All stories about "Mortgage Crisis"

Asante Real Estate Group's CEO wrote the following op-ed after losing two homes to foreclosure (in San Jose and Los Gatos, respectively): "Elected officials, like Senator Dianne Feinstein, claim that they want to help homeowners facing foreclosure. However, both of these homeowners went to Senator Feinstein's San Francisco office and requested her help only to be dismissed by her staff and referred to HUD counselors. Senator Feinstein's staff refused to help convince American Home Mortgage Servicing Corporation to reconsider the short sale offers for the above-described homes. In the end, these constituents were told to leave and they were physically shown the door by Senator Feinstein's security guard." [Market Watch]

Another morning, another piece of bad news for homeowners, unless you're one of those people looking to buy up foreclosures, that is. Face: Notices of default in the state rose 125% from a year ago. Even worse in the Bay Area, where that number was 140% and foreclosures are up 315%. Fact: The of homes actually repossessed in California is up 260%. On the plus side though, the rate of foreclosures is, in fact, slowing down. [SF Gate]

Adding more fire to the mortgage crisis from hell, California foreclosures surged higher than they've been in the past 20 years, with 100,000 straddling the line between solvency and ruin, and tens of thousands actually crossing it. Foreclosure notices have skyrocketed a not-so-insignificant 125 percent in the past year, too. On a bright note, San Francisco has issued the least amount of foreclosure notices, up only 62.6 percent to 418. Well now, aren't we impervious? [SF Gate]

June saw the median price for new homes and condos in the Bay Area plummeted 27% from a year ago. San Francisco's resiliency in this housing market is starting to wear thing, as the median single-family home price fell by 11% to $726,750. Only blind optimists should really be surprised by this — San Francisco, it seems, is not completely untouchable. Unless, that is, you live in the micro-market of Noe Valley, which is still "going like gangbusters." [SF Gate]

Just a kid shunning the shiny new iPhone his parents waited on line overnight to buy him, Fannie Mae's CEO announced today that the ailing mortgage lender probably won't even access the emergency cash the U.S. Treasury hustled up to bail it out of near-certain demise. He predicted a continued downturn in the housing market, with housing prices tanking well into next year. Smiles! [Reuters]

Mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enjoyed a comeback in today's stock market as the Senate votes on a plan designed to give F&F access to emergency funds until George Bush and the 40 Thieves approve additional funding for the struggling companies. The numbers, quickly: Fannie finished up at $9.20 (up 30%) while Freddie closed at $6.90 (up 31%). [Market Watch]

The Federal Reserve swept in to save gov-backed mortgage enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from near-certain demise with a short-time plan: 1) Responding to recent fears that both companies might face a cash crisis due, in part, to rapidly tanking stocks, F&F will now be able to borrow liquidity from the Fed's "discount window" by posting their asset-backed securities as collateral. 2) The administration will also beg ask Congress to increase the federal line of credit to F&F, allowing them to secure cash money even more cheaply. Strap on your seat belts, folks. [Forbes]

Following Fannie and Freddie's collective nosedive last week, the Fed and U.S. Treasury have joined hands to bring a little love and sanity back on the scene. The Fed said it would lend money to F&F "should such lending prove necessary," while the Treasury said it would seek authority to buy equity in either one "if needed" — because, yeah, the federal government has the cash on hand. Confidence: restored? [WSJ]

The state of California is overcharging homeowners by levying taxes without taking into account the adjustment in property values that occurs when oh, say, a major mortgage crisis causes home values to tank for months on end. What to do? A San Francisco law firm has filed a claim for $2.6 billion in tax readjustments based on an aggregate decline in worth of more than 2 million single-family homes purchased since 2004-2007. Guess what we're not holding? Our breath. [SF Gate]

Back away from the cliff's edge, homeowners — the Senate has gotten its collective shit together and voted overwhelmingly to advance a bill to save hundreds of thousands from foreclosure. A few hurdles remain, but the bill is on track to be passed by week's end, and has already shown it has enough support to override a presidential veto. Stay tuned for more roiling drama from our favorite national legislative body. [AP]

