Real Estate News – April 25, 2011




The FBI is investigating whether a Seal Beach real estate saleswoman bilked dozens of investors out of thousands of dollars each while using a software program to make intimidating calls to keep them quiet (via mercurynews.com): http://bit.ly/i8Iqam


A federal grand jury has returned indictments in two unrelated real estate Ponzi schemes, resulting in the arrest of two Sacramento-area men (via modbee.com): http://bit.ly/hEERzh


JPMorgan Chase said Friday it will pay $27 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused the bank of overcharging members of the military for their mortgages and prompted a federal investigation, a congressional hearing as well as public outrage (via pressherald.com): http://bit.ly/gPk1mh


Bank of America Corp. was dismissed from a lawsuit brought by investors who bought mortgage-backed securities sold by Countrywide Financial Corp., the home lender Bank of America acquired in 2008 (via huffingtonpost.com): http://huff.to/hIXsz5


Many defendants accused of nonviolent crimes often use their home as collateral to post bail. However, nowadays using your home as a “get out of jail” card may be more difficult (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/eX42LK


Analysts at both Standard & Poor’s and Barclays Capital agree that the uptick in home resales last month is a favorable sign of things to come. Because pending home sales — an indicator of future activity — were up in February, S&P believes transaction volume will rise for April (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/dHewZR


The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court today released a ruling requiring the “substantive participation” of attorneys in real estate transactions in a long-awaited decision celebrated by local lawyers (via Boston.com): http://bo.st/dW3ytC