Amid the budget battles, a conversation on the future of housing policy in America
Housing
The Good and Bad Housing News in the February Jobs Report
One of the challenges to economic recovery in the U.S. has been the glut of houses on the market as a result of the burst housing bubble that caused the great recession in the first place. A robust, job-creating recovery typically relies heavily on the construction sector for a substantial portion of the jobs created–I’ve seen numbers …
The Foreclosure Deal: Obama and the Banks Win Big While Homeowners See Modest Reward
Outline of the $25 Billion Mortgage Settlement
It’s been a long slog, but government officials and representatives from major U.S. banks have reportedly come to terms on a settlement that would put an end to federal and state investigations into alleged foreclosure abuses by financial institutions.
The White House will announce the official details early this afternoon, but …
Details of Mortgage Servicing Settlement Between Banks and AGs Begin to Emerge
The never-ending negotiations between the 50 state attorneys general (minus a few big ones) and five major banks over penalties and standards for past, present and future mortgage servicing are finally ending, and some details …
Obama’s Refinance Program: Underwhelming Policy, Expedient Politics
Did you know that you can’t be in favor of fixing the housing market and not be in favor of President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act? That was the underlying message of a conference call with two top Obama advisers on Monday …
The Grand Legal Mortgage Morass
If there’s one takeaway from the news that the Federal Housing Finance Agency will sue a dozen big banks for peddling disastrously overvalued mortgage-backed securities in the the run-up to the financial crisis, it’s that the handful of major suits brought against Wall Street since 2008 have never been further from resolution.
The …
You’re Going to Hear a Lot About Eric Schneiderman
He’s the guy who bucked the Obama administration on a nationwide investigation into foreclosure fraud and got booted from the executive committee of state attorneys general who are working to reach a settlement with banks. The disagreement between Schneiderman, New York’s AG, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, HUD’s Shaun Donovan and …