With conditions in the housing market still uncertain and homeowners under extreme amounts of stress over extended periods of time, some have found themselves the victim of loan modification scams. Using CitiFinancial and CitiMortgage letterhead, several California men conned unwitting residents out of thousands of dollars when they fraudulently offered to help borrowers set up …

One Arizona real estate agent is working to keep people in their homes. Wayne Gibson, partner and agent for Program HR 3648 has worked to keep as many as 6 homeowners in their homes in his first 90 days on the job. Gibson recognizes that homeowners are under a great deal of stress, and says …

One California lawyer became famous for telling his clients to break into their homes and squat in foreclosed properties. After refusing to participate in the California Bar Association’s disciplinary proceedings against him, Michael T. Pines faces losing the ability to practice law in the state. Though Pines maintains that the vast majority of these foreclosures …

Even though state and federal agencies are working feverishly to keep homeowners out of foreclosure, numbers across the nation continue to look grim. In July of 2012, San Francisco topped the charts for the highest number of new foreclosures in the nation. It was also the first time, since the housing crisis began, that California …

According to one survey, investors accounted for nearly 25% of all housing transactions and 30.6% of short sales in February of 2012. While these numbers steadily increase, the number of home purchases as short sale by individuals is decreasing. Individual buyers simply cannot wait out the long and complicated process of buying a home in …

Lenders across Long Island, and other parts of the U.S. held seminars and sponsored events in early July of this year, in hopes that they could answer some of their borrowers questions and make quick decisions about the status of loans. One significant problem across the nation has been the ability of borrowers to reach …

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has instituted a new program that would seek to convert a government backlog of repossessed properties into profitable rental units. This new program has draw significant investor attention, experts say. These steps were taken by the FHFA in order to stabilize the floundering market and relieve the agency of …

Six Americans will receive a windfall from the federal settlement with the nations five largest banks. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, CitiGroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Ally Financial were ordered to pay nearly $5 billion in fines and promise $20 billion more in refinancing and mortgage modifications for borrowers. Lynn Szymoniak, however, will get more …

A new report suggests that reducing the amount that homeowners own on mortgages is a more effective way to avoid mass numbers of foreclosures than reducing interest rates or postponing due dates on payments. This move has an added benefit of bringing home values closer to actual market values. Nearly 50% fewer borrowers re-defaulted after …

A deed in lieu basically means a homeowner signs over ownership of their property to the lender, rather than going through costly foreclosure proceedings. At this point the lender may sell the property to recoup lost value if they so choose. The lender may require, however, that the property is listed for a minimum of …