"Less politics and more focus," says sunshine Bush as he expresses confidence that the White House and Congress will eventually get some rescue on for homeowners in need. Meanwhile, Congress has yet to send their relief bill to the White House, pending resolution of said politics. The Senate's only just getting back from a week-long break, and they have yet to hammer out their own version of the bill, let alone a final version with the House. Did we hear something about more focus? [TIME]

The plunging real estate market has state and local govs hurtin' real bad these days. Dropping home sales are having a domino effect: people are buying less stuff to fill the homes they don't have, and as businesses shrink, so does tax revenue. California's one of the states worst hit by a revenue shortfall, along with Florida, Nevada, and Rhode Island— big ouch all around. [BusinessWeek]

The air must be pretty thin up there in the land of 30-year mortgage rates — they averaged 6.45 percent this week, the highest level in over nine months. Jitters abound, and to top matters, the Fed hinted it may increase rates soon to head off inflation. Clutch those seats tightly, kids. [USA Today]

It's not just bleak out there for homeowners; home builders are feeling the squeeze too — and they've gotta cope any way they can. That's pinching pennies, hawking green features, communicating with clients, and maybe just a little soul searching. Featured at a builders conference in the Moscone Center this week are sessions like "How to Sell Homes in a Down Market," "Leadership in the Face of Adversity," and — feel the optimism? — "Change or Die." [Mercury News]

The Senate has voted— by 83 to 9— to end the debate and move along to the final vote on a bi-partisan-backed housing bill designed to throw $500 million in funds toward foreclosure relief efforts. If passes, said bill will create a housing relief fund backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and parse $4 billion among individual states for the purchase of foreclosed homes. Go team. [NYT]

Private lenders have already put the brakes on the zero-down financing trolley, but the government is still chugging along. Nonprofit groups are still funneling cash toward first-time home buyers so they can qualify for a mortgage backed by the Federal Housing Administration. The above-average default rates for houses that sell under this arrangement are kicking the FHA's ass, though, and may force them to request a government subsidy for the first time ever. To be fair, they probably saw this coming. [WSJ]

Regulators, with pitchforks and torches at the ready, are threatening to crack down on the $10 trillion "shadow market" that was responsible for the subprime mortgage crisis. MarketWatch joins the fray with an encyclopedic rundown of traditional banking vs. the ominously dubbed "shadow system." Press panic button now: "Unless radical changes are made to bring this shadow network under an updated regulatory umbrella, the current crisis may be just a gust compared to the storm that would follow a collapse of the global financial system." [Market Watch]

The Justice Department's fraud-fighting ninjas, dubbed "Operation Malicious Mortgage," nabbed 60 perps Wednesday in a bid to charge those involved in home-lending schemes. Roughly 400 total have been charged so far, including real-estate developers, brokers, agents, and appraisers. Authorities are investigating 19 companies, including mortgage lenders and credit-rating companies. Looks like the DOJ's not playing games. Said the deputy attorney as he donned his SWAT gear, mortgage fraud is "an area that we are going to aggressively pursue." [WSJ]

The Bay Area housing market continued to circle the drain last month when it hit a 20-year low — for the eighth time in nine months. After a surprisingly strong showing in April, we nose-dived again in May, dropping 1.5 percent. In fact, says a research firm, the only reason April upstaged everyone was "complicated financings and closings delaying sales" that normally would have given March a boost. [SF Gate]

The Senate's about to tackle the national orgy of foreclosures. The new bill, which throws a $300 billion life preserver to borrowers, may be subject to vote as early as next week. However, the legislation may not be ready in time— underway right now, the Senate semantic wrangling sesh just might render the bill too far afield from the version already passed by the House. Sorry, homeowners— you just might have to suck it up for another year. [WSJ]

The blame for the housing crisis is now being laid on a piece of paper: the Good Faith Estimate. Homeowners receive the confusing summary of fees when applying for a mortgage. So convoluted is the doc, however, that the department of Housing and Urban Development claims it's probably led home owners to taking riskier loans than they otherwise would have. Efforts are under way to simplify it, thus saving owners boatloads of money— if all the real estate agents, mortgage brokers, banks and title companies vying for their own interests don't muck it up in the meantime, that is. [BusinessWeek]