Homes For Sale

Mortgage servicing practices have taken center stage on Capitol Hill, with a flurry of bills being penned to make servicing reforms the law of the land.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California) has revised a bill she’s brought to the table several times before that would compel lenders to engage in what she says are “reasonable loss mitigation activities” for all delinquent homeowners.

Waters has long maintained that the servicing industry is “broken,” a view that has become the popular opinion in light of the robo-signing scandal last fall that brought illegal foreclosure filings to light and prompted widespread investigations into industry practices.

Those investigations resulted in cease and desist orders issued last week to a handful of residential mortgage servicers. Monetary

Full article…

Whenever making a big financial decision, it is good to consider what will happen in the long run. Many reverse mortgage borrowers worry about how their actions now will affect their heirs in the future. This perception has fueled a lot of fear and bad press associated with reverse mortgage information. This article will explore the three main options available to reverse mortgage heirs.

What is a Reverse Mortgage?

In order to be eligible for a reverse mortgage, the borrower(s) must be at least 62 years of age and own their home. If they meet these requirements and use the home as a primary residence, they will have the opportunity to convert a portion of their equity into usable cash. Many seniors want to stay in the comforts of their homes throughout retirement and a reverse mortgage helps them use their home to stay in their home. Full article…

The foreclosure-abuse settlements announced yesterday

While the attorneys general proposed many similar terms last month, banking regulators didn’t include any requirements for lowering mortgage debt. That may hinder Iowa Attorney General Thomas J. Miller as he leads a group of state officials working with the administration to require lenders to evaluate loan cuts for some borrowers whose homes are worth less than their mortgages.

“I have always been pretty skeptical about the ability of principal reductions to get you much,” said Mark A. Calabria, director of financial-regulation studies at the Cato Institute, a public-policy research group in Washington. “I th

Full article…

The nation’s lingering housing foreclosure mess is too often about folks with McMansion-size aspirations and duplex paychecks, granite counter appetites and laminate budgets.

And when we hear that one of the nation’s hot spots for foreclosures is Prince William County, we nod knowingly, thinking of the vast tracts of huge new homes and the dreamers who drowned in them.

But the other day, I met some of the folks who lost their homes or are fighting with banks to try to keep them. And McMansion isn’t what comes to mind.

“We still have the ’80s carpet in the house; we never refinanced and remodeled. We really

Full article…

The spirited city of New Orleans took a big hit in recent years with a category five hurricane destroying most of the city and an oil spill threatening its beaches and waterways. This dilemma begs the question: What are senior homeowners doing to survive these natural and economic disasters?

Despite Decreased Home Values, Louisiana Residents Still Seem Optimistic

According to a recent study, Louisiana home prices and values have dropped by more than $15,000 statewide and more than $45,000 in the city of New Orleans alone since 2008. Even though home values have dropped dramatically, residents are still optimistic because the decrease has actually made senior nursing homes among the most affordable in the country. In addition, many seniors are using a Louisiana reverse mortgage to help them remain in their homes and maintain their current lifestyle in this shaky economy. Full article…