mortgage mess

Will homeowners see a penny of the reimbursements that the government has ordered 16 mortgage lenders to pay? Not likely, foreclosure victims and housing activists say, because the independent review ordered by regulators is too weak.

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 Federal Reserve is finally admitting that not all the big banks are healthy: Bank of America won't get to pay increased dividends. But none of those financial giants should be allowed to, and a logical look at the reasons they say they want to dole out the cash makes it totally clear why.

Almost as soon as regulators proposed a settlement for the mortgage mess that would require banks to obey the law, the banks' Republican allies began trying to weaken it through obfuscation and confusion. Read on for some plain English translations of their arguments against the settlement.

The mortgage mess settlement proposal is a repudiation of the servicing industries' standard business practices. The agreement also reads as an indictment -- not just of the servicing industry, but also of law enforcement, regulators and Congress.

HSBC got plenty of attention when it disclosed that it had suspended foreclosures in its annual report Monday. But its not the only bank whose annual report made for interesting reading. The risk disclosures in banks' annual reports shed some light on their attitudes toward the mortgage mess.

Back in December 2008, John H. was small-business owner with perfect credit and a house he could afford. But when his business started suffering, he appealed to Citi Residential Mortgage for a modification. Now, he faces foreclosure -- for the fourth time -- the day before Thanksgiving.

One in every nine homes is sitting vacant, according to the U.S. Census, as reported by USA Today. That's a lot of darkened windows. Get out your calculator and do a little staggering math.Housing units in the U.S. increased by 8.65 million from 2002 to 2007. During that period, the number of...

When I was about 10 years old, I went to an abandoned property auction at a local self-storage place with my mother. We thought it would be a fun end to a long day of yard-saling. It was anything but. It was cold and rainy, and it was one of the more depressing experiences I've ever had. An old and...