Mortgage Fraud

Will Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Need Federal Intervention?

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Odds are the answer is yes. As share prices plummeted after a Barron’s article yesterday for both Fannie Mae (down 22%) and Freddie Mac (25%) the companies are in a very precarious spot. The Wall Street Journal has an [...]

19Aug2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Freddie Mac Chief Ignored Warnings Of Bad Underwriting

Is there any surprise that Freddie Mac chief Richard Syron ignored warnings that the mortgage underwriting standards were poor and that they under capitalized the loans on the books?
Didn’t think so, especially when he was taking huge bonuses placing bets with taxpayer’s and shareholder’s money.
Ugh…

In an interview with the paper, Freddie Mac’s former chief risk [...]

5Aug2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Reverse Mortgage Benefit Tucked Away In Housing Bill

The Federal Housing Bill of 2008 has an additional perk for senior citizens borrowing money via a reverse mortgage. The cap on reverse mortgages has been lifted to $625,000 and fees that can be charged by lenders have been restricted.
I wonder if the costs and the risks in these loans will make lenders less [...]

4Aug2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

So You Want To Know Why We Are In This Mess?

If you are wondering why the housing credit crisis happened, and the implicit role the government, media, and press played in it, please read this editorial by Paul Gigot at the Wall Street Journal.
He and his staff have been on this story since 2001. That is right, 2001. While the rest of the media and [...]

23Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 3 comments | Continued

Operation Malicious Mortgage Results in 400 Charged

Operation Malicious Mortgage wrapped up yesterday with 400 charged and 60 people arrested nationwide. The operation by the FBI is a strike against mortgage fraud across the country.
Now the FBI should be applauded for doing something as mortgage fraud is one of the leading white collar crimes being committed across the country. But, and [...]

20Jun2008 | Tom Royce | 5 comments | Continued

Burning Down The House or Torching Your Foreclosure

Hold tight wait till the partys overHold tight were in for nasty weatherThere has got to be a wayBurning down the house
(lyrics of the Talking Heads classic, Burning Down The House)
A report out of Memphis found that a new trend is emerging, burning down one home when it is in foreclosure. Out of the [...]

27May2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Mortgage Guaranty Ends Mortgage Insurance For Condos in Florida

The largest mortgage reinsurance company, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., has decided to stop providing private mortgage insurance to condo owners in Florida starting June 1st. While others will continue to provide the service this is still fairly big news.
The company lost 1.4 billion in the 4th quarter last year and is trying to get [...]

26May2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

What Consumers Do Not Know About Their Mortgages

While we in the real estate blogosphere try to figure out why the mortgage crisis is not resolving itself, the reason might be staring us in the face.
The consumer never learned the rules of the game.
Real estate agents and mortgage brokers got so caught up in the frenzy of selling and doing deals [...]

3May2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Mortgage Fraud Now A Specific Crime in Missouri

Mortgage fraud was rampant in the beginning of the century, that is very obvious to anyone who has watched the real estate market recently. That is why the new legislation coming out of Missouri is good to see.
Missouri is going to make the crime of mortgage fraud it’s own category of law with enforcement and very specific [...]

3May2008 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Spanked For New Accounting Problems

Is this any surprise, both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are now being told to moderate their aggressive accounting methods and be more prudent on the numbers they are reporting. The issue is a bit esoteric but coming after the accounting scandals that enveloped the agencies in the past year, any hint of impropriety should [...]

23Apr2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued