading academics from the University of Southampton, the Tyndall Centre, Météo-France and the Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement (CIRED).

O.C. lenders in subprime market disappearing The Orange County Register
Orange County Register | Dec 5 2007
News on Tuesday that Irvine's Option One Mortgage Corp. will close its loan origination business leaves Orange County – once home to many of the nation's top subprime lenders – with virtually no major players in the market. Eighteen months after Orange County led the nation with four of the Top 10 U.S. subprime mortgage originators and numerous smaller operations, the local industry is in tatters, a victim of tighter lending standards.

Despite Rollercoaster, Factors Exist for Housing Turnaround
Richmond Times-Dispatch | Nov 24 2007
Each day's news presents another twist and turn in the rollercoaster ride known as the U.S. housing market. Prospective buyers and sellers search for optimism in falling interest rates, while analysts discuss whether the worst of the credit crunch is behind us.There is no easy or definitive resolution to this debate. The housing industry faces a challenging period, and those challenges are going to remain with us in the near term. But it's important to look beyond the immediate circumstances and consider a more long-term view. From that perspective, there is reason for optimism -- pragmatic optimism perhaps, but optimism nonetheless.

Mortgage execs paint bleak housing picture
Seattle Time | Dec 04 2007
WASHINGTON — Mortgage industry executives warned the worst is yet to come in the U.S. housing market. The gloomy assessments were made Monday at a conference sponsored by the Office of Thrift Supervision.Washington Mutual Chief Executive Kerry Killinger said problems are starting to show up in home loans made to borrowers with strong credit records because real estate prices continue to slide.

Government, industry craft plan to slow foreclosures
USA Today | Dec 03 2007
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans to unveil on Thursday a plan being hammered out with the mortgage industry that's intended to slow the record number of homes falling into foreclosure and ease the damage from the housing recession. Details of the plan would coincide with the release of data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Those figures are expected to show that homes in foreclosure hit records for April through June.

Mortgage Industry Hashes Out Rate-Freeze Plan
Reuters | Dec 01 2007
Mortgage industry executives worked on Saturday to hammer out details of a homeowner rescue plan that would freeze interest rates on some U.S. subprime mortgages for up to seven years, but questions remained over how to avoid investor lawsuits and other legal challenges.

Rate Freeze Plan for ARMs Gains Traction
CNN Money | Nov 30 2007
If you've got a 7% adjustable mortgage that's about to skyrocket past 10%, getting a break may get a lot easier. One solution to the foreclosure problem gaining traction would freeze rates at lower levels. The Hope Now Alliance, coalition of lenders, servicers, investors and community groups, put together by the Treasury Department, is working on a version of a freeze that could be annouced this week.

Feds Try to Cushion Home-Loan Resets
The Clarion Ledger - Nov 30 2007
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and federal banking regulators are working out the details of a plan to extend lower, introductory interest rates on home loans before they reset at higher levels.

Old Republic International and Units' Outlook Cut to Negative
Sharewatch | Nov 30 2007
BANGALORE (Thomson Financial) - Fitch Ratings said it has lowered its outlook on Old Republic International Corp (ORI) and its units to negative from stable on concerns about the strain from poor operating results in the company's mortgage insurance and title insurance businesses and increased worries over growth in consumer credit indemnity program. Fitch affirmed its issuer default rating at 'AA-' on ORI. The ratings agency said the current ratings are being affirmed despite the increased pressure on ORI's capital position.

Mortgage Crisis Hits Home for Troops, Vets
Army Time | Nov 30, 2007
Air Force veteran Nellie Cooper thought she was following good advice when she refinanced her home’s mortgage with an adjustable-rate loan. For the self-employed real estate agent, it seemed smart. But her mortgage payments ballooned while local property values dropped, sinking her prospects of refinancing into a more secure, fixed-rate loan. With lenders nationwide tightening eligibility rules, Cooper is finding few that are willing to refinance or rework the loan into something financially manageable for her.

October Foreclosure Filings Surge
CNN Money | Nov 29 2007
More than 50,000 lost their homes in October; foreclosure rates expected to rise in 2008 as adjustable-rate mortgages reset. Foreclosure filings have nearly doubled from a year ago and more people could lose their homes in 2008, according to a report released Thursday. In October, 224,451 foreclosure filings were reported nationwide, up 94 percent from October 2006 and up 2 percent from September, according to RealtyTrac.

Foreclosure Crisis Going to Get Worse Before it Gets Better
Chicago Daily Herald | Nov 28 2007
Government officials and homeowners are hunkering down. If the foreclosure crisis is bad now, the increasing trend of court filings indicates the problem will become much worse, experts say. The storm has been brewing for at least the last five years, and the next two years could be critical. No one can predict how deep the crisis will go, said Michael Seng, a John Marshall Law School professor and executive director of the school's Fair Housing Program.

Report: Foreclosure Crisis Could Cost LA $8.3B In 2008
KNBC (NBC4 Los Angeles) | Nov 28 2007
LOS ANGELES -- The city of Los Angeles' economy could take an $8.3 billion hit next year as a result of the nation's foreclosure crisis, making it the second-hardest hit metropolitan area, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Fraud Deepens Michigan Housing Crisis
The Detroit News| Nov 28 2007
Danny Stokes used to sell drugs, before he discovered it was safer and more lucrative to sell mortgages. Samer Fawaz and Bashar Farraj were students in a mortgage fraud class where they learned to inflate appraisals and bilk lenders. They murdered one of their fellow con men in their Sterling Heights mortgage office when the scheme began to unravel.

Mortgage Crisis Expected to Cost Bay Area $5.4 Billion Next Year
San Francisco Chronicle | Nov 27 2007
The subprime mortgage fiasco stands to cost the Bay Area economy more than $5.4 billion next year, according to the latest report intending to put a dollar figure on the rising wave of real estate foreclosures. The lending crisis will cost the national economy $166 billion and 524,000 potential jobs, said the report, to be released today in Detroit at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. In addition, homeowners across the country will lose $1.2 trillion in property values in 2008.

Mortgage Fraud Hits the Courts
Voice of San Diego | Nov 27 2007
In one of the first local cases in a national crackdown on mortgage and real estate fraud, four people connected with a San Marcos realty office have pleaded guilty to charges that they went to great and illegal lengths to secure mortgages for financially unqualified consumers, thereby pocketing more than $1 million in fraudulent commissions.

Builders Put Heat on Buyers with Cold Feet
The Oregonian | Nov 26 2007
Facing a painful sales slump, two of Portland's largest condo developers are taking a hard-nosed stance toward buyers trying to back out of their purchase agreements.

Realty Lawyer Knows Rocky Point Controversy
The Arizona Republic | Nov. 26, 2007
Mexican attorney Raul O'Farrill leans back in his office chair and explains how a prudent American investor can safely buy real estate in Sonora. Even someone with limited finances can afford a seaside home for retirement, he says, by rolling an IRA retirement fund into property south of Rocky Point, as Puerto Peñasco is known.

Freddie Mac Sued Over Mortgage Problems
Reuters | Nov 21 2007
A shareholder sued Freddie Mac, its chief executive and others on Wednesday, alleging the No. 2 U.S. home funding company did not take adequate steps to protect itself from problems in the mortgage industry. Scott Reimer, a shareholder, said in the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that Freddie Mac, Chief Executive Richard Syron and some other executives did not adequately implement risk control measures to protect the company from acquiring billions of dollars worth of mortgages with poor underwriting standards.

More Trouble in Sight
The Pioneer Press | Nov 25 2007
The Twin Cities are now well into the nation's housing bust, with foreclosures numbering far above last year's recent record. The meltdown has been devastating for investors, families and renters who lose their homes. And it isn't over yet. In fact, we may only be in Round 1, experts caution.

PRC Wants Legislature to Consider Title Insurance
KOB-TV Albuquerque - Nov 24 2007
SANTA FE (AP) - All five members of the state Public Regulation Commission want Governor Richardson to put title insurance reform before the 30-day legislative session that begins in mid-January.

Thrifts' Quarterly Profits Tumble in Housing Downturn
Chicago Tribune | Nov 21 2007
Federally regulated savings and loans set aside millions of dollars for anticipated loan losses in the third quarter as they felt the brunt of the housing market's downturn. The nation's 831 thrifts reported a third-quarter profit of $704 million, a drop of 83.5 percent from $4.29 billion in the same quarter a year ago, the Office of Thrift Supervision said Tuesday.

Housing Starts up But Trend Still Lower
Reuters | Nov 21 2007
Groundbreaking for U.S. housing rebounded in October but permits for future building hit a 14-year low, indicating the grim market for home construction will likely continue to worsen. The Commerce Department said on Tuesday housing starts rose 3 percent to an annual pace of 1.229 million units in October. The increase, which followed an 11 percent plunge in September, reflected a bounceback in groundbreaking for multifamily dwellings and failed to convince economists that things are improving in the housing sector.

Housing Permits Drop to 14-year Low
CNNMoney | Nov 20 2007
The number of housing permits issued nationwide fell to a 14-year low in October, although housing starts edged up slightly, according to the government's latest reading on the state of the battered home building market released Tuesday. Permits, a less weather-impacted measure of building strength that is used to gauge builders' confidence in the market, fell to an annual pace of 1.18 million from 1.26 million in September. It's the lowest seasonally-adjusted level of permits in a month since July 1993.

Grim Picture Painted by Fed
Mohave Daily News (AP) | Nov 20 2007
The housing collapse and credit crisis will slow economic growth and nudge up unemployment next year, the Federal Reserve said Tuesday in a first-of-its-kind forecast that some economists believe will lead to interest rate cuts early in 2008. Don't count on a cut in rates at the Fed's December meeting, however, analysts say. The Fed called its rate reduction in late October a ‘‘close call'' and hinted that its two cuts this year may be sufficient to energize the economy, according to minutes of the Oct. 31 closed-door meeting made public Tuesday.

Cloud Over Office Manager Causes Title Company's License Suspension
Courier Journal (IN) | Nov 19 2007
SHELBYVILLE, Ind. -- A title company has halted much of its work at nine statewide offices after its license was suspended over the disappearance of more than $900,000 from an escrow account. State officials have accused the Shelbyville office manager of King's Title & Abstract Co. of taking the money. Also, the company's insurer has canceled its policy over the missing funds.

Foreclosures Quietly Blighting Neighborhoods
Asbury Park Press | Nov 18 2007
Eighty-five bungalows dot the cul-de-sac that joins West Ontario Avenue and East Ontario Avenue in Atlanta. Twenty-two are vacant, victims of mortgage fraud and foreclosure. Now house fires, prostitution, vandals and burglaries terrorize the residents left in this historic neighborhood called Westview Village. "It's created a safety hazard. And if we have to sell our house tomorrow, we're out of luck," said resident Scott Smith. "Real estate agents say to me "We're not redlining you, but I tell my clients to think twice about buying here."

Senate Approves Terrorism Backstop Extension
Insurance News | Nov 16 2007
The Senate today passed the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (TRIPRA) of 2007, legislation that will extend the federal terrorism insurance backstop. The current federal terrorism reinsurance program commonly known as the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) is scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

Stockton, Detroit, Riverside-San Bernardino Post Top Metro Foreclosure Rates In Q3
RealtyTrac | Nov 14 2007
RealtyTrac® (realtytrac.com) released its Q3 2007 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report, which shows Stockton, Calif., Detroit and Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., documented the three highest foreclosure rates among the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas during the third quarter. RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of foreclosure and bank-owned properties, with over 1 million properties from nearly 2,500 counties across the country, and is the foreclosure data provider to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal.

Foreclosures Hit a Snag for Lenders
New York Times | Nov 15 2007 (Registration Required)
A federal judge in Ohio has ruled against a longstanding foreclosure practice, potentially creating an obstacle for lenders trying to reclaim properties from troubled borrowers and raising questions about the legal standing of investors in mortgage securities pools.

B of A Will Take $3 Billion Writedown
The Ledger (NC) | Nov 14 2007
CHARLOTTE, N.C. | Bank of America Corp. said Tuesday it will take a $3 billion debt-related writedown in the fourth quarter and warned its losses could grow, adding to fears the nation's housing and mortgage-lending slump might exact a greater toll than in the wretched third quarter - when industrywide writedowns topped $40 billion.

Billions May Be Lost: Subprime spillover hurting homes
Charlotte Observer | Nov 14 2007
The rising number of home foreclosures is sucking value from about 44.5 million neighboring houses across the country, according to the Durham-based Center for Responsible Lending. In its "subprime spillover" report released Tuesday, the nonprofit center said homes near foreclosed-on houses lost or will lose about $233 billion in value. The center based its findings on a predicted number of defaults on subprime loans originated during 2005 and 2006.

Mortgage Mistakes: The government-knows-best-approach is misguided at best.
National Review | Nov 14 2007
Every day, as news about the credit crunch unfolds, it seems like a new term is added to our financial vocabulary. First, there were subprime mortgages. Then, there were mortgage-backed securities, and collateralized debt obligations. Now, we’re hearing about “structured investment vehicles” and “Level 3 assets.”. If these terms are complex even for the experts, it goes without saying that so is figuring out an appropriate policy response. The basic problem is ineffective disclosure and transparency, both for some individual borrowers, and to a greater extent among investors who packaged, bought, and sold mortgages in the securities markets. But there are no easy answers on how to get there.

Subprime losses may top $400 bil
Investors Business Faily | Nov 12 2007
Banks worldwide could lose as much as $400 bil from subprime mortgages, as at least a quarter of the riskier loans go in to default, Deutsche Bank and Bear Stearns both predicted. Analysts estimate $150 bil to $250 bil of losses based on $1.2 tril of U.S. subprime loans and an additional $150 bil of losses on derivatives linked to subprime debt. U.S. foreclosures hit record highs and investors stopped buying risky debt, forcing Citigroup, (C) Merrill Lynch (MER) and Wachovia (WB) to write-off more than $40 billion this year.

Bankruptcy Law Backfires as Foreclosures Offset Gains
Bloomberg | Nov 12 2007
Washington Mutual Inc. got what it wanted in 2005: A revised bankruptcy code that no longer lets people walk away from credit card bills. The largest U.S. savings and loan didn't count on a housing recession. The new bankruptcy laws are helping drive foreclosures to a record as homeowners default on mortgages and struggle to pay credit card debts that might have been wiped out under the old code, said Jay Westbrook, a professor of business law at the University of Texas Law School in Austin and a former adviser to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Why WaMu Got Walloped
Business Week | Nov 12 2007
In addition to the deteriorating housing market, the lender was hit by news of an investigation by the New York AG. S&P rates the shares sell. Conditions in the thrift and mortgage industry, for which Standard & Poor's Equity Research has a negative fundamental outlook, took a turn for the worse on Nov. 7. First, at an investor conference, Washington Mutual (WM) announced it believes industrywide mortgage originations will fall to $1.5 trillion in 2008, 25% below the consensus forecast of $2 trillion for 2008, and 37.5% below projections for 2007. The stock weakened on the news.

Probe Widens on Inflated Home Appraisals
Wall Street Journal | Nov 08 2007 (Subscription Required)
A widening investigation of inflated home appraisals and a gloomy forecast by Washington Mutual Inc. knocked shares of mortgage companies lower. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, prodded by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, agreed to appoint independent examiners to look at whether they have done enough to protect mortgage investors from the risks of inflated home appraisals, particularly on loans from WaMu.

House Approves Creation of a Federal Disaster Insurance Program
New York Times | Nov 09 2007 (registration required)
The House of Representatives approved legislation yesterday that would put the federal government into the home insurance business to deal with natural disasters like hurricanes and the recent wildfires in California. The legislation, which passed on a vote of 258 to 155, would require the federal government to lend billions of dollars to states to help pay for damage to homes and businesses. The measure now goes to the Senate, where it has the backing of Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Bill Nelson in Florida.

Title Agency Settles with Home Buyers
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Nov 07 2007
A Seattle-area title agency has settled with home buyers who claimed that inducements the agency paid to real estate middlemen drove up the price of their policies. Under the class-action settlement, which U.S. District Judge James Robart approved Wednesday, Commonwealth Land Title of Puget Sound admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to create a $10,000 fund to pay for public education and government enforcement of illegal-inducement laws and pay $17,500 in lawyers' fees.

Cuomo Probe Shakes Wall Street
Business Week | Nov 07 2007
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo may have been aiming his latest legal salvo squarely at big players in the mortgage biz, but it was the broader stock market that sustained collateral damage on Wednesday. Weakness in financial issues, sparked by sharp declines in mortgage-funding giants Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), and major lender Washington Mutual (WM), led a big stock sell-off on Wall Street Wednesday, with the S&P 500 index falling nearly 3%.

Investors Title Profit Swells on Investments, Premiums
Triangle Business Journal | Nov 07 2007
Investors Title rode solid investment returns and an increase in premiums sold to higher earnings in the third quarter. The Chapel Hill company, which sells title insurance to mortgage banks and homeowners, said Tuesday that income was $3.86 million, or $1.54 per diluted share, in the quarter. A year prior, it was $3.6 million, or $1.44 per diluted share. Revenue increased to $23.1 million from $21.7 million.

Title Company Staffs Shrink to Pre-Boom Levels
Idaho Business Review | Nov 06 2007
A still-strong commercial real estate market benefits Idaho title and escrow companies, but not enough to offset a residential market slowdown that led companies to this year reduce staff to around 2004 levels. Home sales and mortgage refinancing transactions provide the lion’s share of business for the companies, which provide closing services and insure clients against challenges to free-and-clear ownership.

Mortgage Insurers Staggering
TheStreet.com | Nov 01 2007
As the markets reel from renewed credit concerns, most of the mortgage insurers and mortgage bond insurers are taking yet another huge tumble. Mortgage insurers like PMI Group (PMI - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating), MGIC Investment (MTG ) and Radian Group (RDN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) are all posting year-to-date declines of over 70%, with share prices in the single digits fast approaching. Mortgage insurance policies are paid out to mortgage lenders when borrowers default on their debt.

HR 3915 Addresses Many Aspects of Predatory and Other Mortgage Lending
MortgageNews Daily.com | Nov 05 2007
Sides are quickly being drawn over a pending bill before the House of Representatives which, if passed, will put in place some stringent new standards for mortgage underwriting and the regulation and compensation of mortgage brokers. HR 3915 is expected to be voted on by the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, November 6. Favoring the bill are consumer groups such as the National Center for Responsible Lending, and in strong opposition are industry supports like the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) and the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Lawyer disbarred, two others are disciplined
St Petersburg Times | Nov 21 2007
The Florida Supreme Court has disciplined three North Pinellas lawyers for infractions ranging from mysteriously diverting mortgage payments to letting educational credentials lapse. The court recently disbarred Richard Joseph Da Fonte of Clearwater, suspended Doreen Goldbronn of Palm Harbor for 60 days and put Maria Teresa Rodriguez of Safety Harbor on probation for 12 months.

Title Company Accused of Inflating Appraisals
The Realtor | Nov 02 2007
New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced Thursday that the state is suing eAppraiselT, accusing it of caving in to pressure from its best customer Washington Mutual to use hand-picked appraisers who Cuomo says inflated home appraisals. Cuomo released e-mails that he says show that executives were aware of the fraud between eAppraiselT, a subsidiary of First American Corp., and WaMu.

U.S. Home Foreclosures Doubled in the Third Quarter
Bloomberg | Nov 01 2007
U.S. home foreclosures doubled in the third quarter from a year earlier as subprime borrowers failed to make higher payments on adjustable-rate mortgages, RealtyTrac Inc. said. There were 635,159 foreclosure filings in the quarter, or one for every 196 households, including default notices, auction notices and bank repossessions. California, Florida and Ohio accounted for 44 percent of the total, and Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate at one for every 61 households. Forty-five of 50 states had increases.

Home Prices Continue to Fall
Wall Street Journal | Oct 31 2007 (Subscription Required)
Home prices continue to fall in most major U.S. metropolitan areas, according to the latest update of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price indexes. Prices of single-family homes in 20 major U.S. metro areas in August were down an average of 4.4% from a year earlier, Standard & Poor's.

Fed Officials: Housing Slump to Drag On
Associated Press | Oct 30 2007
The message from Ben Bernanke and his Federal Reserve colleagues is clear: The housing slump will drag on well into next year as credit problems linger. What's not so apparent is how they'll deal with the crisis, although another interest rate cut could come this week. In recent speeches, Fed policymakers have stressed that the country is going through a period marked by a high degree of economic uncertainty.

Pulte, Other Builders Settle Kickback Claims
Bloomberg | October 30, 2007
Pulte Homes Inc. and KB Home are among six home builders that agreed to pay a total of $1.4 million to settle federal investigations into whether they accepted rebates from insurers for referrals when selling homes. The kickback investigations, which ended as part of the settlements, are among hundreds being conducted by states and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development into payments by title insurers. State regulators found the referral payments -- to real estate agents, developers, lenders and builders -- led to higher closing costs for consumers.

Mortgage Industry Pushes for e-Mortgages Despite Drawbacks
Plainfield Sun | Oct 29 2007
The dream of today's mortgage lenders and brokers: paperless e-mortgages. The Internet and the digital era have opened the door to almost everything else - why not replace those piles of mortgage paper documents with a fast and easy paperless digital system? It could save a lot of time, money and frustration. But there are formidable problems in its development.

Mortgage Foreclosures Skyrocket In Connecticut
The Day (CT) | Oct 29 2007
Mortgage defaults and foreclosures in Connecticut's cities have skyrocketed over the past year as homeowners buckle under the weight of rising costs associated with subprime and predatory loans, a real estate tracking company has found. California-based RealtyTrac said the number of foreclosures increased 547 percent in the New Haven-Milford area, 522 percent in the Bridgeport-Norwalk-Stamford region and 446 percent in the Hartford area in the first half of this year, compared with the same period in 2006.

Report: 2 Million Homes to Foreclose
Chicago | Tribune | Oct 26 2007
Two million subprime-mortgage foreclosures are likely to occur by 2009 if home prices continue their downward spiral, a congressional report said Thursday. The report also estimated that $71 billion in housing wealth will be destroyed and states will lose $917 million in property tax revenue because of foreclosures.

Bank to End Loans to Mortgage Brokers
By Bloomberg News | October 26, 2007
Bank of America Corp., the second-biggest US bank, plans to stop making loans to mortgage brokers by year-end, a move that will cut 700 jobs, the bank said yesterday. The exit from "wholesale" mortgage lending is part of the 3,000 job cuts disclosed Wednesday after Bank of America reported a 32 percent decline in third-quarter income on Oct. 18. Most of the other job cuts are in the bank's global corporate and investment bank, which reported a 93 percent decline in profit during the quarter.

Fidelity cuts another 1,700 jobs
The Times-Union | Oct 25 2007
Fidelity National Financial Inc. Wednesday said it cut 1,700 jobs in its title insurance offices across the country during the third quarter, as the slumping mortgage market reduced demand for its title services. The Jacksonville-based company also said its third-quarter earnings fell sharply.

Countrywide joins foe to help borrowers
CNNMoney.com | Oct 25 2007
It's an unlikely pairing: the nation's biggest mortgage lender and one of its harshest critics. But with thousands of troubled borrowers facing foreclosure, the two adversaries put aside some of their differences and joined forces. Countrywide Finance, announced it's partnering with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), a gadfly/community advocacy group that has been its arch enemy for years.

Reports Suggest Broader Losses From Mortgages
New York Times | Oct 25 2007
Every time economists and Wall Street executives think they have acknowledged the full extent of the losses from the meltdown in real estate mortgages, more bad news turns up.Merrill Lynch said yesterday that it would take a charge for mortgage-related securities on its books that is $3 billion more than the $5 billion it expected just two weeks ago. And a report from the National Association of Realtors showed that sales of existing homes in September fell twice as much as economists had expected, to their lowest level in nearly 10 years.

Fidelity spins off third company
The Times-Union (FL) | Oct 25 2007
Fidelity National Information Services Inc. announced today that it plans to spin off its lender processing services division into a separate public company. That division provides data, servicing and technology services to mortgage lenders and generated $1.7 billion in revenue over the past year.

Merrill 3Q Hit Hard by Mortgage Crisis
KTVB-TV | Oct 24 2007
NEW YORK - Merrill Lynch & Co., the world's biggest brokerage, on Wednesday said the summer's credit crisis triggered a bigger-than-expected $7.9 billion writedown during the third quarter. Bad bets on mortgage securities and leveraged loans used for corporate takeovers caused it to post its first loss in six years. The blow makes Merrill Lynch the hardest-hit investment bank on Wall Street amid the recent market turmoil.

As foreclosures surge, mortgage lenders pressured to offer borrowers relief
FindLaw/AP |Oct 24 2007
LOS ANGELES-Countrywide Financial Corp., the U.S.'s largest mortgage lender, said it will begin calling borrowers to offer refinancing or modifications on $16 billion in loans with interest rates set to adjust by the end of 2008. But as defaults and foreclosures snowball, the mortgage industry is under increasing pressure to do even more to help financially strapped borrowers hang on to their homes.

Old Republic International Corp. No new direction from an institution said to live in the past
Chicago Business | Oct 24 2007
Shares of Old Republic International Corp. have fallen more than 20% since the beginning of the year, but don't expect the board to try anything revolutionary to reverse the slide. Old Republic, which sells property and liability insurance to industrial and financial companies, has been slow to change course or adhere to corporate trends like disclosing its governance practices in the wake of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, says Michael Dion, an analyst with UBS Financial Services Inc. in New York.

Countrywide launches program to refinance or modify adjustable-rate mortgages
Associated Press | Oct 23 2007
The nation's largest mortgage lender will begin offering refinancing or modifications on $16 billion in loans whose interest rate is set to adjust by the end of 2008. Countrywide's president and CEO David Sambol says "unprecedented times call for unprecedented remedies." He says Countrywide is determined to help people who "need a little help" to remain in their homes

Lawmakers to weigh mortgage reform
Scripps Newspaper Group, LA Times | Oct 23 2007
Responding to chaos in the mortgage industry, U.S. lawmakers soon will consider a range of long-term measures designed to clamp down on abuses and require that lenders make loans that borrowers can afford to repay. The package, sponsored by members including Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, would make clear that the rules applied to all key participants in making loans -- notably brokers and independent lenders who generally have been overlooked by regulators.

Mortgage Builder improves compliance, fraud processes with new interfaces
Real Estate Technology News | Oct 22 2007
Mortgage Builder Software, provider of mortgage banking software, has integrated Brooks Systems’ High Cost Loan Analysis (BrooksHCLA) and Interthinx’s loan-level fraud detection system (FraudGUARD) into its LOS system. The loan origination system provider has integrated tools to help lenders comply with high-cost lending laws and improve fraud detection.

SEC Distributes $356M to Fannie Mae Victims
WebCPA | Oct. 22, 2007
Investors harmed by financial shenanigans at mortgage lender Fannie Mae will collectively receive a whopping payout of $356 million, thanks to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC said it would begin sending out checks to individual investors, pension funds and other victims who invested in the Federal National Mortgage Association between 1998 and 2004. The money will come from the Fair Fund, which the SEC set up in the wake of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to distribute settlement money to harmed investors instead of to the U.S. Treasury.

Crisis was "Accident Waiting to Happen": Greenspan
Reuters | Oct 22 2007
An unusually high degree of risk taking across asset classes made recent financial market turmoil all but inevitable, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Sunday. "The financial crisis that erupted on August 9 was an accident waiting to happen," Greenspan said in a speech on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings. "Credit spreads across all global asset classes had become suppressed to clearly unsustainable levels."

Tough Times for Housing
Detroit News | Oct 21 2007
The deepest national housing decline in 16 years is about to get worse. As many as 1.5 million more Americans may lose their homes, another 100,000 people in housing-related industries could be fired, and an estimated 100 additional subprime mortgage companies that lend money to people with bad or limited credit may go under, according to Realtors, economists, analysts and a Federal Reserve governor. Financial stocks also could extend their declines over mortgage problems.

Correction Expected in Real Estate Market
WebCPA | Oct 19, 2007
More than 600 of the nation's leading real estate experts expect the sizzling commercial real estate market in the U.S. to slow in 2008, with a healthy correction that will likely bypass long-term investors but penalize late-to-the-game speculators and overleveraged buyers, according to the annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2008 report, released by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Housing's Foundations Crumble Still More
Forbes | Oct 18 2007
Housing problems have become a neverending story, as Thornburg Mortgage and MGIC Investment both announced big losses, and GMAC Financial Services announced big job cuts from its mortgage operation. Thornburg Mortgage led the way, as it announced Wednesday that it lost more than $1 billion in the third quarter and would withold shareholder dividends.

Court Rules Sale of Land in Lawsuit Void
Post Star (NY) | Oct 15 2007
QUEENSBURY -- A state Supreme Court judge has ruled the sale of French Mountain property by Stranahan Industries to the Macchio Family in 2004 was illegal and voided the transaction. Judge David Krogmann said David Stranahan, the company’s majority shareholder, failed to notify those in his family who had a minor stake in the company when he sold 188 acres of land to a limited liability company owned by Ralph and Rosalie Macchio — the parents of actor Ralph Macchio Jr. -- both sides on Monday claimed victory.

Mortgage Executives Say U.S. Housing Price Decline Expected to Stretch into at Least 2009
International Herald Tribune | October 16, 2007
Boston (AP) U.S. housing prices will continue to decline at least through the end of next year and may not begin creeping upward again until 2010, executives from the biggest mortgage financiers said Monday. Officials with government-sponsored mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and CEOs from two major mortgage banks told the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention that the continuing spike in foreclosures and a glut of unsold homes will prevent any quick price rebound.

Nomura to Exit U.S. Mortgage Business; Post Big Loss
Reuters | Oct 15 2007
TOKYO, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Nomura Holdings (8604.T: Quote, NEWS , Research), Japan's largest brokerage, said it would pull out of the U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities market and cut its U.S. work force by about 30 percent, pushing it to a big quarterly loss. Nomura is the latest global investment bank forced to swallow bigger losses stemming from exposure to U.S. credit markets thrown into turmoil as "subprime" borrowers defaulted on housing loans.

Housing Slump Hits Quicken
The Detroit News | Oct 15 2007
Michigan's largest lender Quicken Loans Inc. is retrenching -- including freezing hiring in the state -- as it sets a new course in the turbulent mortgage industry. The Livonia-based mortgage giant, the parent of Rock Financial, is lowering goals for its loan writers, ending mortgages that investors no longer will buy on the secondary market, and introducing new products backed by the federal government in its effort to gain market share in a shrinking industry.

HUD's "RESPA Police" Target Realty Brokers
Realty Times | Oct 14 2007
They are known as HUD's "RESPA police" and they have struck again -- this time targeting four real estate brokerage firms in the Detroit area. The allegations involve what HUD called "excessive" fee payments by a title agency for space rentals in the realty brokers' offices. The firms agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $80,000 and to change their rental fee arrangements to comply with HUD's interpretations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act's prohibitions against kickbacks for referrals of business.

Bush to Nominate Murin as Ginnie Mae President
Reuters | Oct 12 2007
NEW YORK, Oct 11 (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday said President George Bush intends to nominate Joseph Murin as president of the Government National Mortgage Association, or Ginnie Mae. Murin most recently was president of the Mortgage Settlement Network, LLC, a provider of loan settlement services, according to a White House statement.

Mortgage Industry Miseries Mount
The Orange County Register | Oct 11 2007
On paper Ashley Khong looks like a real find – a bachelor's degree in economics, an MBA, 23 years of solid work experience, most recently as vice president of operations and chief financial officer. In person, he's personable and engaging, a seemingly good fit for any company.Yet two months after getting laid off from Evergreen Lending Inc., the Lake Forest resident hasn't even received a nibble in his job search efforts.

Old Republic Standing Solid
Chicago Sun Times | Oct 9 2007
Old Republic standing solid CEO Zucaro in the front line of the battle enveloping the American housing market One ray of sunshine in the current credit crunch comes from a man who sits precisely where you wouldn't want to be these days -- as one of the major mortgage insurers.Chicago's Al Zucaro is there, and he's been there before. "Believe me, this is no picnic," he tells me, "but it's no disaster either." Zucaro's company, Old Republic International (NYSE: ORI) is now the 36th largest public company in Chicago, one of the nation's largest property/casualty insurers and among the top five in the scary category of mortgage insurance. Those are the folks who stand behind the lenders who issue first mortgages on homes, ready to protect them against losses on defaults.

S&P says underestimated extent of mortgage fraud
Reuters | Oct 9 2007
The chief economist of Standard and Poor's said on Tuesday that the ratings agency had underestimated the extent of fraud in the U.S. mortgage industry. "We underestimated the extent to which fraud was occurring in the industry," David Wyss, S&P's chief economist, said at a news conference in Mumbai. "It looks, based on some surveys that had been done, the extent of frauds increased sharply in 2006."

Mortgage servicers aim to head off foreclosures
MarketWatch | Oct 10 2007
Banks and mortgage companies are ramping up efforts to head off a wave of foreclosures by expanding and improving counseling services to troubled borrowers, the institutions and the U.S. government announced Wednesday.

