Real Estate News – June 13-14, 2011



Cedar Falls Bureaucrats to Property Owners: Give us the keys to your property… (via RedState.com): http://bit.ly/lfqPiE


Cities that have been torn apart by recent tornadoes and floods are now seeing a big increase in home sales (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/iQnsoV


Federal regulators are giving the nation’s largest mortgage lenders an extra month to show how they plan to address problems with their foreclosure practices (via WashingtonPost.com): http://wapo.st/jyWKuA


Saying that Fannie Mae and other lenders are “dumping toxic Chinese drywall home foreclosures on completely innocent or unknowing U.S. homebuyers,” the Chinese Drywall Complaint Center (CDCC) alleges that the foreclosure crisis will just “get worse” if as-is foreclosures are not controlled (via realestate.bryanellis.com): http://bit.ly/jv2i0E


What the World Needs Now, Is Foreclosures, Bitter Sweet Foreclosures (via mortgageprofessional.com): http://bit.ly/kGgcgS


Two executives were sentenced to several years in prison for their involvement in a massive fraud ring — estimated at $3 billion — that led to the collapse of one of the country’s largest privately held mortgage lending companies, as well as a bank (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/jQAPIO


New York has broadened its probe of the U.S. mortgage industry, requesting information from additional financial institutions as part of an investigation into the way mortgages were bundled and sold to investors, two people familiar with the matter said (via BusinessWeek.com): http://buswk.co/jJ9y5S


Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage companies operating under U.S. control, are improving their financial condition but remain a risk to taxpayers, the companies’ regulator reported (via Bloomberg.com): http://bloom.bg/iMaVGl


Bank of America’s mortgage woes could cost $36B, report says (via bizjournals.com): http://bit.ly/kDh42F


It’s been three weeks since the tornado devastated North Minneapolis–and many victims are still waiting for their landlords to make things right (via CityPages.com): http://bit.ly/k4UJuj


Minneapolis is starting an effort to inspect 1,800 rental homes damaged in the May 22 tornado (via StarTribune.com): http://bit.ly/iOtgud


Federal regulators are accusing Bank of America Corp. of being slow to provide documents and other information in an investigation into the banking giant’s foreclosure practices, according to a court filing (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/knNrna

Legal headaches seem to be intensifying for Nevada homeowner associations and their collection agencies, with the filing Monday of another class-action lawsuit over HOA debt-collection practices (via vegasinc.com): http://bit.ly/lTofzF


With the nation in the grips of a punishing foreclosure crisis, one local program has found success in allowing struggling borrowers to stay in their homes (via HuffingtonPost.com): http://huff.to/iILmzX


Renters are next victims of the housing market (via today.msnbc.com): http://on.today.com/mFabqI


Banks are becoming more open to providing real estate professionals with “warm leads” of willing borrowers for short sales in order to boost the number of successful workouts, according to a panel at HousingWire’s REO Expo in Fort Worth, Texas (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/incnRK