Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac undergo more scrutiny as it is discovered that almost 100 possible foreclosure fraud cases were never referred for investigation. Meanwhile, as inventories of foreclosed homes stack higher, the two agencies hold fire sales to reduce inventories. Also, Texas stories.

Tuesday Report, June 21, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service As more doom and gloom stories characterize the housing industry, Bank of America and Wells Fargo exit the reverse mortgage market. BoA aborts the venture as it posts a $73 billion loss in housing investments. Meanwhile, forecasters see house prices plummeting [...]

Tuesday Report, June 14, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Mortgage lenders are whining at new federal efforts to clean up toxic loans. The rules would force banks to retain at least five percent of the risked principle on loans sold to other banks. The rules would also force borrowers to [...]

Tuesday Report, June 7, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Government efforts to help distressed homeowners continue to fizzle. Awkward to administer and often burdened with tedious paperwork, the programs ultimately reach too few, too late. The failed initiatives further disenchant voters with the economic recovery efforts of the Obama Administration. [...]

Tuesday Report, May 31, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Home prices continue to freefall as the backlog of unsold units rises and few buyers step in. Home ownership continues to decline; experts project the rates could reach those of the 1980s. As goons rule Jaurez, residents flee. Many who stay [...]

Tuesday Report, May 24, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service In Texas, Galveston disaster recovery continues and a homeless census found the homeless population in Harris and Fort Bend counties grew by 25 percent. Nationwide, a huge backlog of unsold houses wait for better mortgage terms for borrowers as sales continue [...]

Tuesday Report, May 17, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Groundbreakings for new residential units dropped in April as the housing industry continues its freefall. In California, lenders have drawn out “short sales” with a myriad of paperwork to the extent that realtors are protesting. Meanwhile, a year-long Washington Post investigation [...]

Tuesday Report, May 10, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Fannie Mae, already in the Congressional crosshairs and possible sunsetting, posts a huge first quarter loss and asks for more billions more in federal aid. A new study says mortgage fraud is down – but so are new mortgages. The rate [...]

Tuesday Report, May 3, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service A new Harvard study shows that for every hundred extremely low-income families there are only 32 units available within their means. As foreclosures convert homeowners into renters, the demand for rental units increases along with prices but builders have been slow [...]

Tuesday Report, April 26, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Conservatives bent on ending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have run into united opposition of bankers and builders. The mortgage giants underwrite most of the industry’s finances by bundling loans and reselling them as federal securities, a practice that failed in [...]

Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Disclosures continue to shed light on sleazy mortgage deals by US bankers but justice is slow in coming, if at all. The Justice Department and HUD have met with the ten largest mortgage companies in an effort to reach a broad agreement as to how to [...]

Tuesday Report, March 29, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service As sales of new homes drop to record levels and create the specter of a continuing recession, new Federal rules take effect April 1 that will dramatically change mortgage practices. Mortgage brokers will get a flat rate for sales, thus eliminating [...]

Tuesday Report, March 22, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Shoddy lending practices of major banks are slowly bringing a call for reform in the home mortgage industry. “Robo-signing” remains as one of the major scams as state attorneys general set up new standards. Meanwhile, the prices of houses continue to [...]

Tuesday Report, March 8, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service The Obama Administration’s program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure in on the Congressional chopping block. The effort has proven expensive and difficult to administer through reticent lenders who saw little profit in renegotiating troubled loans. Lenders who received federal bailouts have [...]

Tuesday Report, March 1, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service While The Obama Administration’s 7.5 percent cut in Community Development Block Grants are not as bad as the 64 percent cut proposed by Republicans, the $300 million reduction has raised an outcry among city mayors from both major parties. The grants [...]

Tuesday Report, February 22, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service   The cogs of the federal bureaucracy slowly turn and bring forth charges of gross fraud against bankers who have screwed homeowners. The Comptroller of the Currency issued findings that reinforce those of Congressional investigations. While the allegations mount, little is [...]

Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Congress takes up the fate of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this month with conservatives proposing to privatize the mortgage security giants while others propose major restructuring with a separate entity insuring catastrophic risks. At this point, it is apparent that the present organizations will undergo [...]

Tuesday Report, January 25, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Litigation bears down on sleazy mortgage lenders, some of whom hope to destroy evidence and shred originating loan documents. Meanwhile, Bank of America sinks deeper in debt and home prices continue to slide. Galveston finally gears-up to rebuild housing destroyed by [...]

Tuesday Report, January 18, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service While spin artists quibble over whether the recession continues or not, the sad fact emerges that the value of homes has fallen more than in the Great Depression. Meanwhile, more than a million US homeowners were foreclosed during 2010. Canada, however, [...]

Tuesday Report, Jan. 11, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service The twisting and murky maneuvers in white-collar crime come into focus as Goldman Sacks faces fraud charges from a partner that refuses to take the rap for unmerited profits from the housing meltdown. The complicated nuances of the sleazy dealings also [...]

Special to the Texas Low Income Information Service The house sales stimulated by tax credits for first-time homebuyers last year have been wiped-out by recent drops in sales prices. As the market returns to rational terms that preceded the Bush Era, Bank of American comes to terms with the lending excesses of Countrywide while Republicans [...]

Tuesday Report, December 28, 2010 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Housing sales are slightly up, prices are down, and the construction industry is left struggling within a dormant economy. The lingering recession has seen the retirement and exit of many skilled construction workers leaving builders without a sufficient workforce should the [...]

Tuesday Report, December 21, 2010 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service The US economy continues to slump into another year with housing sector as the major stagnant sector. Little hope in seen in the short term as a conservative Congress is expected to end tax deductions on mortgage interest. Tax cuts for [...]