$3 Million Verdict Reinstated for Real Estate Brokerage That Sued Its Lawyer, Insurer
The Legal Intelligencer | October 9, 2007
The Pennsylvania Superior Court has reversed a Philadelphia judge's decision to toss out a $3 million verdict awarded to a real estate brokerage that sued its insurer and lawyer after it was hit with an $11.4 million verdict in a defamation suit.In its 24-page opinion in Marie Miller Century 21 Alliance Inc. v. Continental Casualty Co., a unanimous three-judge panel found that Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Allan L. Tereshko had no basis for overturning the jury's awards against either the insurer or the lawyer.

Cutting Paperwork: E-Closings Need Just One SignatureSave Time, Money; Easy to Correct
Oct. 8, 2007 | KABC-TV
Imagine buying a house, or refinancing one, and you spend just a few minutes signing the papers. In fact, you only have to sign once. As much as this sounds like science fiction, it's not -- electronic closings are cutting down the paperwork. It has taken a very long time for lenders, title companies, and notaries to perfect electronic real estate closings. To eliminate the paper and use the computer it needed to be safe and legally binding. Well now they have just what they need for paperless e-closing. Each time you refinance or get a new mortgage, you can expect a stack of papers nearly an inch thick that you've never seen before, but you have to sign.

Old Republic standing solid
Chicago Sun Times | Oct 9 2007
One ray of sunshine in the current credit crunch comes from a man who sits precisely where you wouldn't want to be these days -- as one of the major mortgage insurers.Chicago's Al Zucaro is there, and he's been there before. "Believe me, this is no picnic," he tells me, "but it's no disaster either." Zucaro's company, Old Republic International (NYSE: ORI) is now the 36th largest public company in Chicago, one of the nation's largest property/casualty insurers and among the top five in the scary category of mortgage insurance. Those are the folks who stand behind the lenders who issue first mortgages on homes, ready to protect them against losses on defaults.

Web To Aid Title Insurer Quest
Sacremento Bee | Oct 09 2007
California consumers for the first time can log onto their computers and do one-stop comparison shopping for title insurance.Responding to calls to lower rates, the title industry and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner today will unveil the landmark online tool allowing consumers to compare premiums and title insurers in their communities. It also explains the ABCs of the product.The rollout of the online tool -- touted as the first of its kind in the country -- comes as the title insurers scramble to repair an image tarnished by scandals and government probes and fines. Consumer groups have complained about high prices.

Subprime mortgage slipping into default at rapid pace
International Herald Tribune | Oct 08 2007
Subprime mortgage bonds created in the first half of 2007 contain loans that are going delinquent at the fastest rate ever, according to Moody's Investors Service. The average rate of "serious loan delinquencies" in the securities has been higher than 2006 bonds, Ariel Weil and Amita Shrivastava, analysts at Moody's Investors Service, wrote in a report last week. Serious loan delinquencies are those 60 days or more past due, including properties in foreclosure or already foreclosed upon.

Best Places For Real Estate Deals
Forbes | Oct 08 2007
Home sales have sunk to their lowest levels since 2001. Investors are jumping ship, foreclosures are mounting and lenders are exercising caution. Still, there are areas of the county where it makes sense for some to buy. That's because, in a market slump, sellers eager to unload their homes often accept less money from buyers. New construction also slows. Both bode well for those hoping to score a deal--if the market in which they are buying is expected to experience increased sales.

Title insurers face fines -- and a fading market
Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) | Oct 08 2007
The once-thriving title insurance business is turning topsy-turvy, as its traditional sales practices face regulatory and legal attack even as its market retrenches. Washington state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler put the title industry on notice last fall with an exhaustively investigated report claiming that many long-standing "referral-based" marketing practices are illegal and hurt consumers. A year later, Kreidler is seeking substantial fines from some title insurance agencies that apparently haven't heeded his call.

On the House | Warnings abound on mortgage fraud
The Philadephia Inquirer | Oct 7 2007
I received e-mail from the Federal Trade Commission recently, and I thought I should pass it on to you quickly, in case you hadn't figured it out. The e-mail warned mortgage brokers and lenders, and media outlets that carry their advertisements for home mortgages "that some of the advertising claims appearing in Web sites, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, and unsolicited e-mail and faxes may violate federal law." One would assume that with all the media coverage about the shattered subprime market, and delinquencies and foreclosures, the vast majority of Americans would have gotten the message.

House Passes Mortgage Tax Bill [PDF]
The House voted 386-27 to pass legislation on Thursday that would exempt from income tax most mortgage debt forgiven through foreclosure, sale or loan restructuring. Under current law, debt forgiven following mortgage foreclosure or renegotiation is considered income for tax purposes, resulting in tax liability for individuals and families. The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 (H.R. 3648) would exclude permanently debt of up to $2 million. The legislation would extend the deduction for mortgage insurance for seven years until the end of 2014. Another provision would tighten requirements taxpayers must meet to exclude gain from the sale of certain homes that have been used as a vacation home or rental property.

Attorney: Stipe likely to be indicted by grand jury
Durant Dail Democrat | Oct 5 2007
Former state Sen. Gene Stipe will likely be indicted today by a federal grand jury investigating him, his attorney said. Clark Brewster told the Tulsa World that he expected Stipe to be named in an indictment over an alleged kickback and involvement in a title insurance company.

Landowners Sue River Ridge Developers
The Charleston Gazette | Oct 04 2007
A group of landowners is suing the developers of River Ridge at Kanawha Falls, alleging the lots they bought were never approved by the government for subdivision. According to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Kanawha Circuit Court, the developers failed to inform buyers that the land has no sewers and is not suitable for septic tanks

With Title-Insurance Firms, it's Home Seller Beware
The Denver Post | Oct 1 2007
Title-insurance companies have some explaining to do.Why does the cost of title insurance vary from one company to the next by hundreds or even thousands of dollars? In these difficult times, many home sellers are trying to squeeze every dollar out of their home sales, just to pay off their mortgages and their brokers and be free.

America's Most Stable Housing Markets
Forbes | Oct 1 2007
Nationwide, home prices are falling, sales are sluggish and the number of foreclosures is mounting. Ask any economist and you'll hear that things are bad, and likely to get worse. Unless you live in Seattle, where the market is slowing but fundamentals remain strong. The Emerald City has experienced strong price appreciation over the last six quarters, and that's expected to continue in the new year, though at a slower pace. In addition to a very low housing inventory and a strong sales rate, there are few non-conforming and high-risk loans on the books than in other cities, which means the area will likely see fewer defaults in the coming months than the rest of the country's markets.

Title Company Finds Success Despite Real Estate Downturn
The Arizona Republic | Sep 30, 2007
Frank Busch III is Tasmanian Devil meets yoga master. He works hard, plays hard, thinks fast. Friends and colleagues call him tenacious, dependable, inspiring, helpful and driven. The corporate attorney-turned-entrepreneur started his Scottsdale-based Thomas Title & Escrow company just a year ago, finding a successful niche in a troubled time in the real-estate industry.

Fraud Affects Four Out of Five Companies
Acccounting Pro | Sep 27 2007
Four out of five companies have suffered from corporate fraud in the past three years, according to a survey from risk consulting firm Kroll. New technologies, new investors and expansion into new overseas markets have opened the door to different forms of fraud, the report concludes. In some sectors, more than a fifth of companies have lost more than $1m.

Title insurance execs say bureau doesn't play favorites
The Honolulu Advertiser | Sept 28 2007
Executives with two title insurance companies told a state House and Senate investigatory committee yesterday that they do not believe there is favoritism at the state Bureau of Conveyances. The committee, which is investigating mismanagement at the bureau, has previously heard testimony that described a culture of dysfunction between factions at the bureau and favoritism where certain title companies get bureau workers to speed up the recording of land documents.

Analysis: Housing, Credit Whammy a Blow
BuilderOnline/AP | Sep 28 2007
The double whammy of a worsening housing slump and a credit crunch is punching the economy in its gut. That's likely to mean a period of slower activity in the months ahead.If lucky, the economy won't be knocked over. But the country could be in for a bruising that will put the economy on weaker footing.

Mortgage data leaked over file network
USA Today | Sep 22 2007
Three spreadsheets containing more than 5,000 Social Security numbers and other personal details about customers of ABN Amro Mortgage Group were inadvertently leaked over an online file-sharing network by a former employee. Tiversa Inc., a Pittsburgh company that offers data-leakage protection services, traced the origins of the ABN data to a Florida computer with the BearShare software installed. BearShare, LimeWire and scores of other programs are designed to distribute and find songs, movies and other files over the Gnutella file-sharing network.

Appraisals coming in higher than sales price
The Morning Call (PA) | Sep 23 2007
What's going on with appraisals in some parts of the country? Mortgage lenders -- and appraisers themselves -- say they're increasingly coming in with valuations higher than the contract prices agreed to by sellers and buyers. The differences can range into the thousands. Are some sellers giving in to lowball offers, fearful that they can do no better in the wake of the subprime mortgage implosion and home sale bust? Or are appraisers simply lagging behind downward market adjustments?

The battle of the little big thorn: subprimes As house payments balloon, borrowers may face last stand
Rocky Mountain News/Bloomberg News | Sep 22 2007
As many as half the 450,000 subprime borrowers whose mortgage payments will rise in the next three months may lose their homes because they can't sell, refinance or qualify for help from the U.S. government. "Short of the cavalry riding in over the hill, a lot of these people are just stuck," said Christopher Cagan, director of research at First American CoreLogic, the risk-management unit of the largest U.S. title insurer.

Subprime Lending Crisis May Affect Industry After All
Insurance Journal | Sep 24, 2007
If terrorism presents some "uncertain" aspects, the subprime lending crisis does so in spades. Financial markets react negatively to uncertainty more than anything else, as no one knows what may happen. Why has a relatively local event – the increasing number of defaults on home loans in the U.S. – triggered such global concern?

Title firm employee now owner
The Detroit News | Sep 25 2007
After her employer shuts the doors, woman opens one and she's the boss. Remember that wise old saying, "When one door closes, another opens?" Well, Kate McCarty lived it. Twice.

Subprime Borrowers to Lose Homes at Record Pace as Rates Rise
Bloomberg | Sep 19 2007
As many as half of the 450,000 subprime borrowers whose mortgage payments increase in the next three months may lose their homes because they can't sell, refinance or qualify for help from the U.S. government. "Short of the cavalry riding in over the hill, a lot of these people are just stuck,'' said Christopher Cagan, director of research and analytics at Santa Ana, California-based First American CoreLogic, the risk management unit of the biggest U.S. title insurer.

Bush Wants to Expand Mortgage Disclosures
Wall Street Journal via Yahoo| Sep 20 2007
As President Bush seeks ways to respond to the subprime-mortgage meltdown, his administration is readying a plan that would help borrowers better understand the costs and fees associated with buying a home. The twist: It proposed and shelved a similar plan three years ago. In 2004, the administration backed down amid fierce opposition from the housing industry and members of Congress from both parties. After spending two years trying to "simplify, improve and lower costs associated with obtaining home mortgages," the Department of Housing and Urban Development tabled its proposed rule "due to the significant number of questions raised."

Lawsuit: Land Title charging too much
Denver Post | Sep 21 2007
A Denver man is trying to form a class action for a lawsuit against a title insurance company that he claims is overcharging homeowners. David Resnick filed suit in Denver District Court last week against Land Title Guarantee Co., saying it overcharged him and other homeowners.

Mortgage insurers aided by regulatory moves
Reuters | Sep 21 2007
Mortgage insurers' shares rose on Wednesday as investors saw them benefiting from regulatory moves that will boost their business. Earlier on Wednesday the regulator for Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE), the biggest sources of U.S. housing finance, said they could buy $20 billion more in subprime mortgages to help revive the credit-squeezed market.

Insurance group to reimburse clients of Coastal Title Services
Palm Beach News | Sept 21 2007
Insurance underwriters for a title company owned by Vero Beach attorney Ira C. Hatch Jr. will compensate customers that lost money with the now-defunct company, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Financial Services said Thursday. Lawyers Title Insurance Corp. and Attorneys' Title Insurance Fund said they would pay claims by businesses that used Coastal Title Services, said spokeswoman Nina Banister.

Study: New Homes in Fire-Risk Areas of Sierra Nevada
Insurance Journal | Sep 21 2007
More people are building homes in hazardous fire areas of the Sierra Nevada -- increasing firefighting costs, according to a two-year study released by a conservation group. The Sierra Nevada is primarily in eastern California and extends into neighboring Nevada. The 45-page report by the Sierra Nevada Alliance found that more than 88,000 people settled in the Sierra's extreme or very high fire-threat areas between 1990 and 2000 -- an increase of 16 percent.

Insurance agencies face state fines:Spending caps on realty favors at issue
Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Sep 18 2007
State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has proposed nearly $300,000 in fines against four Washington title insurance agencies for violating spending caps on favors for real estate agents and others who could steer business their way. The fines stem from Kreidler's third investigation into the industry in the last 12 months, which found that the title insurers were giving real estate agents discounted or free access to property information services.

Ahead of the Bell: FHA overhaul
CNN Money | Sept 18, 2007
House lawmakers are planning to vote Tuesday on an overhaul of a federal agency that insures mortgages against default in an effort to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.The plan of leading House Democrats to expand the role of the Federal Housing Administration goes further than the Bush administration's plan to ease some of the mortgage market troubles that have rattled the economy.

The World According to Alan Greenspan
Newsweek | Sep 24 2007
Alan Greenspan considers himself to be the luckiest economist in the world. "I was very fortunate," Greenspan told NEWSWEEK of his lengthy and eventful tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve, which lasted from August 1987 to January 2006. "I emerged on the scene at the beginning of this extraordinary half-generation."

Obama Urges Wall Street to Protect the Middle Class
New York Times | Sep 18 2007(Registration Required)
Senator Barack Obama chastised Wall Street executives yesterday as failing to protect middle-class interests and called for increased federal oversight of credit rating agencies, including a government investigation.In an appearance at Nasdaq offices in Midtown Manhattan, Mr. Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate, praised America’s free-market impulse but lamented what he characterized as its recent toll on the middle class.

Housing industry got away from its policies
The Tennesssean | Sep 17 2007
The housing industry is in a mess. Growing foreclosures are a symptom created by the perfect storm of subprime/predatory lending, overvalued real estate, and the rating industry's bundling practices.But the basic cause behind it all is that the housing industry moved away from traditional proven lending policies, allowing home buyers to get in over their heads.

Bill to Extend Terror Insurance Faces Bush Veto
New York Times |
The White House threatened on Monday to veto a bill that would add 15 years to a post-Sept. 11 government insurance program that supporters say is critical for major projects like the new World Trade Center. The legislation, known as the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, was originally passed by Congress after the 2001 attacks. It is due to expire this year, and the House had planned to vote this week on a 15-year extension.

Fitch CEO: Don't Blame Us
Forbes | Sep 17, 2007
Credit rating agencies have been getting a lot of bad press since the American mortgage market began unraveling after years of enthusiastic lending, burning investors far and wide. Politicians and businessmen are once more calling into question the transparency of the rating system, charging that firms like Standard & Poor's and Moody's failed to warn of problems until it was far too late, by which point even investment grade-rated securities had become ticking time bombs as borrowers defaulted.

WaMu closing 2 mortgage divisions
LA Times / Bloomberg News | Sept 13 2007
Washington Mutual Inc., the largest U.S. savings and loan, said Wednesday that it would shutter one division that bought mortgages from other home lenders and another that financed mortgage companies. The closures will result in about 1,000 firings, Washington Mutual spokesman Alan Gulick said. But the Seattle-based company also plans to hire about 1,000 loan officers in the next few months in its mortgage and bank branches, bringing the total to about 3,000, he said.

A Home Loan Trap
New York Times |Sept 13 2007 (Registration Required)
Homeowners whose loan rates are soaring may want to head for the exits. Many of them, though, will find no way out. If they sell their home or refinance, they will face a penalty of thousands of dollars for paying off their loans early.

Home-Loan Report Portends More Pain
Wall Street Journal | Sept 13 2007 (Subscrpition Required)
An analysis of federal data on nearly 14 million U.S. home loans made last year portends more misery for subprime borrowers, lenders and investors, as existing loans are pressured by falling home prices and lenders put tougher underwriting standards in place.The study by the Federal Reserve, based on data collected each year under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, found that the percentage of U.S. mortgages carrying high interest rates (generally, subprime loans) climbed to about 29% last year from 26% in 2005.

Real Estate Pros Probed in Mortgage Fraud
News 10 Sacramento Sept 11 2007
The FBI has questioned a number of real estate professionals linked to fraudulent transactions involving a Stockton man arrested last week. Investigators say Ifthikhar Ahmad, 36, bought and sold more than 100 houses over the past decade. The FBI believes dozens of those transactions involved mortgage fraud.

