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Category Archives: Mortgage Dispute Topics

Fewer Dallas-Area Homeowners Late on Loans

Published on August 22, 2011 by Robert A. Kraft

Dallas-area late mortgage rates are continuing to decline, according to an article in the Dallas Morning News:
In May, 4.8 percent of local residents with a loan on their home were 90 days or more behind in their payments.
That’s down from 5.51 percent a year earlier and 6.08 percent in early 2010, researchers at CoreLogic Inc. [...]

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Texas Senate Panel Passes Bill to Safeguard Military Families Against Foreclosure

Published on March 21, 2011 by Robert A. Kraft

Earlier this month a committee of the Texas Senate passed a bill that will be a great relief to many military families. The bill, which would protect active-duty military personnel from losing their homes to homeowners associations, was detailed in an article in the Dallas Morning News. Here are excerpts:
Federal law protects acting service members [...]

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The Rise and Fall of a Foreclosure King

Published on February 17, 2011 by Robert A. Kraft

A fascinating article was recently published, at Yahoo News among other places, about a Florida lawyer known as the “Foreclosure King” for the sheer volume of foreclosures processed by his firm. Many homeowners were evicted because of these foreclosures, and it now appears that most of them were wrongfully evicted. The law firm not only [...]

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2010 Was a Record High Year for Foreclosure Filings in Dallas-Fort Worth

Published on November 22, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

This year set a record for foreclosure filings in North Texas. The good news is that the rate of increase over 2009 is much less than in the previous two years. This may be an indication that the situation is settling down, and that 2011 may not set a new record. The Dallas Morning News [...]

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Lenders Still Pursue Foreclosures While in Modification Talks

Published on November 2, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The Washington Post (10/30, Elboghdady, 605K) reports, “Across the country, struggling homeowners are increasingly tripped up by mortgage lenders that press ahead with foreclosures regardless of any effort they make to provide borrowers with relief on unaffordable mortgages. … Mortgage companies have established a dual-track approach toward troubled homeowners, negotiating with them over loan modifications [...]

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Wells Fargo to Refile 55,000 Foreclosure Cases

Published on October 28, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The AP (10/27) reports Wells Fargo “admitted Wednesday it made mistakes in the paperwork for thousands of foreclosure cases and promised to fix them.” The “San Francisco-based bank said it plans to refile documents in 55,000 of the cases by mid-November. The company said not all those cases included errors but didn’t say how many [...]

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Mortgage Relief Effort Has Fallen Woefully Short

Published on October 26, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The CBS Evening News reported that the Administration’s “foreclosure prevention plan was labeled a failure today by a government watchdog. Of the 1.3 million people the Treasury claims to have helped, the Inspector General of TARP said fewer than half have actually received permanent loan modifications.”
Politico (10/26, Aujla) also reports that a report from TARP [...]

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White House Reiterates Opposition to Foreclosure Moratorium

Published on October 13, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

USA Today (10/13, Armour) reports that yesterday, the Administration “rejected calls for a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures because of concerns it could cause broader harm to the housing recovery” although “a freeze on foreclosures is still widening.” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs “did say the White House supports a multi-state investigation into foreclosures and [...]

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Obama Administration Doesn’t See Need for Blanket Foreclosure Moratorium

Published on October 12, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The New York Times (10/12, B1, Appelbaum) reports that the “swelling outcry over fast-and-loose foreclosures has thrust the Obama administration back into the uncomfortable position of sheltering the banking industry from the demands of an angry public.” While “senior Congressional Democrats join the calls for a national moratorium on foreclosures,” the White House “once again [...]

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Lawmakers Call for Investigation of Foreclosure Errors

Published on October 6, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The AP (10/6, Zibel) reports that on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and more than 30 other Democratic lawmakers from California “urged bank regulators and the Justice Department to probe whether mortgage companies violated any laws in handling foreclosures and borrowers’ requests for loan assistance.” The lawmakers sent the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, [...]

