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Wayne T. Price and Lee Nessel | Florida Today | “Many area Realtors, and others involved in the housing market, say changes probably are needed with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but the key will be moving slowly and cautiously. “This is a very forward-looking notion,” said Geoffrey K. Turnbull, a professor of real estate atRead more

Megan Hopkins | Housing Wire | “The Obama Administration’s foreclosure mitigation programs continue to assist million of homeowners throughout the country as housing continues to bounce back from a crisis that left too many homeowners underwater. Nonetheless, the government is staying cautious about issues in mortgage servicing. Delinquencies remain high, the Obama Administration’s scorecard revealed, especially whenRead more

ASSOCIATED PRESS | “President Barack Obama says the housing market is healing, but it’s time to turn the page on the “bubble-and-bust mentality” that led to the market’s collapse. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama calls on Congress to let all Americans refinance at current low rates. He wants more help for first-time homebuyers andRead more

Tim Mullaney | USA TODAY | “After years of being the USA’s foreclosure laughingstocks, Arizona and California now have better credit than the rest of us. That’s from an analysis released last week by Fannie Mae, which chronicled the performance of its $2.8 trillion loan portfolio. In states hit hardest by the housing bust — Arizona,Read more

Allison Halliday | Realty Biz News | “According to an article by AOL , home foreclosure filings in the US reached a six and half year low in June, based on figures from a RealtyTrac. Apparently there were 127,790 properties with foreclosure filings for that month, a decrease of 14% compared to May, and a massive 35% decrease comparedRead more

Elizabeth Atkins | Eastern Morning Herald | “In the month of May 2013, foreclosure rates in Southwest Florida were down quite a bit, but not enough to prevent the area from having one of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States. Data analysis firm CoreLogic’s statistics released recently show that the foreclosure rate inRead more

BBC | “The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed parallel suits in North Carolina. Attorney General Eric Holder said the government wanted “justice for those who have been victimized.” Bank of America denied the charges, arguing “these were prime mortgages sold to sophisticated investors.” The bank already hinted it expected the suitsRead more

Mark Felsenthal and Margaret Chadbourn | Reuters “Obama will propose eliminating mortgage finance entities Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac over time, replacing them with a system in which the private market buys home loans from lenders and repackages them as securities for investors, senior administration officials said. The mortgage securitization process is deemed essential to the smooth flow ofRead more

by Kim Miller | “The goliath air conditioning system in the Palm Beach County courthouse is chugging full tilt as the temperature nears 90-degrees outside and, up on the fourth floor, the foreclosure court sign-in line grows. It’s been more than five years since Florida was rocked by the housing crisis, three years since theRead more

Dick Hogan | “Lee County’s housing market got a double dose of good news Thursday as July foreclosures dove to the lowest level in more than six years while new home permits stayed strong. Even with Fort Myers Beach statistics not available, builders throughout the county pulled 247 permits for single-family homes — nearly as manyRead more