AG News Beat
Taxpayers pay $47 million in legal fees for Fannie, Freddie
Losses to legal costs The Office of Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is reporting today that legal fees for former leaders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are roughly $110 million, with taxpayer dollars funding at least $47 million of the bills. According to the report, the total amounts may actually be higher as this only ...
Existing home sales rise for fourth consecutive month
8 Housing making gains According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), existing home sales (completed transactions of single family homes, townhomes and condos) rose for the fourth consecutive month as the trade group points to improving inventories. In January, existing home sales were 0.7 percent higher than in January 2011 as total housing inventory fell 0.4 percent from December, ...
Loan default rates drop slightly in January
Dropping default rates According to the Standard & Poor’s (S&P)/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices for January, most loan types saw a drop in default rates after four consecutive months of rising defaults in America, primarily improving in consumers’ first mortgage default rates. Second mortgage and bank card default rates fell slightly in January while auto loan default rates remained stagnant. ...
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Realtor accused of $50 million fraud scheme, own parents allegedly victims
Multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme The U.S. Attorney General’s office has arrested well known San Diego Realtor, Eric Elegado, his wife Charmagne Elegado and seven employees for allegedly defrauding banks and buyers of over $50 million, ultimately costing banks $15 million, according to Fox 5 San Diego. All nine defendants have plead not guilty. The federal prosecutors unsealed the indictment ...
FHFA pushes for privatization of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
The way forward for Fannie, Freddie The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today sent a strategic plan to Congress regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over whom they are the conservators, in an effort to guide mortgage lending toward the private sector and away from government control. The plan is in response to a lack of action by Congress and ...
What makes Miami a hot spot for international real estate
What is so special about Miami? Go to any real estate conference and you’ll hear all about the successes of real estate in Miami, and despite the housing and foreclosure crisis, international buyers continue to snatch up property in the city. But what makes Miami so special? Greg Freedman, Partner at BH3 and Developer of Trump Hollywood told AGBeat that ...
Builders reveal hidden costs of buying foreclosed homes
The builders’ challenge Despite builder sentiment rising for the last five months, new home construction remains one of the hardest hit sectors in the housing industry as lending remains tight and a glut of foreclosure is dragging down prices nationally and reducing the chance of healthy margins. The large inventory of distressed sales has been problematic for builders since the ...
Study reveals foreclosure fraud in almost all cases
Rampant foreclosure fraud The City of San Francisco has released a report revealing the widespread nature of foreclosure abuse, with 84 percent of the 400 local foreclosure cases studied showing illegal activity, a drastic rate that has the housing industry on alert, yet less than surprised as a study last year declared that the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) had ...
Builder confidence levels continue to improve nationally
Builder confidence levels According to the National Association of Home Builders’ Housing Market Index (HMI), builders of new single-family homes are experiencing improved confidence levels, up for the fifth consecutive month in February, reaching its highest level in over four years. “Builder confidence has doubled since September as measured by the HMI,” said NAHB Chairman Barry Rutenberg, a home builder ...
New mortgage application volume drops
Applications slide According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today, the volume of applications for mortgages fell last week, primarily due to the decline in demand for home purchases. The MBA said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, dipped 1.0 percent last week. Requests for mortgages for home purchases dropped ...
Obama budget to cut waste, including mortgage interest deductions
2013 White House Budget President Obama has now presented his fiscal year budget and while many believe Congress will not support the proposed cuts and added spending, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is focusing on the mortgage interest deduction (MID). NAR notes that “As in previous years, the budget would reduce the value of itemized deductions to 28 percent ...
Is this the home of the future?
It very well could be Recently the Department of Energy hosted the bi-annual Solar Decathalon in DC and the winning entry is the Water Shed home built by the University of Maryland pictured here. What is so cool about this competition is that the criteria to participate and ultimately win this go far beyond solar innovation and are completely relevant to ...
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