Talk about rife with symbolism: The Bank of America plaza in Atlanta — the tallest building in the South — has been repossessed by its lender in a foreclosure auction. Note that it’s just symbolism, though. Bank of America is one tenant of the building, but it was owned by a L.A.-based BentleyForbes, which stopped [...]

Yesterday we told you about banks beginning to offer cash and principal reductions for delinquent homeowners to do short sales rather than go into foreclosure. It seems like short sales are getting more and more press all of a sudden. Earlier this week Freddie Mac said it will begin to offer larger incentives for mortgage [...]

The whole robo-signing fiasco is causing problems not just for the people who were fraudulently foreclosed on by lenders, but even for people who never missed a payment and paid off their loans. Reuters has the story, but here are some snippets. First, background on robo-signing: Depositions from “affidavit slaves” depict a surreal, assembly-line world [...]

LPS subsidiary DocX — and its founder and former president — have been indicted in Missouri on forgery charges for falsifying documents in order to speed up foreclosures on behalf of its lender clients. The Missouri grand jury found that the person whose name appeared on 68 documents executed on behalf of a lender — [...]

With apologies to Barbie, math isn’t that hard after all. Looking at today’s crazy-low interest rates, homeowners who want to refinance are realizing that it’s worth it to bring some cash to the table to get that lower rate. See, if you have 20% equity in your home you often qualify for the lowest of [...]

You can almost see the light bulbs above their collective heads — banks, it seems, are beginning to realize that it’s better for everyone (especially them) to do a short sale than to foreclose on a homeowner. That’s what this Bloomberg story is all about. Now banks have decided the deals [short sales] are faster [...]

The Virginia Real Estate Board is composed of seven real estate licensee members and two citizen members, all appointed by the governor and confirmed by the General Assembly. The term of office is four years. The terms of three licensee members expire on June 30, 2012. Two of these members are not eligible for reappointment. [...]

Because lenders have shown that they can’t necessarily be trusted to evaluate potential borrowers, the federal government will be setting standards that lenders must used to determine whether someone can repay a loan. No, I’m not being snarky about lenders. That’s the sentiment of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray. When discussing the forthcoming [...]

Mortgage rates fall to record low. There. I said it. Again. That is all.

Let’s look at President Obama’s mortgage refinance plan. Its goals are to allow a lot more home owners to refinance at today’s lower rates, and thus pump more money into local economies. It will also reduce foreclosures, which might help bolster property values — not to mention allowing people to stay in their homes.  Essentially, [...]