housing

Bank of America is accused of hindering the US regulators to review foreclosure practices of the company, says the court filing.

The mortgage practices of BofA have been investigated by federal regulators and state attorneys general including the use of "robo-signers" to sign hundreds of unread foreclosure documents a day.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development inspector general's office conducted a review of the five largest mortgage servicers, including Bank of America, which is the biggest.

Bank of America Corp has put up at least $1 billion worth of toxic mortgage assets for sale according to media reports.

Players can place their bids by the end of December for the assets which among other things include already written-off loans and mortgage-servicing rights.

The asset sale is part of a larger effort by the bank to unwind a trove of assets in the wake of the purchases of Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch.
 

According to the latest stats Americans' wealth grew 2.2% in the July-September as stock portfolios surged.

Meantime, the report from the Federal Reserve shows that household net worth rose to nearly $55 trillion, even though the value of real estate holdings sank 3.7%.

This can be hardly matched to the pre-recession peak of $66 trillion but it is still far above bottom hit during the recession: $49 trillion in the first quarter of 2009.

The Federal Trade Commission is taking further steps to wrestle deceptive mortgage advertising practices with a new rule proposal to ban misrepresentations for all mortgages while allowing the FTC and the states to seek civil penalties against those who violate the rule.

The proposed rule would prohibit all material misrepresentations in advertising about consumer mortgages. The proposed rule lists 19 examples of misrepresentations about fees, costs, obligations, and other aspects of credit that would be violations.

Google is participating in a provision of affordable housing for low-income families. U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation (USBCDC), a division of U.S. Bank, announced it will manage an $86 million Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) fund for Google. The fund will be a major source of funding for the construction and operation of 480 affordable rental housing units for low income families and senior citizens in seven communities throughout the West and Midwest, U.S. Bank says.

American taxpayers who are at present about to pay some $145 billion in housing losses connected to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans may face higher bill to cover the debt of the mortgage giants.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the losses could balloon to $400 billion. And if housing prices fall further, the cost to the taxpayer could hit as much as $1 trillion.

CitiMortgage and CitiFinancial North America, both units of Citigroup, today announced a national foreclosure suspension program for Citi-owned mortgages to allow distressed homeowners to remain in their homes through the holiday season. During the 30 day suspension, effective December 18, 2009 through January 17, 2010, borrowers with first mortgage loans owned by CitiMortgage and CitiFinancial North America and who meet certain other criteria will not be subject to foreclosure sales or foreclosure notifications.

 Many economists and experts continue their lauding the achievements made to date that moved us forth from where we had been in the crisis. They say that the worst of the US recession is over now and improved reports in jobs, consumer spending and housing are taken as an index of recovery.

 The U.S. economy took a small step backwards in August on its road to recovery, according to a national index released Monday by the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. 

The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index dropped back to negative 0.90 in August from an upwardly revised negative 0.54 in July. 

 According to the reports Bank of America Corporation has suspended its current commitments to ACORN Housing, an affiliate of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Earlier this month, both houses of the U.S. Congress passed legislation that would cut off federal money to ACORN, after a conservative activist secretly filmed Acorn employees giving tax and housing advice to a couple who said they wanted to set up a brothel

 While every expert and analyst gives different names to the shape of recovery that will be peculiar to the United States David Roche, global strategist at Independent Strategy, added a new term to the common trend.

"You want to know my shape? My shape is a toilet shape," Roche said on "Squawk Box Asia." "Because I think that's where 14 percent of (gross domestic product) in terms of spending and central bank help will disappear."

On Monday Citi reported that it sold three credit card portfolios representing $1.3 billion in managed assets, as part of a plan to unload weak businesses and troubled assets that caused huge losses. The company did not disclose the names of the buyers.

With no details of the deal Citi said that it will continue to service the portfolios through the first half of 2010.