"This population has been underserved. The American dream is still very vibrant in the Hispanic heart." Read more: Housing Market , Hispanics , Movoto , Real Estate , Hispanic Homeowners , Latino Home Buyers , Money News

Geithner Hears Spain's Plans to Strengthen Financial Sector Bloomberg US Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Spain's deputy prime minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, met today to discuss Spain's plans to bolster its banking system. The two officials discussed "the significant progress that Spain has made on ...

FHA Foreclosures Jump 73 Percent in April Bloomberg Foreclosure starts on loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration rose 73 percent between March and April, driven by defaults on mortgages issued in 2008 and 2009, according to a report today by mortgage data provider Lender Processing Services. and more »

May 31, 2012: FHFA Announces Appointment to Coordinate the Strategic Plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Conservatorships

Wells Fargo Lending Discrimination Case Seen Possible by US Bloomberg The Justice Department has "sufficient basis" to file a lending discrimination complaint against Wells Fargo & Co., the largest US mortgage lender, said Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez in a conference call with reporters today.

SunTrust Mortgage Inc., the mortgage lending subsidiary of the nation's 11th-largest commercial bank, has agreed to pay $21 million to resolve a lawsuit by the Department of Justice that it engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination that increased loan prices for many of the qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers who obtained loans between 2005 and 2009 through SunTrust Mortgage's regional retail offices and national network of mortgage brokers.

Reports today from the New York Federal Reserve and RealtyTrac shed some new light on consumers’ financial conditions and mortgages. Improvements continue for consumers in the mortgage market; the one weak spot in the NY Fed report was student loans. The NY Fed reports that some 291,000 individuals had foreclosure notations on their credit reports [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Abacus Federal Savings Bank, which caters to Chinese immigrants in New York and other communities, has been charged with selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fraudulent mortgages to Fannie Mae.

Lacker Says Rising Federal Debt Poses Challenge for Fed Bloomberg Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker said a projected increase in US government debt during the next decade would complicate policy makers' efforts to hold inflation within their 2 percent goal. "Those projections are alarming, ... and more »

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration wants all the credit for a drop in Nevada foreclosure filings even though housing analysts have attributed some... Read more: Obama Foreclosure , Department of Housing and Urband Development , Obama Administration , Foreclosure , Nevada Foreclosure , Shaun Donovan , Negative Equity , Politics News

California homeowners need common-sense protections during the foreclosure process. The Legislature should resist industry pressure and approve the Homeowner Bill of Rights.

I was looking for guidance/insight on the issue of future REO volume because I had anticipated a faster pickup in REO volume once the state AG agreement was signed with the major servicers (ie being held back after robo signing... Read More

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill moved to keep the federal government's flood-insurance program running for another two months, giving Congress more time to finish a long-term overhaul that aims to shore up the program's finances.

Portland Region April Home Sales Portland-area home sales rose year-over-year for the 10th consecutive month in April as the portion of sales to investors and other absentee buyers hit a new high. The median sale price inched up from a year earlier for the second month in a row as distressed property sales held at about 40 percent of the resale market, a real estate information service reported. A total of 2,489 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow during April in the five-county Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro area. Sales rose 4.5 percent from the prior month and rose 8.4 percent from a year earlier, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records. A sales gain between March and April is normal for the season, with the increase averaging 2.4 percent since 1994, when DataQuick's complete Portland-area statistics begin. This April's sales were still low in a historical context, falling 30.6 percent short of the average sales tally for all months of April since 1994. The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos that closed escrow in the Portland region during April was $215,000, up 2.4 percent from the prior month and up 1.4 percent from a year earlier. It was the median's third consecutive month-to-month gain and the second consecutive year-over-year increase. April's $215,000 median was the highest for any month since last November, when the median was $218,500. April's median was 25.6 percent lower than the peak $289,000 median in October 2007, and it was 10.3 percent higher than the post-peak trough of $195,000 in January this year. Another price measure analysts track, the median paid per square foot for resale single-family detached houses, rose to $130 in April. That was up 3.2 percent month-to-month and it was the same as a year earlier, marking the first time in 21 months that the median price paid per square foot didn't drop on a year-over...

Press Release FDIC Issues Third Quarter 2012 CRA Examination Schedule FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 31, 2012 Media Contact: Greg Hernandez (202) 898-6984 Cell: (202) 340-4922 Email: ghernandez@fdic.gov   The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has issued the public list of institutions that it has scheduled for a Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) examination during the third quarter of 2012. This list is published pursuant to revised CRA regulations published in May 1995 that require each federal bank and thrift regulator to publish a quarterly CRA examination schedule at least 30 days before the beginning of each quarter. The examination schedule reflects the effects of an institution's size and CRA rating on examination frequency. Absent reasonable cause, an institution with $250 million or less in assets and a CRA rating of Satisfactory can be subject to a CRA examination no more frequently than once every 48 months. Absent reasonable cause, an institution with $250 million or less in assets and a CRA rating of Outstanding can be subject to a CRA examination no more frequently than once every 60 months. The schedule of institutions to be examined July 1, 2012, through September 30, 2012, is based on the best information now available. Examination schedules may change. For example, a regulated financial institution not otherwise scheduled for an examination may be examined in connection with the application for a deposit facility. Alternatively, some institutions may require more time and resources than originally allotted, thus delaying other scheduled examinations. If an institution is rescheduled for a different quarter, that information will be included on a later list. The regulators encourage public comment on the institutions to be examined under the CRA. Comments about FDIC-supervised institutions should be directed to the institutions themselves or to the Deputy Regional Director of the appropriate FDIC regional office (a list of those locations...

Short Sales of US Homes on Track to Exceed Foreclosure Deals Bloomberg Short sales of US homes rose to a three-year high in the first quarter as banks agreed to let more borrowers unload property at a loss, putting the transactions on pace to surpass deals for foreclosures, RealtyTrac Inc. said.