Posts by Mary Kane
Payday lenders use loopholes to continue high-interest loans
Instead of shutting down, payday lenders in some of the same states that passed reforms are making loans at higher rates than before the laws were enacted.
White House, loan servicers point fingers as foreclosure plan fails
Designed to help three to four million homeowners facing foreclosure, the Obama administration’s $75 billion “Making Home Affordable” plan has fallen painfully short.
Mortgage fraud threatens housing rebound
The fraud goes beyond just just ripping off banks. Mortgage fraud leads to more property value declines in hard-hit neighborhoods, leaves homeowners already in distress in even worse shape, and ultimately will end up costing taxpayers, who will be stuck with the costs when loans go bad.
Renters ‘lost in the shuffle’ in anti-foreclosure efforts
As the foreclosure crisis worsens, renters increasingly have become caught as innocent bystanders, evicted often without notice when their landlord faces foreclosure.
Class-action suit accuses Wells Fargo of discrimination by neighborhood
As lawsuits wind their way through the court system, more details and allegations about the inner workings of the subprime world are emerging — and Minnesota’s second-largest employer remains in the legal crosshairs.
Lenders, servicers fight anti-blight and property laws
As bank-owned foreclosed properties pile up across the country, from abandoned houses in hard-hit neighborhoods to empty big box retail stores in failed strip malls, the fight over holding someone responsible for the brick and mortar mess left behind by the mortgage crisis continues to heat up.
Loan servicers work the fine print in Obama foreclosure plan
Startling requirements in out-dated, but still used paperwork raises questions about how well Treasury is overseeing the centerpiece of Obama’s foreclosure crisis solution.
More signs the foreclosure crisis is worsening
There’s more proof out today that the foreclosure crisis is only getting worse, despite everything that’s been thrown at it so far: Foreclosure notices reached a new record high during the first half of this year.
At current rate, nine million homes to face foreclosure by 2012
The time may be ripe for a shift in strategy as the foreclosure machine grinds on, and new foreclosure notices reach a troubling 10,000 per day. Lawmakers have a choice: let the foreclosures go on for perhaps years, at the expense of millions of homeowners, or take the crisis head on.
Congress unlikely to reform root cause of economic crisis
What has — or hasn’t — Congress learned in the aftermath of the burst of the housing bubble?
