Government fuels next housing collapse with unstable mortgages
Nobody wants to return to the kind of risky home loans that spurred 2008’s banking collapse. Sliding back toward lax lending would be nuts. Yet Washington officially endorsed such loans...
View ArticleOcwen in legal battle with California to keep its license
Ocwen Financial, the largest non-bank mortgage servicer, found itself locked in a war of words with a California regulator on Friday as it battled to keep its license to do...
View ArticleDear John: The score on losing interest
Dear John: How big was the benefit of lower mortgage rates compared to the loss of savings interest? My gut tells me it was a net positive on the middle...
View ArticleAmid probes, troubled Ocwen sees stock rise 14%
Embattled mortgage servicer Ocwen said it has enough cash even as it warned it would record a loss for the fourth quarter and full year because of fines and higher...
View ArticleErbey’s Ocwen sells $9.8B in mortgage rights to Edens’ Nationstar
Bill Erbey’s pain is Wes Edens’ gain. Erbey’s Ocwen Financial agreed on Monday to sell a $9.8 billion collection of mortgage servicing rights to Freddie Mac-owned houses to Edens’ Nationstar...
View ArticleDear John: Gas tax hike a smokin’ idea
Dear John: A higher gasoline tax, as you proposed, is a terrible idea. The government should have to prove through audits that it is spending and using its current income...
View ArticleLoan abuse within minority communities: report
For five grueling years, Queens homeowner Rhoda Carter diligently tried to obtain a mortgage modification while Wells Fargo gave her the runaround. Carter thought she had started a trial modification...
View ArticleCredit reset a headache for mortgage market
A new time bomb in the residential mortgage market is starting to go off — potentially pushing thousands of struggling New York families into foreclosure. This year marks the start...
View ArticleHedgies’ mortgage bond profits fall to near zero
Wall Street fat cats, who since 2009 have been pocketing billions of dollars in profits off the backs of beleaguered homeowners and their delinquent mortgages, could be facing the end...
View ArticleWhy hasn’t the economy fully recovered? Debt, debt, debt
America’s economy has grown for nearly six years and with particular vigor over the last six months. By historical standards, we’re due for another recession. When that downturn comes, it...
View ArticleDe Blasio still finds time to pick up fight with banks
As if a grade-fixing scandal in city schools and public urination by some of the city’s homeless weren’t enough to keep Mayor Bill de Blasio busy, Hizzoner on Wednesday pressed...
View ArticleHomeowners’ fight against foreclosure ends with $264K bill
The New York family that in 2009 became the national face of beating back “repugnant” and “repulsive” bank foreclosure practices after a judge ripped up the mortgage on their $525,000...
View ArticleElizabeth Warren changes mind, sides with Fannie and Freddie
The Fannie Mae saga continues to make strange political bedfellows. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), patron saint of the left, has ditched her support for a bill that would shut down...
View ArticleNew home loan forms tell you exactly what you’re spending
When you make the biggest purchase of your life, it’s important to understand exactly how much you’re paying. During the housing bubble, that wasn’t always the case for homebuyers. After...
View ArticleHow a homeowner’s foreclosure deal turned into a scam horror story
Broadies Byas knew the foreclosure rescue deal was too good to be true, but desperation made her sign the papers anyway. After falling ill, the 50-year-old Bedford-Stuyvesant resident couldn’t repay...
View ArticleFannie change would boost affordable housing and feather hedge beds: report
A former Bill Clinton adviser and a Brookings Institute fellow said in a report being released Monday that the US should recapitalize mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and release them from...
View ArticleAlmost no one is happy for the man who paid off his mortgage in 3 years
When Sean Cooper paid off his mortgage in three years, he was so proud, he called in a TV crew to film him burning his mortgage papers. But not everyone celebrated with him. In fact, the 30-year-old’s...
View ArticleCongress puts kibosh on Fannie share sales
Sen. Bob Corker won a victory in his battle over the future of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the $1.15 billion omnibus spending bill passed by Congress on Friday. Corker (R-Tenn.)...
View ArticleLendingTree’s stock gets chopped by 30%
Feel bad because you didn’t rake in that Powerball $1.5 billion? Think how LendingTree Chief Exec Doug Lebda must feel. Lebda announced on Jan. 12 that the mortgage-lending company is upping its 2015...
View ArticleGoldman Sachs announces $5.1B settlement over bad mortgages
Goldman Sachs said Thursday that it would settle with the US for $5.1 billion for its “Big Short”-type mortgage deals from 2005 to 2007 that contributed to the financial crisis — the largest penalty...
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