U.S. Home Prices `Bouncing Around' Bottom, Economist Case Says
read more at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-25/u-s-home-prices-now-flat-may-see-first-half-rise-economist-case-says.html
California Home-Loan Defaults Drop to Lowest Since '07 as Policies Changed
California home-mortgage defaults fell to their lowest level in three years in the fourth quarter as lenders adjusted their foreclosure policies, research company MDA DataQuick said.
Homeowners in the most-populous U.S. state received 69,799 default notices, down 16 percent from the third quarter and 18 percent from a year earlier, the San Diego-based data provider said today in a statement. The number was the lowest since the second quarter of 2007, when 53,943 defaults were recorded, MDA DataQuick said.
“We don’t know how much of the decline is due to less household financial distress, and how much is due to shifts in lender and servicer foreclosure policies,” John Walsh, MDA DataQuick’s president, said in a statement. “The level of default activity would certainly be higher if it weren’t for alternative strategies such as short sales, or even lengthening grace periods.”
The number of U.S. homes receiving a foreclosure filing will climb about 20 percent this year as banks resume seizures after a slowdown, according to RealtyTrac Inc. Attorneys general in all 50 states are investigating whether banks and loan servicers used faulty foreclosure documents. Companies including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. halted some repossessions as they reviewed their procedures.
read more at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-25/california-home-loan-defaults-drop-to-lowest-since-07-as-policies-changed.html
BofA's Countrywide Accused of `Massive' Mortgage Fraud by TIAA, N.Y. Life
Bank of America Inc.’s Countrywide Financial unit, acquired by the bank in 2008, was accused of “massive fraud” in a lawsuit by investors who claim they were misled about mortgage-backed securities.
TIAA-CREF Life Insurance Co., New York Life Insurance Co. and Dexia Holdings Inc. are among a dozen institutional investors who filed the complaint yesterday in New York state Supreme Court.
The investors claim they bought hundreds of millions of dollars of Countrywide mortgage-backed securities from 2005 to 2007 because they wanted conservative, low-risk investments. They said they relied on term sheets, prospectuses and other materials provided by the firm that were recklessly or knowingly false.
“Countrywide was an enterprise driven by only one purpose -- to originate and securitize as many mortgage loans as possible into MBS to generate profits for the Countrywide defendants without regard to the investors that relied on the critical, false information provided to them with respect to the related certificates,” according to the complaint.
The suit follows other fraud actions against Countrywide related to alleged misstatements to investors regarding the company’s mortgage-loan underwriting standards.
Angelo Mozilo
The complaint names more than 20 defendants, including Countrywide Home Loans Inc., Bank of America, Countrywide co- founder and former Chief Executive Officer Angelo Mozilo and other former executives.
“We will review the suit, but on first glance this sounds like a large, sophisticated investor who now wants to blame someone for the fact that the declining economy caused its investment to lose value,” Shirley Norton, a spokeswoman for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America said.
read more at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-24/countrywide-sued-by-investors-in-mortgage-backed-securities.html
