7/24/14
RealtyTrac defines a mortgaged home as “seriously underwater” when “the combined loan amount secured by the property is at least 25 percent higher than...
1/9/14
Here’s some bad news for home buyers who’ve been expecting rising home values to result in a broader selection of homes coming on the...
7/24/13
The Woodstock Institute self-describes as “a leading nonprofit research and policy organization in the areas of fair lending, wealth creation, and financial systems reform.”...
7/10/13
CoreLogic released its May National Foreclosure Report yesterday along with a supplement featuring quarterly shadow inventory data as of April 2013. Of the fifteen...
6/29/13
This is the first edition of our weekly recap of Chicago real estate news. Check back each Saturday for a look back at the...
12/5/12
Daniel Chookaszian, a Vice President of Perl Mortgage, specializes in working with veterans on VA loan financing. I recently connected up with Dan at...
10/4/12
CityLIFT is a program sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank that provides up to $15,000 in down payment grant funds to qualified home buyers for...
9/17/12
Thinking about strategically defaulting on your mortgage and seeing how long you can live in your home without paying? Think about what Heath Wolfe,...
9/13/12
According to the latest CoreLogic statistics, 30.1% of all homeowners with a mortgage in the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville area owed more on their homes than they...
9/4/12
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured only 1 in every 50 new mortgage loans in Chicago in 2006. In 2009 the FHA insured one...
5/31/12
CoreLogic has just released its National Foreclosure Report for April (registration required). According to CoreLogic, Illinois (5.3%) ranked third among the five states with...
4/1/12
In a surprise move, Fannie Mae and the Federal Housing Administration, the largest sources of mortgage liquidity in the US housing market, announced Friday...
11/11/11
VA-guaranteed loans may be the most misunderstood type of mortgage loan in the market today. Some time ago I met with Daniel Chookaszian, whose...
9/28/11
Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed lawsuits against a number of companies and individuals involved in fraudulent loan modification and mortgage rescue schemes. Nearly...
9/20/11
In September of 2007 Afolarin Gbenga bought Unit 1N at the Michigan Manor Condo, 4343 S Michigan Ave for $315,000 with first and second...
7/12/11
Mortgage fraud and appraisal fraud were, I’ve always suspected, rampant in Chicago’s South Side and West Side neighborhoods during the past decade. A recent...
4/5/11
An experienced attorney can make the process of proving ownership of a mortgage in a foreclosure a tedious, time-consuming and therefore expensive effort. That’s...
3/23/11
The Columbia Journalism Review is not a typical starting point for a behind-the-scenes look at how banks are handling the mortgage modification process, but...
2/28/11
“Not only are the banks protecting themselves, but they’re protecting the borrower. There’s a reason the bank doesn’t like that building.” – Russell Martin,...
12/21/10
You might want to double-check the status of that FHA-approved condo you have your eye on. According to an article published in the Daily...