Past lending practices getting more scrutiny
San Bernardino County Sun | Sept 11 2007
They're known as "predatory lenders" - unscrupulous mortgage brokers who lure people into borrowing a load of money that seems impossible to get. Home buyers and owners throughout the Inland Empire have seen their fair share of these lenders over the past few years.

Housing Downturn Likely to Last, Expert Says: Subprime Fallout Isn't Likely to Bottom Out Soon, She Says
The Dallas Morning News | Sept 11 2007
Don't look for a quick turnaround in the ousing market downturn. It will probably be at least next summer before conditions in the home sector bottom out, a top mortgage industry economist said Monday. "We had thought we would hit bottom the second quarter of this year," Amy Crews Cutts, an economist with lending giant Freddie Mac, told mortgage industry members meeting Monday. "We have now pushed that out to the second quarter of next year."

Mortgage broker licensing requirements on horizon
Newsday | Sept 11 2007
On an August day a year ago, Malinda Matus recalled, she was swept away by how fast she could close on her low-documentation home refinance - a 20-minute introduction to the loan terms and then the signing. "I was railroaded - there's no two ways about it," said Matus, 61, sobbing about her layoff as a medical officer worker in June and the possibility of defaulting on her loan like a "low-life" for the first time ever next month. "She didn't tell me everything in detail. I was stupid. I should have taken more than 20 minutes, but that's all I was given."

End of Boom For Housing Hits Title Firms
Wall Street Journal | Sept 10 2007 (subscription required)
Problems confronting title insurers may offer fresh clues about economic stress points in the nation's housing market. Title insurers issue policies that essentially guarantee a homebuyer is the rightful owner of a property. The industry's fortunes are closely tied to the health of the real-estate industry -- and some major firms are seeing claims rise sharply, particularly on policies issued during recent boom years.

Underwriter completes Guaranty Title audit
Springfield Business Journal | Sep 7 2007
The financial underwriter for a Nixa-based title insurance agency that abruptly closed in mid-June has completed an audit of the defunct company’s records and forwarded its findings to the Missouri Department of Insurance.For two and half months, auditors with Virginia-based LandAmerica Financial Group audited the remnants of Guaranty Title Co., which closed its doors without warning on June 19. Guaranty Title employed about 45 people at several southwest Missouri offices, primarily in Greene and Christian counties.

Housing woes hit title insurers: Report
CNN Money | Sept 9 2007
In yet another sign of pain in the troubled real estate sector, title insurers are seeing a big increase in the number of claims, according to a new report.The Wall Street Journal reported on its website Sunday that title insurers like First American Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500) are fielding a significant rise in claims - yet more evidence of the housing market's woes.

Drop in title insurance cost could save New Mexico home buyers $40 million a year
The Albuquerque Tribune | Sept 5, 2007
SANTA FE — Costs of title insurance in New Mexico could drop by 30 percent, potentially saving home buyers $40 million a year, if the state's price-regulated title insurance system was scrapped, according to a new report.Think New Mexico, an independent think tank based in Santa Fe, calls for an overhaul of the current system in which the state determines the cost of title insurance and sets a uniform price that all title insurance companies must charge.

Mortgage Market Woes Takes Toll on Jobs
Realty Time | Sep 05 2007
Nearly 88,000 financial industry workers -- 41 percent of them directly related to the mortgage sector -- have lost their jobs this year, according to the latest count by Challenger Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement consulting firm. Through Aug. 21, the company counted 87,962 financial jobs lost so far this year. And that's on top of the 100,000-plus who were let go in 2005 and 2006. Of this year's total, 35,830 were in the mortgage business.

Congress Takes Up Mortgages
Wall Street Journal | Sep 06 2007
Congress returned from vacation with a series of proposals that could reconfigure the mortgage market, suggesting lawmakers are in a mood to make substantial changes in the wake of the summer's subprime mess.Possible bills in both the House and the Senate would expand homeowner protections to cover more high-cost loans, crack down on prepayment penalties and prohibit brokers from steering borrowers toward more-costly loans. Critics blame such practices for encouraging mortgage brokers and lenders to push unsophisticated borrowers to accept loans with onerous terms.

Despite Credit Crunch, Construction Spending Grew in July
The New York Sun | Sept 5, 2007
Spending on construction of nonresidential buildings grew in July despite the credit woes that have dragged down construction of homes for the 17th straight month, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau released yesterday.

Mortgage crisis hits home - Subprime loans stretch local families to breaking point
Northwest County Journal | Sept 4 2007
A year ago, Cheryl Trueblood and her family were trapped in the mortgage crisis that is still gripping thousands of homeowners in North County and millions nationwide. They escaped, but not without scars.

Title firm settles over kickbacks
Contra Costa Times | Aug 29, 2007
Stewart Title Guaranty Co. agreed to settle California kickback charges as more than 100 other state and federal investigations proceed into secret payments for consumer referrals in the $43 billion U.S. home-settlement business. Stewart, the fourth-biggest U.S. title insurer, will pay $1 million to the California Insurance Department to settle charges it illegally paid builders and lenders for steering business its way, the agency said in a statement.

Stewart Title faces fine of nearly $2 million
The Herald WA | Aug 28 2007
The state's insurance commissioner fined Stewart Title of Snohomish County nearly $2 million for repeatedly violating a law barring excessive gifts and incentives to real estate agents. Citing Stewart Title's "blatant disregard of the law," commissioner Mike Kreidler proposed a fine Monday of $1.95 million. It could be reduced after an upcoming hearing or via a court appeal.

Chicago Title Sues David Crisp
KGET News 17 | Aug 28 2007
There is another business problem for embattled local real estate agent David Crisp. Crisp has more than 80 properties in default, and now a title company is suing him. Chicago Title said it issued the title insurance in 2005 when Crisp bought a home that had been converted to a law office/

Existing-Home Sales Fall to 5-Year Low
Blomberg News| Aug 28, 2007
Sales of previously owned homes fell to a five-year low in July and the glut of unsold properties climbed to the highest since 1991 as the housing slump dragged on. With no recovery in sight for housing, lower property values and higher mortgage costs threaten to weaken consumer spending, economists said. The Federal Reserve this month acknowledged a growing risk to economic growth because of the rout in credit markets.

Bankruptcy Law Doesn't Jibe With Modern Mortgages
SmartMoney | Aug 26 2007
CONGRESS REVISED THE nation's bankruptcy laws under 2005's Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, effectively making it harder for individuals to claim insolvency. The reform was seen by critics as protecting banks and lenders more than the consumers the legislation's title claimed to help. Now, as the fallout from the subprime mess continues to expand, an uptick in bankruptcy filings may yet be another kink in the growing mortgage crisis.

Home price slide goes nationwide
New York Times| Aug 26 2007
The median price of American homes is expected to fall this year for the first time since federal housing agencies began keeping statistics in 1950. Economists say the decline, which could be foreshadowed in a widely followed government price index to be released this week, will probably be modest —- from 1 percent to 2 percent —- but could continue in 2008 and 2009. Rather than being limited to the once-booming Northeast and California, price declines are also occurring in cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis and Houston, where the increases of the last decade were modest by comparison.

Yes, Housing Will Get Worse. But How Bad?
US News and World Events | Aug 27, 2007
How much worse can things get in the housing market? With mortgage lenders folding, home builders bleeding red ink, and foreclosures filling the "public notice" section, the answer might seem as ominous as the "price reduced" placards that increasingly top the for-sale signs now littering America's lawns.

9 Indicted in Mortgage Fraud Scheme
Houston Chronicle | Aug. 22, 2007
Nine people have been accused in a $25 million mortgage fraud scheme in which the value of more than 500 real estate properties in central Ohio was exaggerated to mortgage lenders and to prospective buyers, authorities said Wednesday. The nine recruited inexperienced potential buyers, counting on their relative ignorance with real estate to hide the scheme, according to the indictment by the federal grand jury. The defendants are accused of using fraudulent documents to misrepresent the buyers’ credit to lending institutions and then obtaining mortgages secured by the inflated value of the properties.

Mortgage mess fallout: foreclosure rescue scams
CNNMoney.com | Aug 27 2007
Jennifer Falke and her family had been in their Columbus, Ohio, home for nearly 12 years when they hit a rough patch in 2006. Falke was out of work and fell behind on the mortgage.Falke said a flood of mailings and flyers then arrived at her door promising help from foreclosure rescue companies claiming to act as an intermediary between her and her lender to keep her from losing her home.

Gangs Find New Source of Revenue: Mortgage Fraud
NPR | August 22, 2007
The housing boom of recent years has turned mortgage fraud into a big business — so big that some of the nation’s largest gangs are getting into the act. It is hard to get precise numbers on just how much mortgage fraud there is. The FBI recorded more than $1 billion in mortgage fraud losses in fiscal 2005, but even that number is thought to be understated.

Hawaii's title insurance practices under fire
Honolulu Advertiser | August 23 2007
The state Bureau of Conveyances has not adequately updated its administrative rules, fee schedules or subscription contracts with title insurance companies nor has it created written guidelines for handling cash, a state fiscal management officer told a House and Senate investigative committee yesterday.

Lawyers Learn From HomeBanc's Demise
Fulton County Daily Report | August 23, 2007
Even though a bankruptcy judge in Delaware this week saved them from financial ruin, real estate closing attorneys said they learned a powerful lesson from the collapse of HomeBanc Corp. -- never accept anything but a wire transfer at closing.

Regulators target title-insurance companies
Tallahassee | August 23, 2007
Florida insurance regulators take on a new target today, grilling executives of the state's largest title insurance companies. The Office of Insurance Regulation has subpoenaed top officials from nine companies, including TICOR, First American and Fidelity National, to testify about the rates they charge and whether they cut rebates to the real estate agents and bankers who send them business.

Ratings Recap: Park, Fidelity National, Nationwide Mutual, Universal American
Insurance Journal | August 22 2007
A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating of "A-" (Excellent) and assigned an issuer credit rating of "a-" to Park Assurance Company of Burlington, VT with a stable outlook. "The ratings reflect Park's strong balance sheet, excellent liquidity and conservative operating strategy," said Best. They also "recognize the company's favorable operating results and its role as a single parent captive of JPMorgan Chase & Co. a leading global financial services group."

Capital One to shut unit, cut 1,900 jobs
USA Today | August 21 2007
Capital One Financial Corp. said Monday it will cut 1,900 jobs and shutter its wholesale mortgage banking business, a move that comes as lenders continue to struggle in the nation's housing and mortgage markets.Capital One said it will shut down GreenPoint Mortgage and eliminate most of the jobs by the end of year. The McLean, Va.-based company will close 31 GreenPoint locations in 19 states and "cease residential mortgage origination" effective immediately but said it will honor commitments to customers with locked rates who have loans already in the pipeline.

Home Foreclosures Almost Double in July as Rates Rise (Update1)
Bloomberg | August 21 2007
U.S. homes facing foreclosure almost doubled in July as property owners with adjustable-rate mortgages saw their payments rise, RealtyTrac Inc. said. Lenders sent 179,599 notices of default, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions last month, a 93 percent increase from a year earlier, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac said today in a statement. California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Georgia accounted for more than half of the country's total filings.

Deadline spurs search for lost highways
Burlington Free Press | August 21, 2007
Two hundred years ago, you might have been able to get there from here. Today, the path to Vermont's invisible public highways -- known officially as ancient roads -- begins with hours and hours of educated guesses. And a stopwatch. The search by dozens of volunteers for long-neglected rights of way is guided in large part by urgency.

Insurance commissioner subpoenas Fidelity National Title
Jacksonville Business Journal | August 21, 2007
Fidelity National Title Insurance Co. and two of its affiliates have been subpoenaed by the state's insurance regulation office. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty issued subpoenas to nine title insurance companies Monday concerning the companies' business practices and premiums. McCarty called them to testify at a hearing at The Capitol in Tallahassee Aug. 23.

Mortgage mess creates lending drought
USA Today | August 20 2007
SAN FRANCISCO — Mortgage broker Ed Smith Jr. has been arranging home loans for 24 years and it's never been tougher for him to close a deal than during the past few weeks of turmoil. As more lenders collapse, the skittish survivors are raising their rates and changing the rules for getting a loan every few hours as they scramble to stay alive. The upheaval has made it virtually impossible to secure financing for scores of borrowers who would have easily qualified for mortgages just a few months ago, creating a lending drought likely to deepen the housing slump.

Bear Stearns Seems Bearish To Its Employees
Forbes | August 18, 2007
Bear Stearns announced that it will cut 240 jobs at its mortgage-lending unit. The firm said pink slips were handed out to create efficiencies based on market conditions. Bear Stearns employs 15,000 people. A spokeswoman for the company said that "the expansion of our paperless origination system enables us to more efficiently serve our customers from a central location."

Subprime Problems Spread Into Commercial Loans
New York Times | August 15, 2007
Turmoil in the subprime mortgage market spread again yesterday — this time to a type of short-term security held by money market mutual funds. These funds have become the investment of choice for many people seeking a safe haven. Standard & Poor’s, the ratings agency, warned yesterday that it might downgrade several issuers of commercial paper, a short-term I.O.U. by companies that promise to repay loans typically within a few weeks to a year.

Flood plain re-map hit
Sun-Times News Group | August 16, 2007
A state project to modernize county flood plain maps has re-ignited a drive by Glenview owners of properties in the flood plain to end their flood insurance obligations. Residents of the Tall Trees subdivision have "banded together trying to figure out what we can do about removing Tall Trees specifically but also all of Glenview from (the Federal Emergency Management Agency's) 100-year flood plain," said Sebastian Monastero, vice president of the Tall Trees Homeowner Association.

July Home Starts Fall To 10-year Lows
Reuters | August 16 2007
Groundbreaking for new homes fell 6.1 percent in July to the lowest pace in more than 10 years while building permit activity, a sign of future construction plans, sank to a nearly 11-year low, a government report on Thursday showed. Dealing more bad news to the housing sector and financial markets, the Commerce Department said housing starts set an annual pace of 1.381 million units in July, lower than Wall Street forecasts for 1.405 million units as well as the upwardly revised 1.470 million rate for June. It was the lowest pace since the January 1997 rate of 1.355 million units.

How Rating Firms' Calls Fueled Subprime Mess
Wall Street Journal | August 15, 2007
In 2000, Standard & Poor's made a decision about an arcane corner of the mortgage market. It said a type of mortgage that involves a "piggyback," where borrowers simultaneously take out a second loan for the down payment, was no more likely to default than a standard mortgage.While its pronouncement went unnoticed outside the mortgage world, piggybacks soon were part of a movement that transformed America's home-loan industry: a boom in "subprime" mortgages taken out by buyers with weak credit.

FBI Warns Of Foreclosure Scams - Inland Foreclosures Soar 200 Percent
The Louisiana Weekly | August 13, 2007
SAN BERNADINO - Scammerslooking to cash in on the misery of desperate homeowners need look no further than the Inland Empire where foreclosures in San Bernardino County jumped an astonishing 187 percent in the second quarter. Riverside County leaped 207 percent. The two counties were among thehardest hit in California, according to a report released Monday by RealtyTrac. Foreclosures in southern California rose 186 percent as 104,575 homes in the state went into some form of foreclosure in the first half of 2007.

Tighter Loan Standards at Many Banks Add to Economic Slowdown Fears
USA Today | August 14, 2007
Banks reported softer demand for mortgage and commercial loans in the three months ended in July, the Federal Reserve said Monday, adding to evidence that the pace of economic growth has slowed. The Fed's quarterly survey found 56% of 16 lenders making subprime loans had tightened standards from April to July 26. Subprime loans are higher-cost products aimed at consumers with poor credit. Subprime loan demand was down more than 40% -- more than twice the dip of the second quarter.

Risky-mortgage meltdown was predictable, preventable
USA Today | August 10, 2007
It’s called “payment shock.” A typical home buyer with slightly lemished credit starts off with a $200,000 mortgage, a 7% interest ate and an initial monthly payment of $1,531. Everything’s fine for two years until that low “teaser” rate expires and jumps to 11.5%, dding a whopping $625 to the monthly payment.

Mortgage defaults growing
CNN Money.com | August 9 2007
NEW YORK -- Another rough day on the subprime front. AIG, the world's largest insurer and one of the biggest mortgage lenders, said residential mortgage delinquencies and defaults are becoming more common among borrowers in the category just above subprime. France's biggest listed bank, BNP Paribas, froze $2.2 billion worth of funds, citing subprime woes. And the European Central Bank felt it had to inject $130.5 billion into euro-zone money markets to help calm jittery markets.

Judge refuses to dismiss suit against title insurance firms
Seattle Post Intelligencer | August 9 2007
Washington homeowners' lawsuit against seven title insurance companies can go ahead, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. The homeowners first filed suit against First American Title Insurance Co. and Pacific Northwest Title Co. of Washington in October -- two days after a state report said that insurers regularly broke a state cap on inducements to real estate middlemen who could steer buyers their way, driving up policy costs.

