Mortgages and Banking

Mortgages and Banking

• Businesses, tenants worried about impact of commercial loan losses on Georgia banks

  Mar. 14--Que Nice has been cutting hair in his barbershop across Peachtree Street from the Fulton County Government Center for 13 years.

   

• Fed may hint at how long rates will stay at lows

  WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve policymakers may signal at their meeting this week how and when the improving economy will lead them to start raising record-low interest rates.

   

• Commercial real estate loans worry some in bank industry

  Mar. 14--While regulators say the banking industry shows signs of improvement, some analysts worry that lenders face another big hurdle: defaults on loans for commercial real estate such as retail shopping centers, office buildings, hotels and warehouses.

   

• Underwater homeowners leave behind mortgages, but lenders can still come calling

  Mar. 14--There's a rumbling in Las Vegas and it's growing louder every day.

   

• McAllen's real estate market still sluggish

  Mar. 11--MCALLEN -- Buying a house in the Rio Grande Valley will be much harder by this summer -- and it's not easy now.

   

• Mortgage rates remain below 5 percent

  WASHINGTON - Mortgage rates held below the 5 percent threshold for the second straight week, a report said Thursday, weeks before a government program that has been keeping rates low is scheduled to expire.

   

• Gov't official warns on home down payment hikes

  WASHINGTON - The head of the Federal Housing Administration is warning that boosting the minimum down payment borrowers must provide to qualify for home loans backed by the agency could threaten the housing market.

   

• Foreclosure rates up by smallest amount in 4 years

  RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. households facing foreclosure in February grew 6 percent from a year ago, the smallest annual increase in four years.

   

• Treasury restates support for Fannie, Freddie

  WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department was forced Friday to reiterate its financial support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after a key lawmaker rattled investors by pointing out that their debt does not enjoy the explicit guarantee of the federal government.

   

• Lawmaker is working to improve loan modifications

  WASHINGTON - A key lawmaker is working with banks, regulators and the Obama administration on a new way to boost the government's struggling foreclosure prevention effort by encouraging banks to reduce the total amount borrowers owe.

   

• Foreclosure-assistance pipeline clogged for Bank of America, other lenders

  Mar. 5--os-troublesome-banks-20100304

   

• Mortgage rates fall below 5 percent

  McLEAN, Va. - Mortgages rates have dipped below 5 percent again, four weeks before a government program that is helping keep rates low is scheduled to run out.

   

• Brave new world for builders: Banks have become competitors in the new economy

  Mar. 3--Eastern Wake County builders face a new competitor on the markets -- the banks.

   

• Increasing numbers of Californians are suing lenders to avoid foreclosures

  Mar. 3--Two weeks before their Sunnyvale home was to be auctioned off on the courthouse steps, Sonia Leverman and her sons seized on a desperate David-vs.-Goliath strategy: They sued their lender.

   

• As credit squeeze claims commercial developments, fallout could hurt wider economy

  Mar. 2--The aftershock of the national financial crisis is rocking the commercial real estate world, leading to a spike in distressed loans and bankruptcies.

   

• Orleans Homebuilders Files Bankruptcy

  Despite sharp reductions in debt, land holdings, and headcount over the past three years, the builder ran out of time and cash before it could find a buyer.

   

• As credit squeeze claims commercial developments, fallout could hurt wider economy

  Mar. 2--The aftershock of the national financial crisis is rocking the commercial real estate world, leading to a spike in distressed loans and bankruptcies.

   

• Mortgage task force to probe foreclosures, fraud

  Mar. 1--The popular notion that Buffalo weathered the mortgage meltdown better than most cities is attracting the attention of federal prosecutors who don't buy it.

   

• Homeowners facing worst simply abandon homes

  Feb. 28--Millions of America's homes are sliding "under water," meaning their value has fallen beneath the mortgage owed, data shows.

   

• Foreclosure rescues by last-resort lender failed nearly half the time

  Feb. 28--Aspen Capital, a powerhouse in Portland business circles, flourished for two decades by investing in high-stakes commercial real estate deals.