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Underwater Foreclosures Growing in D-FW Area

Published on June 4, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

This recent headline in the Dallas Morning News wasn’t referring to foreclosures on underwater houses. The topic was foreclosures on houses where the owner was upside-down or “underwater” on the mortgage. In other words, the owner owed more on the mortgage than the house was worth on the open market. This is similar to having [...]

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More Than 10% of Texas Homeowners Behind on Mortgage Payments

Published on March 15, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

More than one in ten Texas homeowners with mortgages are behind in their payments, according to the Dallas Morning News. Texas’ mortgage delinquency rate is now just slightly behind the national average of 10.44 percent. Texas ranks 18th nationally among the states with the highest percentage of late home loans. The article states that “The number [...]

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Dallas-Fort Worth Foreclosure Rate May Be Artificially Low

Published on March 11, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The Dallas Morning News recently ran an interesting and somewhat disturbing article about the decrease in local foreclosures in 2009. The good news is that the number of foreclosures dropped in 2009 from previous years. But the bad news is that this drop may have been artificially induced by strategies employed by financial institutions. Here [...]

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Failure By Mortgage Companies To Modify Mortgages May Reawaken Bankruptcy Cramdown Legislation

Published on October 15, 2009 by Kathleen Munden

According to an article in the Journal of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the failure by mortgage companies to pursue voluntary modifications of mortgages may renew the push to allow judges to modify mortgages within bankruptcy cases. Since the “Home Affordable Mortgage Program” (HAMP) went into effect in March 2009, only about 360,000 homeowners have [...]

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New Federal Program Addresses Short Sales of Homes

Published on September 10, 2009 by Kathleen Munden

National Mortgage News reports that the major mortgage servicers are preparing for the Treasury Department to roll out a short sale program and they are signing up vendors that specialize in handling these difficult real estate transactions that help troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Loan Resolution Corp. chief operating officer Travis Olsen said one of the top [...]

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Option ARMs Expected to Lead Next Wave of Foreclosures

Published on September 3, 2009 by Kathleen Munden

Since February 2009, default and foreclosure rates on option adjustable rate mortgages have passed those of subprime mortgages, which led the initial wave of foreclosures. Option ARMS accounted for $750 billion in mortgages between 2004 and 2007, and they remain at risk, especially because many are not eligible for refinancing.
About one-third of option ARMS are [...]

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What Is a Reverse Mortgage?

Published on August 28, 2009 by Kathleen Munden

A reverse mortgage allows people 62 and older to convert equity in their homes to tax-free income without having to sell the home, give up title, or take on a new monthly mortgage payment. When the borrower leaves the house, the property reverts to the lender to pay off the loan.
Although reverse mortgages have been [...]

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Fewer Delinquent Mortgage Borrowers Are Catching Up

Published on August 26, 2009 by Kathleen Munden

The Wall Street Journal has reported that homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgages are much less likely to catch up again than in previous years. The report from Fitch Ratings focused on mortgages that were packaged into securities for sale to investors, and excluded loans that were guaranteed by government-backed agencies and those [...]

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Texas Attorney General Website Offers Valuable Consumer Information

Published on July 14, 2009 by Kathleen Munden

The Attorney General is the official in the State of Texas who is responsible for protecting consumers and businesses by enforcing the Deceptive Trade Practices Act and other consumer and business protection legislation. The website of the Office of the Attorney General contains a wealth of information for consumers, along with complaint forms, hotline numbers, [...]

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FHA Loans More Accessible Than Most People Realize

Published on July 12, 2009 by Kathleen Munden

Although lending standards have become more strict during the economic crisis, the FHA loan program has remained relatively unchanged, and continues to be the most popular mortgage program in America.
Many people falsely believe that FHA loans are available only for first-time buyers or those with perfect credit. Both of those misconceptions are untrue. FHA loans [...]

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