Title firm's gifts, pay to Realtors violates law
The Daily Herald | August 9, 2007
EVERETT - The state Insurance Commissioner has ordered Stewart Title of Everett to stop what he calls repeated violations of state law that prohibit using cash and gifts to gain business from local real estate agents. Commissioner Mike Kreidler said an investigation of the firm shows that in a four-month period it spent nearly $40,000 for "desk fees," paid advertising, auction donations, Web-site promotions, parties and gifts. By law, such expenditures are limited to $25 per year per person.

Title insurers go to extremes to get business
Mortgage 101 | August 8 2007
First a warning, then a widespread investigation, and now a fine. You get the feeling that Mike Kreidler knows who is providing some of the wonderful food, flowers and giveaways at Realtor open houses, and he would like it stopped. Kreidler, the Washington state insurance commissioner, recently announced that his office had fined Ticor Title Insurance Co. and First American Title a total of $35,000 for violating regulations that limit the use of incentives and inducements to obtain title insurance business.

Lenders cut back, tighten terms
Chicago Tribune |August 4, 2007
Once seemingly confined to subprime lending, problems in the mortgage industry showed signs of spreading to more-creditworthy borrowers Friday, triggering concerns about the potential fallout on the real estate market. Wells Fargo & Co., the nation's No. 2 home lender, stopped making certain loans to consumers with near-prime credit or prime borrowers who don't document their earnings. Wachovia Corp., the nation's fourth-biggest bank, also cut back some of its lending activity to consumers previously considered good credit risks.

FIS selling title unit to sister company
The Times-Union | August 3, 2007
Fidelity National Information Services Inc. agreed Thursday to sell one of its business units to sister company Fidelity National Financial Inc. and put another unit up for sale because those businesses don't fit in with its long-term plans

Mortgage industry's wild ride ends with new laws
Pioneer Press | July 31, 2007
A trio of new laws aimed at protecting Minnesotans from reckless mortgage lending go into effect today, demarcating the end of an easy-money era when anyone who could fog up a mirror could get a mortgage. The new laws make mortgage fraud its own felony punishable by up to two years in prison, restrict adjustable rate mortgages and outlaw stated-income loans - so-called "liars' loans" that came to symbolize the era's lending excesses.

Expect More Woes with Prime Home-equity Loans
San Fransico Gate | July 31, 2007
New data seem to confirm fears that Countrywide Financial is not the only lender facing problems with prime home-equity loans. Countrywide set off a panic in the stock and bond markets when it said a week ago that 4.6 percent of its prime home-equity loans were delinquent or in foreclosure as of June 30, up sharply from 3.8 percent three months ago and 1.8 percent a year ago

Survey Digs into Details of International Buyers
Daily Real Estate News | July 30, 2007
International buyers — foreign citizens who legally enter the United States to purchase a home — are making up a growing share of business for real estate practitioners, according to new research by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. NAR’s 2007 Profile of International Home Buying Activity shows that a quarter of REALTORS® report more international business in 2006 than five years ago. Nearly one in five respondents sold a home to an international client in the past year, and one-third say they believe foreign retirees are an increasingly important market in the United States.

U.S. Foreclosures Are Up 56 Percent in First Half of 2007
Builder Online | July 30, 2007
RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties, says that foreclosure fillings (default notices, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions) are up 56 percent in the United States for the first six months of 2007. The report also shows a foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 134 U.S. households for the first half of the year.

Let the Blame Begin
Business Week Online | July 30, 2007
Who's responsible for the subprime mess? Not us, say the lenders that made risky mortgage loans to consumers. Similar denials come from the Wall Street firms that bought, packaged, and sold the loans to investors; the bond-ratings agencies that said those investments were safer than they turned out to be; and the hedge funds that gorged on them. As the allegations fly, various players are busy issuing disclaimers and pointing fingers at everyone else.

Tougher Times for Housing...
Jamie Smith Hopkins | Sun Reporter
Real estate investors, leaping to buy Baltimore homes during the boom, helped fuel the frenzy and drive up prices in neighborhoods from Canton to Reservoir Hill. Now they're part of the fallout.

Subprime Could Create Global Crisis, Economist Says
MarketWatch |July 26, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage market could spiral out of control into a global financial crisis, economist Mark Zandi said Thursday. With a "high level of angst" in the financial markets about who will take the losses from more than $1 trillion in risky mortgages, we could be just one hedge-fund collapse away from a global liquidity crisis,said Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com.

Housing Slump Forces Fidelity to Cut Jobs
The Times-Union | July 26 2007
Fidelity National Financial Inc. reported lower second-quarter earnings Wednesday, as the slump in housing markets continues to affect its title insurance business. And because of that downturn in business, the company has had to cut jobs.

Title companies fined for gifts to Realtors
Herald Net | July 23 2007
First a warning, then a widespread investigation and now a fine. You get the feeling that Mike Kreidler knows who is providing some of the wonderful food, flowers and giveaways at real estate agents' open houses and he would like it stopped. Kreidler, the Washington state insurance commissioner, recently announced that his office had fined Ticor Title Insurance Co. and First American Title a total of $35,000 for violating regulations that limit the use of incentives and inducements to obtain title insurance business.

Suits filed against Guaranty Title Co. - Businesses allege closed title firm owes large sums.
News-Leader, IL | July 20 2007
Several businesses that believe they are owed money from Guaranty Title Co. have filed lawsuits, while the company's underwriter continues its investigation into an alleged $4.5 million misappropriation of Guaranty escrow funds.Following a temporary restraining order, Christian County Circuit Judge Mark Orr on Wednesday granted Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Co. a preliminary injunction against Guaranty, freezing all of its bank accounts.

Title co. Partnerships Continue Under Heat
Michigan Business Review | July 19 2007
In the wake of mortgage fraud and rampant home foreclosures, the affiliations title companies create with lenders, builders and Realtors has come under heightened national scrutiny. The rules are simple and clear for such partnerships, the industry maintains. But the mortgage industry just came off a period of high volume -- and heat breeds bacteria, said Susan Johnson, executive director of the Real Estate Service Providers Council Inc. in Washington, D.C.

Suits Filed Against Guaranty Title Co.
News-Leader, IL | July 18 2007
Businesses allege closed title firm owes large sums. Several businesses that believe they are owed money from Guaranty Title Co. have filed lawsuits, while the company's underwriter continues its investigation into an alleged $4.5 million misappropriation of Guaranty escrow funds. Following a temporary restraining order, Christian County Circuit Judge Mark Orr on Wednesday granted Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Co. a preliminary injunction against Guaranty, freezing all of its bank accounts.

First Rung on Property Ladder Gets Harder to Reach
USA Today | July 17, 2007
It's 118 degrees in Baghdad, but Peter Hudson is willing to sweat it out there, literally, for 18 more months. Why? So he can save up enough money to buy his first home back in the States — ideally with a swimming pool. For most of us, it's hard to imagine risking our lives in a war zone to afford the American dream. Yet many first-time home buyers are resorting to unusual — though mainly non-life-threatening — extremes to scrape together money for a down payment and qualify for a loan.

NAR "Legal Scan" Highlights Agency and RESPA Issues
Realty Times | July 15 2007
Agency and RESPA controversies top the list of legal challenges facing real estate professionals, according to the 2007 "Legal Scan" study by the National Association of Realtors. Conducted once every two years and not released to the general public, the study involved analysis of 655 court cases, jury verdicts and settlement reports, plus a survey of a sample of active realty agents across the country.

Missouri Title Insurance Law to Aid Consumers
St. Louis Post-Dsipatch | July 16 2007
Most consumers have no idea when they buy a house that they can price-shop for the title insurance they'll need. A new Missouri law aims to make that easier — while making it harder for unscrupulous insurance agents to scam consumers.

Hard to Make Title Insurance Sexy
New York Times | July 15, 2007
Of all the tasks in the mortgage industry, few are as difficult as the one faced by James Maher. His mission: Make title insurance sexy. Maher, the executive vice president of the American Land Title Association, an industry group representing title insurance companies, said that changes taking effect on many title insurance policies may not reach the sexy threshold but they might just make title insurance interesting enough for borrowers to consider it more carefully.

Foreclosures Dip, but that Won't Last
Reuters | July 15, 2007
Home foreclosures fell in June after jumping to a 30-month peak in May, but default rates will escalate as a horde of mortgages resets at higher loan rates, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said Thursday.

2007 Survey of House Closing Costs by State
Bankrate.com | July 12 2007
For the third year in a row, New York has the most expensive mortgage origination and closing fees in the country, according to Bankrate.com's exclusive annual survey. A resident of New York City getting a $200,000 mortgage would pay an average $3,830 in origination, title and closing costs, according to Bankrate's survey of lenders. On the other end of the scale, an Indianapolis resident would pay $2,339 for the same loan, or $1,491 less.

Red Flags for a Possible Mortgage Fraud Transaction
Miami Hearld | July 11 2007
Check list for buyers, sellers, lenders, and investors for detecting possible fraud in mortgage transactions.

Myths Spun by Lax Lenders
New York Times | July 10 2007
Mortgage defaults are rising, and worse is yet to come. Between now and the end of next year, the interest rates on $660 billion in adjustable-rate mortgages will increase for the first time. Over half of that is in subprime loans — those made to borrowers with weak credit — and is at high risk of default as monthly payments rise. In a display of too-little, too-late, federal regulators recently tightened lending standards, requiring what should be obvious: that banks have evidence of a borrower’s ability to repay before making a loan. And yet lenders who hope to dodge even tougher oversight continue to defend reckless lending. Their arguments ring hollow on several counts.

GAO: Identity Theft Cases Limited Compared to Breaches
Insurance Journal | July 9 2007
While the Government Accountability Office fell short of offering recommendations, it released a report stating that many entities in the private, public, and government sectors have reported the loss or theft of sensitive personal information in recent years. A rapidly developing crisis, GAO says data breaches are frequent but the full extent of the problem is unknown, though evidence of resulting identity theft is "limited."

Housing's New Risks For The Economy - Don't Rule Out A Rate Hike
Business Week | July 9 2007
As 2007 began, one overarching question hung in the minds of everyone from investors to economists to policymakers: Will the housing recession sink the economy? The housing boom and bust is easily the defining feature of this business cycle. The slump is unique in that no housing downturn of this size has ever occurred outside of a general economic recession.

NAR "Legal Scan" Highlights Agency and RESPA Issues
Realty Time | July 9 2007
Agency and RESPA controversies top the list of legal challenges facing real estate professionals, according to the 2007 "Legal Scan" study by the National Association of Realtors. Conducted once every two years and not released to the general public, the study involved analysis of 655 court cases, jury verdicts and settlement reports, plus a survey of a sample of active realty agents across the country.

Fidelity National says unit won't be indicted
Reuters | July 6 2007
Fidelity National Financial Inc. said on Friday that federal prosecutors in Texas decided not to indict its Chicago Title Insurance Co. unit in connection with a multiyear probe into alleged fraudulent mortgage loans. Chicago Title received a letter on Feb. 16 from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas saying it was the target of a Houston grand jury investigation. The probe concerned some mortgage loans closed between 1999 and 2001 at a branch office in the Houston area, Fidelity said.

More Companies Use E-Signatures to Cut Costs, Fraud
SmartPro (Wall Street journal) | July 5 2007
Seven years ago, after Congress validated "electronic signatures" in a new law, John Crowley tested the technology with an eye toward using it at his mortgage-and banking-services company. He quickly decided it wouldn't work.

State logged 2 conduct complaints over Guaranty Title
News Tribune | July 9 2007
State regulators say two complaints were filed last year about the conduct of a southwest Missouri title company that closed abruptly last month and whose underwriter says is missing about $4.5 million.

Team will handle inquiries from Guaranty Title clients
Springfield News-Leader | July 5 2007
LandAmerica Financial Group, underwriter of Guaranty Title Co. — which was shut down last month and is under investigation for alleged misappropriation of $4.5 million in escrow funds — has assembled a team of professionals to handle inquiries of the agency’s clients.

Fidelity National Information Systems buys eFunds for $1.8bn
Computer Business | June 28 2007
The recent shakeup in the electronic payment processing market continued when Fidelity National Information Services, a provider of financial services software and processing services, agreed to by eFunds, a fellow processing vendor. Under the terms of the transaction, FIS will pay $36.50 for each eFunds share, representing a 5.5% premium to yesterday's closing price of $34.60. The announcement sent eFunds shares up more than 2% to close at $35.33 on the New York Stock Exchange

Palmetto Subdivision Homeowners Surprised by Blanket Lien
Roughly 200 individual property owners are finding themselves in the first step of a foreclosure because of a legal tussle between well-known Palmetto builder deMorgan Communities and the company that did roads, utilities, sewers and drainage for the development.

Bank of America sees interest in no-fee mortgages
Reuters | June 27, 2007
Bank of America Corp. (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Monday said its new no-fee mortgage product has triggered a jump in applications to buy homes, and that it plans this year to develop products to attract U.S. homeowners who need or want to refinance. Speaking at the Reuters Real Estate Summit in New York, Floyd Robinson, Bank of America's president of consumer real estate and insurance services, said the pace of mortgage applications is up 40 percent from a year earlier, after adjusting for changes in overall market activity.

Guaranty Title under investigation - Company's underwriter looking over its books
Ozarks News-Leader | June 26 2007
The state says Guaranty Title Co. is under investigation for possible misappropriation of funds. But it remains unclear, said Emily Kampeter, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Insurance, how much money was involved. The Nixa-based title company was shut down abruptly by its sole underwriter, LandAmerica Financial Group on June 19.

Economy's pickup could mean Fed holds rates steady
USA TODAY | June 25, 2007
Federal Reserve policymakers gather this week amid growing signs the U.S. economy is hitting a sweet spot that will allow them to leave interest rates untouched for months. Recent data on manufacturing, business investment and trade suggest the economy has picked up speed from the extreme slowdown seen early in the year. At the same time, the Fed's favorite inflation measure is moderating, suggesting the economy doesn't need tinkering from the nation's central bank after its two-day meeting ends Thursday.

Liberty Title launches national referral network
Ann Arbor Business Review | June 21, 2007
Liberty Title Co. of Ann Arbor has teamed up to create the nation's first Web-based independent title agents network. TiTan - The Independent Title Agent Network - is a cooperative effort among independent title companies from around the country to refer business to each other in the face of declining referrals from the nation's top five title underwriters. It launched in early May and became fully operational June 15.

Could housing pose risk to economy?
Orange County Register | June 20, 2007
Or so says fresh rankings from one major player in the mortgage game. And, believe it or not, this ranking is a noteworthy improvement. PMI Group, the mortgage insurer, just revamped its housing risk metrics that are based on local pricing trends and regional economics. When you're like PMI, and you're in the business of protecting lenders and mortgage investors from themselves, you'd better be up-to-date on what's happening in housing markets.

Pa. Lawmaker Seeks to Stop Insurers' Use of Credit Scores
Insurance Journal | June 19, 2007
A Pennsylvania legislator has introduced a bill that would prohibit insurance companies from using credit scores to help determine how much customers pay for car insurance. "It's a tool the insurance industry can use to hurt you in so many ways,'' said state Rep. Jesse White, D-Washington County, who submitted the bill this month.

Guaranty Title Co. abruptly closes doors, investigation opened
Springfield Business Journal | June 20 2007
A Nixa-based title insurance company with offices primarily in Greene, Christian and Lawrence counties abruptly shut down Tuesday.Guaranty Title Co. closed its offices Tuesday without warning. Calls to several of the offices this morning were met with recordings. A piece of paper hanging on the door of the 2217 E. Kearney St. office directed customers to call a Nixa phone number.

Changing with the Times: Technology Transforms the Way Homes are Bought and Sold
RISMedia | June 19 2007
John Williams and his team at Missouri Online Real Estate, based in Chesterfield, have given up their physical offices in favor of a virtual office, and walk-ins for "click-ins." Almost 70% of the company's business is generated through the Internet, Williams said, and agents use online document sharing, video messaging and BlackBerrys to communicate with each other and with clients.

Web Help for Getting Mortgage the Criminal Way
New York Times | June 16, 2007
Want to buy a home, but hampered by bad credit, an empty bank account or no job? No problem! That may sound like an exaggeration of a late-night infomercial. But it is, in effect, the pitch that a number of Web sites are making to consumers, saying insolvent home shoppers can be made to look more attractive to lenders.

Subprime storm winds will keep blowing
USA TODAY | June 19 2007
Home foreclosures in Minneapolis doubled in 2006 and are on pace to double again this year. The number of vacant buildings is rising in working-class neighborhoods with high levels of subprime loans. Some families are simply walking away from once-secure homes. "People are upside down; they owe more than their house is worth," says Glennis Ter Wisscha, deputy director of Neighborhood Housing Services of Minneapolis, who counsels borrowers. Homeowners "can make it at the (initial) teaser rate, but the adjusted rate is going to go up $400, $800, $1,000 a month."

