Mortgage Ruling Could Have Big Impact
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule sometime this month on a case that could force the U.S. banking industry to cancel or rescind loans if borrowers prove that their lenders violated a federal lending disclosure law.
The decisions stems from a lawsuit filed by a Wisconsin couple who last year sued their bank and sought class action status. The judge not only agreed to that but also ruled that borrowers could force the bank to rescind their loans as a class remedy.
Should the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agree that rescission be a class remedy, banking industry analysts predict “confusion and market disruption” as banks curtail lending further.
“If class treatment is found to be available for rescission … the result all over the country could be massive class suits,” says Christine Scheuneman, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, which represented Chevy Chase Bank in the initial lawsuit.
Supporters of rescission as a remedy say the banking industry is overstating the results of such a ruling.
Both sides agree that the U.S. Supreme Court will likely decide the case.
Source: Reuters News, Gina Keating (06/30/08)
More Home Owners Can’t Pay Mortgages
Homeowners who are falling behind on their mortgage payments continue to outnumber those who are resolving their difficulties and staying in their homes, according to a report from the trade group, Mortgage Insurance Companies of America.
Some 67,967 homeowners with mortgage insurance fell at least 60 days behind on their mortgages, compared with 40,687 who got back on track, the mortgage insurance group reported. May is the 26th straight month that defaults outnumbered improvements.
Insurers are tightening standards on mortgages they insure to stem further losses. The new requirements contributed to a 48 percent drop in the number of mortgage insurance policies issued to new homeowners during May, the trade group says.
Source: Bloomberg, Erik Holm (06/30/2008
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Fighting Foreclosure on Staten Island
The city’s most suburban borough is more closely aligned with the rest of the country when it comes to the rate of homeownership — and, more recently, foreclosures.
Living In | Ditmars-Steinway, Queens: A Slice of Europe Near the East River
Stretching from Astoria Park, which runs along the East River, to La Guardia Airport, and from Bowery Bay down to Grand Central Parkway, Ditmars-Steinway has about 54,000 residents.
Mozilo Exits Under a Cloud
Angelo Mozilo, slated to step down as Countrywide’s chief executive on Tuesday, is departing with a devalued reputation partly because he stayed too long and at times ran the publicly traded mortgage lender as if it were his own company.
KB Homes: ‘Persistently Poor Demand’
KB Home’s quarterly loss nearly doubled as prices fell amid a continuing housing downturn and credit crisis.
KB Homes: ‘Persistently Poor Demand’
KB Home’s quarterly loss nearly doubled as prices fell amid a continuing housing downturn and credit crisis.
Renovators in Limbo
Lenders are cutting off more home-equity lines of credit and limiting new ones. These cutbacks are crimping homeowners’ plans for costly improvements and dinging the remodeling industry.
Post Properties Finds No Takers
Post’s stock fell much further than the overall market Thursday after announcing that “all potential bidders” had withdrawn from its five-month sale process.
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