Reviewing Oregon’s Legislative Changes
Oregon's Legislature was quite busy this legislative session, and nowhere was that more evident than in the area of trust deed foreclosures and...
What If The Housing Bubble Never Happened?
When Dr. Stanley D. Smith, a finance professor at the University of Central Florida, recently examined the rise and fall of housing prices...
Taking A Second Look At CRA
Ever since the current financial crisis began with the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market in 2007, a number of people have tried...
Understanding Legal Risk In Loss Mitigation
Bankers weren't exactly singing 'Happy Days Are Here Again,' but their relief was palpable after the Senate rejected a measure in May that...
Short Sales: Not Always A Shortcut
style='font-size: large'>A short sale - like a loan modification, a repayment plan and a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure - is a loss mitigation option that...
Protecting Consumers Or Inhibiting Lenders?
style='font-size: x-large'>Next month, the House of Representatives will resume debate on H.R.3126, the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2009. The legislation, based on an...
CDFI Lenders Persevere Amid The Crisis
style='font-size: x-large'>The ongoing recession has not missed any corner of the financial services world, and this includes the relatively slender sector occupied by community...
‘Real Party In Interest’: The Arkansas Story
style='font-size: large'>With the uptick in foreclosures over the last year, it is not surprising to see a similar increase in the number of contested...
Rising Inventories Coincide With Halted Sales
style='font-size: large'>Foreclosure inventory rates continue to climb due to an ongoing bottleneck in foreclosure sales - the result of governmental moratoria, reports Herb Blecher,...
Credit Unions Respond Positively To Rocky Market
style='font-size: x-large'>When Todd Hatfield is asked how the ongoing mortgage banking crisis is affecting the residential home loan originations at First Family Federal Credit...
Abandoned Or Unkempt? Squatter Or Renter?
style='font-size: large'>A presidential call to halt foreclosures - combined with major financial institutions' own internal moratoria - may have helped to temporarily slow the...
Looking To (And Beyond) Washington For Warehouse Help
style='font-size: x-large'>Just when one might think the current crisis facing mortgage banking cannot get any worse, along come the problems facing the warehouse lending...
De Novo Institutions Eyeball Residential Lending
I t is easy to assume that the least likely time to launch a new financial institution is during one of...
In Collections, Emphasize Quality Over Quantity
Ever since the foreclosure crisis hit full swing, once piece of advice has repeatedly been dished out to servicers: Think proactively, not reactively....
Prepping For The Next Generation
In his essay 'On Compromise,' British writer John Morley wrote, 'Evolution is not a force but a process; not a cause but a...
A USDA Rural Housing Service Primer
Rita E. Bellinger has a message for mortgage bankers: There is life outside of the big cities. Even better, she adds, there...
Manufactured Housing: The Struggle Continues
When asked about the state of manufacturing housing in California, Jess Maxcy replies in a brief, yet blunt manner: 'It's in the tank.'...
Freddie Mac Readies For SMP Rollout
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae announced this week that they will extend their suspension of evictions caused by foreclosure through the end of...
A Look Inside Fannie Mae’s SMP Guidelines
In November, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director James B. Lockhart announced the beginning of a loan modification program whose impact will ripple...
Home For The Holidays? Do Foreclosure Moratoriums Help Or Harm?
As the number of foreclosures continues to increase, so do the questions as to what may be done to combat the epidemic....