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Robert Trigaux | Times Business Columnist | “Consumer ripoffs, scams and disputes are alive, well and changing as the nation emerges from recession, consumer protection experts said Tuesday. “There is a boundless creativity of scammers to find new ways to fleece consumers,” warns Susan Grant, the Consumer Federation of America’s director of consumer protection. Unlicensed contractingRead more

Lisa Mahapatra | International Business Times | “A total of 55,000 foreclosures were completed in June, a 20 percent decline from a year earlier, according to a just-released report from CoreLogic , a financial services and analytics firm. The number of distressed homes have fallen for 19 consecutive months, as have the number of homes that are seriouslyRead more

Francys Vallecillo | World Property Channel | “The number of completed foreclosures in the U.S. decreased 20 percent in June from the same time last year, according to the latest data from CoreLogic. The data also showed positive signs for the foreclosure inventory in the U.S. In June, there were about one million homes inRead more

“HARP Mortgage Lenders, a national network of mortgage professionals who are approved for the Home Affordable Refinance Program , reported that recent Florida foreclosure rates are improving, but some counties are still swimming in waves of foreclosures and HARP 2.0 may just be the solution to their problem. According to RealtyTrac (the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties and real estateRead more

Fox23.com | “Ally Financial and its related companies are paying about $198 million to settle federal complaints that the companies wrongfully foreclosed on homeowners. The Federal Reserve announced the agreement Friday with Ally Financial, the former lending arm of General Motors known as GMAC Mortgage. Ally’s settlement is similar to accords between federal regulators and 13 otherRead more

Christina Mlynski | Housing Wire | While the housing market is on the mend — with progress even in the hardest-hit states — the backlog of homes in foreclosure and real-estate owned properties is still clogging the pipeline, analysts claim. The East Coast is a testament to such findings, where the duration of the foreclosureRead more

JANN SWANSON | Mortgage News Daily | “The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has updated and released proceedings of a conference it held last October in conjunction with the Rockefeller Institute of New York. The conference, entitled Distressed Residential Real Estate: Dimensions, Impacts, and Remedies was devoted to three main topics: An assessment volumes of properties thatRead more

eCreditDaily | “There is a considerably larger volume of loans in the foreclosure process in judicial states — where a judge presides — and that appears to be impeding home price recovery in those states. An analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that the average number of days that a mortgageRead more

Michael Sasso | Tribune Staff | “Fewer people are losing homes in the Tampa Bay area, but the region still has the nation’s sixth-highest foreclosure rate, a new ranking shows. In fact, metropolitan areas in Florida take up five of the six top spots in the nationwide ranking by RealtyTrac, a foreclosure research firm. That’s likelyRead more

Steven Perlberg |   “Real estate investors are getting back in the flipping game, netting an average gross profit of nearly $20,000 on single family home flips in the first half of 2013. Home flips are up 19% from a year ago and 74% from the first half of 2011,according to a new report from Realtytrac .Read more