BUSINESS
January 28, 2010 | By Alejandro Lazo
The Obama administration's $75-billion program to help troubled borrowers hold on to their homes appears to be keeping more California families out of foreclosure, data released Wednesday showed, but the relief may be temporary. The number of homes entering the first stage of foreclosure declined 24.3% during the fourth quarter from the previous three months, according to MDA DataQuick, a San Diego real estate research firm. The decline in the default number is significant because any new wave of foreclosures, which could swamp the housing market's recovery, would be preceded by a surge in defaults.
BUSINESS
January 24, 2010 | By Roger Vincent
Bill Hoffman has logged more than 1.5 million airline miles in his travels to troubled hotels, office buildings and other business properties. As a court-appointed receiver who takes care of distressed commercial real estate, Hoffman has a long way to go to catch up with George Clooney's ambitiously nomadic character Ryan Bingham in "Up in the Air." But Hoffman is adding mileage points fast. These are boom times for receivers. With the brutal real estate market causing owners to lose their buildings to their lenders, more professionals like Hoffman are being tapped to look after properties until they can be resold.
BUSINESS
January 14, 2010 | By Alejandro Lazo
Foreclosure activity in California took a steep dive in December, a report shows, but the decline had more to do with holiday forbearance than economic improvement. Notices of default dropped 17.5% compared with November, according to the report by ForeclosureRadar.com. The number of homes seized by lenders dropped 12%, and the number of homes sold to third parties declined 28.9%. The drop in foreclosures appears to reflect an easing in activity by banks and other lenders hoping to avoid delivering disheartening news to troubled buyers and shutting people out of their homes during the holiday season, the website said.
BUSINESS
December 22, 2009 | By Jim Puzzanghera
Troubled home loans continued to mount in the nation's banks in the third quarter as even once-solid borrowers increasingly fell behind on their mortgage payments. For the first quarter ever, the number of homes in foreclosure with mortgages serviced by U.S. national banks and savings and loans topped the 1-million mark, according to figures released Monday by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The percentage of prime borrowers whose loans were 60 or more days past due doubled from the July-to-September period a year earlier.
BUSINESS
December 18, 2009 | By Alejandro Lazo and Tiffany Hsu
A supply of 1.7 million homes headed for sale because of foreclosure or delinquency looms over the nation's housing market, which could dampen progress toward recovery should the Obama administration fail in its efforts to aid struggling homeowners, researchers said. A variety of measures to keep discounted bank-owned properties off the market -- including moratoriums on foreclosures by major lenders and federal initiatives aimed at keeping people in their homes with mortgage payments they can afford -- has helped increase a backlog of so-called shadow inventory 55% in the year ended Sept.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 18, 2009 | By Teresa Watanabe
California's population grew less than 1% in the last year, the slowest growth rate in more than a decade and a vivid indicator of the continued toll that the deep recession has taken on the state. Demographers said the population slowdown was largely attributable to two of the main effects of the recession: high unemployment and the skyrocketing number of home foreclosures. Hans Johnson, associate director of the Public Policy Institute of California, noted that the state's jobless rate of 12.5% was higher than the national rate of 10.2% and that the gap was even more noticeable when California unemployment was compared with the rates in Texas and Washington, two traditional sources of migrants to California.
BUSINESS
December 1, 2009 | By Jim Puzzanghera and E. Scott Reckard
With rising foreclosures still threatening the economy, the Obama administration is trying to pump new life into its much-criticized program to lower payments for homeowners at risk of defaulting on their home loans. Officials unveiled requirements Monday that would step up government scrutiny and threaten fines on banks and other mortgage lenders should they lag in converting temporary mortgage modifications into permanent changes in loan terms and conditions by the end of the year.
BUSINESS
November 29, 2009 | By Kenneth R. Harney
Go ahead. Break the chains. Stop paying on your mortgage if you owe more than the house is worth. And most important: Don't feel guilty about it. Don't think you're doing something morally wrong. That's the incendiary core message of a new academic paper by Brent T. White, a University of Arizona law school professor, titled "Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the Social Management of the Housing Crisis." White contends that far more of the estimated 15 million U.S. homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages should stiff their lenders and take a hike.
BUSINESS
November 27, 2009 | By Alejandro Lazo >>>
Habitat for Humanity International has been known for its mission to provide new homes for the poor ever since former President Carter, its most famous volunteer, grabbed work gloves and hammer in the 1980s to help build dwellings in struggling communities. These days, Habitat is renovating the way it does business because of the mortgage meltdown, in which loose lending standards left thousands of foreclosed properties sitting vacant in the very neighborhoods the group aims to revitalize.
BUSINESS
November 26, 2009 | By E. Scott Reckard
In October 2008, JPMorgan Chase & Co. shaved 25% off Rick Mullen's mortgage payment by lowering his interest rate, helping him to stay in his Valencia home despite a downturn in his small business refurbishing large shipments of damaged shoes. More than a year later, Mullen is grateful but frustrated, he says, because Chase has repeatedly lost his paperwork and never finalized what was supposed to be a three-month trial loan modification. "I've talked to them at least 50 times, and it's always the same: . . . 'Oh, we're missing some documents, your modification is at risk,' " Mullen said.