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Mortgage relief faces a tax-law nightmare

February 22, 2012

Mortgage relief faces a tax-law nightmare

Given the huge public and private resources now being devoted to helping financially distressed homeowners — including the recently announced $25 billion national mortgage settlement with five major banks — you might assume that a key federal tax-law benefit underpinning these efforts would be a shoo-in for renewal.

But it’s not. The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act is set to expire in 10 months, and there are early indications on Capitol Hill that it might not make the cut. The law, first enacted in 2007, allows homeowners who have received principal reductions on their mortgages as the result of loan modifications, short sales or foreclosures to avoid income taxation on the amounts forgiven.

Read More on The Seattle Times…

Are you a struggling homeowner? Check out our Avoiding Foreclosure section for resources and tips.

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The costs of buying a foreclosed home

February 21, 2012

The costs of buying a foreclosed home

Homebuilders are switching tactics and confronting head-on one of their biggest nemeses: foreclosed houses that not only lure buyers away with deeply discounted prices but simultaneously depress the appraisal values of newly built homes.

At a packed session at the recent International Builders’ Show expo here, consultants and builders said that with gluts of foreclosures in major markets around the country — and more forecast to arrive in the next two years — the time has come to stop being passive and to begin aggressively educating buyers about the often hidden costs of buying foreclosures.

Read More on The Seattle Times…

Are you thinking of buying a home? Check out our Homeownership Simplified section a for information & tips on buying a house and our handy calculators to figure out potential mortgages, closing costs, and more!

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Citigroup pays $158M to settle mortgage fraud

February 16, 2012

Citigroup pays $158M to settle mortgage fraud

Citigroup has agreed to pay $158.3 million to settle claims that its mortgage unit duped the U.S. government into insuring risky mortgage loans for over six years.

The government said Wednesday that Citi Mortgage certified 30,000 mortgages for insurance provided by the Federal Housing Agency and submitted many certifications that were “knowingly or recklessly false.”

More than a third of those mortgage loans went into default, resulting in millions of dollars in losses for the government because of the insurance claims.

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Foreclosure activity down in state, up nationally in January

February 16, 2012

Some more good news for Washington!

Foreclosure activity down in state, up nationally in January

Banks took back more U.S. homes in January than in the previous month, the latest sign that foreclosures are accelerating after slowing sharply last year while lenders sorted out foreclosure-abuse claims.

Foreclosures rose 8 percent nationally from December, but were down 15 percent from a year earlier, foreclosure-listing firm RealtyTrac reported…

…Foreclosures in Washington state in January, however, fell 18 percent from December and 58 percent from January 2011.

Read Full Story on The Seattle Times…

Are you a struggling homeowner? Check out our Avoiding Foreclosure section for resources and tips.

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Mortgage relief: Houses turned into billboards

February 15, 2012

This is interesting idea, however many HOAs have rules against this kind of thing. Are you a struggling homeowner? Check out our Avoiding Foreclosure section for resources and helpful tips that won’t annoy your neighbors (hopefully).

Mortgage relief: Houses turned into billboards

When they saw the house on El Dorado Drive in this Los Angeles suburb being painted a startling orange and green and giant billboards hung on the outside, Scott and Beth Hostetler’s neighbors were initially angry and confused. Some even considered calling the police.

But what they witnessed on Friday was not an offensive redecoration decision by the Hostetlers, but rather the debut of one of the more unusual schemes to arise from the housing crisis. In return for allowing the front of their four-bedroom house to become a garish advertisement, the Hostetlers are getting their nearly $2,000 monthly mortgage paid by the marketing company behind the project, Brainiacs From Mars.

Read Full Story on MSNBC.com…

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