News

ForeclosureRadar, a website that is said to track every California foreclosure with daily auction updates, issued its California Foreclosure Report for October this week. Foreclosure sales dropped by 39.

In its latest attempt to thaw the country’s credit freeze, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Federal Reserve, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a joint statement yesterday urging banks to start lending again.

Webster Bank N.A., a subsidiary of Webster Financial Corporation, announced today that it is halting foreclosures for 90 days, becoming the latest bank to expand its mortgage assistance program to keep more families in their homes.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its final rule under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) yesterday to improve disclosures in the home financing process. RESPA, a law originally enacted in 1974, now includes new Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and HUD-1 Settlement Statement forms, which require lenders and mortgage brokers to clearly disclose key loan terms and closing costs.

RealtyTrac released its October 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report today, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions — were reported on 279,561 U.

Craig Long LLC, a real estate law firm with offices in Cumming and McDonough, Georgia, announced today that Ashley Carroll has joined the firm as an associate attorney. In this role, Carroll will conduct closings and handle other general legal practice matters for the firm’s McDonough office.

Today’s tumultuous housing market can be a dangerous place for the brokers, agents, and field inspectors who must walk into foreclosed and REO properties on a daily basis. Occupied or vacant, these properties represent unfamiliar territory often rife with unknown peril.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced this afternoon that the government’s plan to purchase financial institutions’ under-performing mortgages has been put on hold. In fact, based on Paulson’s remarks, it is unlikely that the Treasury will conduct any auctions to purchase bad loans and other troubled assets – the original intention of the $700 billion bailout package.

Home values in the United States posted their seventh consecutive quarterly decline, falling 9.7 percent year-over-year to a Zillow Home Value Index of $202,966, according to the third quarter Zillow Real Estate Market Reports released today.

Following suit behind other national lenders such as Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup said on Monday that it is stopping foreclosures on borrowers who occupy their property as a principal residence and have enough income to keep up lower, renegotiated mortgage payments.