Attention homeowners! Whether you're current or in default make sure to scrutinize your mortgage bank's math. As recent court testimony explains, there's a chance that the bank is wrong about how much you owe -- particularly if you're behind on payments.
The number of default notices, scheduled home auctions and repossessions declined significantly in February as banks begin to take a more measured approach to foreclosures amid government probes. But the lower numbers are likely only temporary.
When Countrywide Financial created deeply flawed mortgage-backed securities, it wasn't just selling bad financial products: It was breaking its contracts. Now some ordinary investors are suing Countrywide's buyer, Bank of America, to force it to repurchase those bad mortgages. That's their right, but there's nothing simple about this case, or its ramifications.
Better-than-expected earnings from General Electric helped lift the Dow and S&P 500. The Nasdaq closed lower after disappointing results from chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices. Overall, the week's strong earnings bode well for coming corporate reports.
When some new members of Congress recently said they oppose raising the U.S. debt limit, it triggered warnings of "catastrophic consequences." Indeed, the result wouldn't be pretty. But here's what's at stake as the country's debt burden swells every year.
When the state tightened its foreclosure rules in response to the document crisis, it ordered the six largest servicers to explain why they should be allowed to continue foreclosing on homes. In effect, their response went something like this: "Trust us, everything's fine now."
An affidavit in a court case needs to include the documents that support its claims. Except for banks in Florida foreclosure cases. Despite the massive robo-signing scandal and evidence of errors in mortgage files, judges there still merely take the bank's word about what you owe.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Martin Glenn denied Wells Fargo's request for permission to foreclose on Tandala Mims's house in the Bronx for a second time on Thursday because he still wasn't satisfied that Wells -- as opposed to some other bank -- had the right to do so.
With the fears of a European sovereign debt crisis growing worse, the Spanish government said Wednesday that it's taking several measures to stop the fiscal contagion from reaching its shores, including selling a 30% stake in its national lottery business, Bloomberg reported.
A smaller percentage of mortgage holders were delinquent on their payments in the third quarter than in the second quarter, although the percentage of delinquencies remains up from the same period last year.
U.S. credit card delinquencies fell in October to the lowest levels of the year as more people were able to restart payments on their consumer debt, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing company filings.
A key index that measures small business lending rose 16% in September, its second consecutive month of double-digit increases. That rise in the Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index is a strong signal that the U.S. economy is finally back on the road to recovery.
After a 16-day review of its foreclosures, Bank of America says it found no problems with any of them, and now it's ready to resume processing the paperwork. But that's a claim so unbelievable it doesn't pass the straight-face test. Here's why.
New data from RealtyTrac shows that the real estate market is still on shaky ground. Banks repossessed 95,364 homes in August -- more than in any month since the beginning of the U.S. mortgage crisis.