Real Estate News – March 16, 2012




The FHA plans to impose limits on the amount of money that home sellers can contribute at closing and to raise mortgage insurance premiums (via latimes.com): http://lat.ms/wrupSb


Managers at major banks ignored widespread errors in the foreclosure process, in some cases instructing employees to adopt make-believe titles and speed documents through the system despite internal objections, according to a wide-ranging review by federal investigators (via nytimes.com): http://nyti.ms/wwYG7S


The government was able to chip away at its foreclosure inventory in 2011, reducing it by nearly half, HousingWire reports in analyzing financial statements from three government enterprises (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/yU3tuR


Churches are being foreclosed upon in record numbers, as more churches fall behind on their mortgage payments and banks lose their patience  (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/zGRuUa


Four of the country’s 19 largest banks do not have enough capital to withstand another economic downturn, if one occurs, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest stress test for banks (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/A8JTda


J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has ceased efforts for now to raise a new $750 million real-estate fund because of lack of investor interest in the type of high-risk, high-return deals that it was planning to do (via online.WSJ.com): http://on.wsj.com/zLjw5R


As part of a settlement with state attorneys general, the five largest mortgage servicers are adopting new requirements for short sales, which is expected to speed-up what has been known as a lengthy process (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/x3I4yE