The Nation's Housing: Borrowers soon won't be able to rent credit histories
Wqashington Post | June 15, 2007
The days may be numbered for dozens of Internet-based companies that promise to quickly boost FICO credit scores by 200 to 300 points. Fair Isaac Corp., the developer of the widely used FICO score, soon plans to introduce key changes designed to derail schemes that transplant high-quality credit card histories into the files of people with low FICO scores.

Suze Orman: Closing encounters
Post Bulletin | June 16 2007
Homebuying expenses aren't just about the mortgage. One of the most overlooked expenses is the slew of fees you pay to seal the deal. These expenses are called closing costs because you pay them in full when you "close" the sale. According to www.bankrate.com, the average closing costs for a $180,000 mortgage are about $2,800, not including state and local taxes.

'Subprime' Borrowers Help Set Foreclosure Record
USA TODAY | June 15, 2007
A record number of Americans with subpar credit and adjustable-rate mortgages have fallen behind on their payments, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday. The figure is expected to worsen through the end of the year as more borrowers face higher payments in a sagging housing market.

2006 Mortgage Fraud Report Released
Builders Online | June 13 2007
Florida tops the list of overall mortgage fraud cases and the list of subprime originations mortgage fraud cases for 2006 according to a Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARI) report (PDF) released recently. California, Michigan, Georgia, and Utah round out the top five of the overall MARI fraud index listing. The subprime originations MARI fraud index list includes Utah, Michigan, Minnesota, and Georgia in the top five. Florida replaces Georgia in the top spot on both lists for 2006, and, although the Peach State ranked fourth on both lists, it had the best rebound from 2005.

Rusk Co. Abstract celebrates 100 years
LadySmith News (WI) | June 14 2007
Rusk Co. Abstract celebrates 100 years If you stop someone on the street and ask directions to the Rusk County Abstract Co. in Ladysmith, don’t be surprised if they have a puzzled look. The abstract office, located at 110 E. Third Street N. across from the entrance to the Law Enforcement Center, normally doesn’t get walk-in customers, but this Friday, June 15, will be different. The company is celebrating its centennial.

Mortgage defaults jump 90% in May
Orlando Sentinel (Bloomberg) | June 13, 2007
U.S. foreclosure filings surged 90 percent in May from a year earlier as more homeowners fell behind on their monthly mortgage payments, RealtyTrac Inc. said. There were 176,137 notices of default, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions last month, led by California, Florida and Ohio, the Irvine, California-based seller of foreclosure data said in a report Tuesday.

Ohio quickly losing mortgage lenders
The Columbian Dispatch | June 14 2007
The number of licensed mortgage brokers and loan officers in Ohio has declined sharply since an anti-predatory-lending law went into effect in January. Last year, the Ohio General Assembly passed the Homebuyers' Protection Act to safeguard consumers against unscrupulous operators in the mortgage industry.

Big lenders adopt subprime loan changes
Business Week | June 13 2007
General Electric Co.'s WMC Mortgage Corp. has become what is believed to be the first subprime home lender to adopt proposed federal guidelines on underwriting low-initial-payment mortgages to people with flawed credit. The guidelines, proposed in March and expected to be finalized in the coming weeks with few changes, target subprime mortgages that carry fixed rates for the first two or three years and then reset to higher market rates. Those loans, also known as hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages, pose higher default risk as the housing slump makes it harder for financially stretched homeowners to refinance or sell their homes.

Federal rules on mortgage abuse sought for banks
Star Tribune | June 11, 2007
Minnesota's tough new predatory mortgage lending laws take effect Aug. 1, but they won't apply to many banks or credit unions, which are regulated by federal agencies.That gap concerns consumer advocates and some state officials. They are turning their attention to the Federal Reserve Board, which on Thursday will hold a public hearing on curbing abusive lending practices.

Baldacci signs bill to target predatory lending
Seacoast News (AP) | June 12, 2007
Gov. John Baldacci on Monday signed into law a bill to crack down on predatory mortgage lending practices, putting Maine among the first states to address a looming national crisis. The governor said the bill, which was co-sponsored by more than 100 legislators, was "overwhelmingly bipartisan."

Arizona Legislators Approve Bill to Make Mortgage Fraud a Crime
Canadian Busniess | June 11, 2007
Arizona lawmakers approved a proposal Monday to make mortgage fraud a crime amid concerns about home prices being artificially inflated to benefit real-estate industry insiders and unscrupulous buyers. The Senate voted 26-0 for the bill, which now goes to Gov. Janet Napolitano.

Most Resilient U.S. Real Estate Markets
Forbes | June 8 2007
When it comes to real estate, the questions on everyone's lips are: How low is low, and when's the perfect time to buy back in? That moment has passed in Seattle and Charlotte--both metros hit bottom in the first quarter of 2006 and have since posted price gains of 12.3% and 6.3%, respectively, according to National Association of Realtors (NAR) data.

The Spring of Home Sellers' Discontent
U.S.News and World Report | June 10 2007
In the end, there was no loud burst, or even a sharp pop. Instead, the springtime aftermath of the nation's housing bubble is sounding "more like a whoopee cushion," says June Fletcher, author of House Poor: How to Buy and Sell Your Home Come Bubble or Bust. "The air is coming out of the market, but slowly."

Washington balks at lending reform
Myrtle Beach Sun News | June 8 2007
By Alan Zibel - The Associated Press WASHINGTON --Homeowners unable to pay monthly mortgage bills and facing foreclosure shouldn't count on help from Washington this year. Regulators and lawmakers seem to be taking a wait-and-see approach as they confront the fallout from several years of lenders making too many home loans to people with inadequate credit.

FDIC sees some progress on modifying subprime loans
Reuters | May 31, 2007
Some progress is being made to modify home loans to borrowers with poor credit histories but more work by regulators and industry is needed, a senior U.S. banking regulator said on Thursday. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Vice Chairman Martin Gruenberg said accounting, tax and legal issues remain before some subprime loans sold as securities can be modified to help homeowners facing late payments and foreclosure.

Title insurance seen as 'broken'
Saromento Bee | June 1, 2007
Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner declared the state's $4.5 billion title insurance industry "broken" Thursday and announced plans to require rate rollbacks to consumers after Jan. 1, 2009. The commissioner hopes the move will pressure title insurers and escrow companies toward voluntary reforms to make the industry more competitive, said Poizner spokeswoman Jennifer Kerns.

U.S. Economy Grows at 0.6 Percent Annual Rate, Weakest Pace in Four Years
Bloomberg | May 31 2007
The U.S. economy grew last quarter at a 0.6 percent annual rate, the weakest in more than four years, as housing slumped, the trade deficit widened and businesses reduced inventories. ... homebuilder, plans to fire 16 percent of its staff after it reported a first- quarter loss. Rising foreclosures and mortgage defaults by borrowers with poor or limited credit history are adding to concerns the housing recovery may take longer,

Housing slump may rival late '80s
The Boston Globe | May 25, 2007
The Massachusetts housing market will remain in a slump, and by the time it hits bottom about a year from now, prices will have dropped 14 percent from the peak in 2005, according to an economic forecast released yesterday.

Study Highlights Industry's Potential Climate Change Liabilities
Insurance Journal | May 29 2007
Liabilities follow the insurance industry as the night follows the day. So, it's not terribly surprising to learn that a new study - "Limiting Liability in the Greenhouse: Insurance Risk-management Strategies in the Context of Global Climate Change* – highlights just what those potential liabilities might be, and discusses the various risk mitigation strategies the industry should adopt to limit its exposures.

Internet becomes the new home for closing loans
Tuscaloosa News (N.Y Times News Service)| May 29 2007
Borrowers have used the Internet for years to shop for mortgages. Now a growing number are actually closing their loans online, too. Companies like E-Loan, Wachovia and other big mortgage lenders have in recent months begun offering a service called ClosingStream, which allows borrowers to complete documents online for refinanced and home-equity loans.

Fidelity Reports Mixed Earnings
The Florida Times-Union | May 24 2007
Fidelity National Financial Inc.'s earnings have been lowered recently by a slump in the housing market, which has decreased demand for its main business, title insurance.

New York Subpoenas First American Appraisal Unit
Bloomberg | May 22 2007
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo issued a subpoena to the real estate appraisal unit of First American Corp. in his investigation of whether mortgage brokers pressured appraisers to inflate property values. First American's eAppraiseIT LLC, which values up to 15,000 homes a year in New York, was asked for information about appraisals performed throughout the state, President Anthony Merlo Jr., said in an interview today.

One-page form says it all for lenders, borrowers
Sarasota Herald-Tribune | May 21 2007
For decades now, government and industry alike have been calling for updated and simplified rules governing the mortgage-lending process. But try as they might -- and to their credit, they have tried -- they have been unable to come to an agreement on anything that would modernize two key consumer-protection laws.

Value in a 131-Year-Old Industry
Morningstar | May 18 2007
Not that many industries can trace their origins back 131 years. While it might be hard to believe, title insurance actually predates the invention of the automobile, radio, motion pictures, airplanes, and many other things we take for granted today. Of course, any industry that has been around that long will experience constant change and adaptation, and the title insurance industry is no exception.

Fed Chairman Sees Mortgage Damage as Limited
New York Times | May 18, 2007
Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, helped soothe concerns that problems in the subprime mortgage market would spread, saying today that the Fed sees “no serious broader spillover.” And he appeared skeptical of tighter regulation of mortgage lenders by the central bank or by Congress.

Experts Recommend Home Buyers Purchase Title Insurance
NY1 | May 2 2007
Purchasing a home is a big investment, for both the buyer and the lender. So before you close on your home, it's strongly urged you get title insurance to protect your claim to the property. There are two types of policies: one covers the owner and the other covers the lender.

Two more enter into title insurance market
The Champaign News-Gazette | May 17, 2007
Two title insurance companies have opened offices in Champaign County in the last three months. On April 2, Downstate Title opened for business, with offices in Urbana and Rantoul. The firm employs five, and General Manager Bob Spencer expects the number to grow to seven soon.

Title searchers warning of fraud Road Home urged to retain safeguards
Times Picayune (LA) |Thursday, May 17, 2007
With the state deciding to eliminate most title searches to speed up its Road Home verification process, critics say the state has left itself vulnerable to paying out grants to people who don't legally own the properties. The criticism hails mostly from subcontractors with a financial interest in the work, now being spearheaded by lead contractor First American Title Co., which collects as much as $700 on every rebuilding grant and $1,300 each time applicants chose to sell their home to the state.

Senate Passes ‘Home Loan Fairness Act’ Targeting Predatory Lending
Bend Weekly (OR) | May 15 2007
The Oregon Senate passed Senate Bill 965 Friday, legislation that sets new standards for lenders who make nontraditional home loans. Known as the Home Loan Fairness Act, the bill comes in response to the recent crisis in the subprime lending market that has led to record foreclosures across the country. Senate Bill 965 will protect consumers and put Oregon in a unique position to prevent a foreclosure crisis.

Lenders move to stem foreclosures
Christian Science Monitor | May 11 2007
The home-loan industry, facing the worst housing downturn since the early 1990s, is ramping up efforts to help strapped borrowers stay in their homes. The goal is to restrain a gathering wave of foreclosures that carries big costs for both lenders and borrowers.

Money Starting to Go to Fannie Mae Investors Under Plan, SEC Says
Accounting Pro (AP)|May 7 2007
WASHINGTON - Money is beginning to be distributed to shareholders hurt by the alleged accounting fraud at Fannie Mae under the record $400 million settlement signed last year with the mortgage giant, federal regulators announced Monday.

Commentary: Skipping Road Home title searches is costly mistake
New Orleans CityBusiness | May 7, 2007
Recent reports of the increased number of closings by the Louisiana Road Home program is welcome news and should be applauded. Getting this money into the hands of rightful owners is a critical goal of the program.

Ahead of the Bell: Mortgage reforms
Business Week | May 3 2007
The practices of mortgage lenders will come under greater scrutiny Thursday, as two senators will unveil a plan to address rising foreclosures and high-interest rate home loans given to people with weak credit. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, along with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, will introduce legislation to strengthen standards that mortgage lenders use when providing loans. The senators also are proposing federal funding for nonprofit groups to help homeowners replace high-interest rate mortgages with ones at lower rates.

Schumer bill would provide funds to help prevent home foreclosures
The Buffalo News | May 7 2007
Sen. Charles E. Schumer Thursday introduced the first major bill aimed at responding to the subprime mortgage crisis that has thrown homeowners across the country into foreclosure. Schumer’s bill calls for $300 million in funding for foreclosure prevention programs sponsored by community groups, along with tougher standards that mortgage brokers and lenders would have to follow when making new loans.

Old Republic feels housing slump
The Chicago Times May 4 2007
The downturn in the housing and mortgage industries is crimping the profits of another Chicago-area financial-services company. Less than a week after Chicago-based Corus Bankshares Inc. announced that its most recent earnings tumbled 39 percent because of the housing slowdown, Old Republic International Corp. said net income dropped 8.2 percent in the first quarter because of higher claim costs in the company's mortgage guaranty line, as well as unfavorable expense trends in its title insurance unit.

Escrow officers under scrutiny
The Arizona Republic | May. 6 2007
Arizona regulators are cracking down on escrow officers for skimming hundreds of thousands of dollars off home sales. So far this year, a handful of those officers have been banned from the escrow business and the mortgage industry for writing unauthorized checks out of home-sale funds to relatives, real estate agents, loan officers, contractors and cleaning companies. Some also have been convicted of theft.

Mortgage Unit Produces Loss for GMAC
New York Times | May 3, 2007 (registration required)
General Motors’ former finance arm, GMAC, posted a first-quarter loss on Wednesday as pressure on the mortgage market forced the company to take charges at its housing finance unit. GMAC, in which G.M. retains a 49 percent stake, posted a net loss of $305 million, in contrast to a profit of $495 million a year earlier.

Lawyer: Kissel estate cannot pay its debts
Greenwich Times | May 2 2007
The estate of developer Andrew Kissel is insolvent and cannot pay any more of the roughly $30 million in debt owed to insurance companies and others swindled by the slain man, according to an application filed by a court-appointed executor.

Bill targets predatory lending practices
Portland Press Hearld (ME) |May 1 2007
Mortgage brokers would be subject to significant restrictions under a proposal introduced in the Maine Legislature Monday designed to crack down on predatory lending practices.

States lose in bank squabble with feds
Stateline.org | May 1 2007
State regulators are locked out of a slice of the home mortgage-lending industry, thanks to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. But the turf war between states and the federal government over banking regulations isn’t over.

Title Insurance Debate, Round Two
Realty Times | May 1 2007
A few weeks ago I wrote about efforts to undo a New Jersey state law which mandates price fixing for title insurance. Judging from some of the mail I received you would have thought I was against motherhood and not too bright, either.

Consumers often gouged when they buy title insurance
San Francisco Gate | April 29 2007
Title insurance typically is a mandatory and large cost for most home purchasers and mortgage refinancers -- often in the $1,000 to $2,000 range. But is it priced too high for what you actually get? Equally important: Do widespread referral relationships among real estate brokers, title agents and mortgage companies restrict price competition, create anti-consumer conflicts of interest, and discourage buyers from shopping for lower-cost title insurance and closing service options?

Consumers still sheltered
USA Today | April 26 2006
The banking business of national banks operating in any part of the country is subject to uniform federal regulation established by Congress and administered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). In its decision last week in Watters v. Wachovia, the Supreme Court confirmed a simple principle that has been true for nearly 150 years: State laws that conflict with this federally regulated banking business — in this case, the mortgage business of national bank subsidiaries — are pre-empted and do not apply.

Who's minding the mortgages? Various regulators
Sacramento Bee,/McClatchy Newspapers | April 25 2007
The nation's central bank and chief bank regulator. The Fed affects the mortgage market both by setting benchmark interest rates that guide commercial lending and by offering best-practices guidance. It's the chief rule writer for truth-in-lending laws, and it has sway over such banking-related practices as appraisals. It doesn't enforce lending laws, but some want the Fed to begin regulating mortgage brokers.

e-insurance: law, security slows industry’s evolution
Frederick News Post (MD) | April 24, 2007
Though insurance industry websites offer electronic services, most companies avoid direct electronic communication when it comes to letting customers apply for insurance. State Farm, for example, offers rate quotes, management of existing policies, bill payment, claim status, even access to mutual fund accounts, said Maria Jackson, a media relations specialist.

Title searches, insurance are key considerations
Courier News | April 24 2007
Buying a home is of course an exciting time but also a daunting process with interest rates, mortgages, closing costs, inspections and more in the mix. Theresa M. Hood, owner of Hallmark Title Agency in Branchburg, said prospective homeowners need to realize that other important considerations are title searches and title insurance.

