In The News
Recent Articles Affecting the Real Estate Industry
73,000 homes lost to foreclosure in May 2008
6/13/2008 - CNN Money - Filings for the month jumped by 48%. Nevada, California, and Florida continue to bear the brunt of the crisis. The housing crisis grew worse in May, as more than 73,000 American
families lost their homes to bank repossessions, up a staggering 158%
from the 28,548 households that were dispossessed in May 2007. Foreclosure filings of all kinds, including default notices, notices of sheriff's sales and bank repossessions, were up 48% from May 2007, according to the latest release from RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed properties. Filings increased 7% from April ... Read more
Feds, lenders to offer broader plan to help with foreclosures
2/12/2008 - CNN Politics - The Bush administration will announce an expanded plan Tuesday for lenders to help homeowners by temporarily suspending foreclosures for people facing the imminent loss of a home, a source familiar with the plan said Monday. A new proposal is aimed at delinquent homeowners whose mortgages are 90 days or more past due ... Read more
Mortgage crisis help may be on the way - Paulson confident of rate freeze plan
12/3/2007 - CNN Money - Secretary says Treasury Department working 'aggressively and quickly' to hammer out shield for homeowners struggling with higher payments. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Monday he is confident there will soon be an agreement to help thousands of homeowners avoid mortgage defaults by temporarily freezing their interest rates. Paulson told a national housing conference that this effort involved a "pragmatic response" to current realities as the economy goes through the worst housing slump in more than two decades ... Read more
October foreclosure filings surge
11/29/2007 - CNN Money - More than 53,000 people lost their homes in October 2007; 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% from October 2006 and up 2 percent from September 2007, according to RealtyTrac. 53,609 U.S. homeowners were forced out of their homes repossessed by banks, up from 20,768 a year ago, the firm said. Through October 309,557 homes have been repossessed ... Read more
Foreclosures drift to Sun Belt from Rust Belt
11/16/2007 - CNN Money - A new survey shows foreclosure clusters are on the move from industrial centers to coastal and southern states. For sheer volume, housing foreclosures across the nation appear to be moving from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. A study for CNNMoney.com by RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosure properties, showed that 139 of California's ZIP codes fell within the top 500 for total foreclosure filings in the United States. The next highest count for any state is less than half that at 72 and ... Read more
Caught in a toxic mortgage
9/17/2007 - CNN Money - Meet the Olivers: good credit and low risk. So why are they in danger of losing their home? How to get deep in mortgage trouble in one hard lesson. It seems surprising that Kurt and Vicki Oliver could lose their home to a bank foreclosure. They had great credit, long-term employment and excellent assets and income. But their main problem wasn't a usual symptom of troubled borrowers: job loss, divorce, personal problems or health reasons. Instead, they say, it was a bad mortgage from a fast-talking broker ... Read more
The 3 stages of foreclosure
9/13/2007 - CNN Money - Many real estate investors dream of swooping in to get a great deal. It's possible, but it helps to know the landscape. Regardless of the state of the housing market, Americans will always cling to the foreclosure dream - to buy that dream home for pennies on the dollar. Some want to flip them right away; some want to play landlord. In both cases, bargains are out there, but it's not easy. If you decide to look for a foreclosed property, there are several points in the foreclosure process, and after, during which you can make your move ... Read more
