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Fri Jan 27, 2012
The Obama administration has announced changes to its flagship foreclosure prevention initiative – the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) – which officials say will expand its reach to more distressed homeowners. Among the changes, borrowers who are struggling because of debt beyond their mortgage will be eligible for a secondary evaluation with more flexible debt-to-income criteria, and eligibility will be extended to investor-owned homes that are used as rental properties. The administration is also giving principal reductions a bigger role within the program.
With vacant and deteriorating properties taking a toll on communities throughout Ohio and Michigan, 16 congressmen from the two states are proposing large-scale demolition as a means of easing the burden of these problematic properties, and they’ve petitioned President Obama for federal funding. They say some homes in Ohio are selling for 8 percent of their appraised value as a result of neighboring vacancies, and they cite a demolition project in Flint, Michigan, that preserved $109 million in property values among the remaining inhabited homes.
The Federal Reserve says it will keep its benchmark interest rate near zero through 2014. Read More
After reaching a 19-month high in November, pending home sales declined 3.5 percent in December, according to data released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Wednesday. November's pending home sales stood at ... read more
ISGN Corporation has obtained a $20 million secured line of credit from JPMorgan Chase, the company announced Wednesday. The line of credit from JPMorgan is available through November 21, 2012, subject to certain conditi ... read more
Capital Economics expects the housing crisis to end this year, according to a report released Tuesday. One of the reasons: loosening credit. The analytics firm notes the average credit score required to attain a mortgage ... read more
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