Yes, title insurance is a must
The Cincinnati Post | April 24 2007
DEAR BRUCE: We are buying a new home in a subdivision that was once a farm. The subdivision is in its fifth phase, so it has been around for several years. My husband and I understand the need for title insurance on existing homes. However, I'm not certain of its need on the purchase of a new home when the developers have already had the title evidence examined. Additionally, we plan to have an ...

Bankruptcy Filings Down 70 Percent
WebCPA | April 19, 2007
A year after the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 became law, government statistics show that the number of bankruptcy filings nationwide dropped nearly 70 percent last year.

House seeks ways to stop foreclosures
Gannett News Service | April 19 2007
Federal regulators and mortgage lenders warned congressional lawmakers against moving too aggressively to regulate the mortgage industry in response to a soaring number of home foreclosures. The regulators are expected to release preliminary guidelines later Tuesday that outline nonlegislative options for addressing the foreclosures, many of which are on subprime mortgages.

House seeks ways to stop foreclosures
Gannett News Service | April 19 2007
Federal regulators and mortgage lenders warned congressional lawmakers against moving too aggressively to regulate the mortgage industry in response to a soaring number of home foreclosures. The regulators are expected to release preliminary guidelines later Tuesday that outline nonlegislative options for addressing the foreclosures, many of which are on subprime mortgages.

Fannie, Freddie and WaMu Spearhead Subprime Borrower Help
Seeking Alpha Financial Reporting | April 19 2007
Government-backed Mortgage company Freddie Mac announced at congressional subprime hearings yesterday that they would be purchasing up to $20 billion of subprime loans to help stem the wave of defaults plaguing subprime mortgage borrowers. Fannie Mae also said it could purchase "tens of billions of dollars in loans.

US High Court Rules on Bank Mortgage Lending
Reuters | April 18 2007
The U.S. top court ruled on Tuesday that states cannot regulate lending by mortgage subsidiaries of national banks, blocking Michigan's efforts to enforce strict consumer protection laws on these subsidiaries.

Nampa woman sues over title insurance
Idaho Statesman | April 17 2007
A lawsuit filed in Boise on behalf of a Nampa woman and a New Mexico man alleges that First American Title Insurance Co. has been charging consumers higher fees on home refinancings than allowed by Idaho law.

Ruling Limits State Control of Big Banks
New York Times | April 17 2007 (registration required)
The mortgage lending subsidiaries of national banks are immune from state regulation, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in a decision that upheld a controversial regulation issued six years ago by the office of the comptroller of the currency, the chief federal bank regulator.

Regulator: Fannie, Freddie Have More Work to Do
WebCPA | April 11, 2007
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight says that changes still need to come at mortgage lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In its annual report to Congress, the OFHEO said that the two federally subsidized businesses remain a “significant supervisory concern.”

Warning issued on mortgage program
Arizona Central | April 2 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) - Consumer complaints have led the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to issue an alert about a mortgage program that used deceptive advertising to get homeowners to apply for loans.

Valley Title building needs $700K in fixes
The Clarion-Ledger (MS) | April 2 2007
More than $700,000 in repairs are necessary at the Mississippi Valley Title Insurance building before the facility can be leased to the public sector or occupied by Hinds County employees, according to an inspection report. Some supervisors fear the amount could be even higher, as renovation costs for the 32-year-old building - as well as annual utility and maintenance bills - have not been factored in yet.

Cross-Border Finance: Mortgage Docs Without Borders
Bank Technology News | March 3 2007
A home lender and technology firm team up to help U.S. citizens buy homes south of the border. With prices in sunny Mexico a fraction of Florida, they might be onto something.

Whose Nantucket land? Couple, airport do battle
Globe Staff | April 2, 2007
When they moved to Nantucket from London four years ago, Eric Shaw and Connie Mundy had no qualms about buying a home near the airport. The house was modest by the standards of this high-priced resort island -- though it cost almost $1.5 million -- and the lot was tiny, but the rural setting, with ocean views and a crushed-shell pathway to the beach, was perfect for the couple's two young children and three dogs.

Mortgage fraud alleged in 149 transactions - awsuit blames price scheme
The Journal Gazette | April 1 2007
Leif Brogren’s employer, Kitty Hawk Air Cargo, had filed bankruptcy nearly two years before. But now the company was saying the Fort Wayne operation could close and workers could be out of their jobs.He turned to the real estate market, thinking he could make money renting out houses.

Bill would protect borrowers from predatory lending
El Paso Times | Apr 2 2007
Predatory lending practices by some mortgage lenders have state lawmakers examining a number of ways to protect consumers, but allowing the state agency regulating mortgage brokers to hire new staff may solve part of the problem. Proposals include more disclosure requirements for lenders, providing state regulators with tougher enforcement options, and educating consumers. State Rep. Norma Chávez, D-El Paso, has proposed a bill that would place a fiduciary responsibility on the broker to ensure that the borrower could afford the loan.

First American Title opens its doors
The Leader-Courier NV | Mar 28, 2007
One of the nation's largest title insurer had decided to open a new office in Fernley.

Merrill's Subprime Risk High
New York Post / Bloomberg | Mar 29, 2007
Losses from subprime home loans may make Merrill Lynch bonds riskier than debt issued by Bear Stearns, the biggest U.S. underwriter of mortgage bonds, Bank of America analysts said.

New Century off Freddie Mac list
LA Times/Bloomberg News | Mar 29 2007
New Century Financial Corp., short on cash and battling a wave of defaults by borrowers, said it wouldn't sell any mortgages to Freddie Mac, the second-biggest provider of money for U.S. home loans.

Biz bits
The Union | Mar 27 2007
California Land Title Co. of Nevada County is celebrating its 35th anniversary of serving the title insurance and escrow needs of the local real estate industry.

Ohio to Sell Bonds to Avert Home Foreclosures
Bloomberg/New York Times | Mar 24 2007
Ohio, which had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation at the end of last year, plans to issue $100 million in taxable municipal bonds next month to help homeowners refinance mortgages.

Detroit's surreal estate market
Toronto Star | Mar 26 2007
Foreclosure.com, which tracks foreclosures nationwide in the U.S., listed more than 13,959 homes in foreclosure statewide this week. In Wayne County alone – home to Detroit — it lists 5,979.

Electronic recording of property transactions gets nearer
The Republican | March 21, 2007
People who frequent the Registrar of Deeds office often stand in line, idly waiting when they could be doing something much more productive. Surely in this day of electronic marvels there ought to be a way of sending your deed or mortgage to the registrar electronically from your office computer. Well, that day is coming.

Electronic recording of property transactions gets nearer
The Republican (MA) | Mar 21 2007
People who frequent the Registrar of Deeds office often stand in line, idly waiting when they could be doing something much more productive. Surely in this day of electronic marvels there ought to be a way of sending your deed or mortgage to the registrar electronically from your office computer. Well, that day is coming.

Company celebrates 100 years of service
The Shreveport Times | Mar 21 2007
If you've ever purchased a home, land, business or royalty for oil and gas, you've also experienced the necessary expense of also purchasing title work. A vision of a man wearing a green visor standing over a table in a dim room and poring over dusty records on a table may come to mind, but that no longer applies in today's high-speed, high-tech world.

Arizona among top 10 states for mortgage fraud
The Arizona Republic | March 20, 2007
Arizona has shot up to No. 7 in a ranking of states with the greatest amount of mortgage fraud, blowing past the 23rd spot it held the previous year. This is the highest Arizona has placed on the Mortgage Asset Research Institute's annual fraud survey, which is based on the number of mortgage fraud cases per total of state home loans. Data from the nation's biggest lenders are used to compile the survey.

Revised predatory lending law near - New rules may apply throughout county
Chicago Tribune | Mar 21 2007
The State of Illinois, which shelved a controversial predatory-lending law requiring financial counseling for many home buyers in 10 Chicago neighborhoods, intends to revive the law and could expand it to apply to thousands of home buyers throughout Cook County, according to a document obtained Tuesday by the Tribune.

AmeriTitle named best company
Lebanon Express (OR) | Mar 15 2007
AmeriTitle, a Pacific Northwest title and escrow services company, was recently ranked 13th out of 50 large companies in Oregon Business Magazine's ? Best Companies to Work For.” The company was presented with an award at an event held in Portland on March 1.

Richmond Title Must Cease California Services
CBS Channel 13 (CA) | Mar 14 2007
Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner issued a cease-and-desist order today to Richmond Title Services, L.P., to stop conducting title insurance business in California. The Tennessee company has conducted more than $13 million in title insurance business in California without a proper license from the California Department of Insurance (CDI.) An investigation by CDI revealed that between March 2005 and January 31, 2007 Richmond Title Services, L.P. repeatedly violated California’s insurance code by operating as an underwritten title company without holding a license from the California Insurance Commissioner.

Mortgage Defaults Spread, Snagging More Borrowers
The Wall Street Journal Online | Mar 2 2007 (subscription required)
The mortgage market has been roiled by a sharp increase in bad loans made to borrowers with weak credit. Now there are signs that the pain is spreading upward. At issue are mortgages made to people who fall in the gray area between "prime" (borrowers considered the best credit risks) and "subprime" (borrowers considered the greatest credit risks). A record $400 billion of these midlevel loans -- which are known in the industry as "Alt-A" mortgages -- were originated last year, up from $85 billion in 2003, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade publication. Alt-A loans accounted for roughly 16% of mortgage originations last year and subprime loans an additional 24%.

Foreclosures May Hit 1.5 Million in U.S. Housing Bust
Bloomberg | Mar 12 2007
Hold on to your assets. The deepest housing decline in 16 years is about to get worse. As many as 1.5 million more Americans may lose their homes, another 100,000 people in housing-related industries could be fired, and an estimated 100 additional subprime mortgage companies that lend money to people with bad or limited credit may go under, according to realtors, economists, analysts and a Federal Reserve governor. Financial stocks also could extend their declines over mortgage default worries.

Which mortgage fees are proper?
Reno Gazett-Journal | Mar 10 2007
Which home mortgage fees are proper for a lender to charge borrowers? I recall you said some fees are unnecessary junk or garbage fees to avoid --

Mortgage fraud cases nearly double last 3 years, says FBI
Florida Sun Sentinel | Mar 7 2007
The number of mortgage fraud cases investigated by the FBI almost doubled the past three years, reflecting a problem that is ``pervasive a nd growing,'' the bureau said Wednesday in its annual report on financial crimes. The bureau said its mortgage fraud cases increased from 436 in 2003 to 818 in 2006, and acknowledged that its case load likely represents a small piece of the problem.

Florida Court Gives MERS Party-Status in Foreclosure Cases
Default Serving News | Mar 7 2007
A court ruling in the state of Florida says MERS, an electronic loan registry that acts as a nominee in county land records on behalf of lenders and servicers, can officially serve as a party in court when it comes to foreclosure actions in the state. The ruling, which was made in the Second District Court of Appeals in Florida, will affect the entire mortgage industry.

2007 Legislature: Issue of title insurers' liability stalls in House
The New Mexican | March 4, 2007
Association director says bill would allow consumers to double-dip on claims A proposal to repeal a law that protects title insurance companies from lawsuits because of errors has stalled in the House Business and Industry Committee. House Bill 254, introduced by Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, would strike language from New Mexico's insurance code that exempts title insurance companies from liability because of title-search errors.

Mortgage Crisis Spirals, and Casualties Mount
New York Times | Mar 5 2007 (registration requqired)
Just as the technology boom of the late 1990s turned twenty-something programmers into dot-com billionaires, and leveraged buyouts a decade earlier turned Wall Street bankers into Masters of the Universe, the explosive growth in subprime lending turned mortgage bankers and brokers into multimillionaires seemingly overnight. Now an escalating crisis in the market, which seemed to reach a new crescendo late last week, is threatening a wide band of people. Foremost are the poor and minority homeowners who used easy credit to buy houses that are turning out to be too expensive for them now that mortgage rates are going up, but the pain is also being felt widely throughout the business world.

Suit claims buyers steered to affiliated title company
The Star Tribune | Mar 2 2007
A class-action lawsuit is focusing fresh attention on a long-festering consumer issue in real estate: alleged steering of home buyers to affiliated title, settlement and mortgage companies by large realty brokers -- sometimes costing consumers hundreds of dollars compared with fees and services offered by nonaffiliated competitors.

Fannie Mae sees little risk from subprime loans
Yahoo New/Reuters | Feb 27 2007
Mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae will reduce its operating expenses to $2 billion a year as it wraps up its financial restatements, and sees little risk exposure to subprime loans the company said Tuesday. "Our expectation that we will reduce in 2008 our normalized expenses" to approximately $2 billion per year relies on an end to Fannie Mae's work on restatements, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Privacy idea becoming a 'nightmare' for counties
San Antonio Express News | Feb 26 2007
Thanks to a new ruling, Texans could face delays in buying homes while county clerks across the state figure out how to keep the Social Security numbers in legal documents confidential. Last week, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion that government officials must remove Social Security numbers before distributing public documents.

US mortgage default fears grow
Financial Times | Feb 27 2007
Treasury prices rose on Monday as fixed income investors sought a safe haven amid fears that repayment problems involving “subprime” US mortgage borrowers could have knock-on effects in the broader $8,000bn mortgage market and beyond. The latest concerns centre on the Alt-A market, in which consumers with slightly better credit than the weakest subprime borrowers can obtain loans with loose terms - such as no proof of income. Late payments and defaults on such loans are running at four times the historical rate.

Attorney general's staff to focus on predatory lending
Columbus Plain Dealer | Feb 27, 2007
Reginald FieldsPlain Dealer Bureau Columbus- The state attorney general's office will hire three attorneys and three investigators dedicated solely to cracking down on unscrupulous housing lenders. The State Controlling Board on Monday unanimously approved the agency's $500,000 request for the new hires, including a secretarial position and equipment, to formally launch a predatory-lending task force.

FHA increasingly out of step with U.S. housing markets
Orlando Sun Sentinel | Feb 26 2007
Loans from the Federal Housing Administration were once a ticket to homeownership for millions of middle- and low-income buyers. Now, FHA loans are costly, burdensome and completely antiquated. Or so says Alphonso Jackson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, who oversees the program.

Land Title completes company buy
The Denver Business Journal | Feb 26 2007
Denver-based Land Title Guarantee Co. on Monday completed the purchase of Montrose County Abstract, based in Montrose. The purchase price wasn't disclosed.

Predatory mortgages labeled 'crisis'
USA TODAY | Feb 26 2007
Predatory mortgage lending, fueled by an explosion in high-cost, subprime loans, is creating a "crisis for millions of American homeowners" that requires action, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said Wednesday. Underscoring his point, Amy Womble of North Carolina told the panel how she refinanced into what she thought was a less-expensive mortgage after her husband died, only to find the monthly payments were $2,100, more than twice what she'd been told.

Agency rejects rules to lower title costs
Inside Bay Area | Feb 23 2007
If you were hoping to see lower rates for title insurance and escrow charges associated with buying a home this spring, you will have to wait. Regulations proposed last year by the state Department of Insurance that would have lowered costs for title insurance and escrow fees as early as March were rejected Wednesday by the Office of Administrative Law, which reviews regulation changes proposed by state agencies.

Home loan demand is lowest this year, despite drop in mortgage rates
USA Today / Reuters | Feb 21 2007
Mortgage applications dropped more than 5% last week, hitting their lowest level this year, even as interest rates fell, an industry trade group said Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and purchasing loans, for the week ended Feb. 16 fell 5.2% to 606.6.

Fannie Mae Withholding $44.4M In Bonuses
KIROtv Seattle | Feb 21 2007
Beleaguered mortgage giant Fannie Mae said Tuesday it has decided to withhold $44.4 million in bonus money tied to company earnings targets from nearly 50 senior executives after a government-ordered review found they were undeserved on the basis of performance.The decision by the government-sponsored company as it continues to emerge from a multibillion-dollar accounting scandal was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Federal regulators, who had accused Fannie Mae of serious accounting manipulation over six years aimed at lining executives' pockets, immediately endorsed the move by the company's board of directors.

High-risk lenders take a hit from investors
Financial Times / MSNBC | Feb 22 2007
Investors punished the stocks of US companies involved in mortgage lending to risky "subprime" borrowers on Wednesday amid signs that the shake-out in the industry is far from over.A key derivative index that tracks the credit risk of high-risk mortgage-backed bonds hovered near record levels. Traders also reported brisk activity in the derivatives market for insurance against subprime defaults, providing another indication of concerns over late payments and defaults on mortgages extended last year.

