Subject: Foreclosure & Financial Crisis
-
Change is coming to the most important government agency, one that most Americans have never heard of. For many months, a broad coalition of housing, consumer protection, and civil rights groups has been calling on President Obama to replace Edward…
A few weeks ago, Alan Mallach wrote on Rooflines about the mismatch between the buildings built for families of another era and the needs of today's potential city dwellers. It's a common problem in poor neighborhoods affected by high foreclosure…
-
You've probably heard that several underwater homeowners were arrested for disrupting Tuesday's House Financial Services Committee hearing at which acting director Edward DeMarco was the sole witness. (You can see the video here if you haven't.) I got the chance…
David Sassaroli contributed reporting for this article Home Opportunity is at a crossroads, and with it the American economy. Misconduct by banks, inadequate rules, and lax enforcement have cost 4 million families their homes since the financial crisis began, devastated…
This just in from NCRC: "Word is that President Obama has asked, get this, Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC), to step into the position of FHFA Director! Mel is a longtime ally on the House Financial Services Committee and has demonstrated…
[Cue the Darth Vader music]. Are we slipping into a new housing bubble? (Or is it racing into?) S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices track housing price changes in 20 metros nationwide. Their latest report shows an overall gain of a…
-
If you haven't watched this yet, you probably want to. Here's the Huffington Post synopsis.
How do you think Elizabeth Warren's presence on the Senate banking committee is going to change the tone of bank regulation going forward? more
-
A central feature of the recent $8.5 billion national mortgage settlement is a "throw up the hands and send some checks" approach as a solution to thousands and thousands of homeowners damaged over the last several years of the mortgage…
-
The Independent Foreclosure Review has been scrapped for a new $8.5 billion settlement with the banks. These articles describe the reasons: Foreclosure Review Insiders Portray Massive Failure, Doomed From The Start, Huffington Post Bank Deal Ends Flawed Reviews of Foreclosures,…
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is one of the unsung heroes of the housing market. Despite helping to save the housing market following the mortgage crisis in 2007, the FHA is continuously attacked, erroneously, for its commitment to encourage lending…
It’s time for President Obama to fire and quickly replace the Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Edward DeMarco, with a Director who will uphold the Agency’s mission to “support housing finance and affordable housing, and support…
The NYT had an article on a new study by Edward Pinto at the American Enterprise Institute which found that a high percentage of the loans the FHA insured in 2009-2010 were high risk loans that are likely to end…
Before Hawaii's new foreclosure prevention law passed, Hawaii had the 11th highest foreclosure rate in the nation. One in every 41 homeowners was losing their largest asset. Banks argued that it was "no use" to give families loan modifications because…
Jim Carr, who published his bold vision for restructuring the housing finance market here earlier this week, is making waves with it, getting conversation stirred up about why housing, foreclosures, and housing finance reform are not campaign issues, such as…
-
Early this year, in a settlement with 49 state attorneys general, the five largest banks in the United States—Citi, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Ally Financial—agreed to pay $2.5 billion dollars to states to settle a…
Last week's presidential debate passed without any mention of the continuing housing crisis affecting millions of American families. Nothing on either candidate’s website provides any specifics on this issue, let alone answers the fundamental question about what is the role…
I wrote on Monday about ESOP's mortgage strikers. The concept made me think of the student debt strike efforts. At first glance, those not following what's happening in higher education may think of people complaining about student debt as lazy, entitled…
Shelterforce began as a tenants' rights newspaper, and our early years were full of accounts of rent strikes—a powerful weapon to get reluctant landlords to make repairs or otherwise improve conditions. Now Empowering and Strengthening Ohio's People, a combination housing…
-
In the near future, nearly half of the United States could experience increased mortgage fees. FHFA acting director Ed DeMarco announced a proposal to change its standard practice of treating all states equally by creating a new mortgage fee structure…
-
In my last post, I described the picture in what I call Detroit’s ‘middle-ground’ neighborhoods. In recent decades, those neighborhoods, mainly single family homes, have housed the city’s solid working class and middle class families, and are now widely in…
Next »
National Housing Institute
