News

Rather than Quenching the Industry’s Thirst, Did TARP Trickle Away Needed Funds—Making Matters Worsex Rome may not have been built in a day, but it certainly didn’t take long for its empire to decline and fall.

The recent boom in refinances as homeowners try to cash in on record-low mortgage rates has been a pleasant surprise for Cranbury, New Jersey-based Visionet Systems. The company says that its process outsourcing business doubled during the first quarter of this year as a result of the surge in home loan refinances.

In Today’s Gloomy Real Estate Market, Vacant Properties Offer a Glimmer of Hope First it was the subprime explosion. Next it was concerns about adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs)—creative loans with artificially low teaser rates scheduled to reset to higher rates through 2009.

President Barack Obama is expected to name Fannie Mae’s chief executive Herb Allison to head the government’s $700 billion bank bailout program, according to a report published Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal:http://online.

Ocwen Financial Corporation, a subprime mortgage servicer headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, announced on Monday that it is the first servicer in the country to begin executing loan modifications under the Treasury Department’s new Home Affordable Modification program.

ForeclosureRadar, which tracks every California foreclosure and provides daily auction updates on its Web site, issued its March Foreclosure Report for the Golden State on Tuesday. According to the company’s market data, foreclosure notices hit a new record level, while foreclosure sales in the state dropped last month.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a tax credit of up to $8,000 is available for first-time home buyers. However, Alpharetta, Georgia-based Metro Buyers Group, LLC, argues that the problem for most first-time buyers is the down payment, and the new tax credit is only available to purchasers that have already closed on their home.

Mark DeGolyer and Ruthe Joyner DeGolyer had never purchased a home through a real estate auction before, let alone through an online auction, and like many people who consider the online avenue for a home purchase, the DeGolyers were nervous at first.

Montgomery County, Maryland and the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development announced last week that they will provide up to $450,000 to three non-profit organizations to support foreclosure prevention counseling.

Bank of America, which services one out of five mortgages in the United States, announced this week that it has begun processing its first wave of mortgage refinance applications under the U.S. Treasury Department’s Making Home Affordable program.