LandAmerica Opens Central American Escrow And Title Service,
Investors Offshore | Feb 19 2007
LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc., a leading provider of real estate transaction services, announces the opening of LandAmerica Commonwealth Title of Central America, a venture of its Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company subsidiary.

Title Insurance Battle Heats Up in New Jersey
Realty Times | Feb 20 2007
Whenever the subject of real estate affordability comes up there's a strange gap where title insurance is concerned. With the stealth of Houdini, the fees and charges paid for title insurance seem eternally overlooked -- and grossly higher than necessary.

FEMA Map Would Place El Paso Neighborhoods In Flood Zone
The Houston Chronicle | Feb 19, 2007
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is preparing a new map of El Paso designating much of the city as a flood plain, a spokeswoman said, which would push thousands of homeowners with mortgages into buying flood insurance.

National Notary Association Strikes Gold in Search for Notary Authentication Solution
Real Estate Technology News | Feb 19 2007
The National Notary Association (NNA) has selected SunGard’s Signix technology to help launch a "one-stop" background screening and compliance training solution for notaries in the mortgage loan industry.

UC Regents approve lawsuit against Fidelity National Title Insurance Company
The California Aggie | Feb 14 2007
The University of California Board of Regents has accepted a lawsuit on behalf of UC Davis against Fidelity National Title Insurance Company for "breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealings," according to the regents' meeting minutes dating from Jan. 16 to 18.

HUD investigators probe kickbacks
Boston Herald, MA - Feb 10, 2007
RESPA stands for the “Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act,” a consumer-protection statute that prohibits kickbacks and other home-sale abuses.

Predatory mortgages labeled 'crisis'; Loans called 'greatest threat' ever to minority wealth
USAToday | Feb 8 2007
Predatory mortgage lending, fueled by an explosion in high-cost, subprime loans, is creating a "crisis for millions of American homeowners" that requires action, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said Wednesday. Underscoring his point, Amy Womble of North Carolina told the panel how she refinanced into what she thought was a less-expensive mortgage after her husband died, only to find the monthly payments were $2,100, more than twice what she'd been told.

Groups target predatory lending
The Allentown Morning Call | Feb 8 2007
Though there's no standard legal definition of the term, predatory lenders tend to provide high-interest or high-fee loans, the details of which are often unclear at the outset. Consumer advocates say it's a growing problem, with such lenders often targeting the elderly, minorities or poor people. Those people frequently wind up threatened with home foreclosures or other problems when they can't pay.

Predatory Mortgages Labeled 'Crisis'
USA Today | Feb 8 2007
Predatory mortgage lending, fueled by an explosion in high-cost, subprime loans, is creating a "crisis for millions of American homeowners" that requires action, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said Wednesday. Witnesses disagreed on the extent of problems, but they agreed tighter oversight is needed, given data showing a 40% spike in foreclosure filings last year.

Mortgage Refinancing Gets Tougher
Wall Street Journal Feb 8 2007 (Subscription required)
With rates on many homeowners' adjustable-rate mortgages rising, some who would like to refinance into a new loan are finding they can't. In some cases, that is because their loan carries a prepayment penalty, which would force them to come up with thousands of dollars if they refinance in the first few years. Such penalties are common with so-called option adjustable-rate mortgages, which typically carry a low teaser rate that rises sharply after an introductory period.

Insuring Home Ownership
MSNBC | Feb 7 2007.
Title insurance is another thing to consider when you're buying a home. If you've ever bought a home, you're quite familiar with the long and involved process that you have to go through before you can walk in the door.

New Title Company Opens In Wichita
Wichita Business Journal | Feb 6 2007
A pair of industry veterans are running Sunflower Title Services LLC, a new Wichita company that opened its doors in January. Gregory Dale is president of the firm at 1999 Amidon and Lisa Hurst is managing the office. Dale has spent two decades in the business with Columbian Title and most recently First American Title Insurance of Kansas.

Idaho Title Companies, County Clerks, Mortgage Firms Could Go Paperless
Idaho Business Review | Feb 7 2007
The Idaho Senate unanimously passed a bill last week that would allow county clerks and recorders to accept and archive in electronic form title documents and other real estate documents.

Market Tough For First-Timers
Pasadena Star News | Feb 6 2007
First-time home buyers had a tough time of it last year. A new report from the California Association of Realtors reveals that affordability concerns continued to impact the market, with the share of first-time buyers dropping to 27.1 percent - the second-lowest level ever - from 30.5 percent the previous year.

End of US housing slump? Maybe not.
Christian Science Monitor | Feb 7 2007
Debra Taylor Blair feels a new optimism, a budding hopefulness that is shared by many who track the real estate market: The worst of the current housing slump, she believes, may be over. As president of a real estate information company in Boston, she tracks sales of condominiums in the downtown area. Last week she saw a turn for the better. Her firm found that in the most recent quarter, both sales volume and prices were up from the same period a year earlier. That came after two years of declining sales and a dip, for 2006, in the median price.

Fidelity Reports Mixed Earnings
The Florida Times-Union |Feb 07 2007
Fidelity National Financial Inc. reported sharply lower fourth-quarter earnings, as the slow housing market continued to affect the title insurance business and its other insurance operations also produced lower profits.

MGIC to Pay $4.9 Billion in Stock for Radian
SmartMoney.com / DowJones | Feb 6 2007
MGIC Investment Corp. (MTG), a provider of insurance on low down-payment mortgages, said Tuesday it agreed to acquire Radian Group Inc. (RDN), a global credit-risk management company, in a stock swap valued at roughly $4.9 billion. Under the agreement, Milwaukee-based MGIC said it will exchange 0.9658 of one of its shares for each share of Radian.

Emerging Software Choices Means More Time and Money for Originators
Originator Times | Feb 5 2007
Mortgage originators today should have a degree in technology to manage the software tools required for an average workday. Gone are the times when a few friends from the country club and a telephone were enough to help you make a good living originating mortgage loans.

Ohio legislature suing over veto
Toledo Blade | Feb 3 2007
The Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly yesterday followed through with its threat to sue over Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland's apparently unprecedented veto of a bill his predecessor had intended to become law that included a provision section to limit noneconomic damages at $5000 for predatory lending.

State sues 3 mortgage firms
Chicago Sun-Times | Feb 2 2007
Aaron Aguilar and his wife dreamed of building an addition on their Berwyn home to make room for their daughter and granddaughter from Mexico. But they wound up in a remodeling nightmare -- with a hole in their roof and a loan for an unfinished job, authorities say. On Thursday, the Illinois attorney general filed a lawsuit claiming the couple was one of the victims in a scheme involving three unlicensed mortgage companies that made about $10 million in illegal loans.

Report: Housing fraud soaring - 3 main models of deception helped lead to rising foreclosure
Indianapolis Star | Jan 31 2007
After Ivan Eicher lost his job, he and his wife Delores fell several months behind on their house payments. Facing foreclosure, they accepted an offer from a company that promised to help them keep the home where they had lived for more than 20 years.The Eichers are among the thousands of people who fall each year for offers that promise to help them avoid foreclosure but that leave them with none of the equity they had built up in their property.

Home price rise smallest in 10 years
Chicago Tribune | Jan 31 2007 (registration required)
Prices of single-family homes across the nation rose in November at the slowest rate in more than a decade, a housing index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor's showed, countering other evidence that the housing slowdown might be nearing an end. The S&P/Case-Shiller composite index showed a 1.3 percent year-over-year increase in the price of a single-family home based on existing homes tracked over time in 10 metropolitan markets.

Good news, bad news: US economy too strong for interest rate cuts
The Christian Science Monitor | Jan 30 2007
An expected economic slowdown hasn't materialized, easing fears of recession ahead of the Fed's latest policy statement.

Predatory-lending rule blamed for lender exits
Providence Journal | Jan 30 2007
When Option One Mortgage Corp. and several other out-of-state mortgage lenders suddenly stopped making loans in Rhode Island this month, it appeared to confirm the industry’s worse fears — that a new law designed to protect borrowers from predatory lending was driving business out of Rhode Island.

Housing, Factories Offer More Evidence Of Stronger Growth
Investor's Business Daily | Jan 26 2007
The U.S. economy's weak spots strengthened at the end of 2006, according to reports out Friday, raising questions ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting. New-home sales rose 4.8% to an annual pace of 1.12 million in December, the fourth gain in five months, and the most since April, the Commerce Department said. Builders are doing a good job of whittling at excess supply.

Tremors at the Door
New York Time | Jan 26 2007 (Registration required)
Wall Street’s big bet on risky mortgages may be souring a lot faster than had been previously thought. The once booming market for home loans to people with weak credit — known as subprime mortgages and made largely to minorities, the poor and first-time buyers stretching to afford a home — is coming under greater pressure. The evidence can be seen in rising default rates, increasingly strained finances at mortgage lenders and growing doubts among investors.

First American agrees to $10 million settlement
The Orange County Register | Jan 25 2007
First American Title Insurance Co. has agreed to pay $10 million to settle allegations by the California Department of Insurance that its employees paid illegal kickbacks to real estate professionals and a builder for referrals of title insurance business.

Subprime Loans Soared In Boom, But Are Now Creating Problems
Investor's Business Daily | Jan 25 2007
A spike in loans to cash-strapped home buyers is raising concerns that more trouble may lie ahead for the housing market.The Center for Responsible Lending predicted last month that one in five subprime mortgages initiated in the past two years will end in foreclosure, kicking 1.1 million homeowners to the curb and costing them a total of $74.6 billion.

Flood coverage tough to enforce as lenders struggle to comply
USA Today | Jan 25, 2006
Nearly a year and a half after Hurricane Katrina, federally regulated lenders are still struggling to comply with a requirement that they force homeowners in high-risk flood zones to buy flood insurance. By law, homeowners in flood-prone areas — such as along the coast — must buy such a policy if they get a mortgage from a federally regulated lender. Government-issued flood insurance covers homeowners for up to $250,000 in flood damage to property and $100,000 to contents. (Unlike homeowners insurance, though, it doesn't insure against rain or wind damage.)

State Farm's Katrina deal changes 'wind vs. water' equation
USA Today | Jan 24, 2007
Ever since Hurricane Katrina raked across the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the phrase "stripped to the slab" has come to mean more than just a home's total destruction. It's meant that hundreds, maybe thousands, of homeowners couldn't get compensated by their insurance companies. After 140-mph winds and a 30-foot flood surge hit, there just wasn't enough left to prove what caused the damage: wind or water.

Investor’s fraud spurs lawsuit
The Kansas City Star | Jan 20 2007
Brent Barber received a lengthy prison sentence last year for mortgage fraud, but ripple effects from his crimes continue to wash up in federal court. On Friday, California real estate investor William R. Zappas filed a racketeering suit over Barber’s property-flipping schemes, alleging that he was snookered by Barber into paying inflated prices for seven Kansas City properties.

Blagojevich suspends HB4050 predatory lending law that critics claim is unfair to minority homeowners
Chicago Defender | Jan 22 2007
Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Friday directed a state financial office to immediately suspend the controversial HB 4050 pilot law program that many critics claimed unfairly blocked consumers from selling and buying homes in 10 predominately African American zip codes.

Regulator: Mortgage giants still have big financial problems
The Clarion Ledger, MS | Jan 19
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have made progress toward correcting financial weaknesses, but tight government supervision is needed as the mortgage giants emerge from accounting scandals, a federal regulator said Thursday. James B. Lockhart, director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, also disclosed that Fannie Mae, which just last month announced a restatement of $6.3 billion in profit for 2001 through mid-2004, had a loss in the third quarter of 2006. He did not specify the amount of the loss

First American Announces New Title Technology
DSnews.com/Payton Oldham | Jan 17 2007
First American Title Insurance Company announced yesterday that it has completed the development of a new program that delivers insured title commitments in less than a minute. The new program, TitleSmart™, gives lenders an advantage in pursuing refinance loan business. TitleSmart™ gives Lenders immediate access to title information in its entirety, like ownership, tax, lien, title conditions, and closing fee information—making it possible to consult borrowers more efficiently and close more loans.

Mortgage broker law already bars 10 people
Rocky Mountain News | Jan 18 2007
A new state law has barred 10 people from registering as mortgage brokers, a step some think will help prevent millions of dollars in scams and fraud. Some 3,465 people have been registered under the Morgtage Brokers Registration Act, which took effect Jan. 1, said Geoffrey Hier, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies.

Curb Sought on Fannie Mae Regulator
New York Times | Jan 18 2007 (Registration Required)
Fannie Mae’s former chief executive, Franklin D. Raines, asked a federal appeals court yesterday to bar the company’s regulator from ruling on a lawsuit seeking more than $84 million in penalties against him. James B. Lockhart, director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, “has prejudged the charges” against him “and cannot serve as the impartial decision maker that due process requires,” Mr. Raines said in a filing with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

E-Signatures: Are We Building Sufficient Electronic Evidence?
Insurance & Technology | Jan 17 2007
As organizations adopt electronic signatures, a question of whether the strength of the evidence being created is sufficient remains. We have all seen simple solutions on the Web where consumers sign by clicking an "I Agree" or "I Hereby Sign" button. These solutions are easy to build and easy to use. But will an "I Agree" button stand up as evidence in court?

Blue Ridge Title Acquires Ashburn Settlement Firm
Leesburg Today VA | Jan 15 2007
Two downtown Leesburg businesses have expanded operations with the acquisition of Ashburn Title Services, located in the historic district of Ashburn across from the old Partlow Store. Blue Ridge Title & Escrow owner Valerie White and her husband, attorney Forrest White, bought the 8-year-old business in December from Richmond-based Southern Title Insurance Corp.

Ohio tops in home foreclosures: A sign of economic problems
Cincinnati Enquier | Jan 11 2007
COLUMBUS - (AP) Ohio again leads the nation in home foreclosures, an indicator of how the state's lag in adding jobs is leading people to have trouble paying their bills, economists say. Besides joblessness and high gasoline prices, high interest rates are squeezing consumers who face high credit card debt and increasing house payments if their mortgage has an adjustable rate.

U.S. Cities to Receive $445 Million to Protect Against Terror Attacks
Insurance Journal | Jan 11, 2007
Nearly half a billion dollars will be given to U.S. cities and regions to help reduce the risk of terror attacks on ports, transit systems and chemical plants, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced this week. Recipients will have to submit detailed plans on how they will use the funds to protect critical sites, Chertoff said.

New bill targets appraisal, mortgage fraud
Rocky Mountain News | Jan 9 2007
Attorney General John Suthers on Monday unveiled proposed legislation targeting appraisal and mortgage fraud that is fueling record foreclosures in the state. "Just as homeownership is the American dream, mortgage and foreclosure fraud has become an American nightmare," Suthers said at a news conference.

‘For sale’ glut slowed home building in ’06
The News-Press | Jan 05 2007
Lee County’s pace of construction slowed last year as a huge inventory of unsold houses piled up — but it still was the strongest on record except 2005.“If you look at previous years, 2005 was such an anomaly,” said Mary Gibbs, head of the county’s Department of Community Development.

Dozens indicted in alleged home lending scheme
The Repository, Canton ON | Jan 4, 2007
A grand jury indicted 59 companies and individuals on 269 charges that they used false information to obtain $2.85 million in home loans. The charges of racketeering, forgery and theft target mortgage brokers and lenders accused of helping to push Cuyahoga County's foreclosure rate to among the highest in the nation.

Mortgage Loan Fraud
The American Chronicle | Jan 3 2007
In recent months federal and state law enforcement and regulatory agencies have been inundated with reports of mortgage loan fraud. This comes on the heels of a downturn in the real estate market, lowered earnings expectations from publicly traded home builders and complaints about realtors, mortgage brokers, appraisers, escrow officers, and title insurance agents.

FEMA Reassesses Flood Risk From Sacramento Levees
Fox Reno KRTI | Jan 4 2007
The federal government on Wednesday announced it is reversing an earlier decision and redrawing flood maps for a fast-growing region near the state capital, acknowledging the risk of a potentially catastrophic flood is greater than originally believed.

BofA testing no-fee mortgage in Washington state
East Bay Business Times | Jan 3 2007
Bank of America Corp. is testing a no-fee mortgage in Washington state to see whether it's effective in bringing more customers to the bank. It is uncertain whether the bank will eventually offer the new mortgage product beyond Washington.

'Shotgun' scheme hits the bull's-eye
Los Angeles Times | Jan 3 2007
Having been in the business of insuring mortgage companies against risk for more than a century, the folks at First American Title Insurance Co. have seen their share of rogues who try to illegally exploit the inner workings at the lending process. But a recently uncovered scheme may just take the cake.

Mortgage Lenders Network to stop funding new loans
Record Journal | Jan 2, 2007
Mortgage Lenders Network USA Inc. sought to reassure the public Tuesday that its service divisions remain robust, despite a decision to stop funding new loans and temporarily elimi-nate most of its workforce.