Real Estate & Property Law

Housing Bailout Bill Offers Handouts to Most Homeowners

Housing legislation expected to be passed by the Senate next week and then signed by President George W. Bush is billed as an effort to rescue individuals struggling to pay their mortgages in a real estate meltdown. But in fact it offers handouts to most homeowners, the New York Times…

Jul 25, 2008 11:39 PM CDT

Fountains & Mermaids, OK—But Not a Fire-Spitting Dragon

The neighbors had been more or less tolerating 100 or so bronze fountains, mermaids and other figures, centered around a 12-foot Neptune, in Gerald and John Hubbs’ 50-foot-wide all-concrete front yard for several years. But when the eccentric pair allegedly celebrated the Fourth of July by firing off two ceremonial…

Jul 24, 2008 8:00 PM CDT

Foreclosure Auction Sparks Desperate Homeowner Act

As interested buyers gathered outside a foreclosed home in Taunton, Mass., to bid on it yesterday afternoon, the standard-issue auction scheduled for 5 p.m. suddenly veered off-course. At 2:30 p.m., homeowner Carlene Balderrama, 53, faxed a letter to her mortgage lender, saying that she would be dead by the time…

Jul 23, 2008 11:40 PM CDT

L.A. Moves Closer to Limiting New Fast-Food Restaurants

Los Angeles has moved a step closer to banning new fast-food restaurants for at least a year in a significant swath of the city. A city council committee last night unanimously approved a measure calling for at least a one-year moratorium on new fast-food franchises in a 32-square-mile area including…

Jul 23, 2008 6:47 PM CDT

More Builders Sue Lenders for Dried-Up Financing

Lender liability lawsuits that were popular during the real-estate downturn in the 1990s are making a comeback. Builders are beginning to file lawsuits that contend their lenders cut off financing for construction projects, threatening their financial viability, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.). Fearing real-estate losses and under pressure…

Jul 23, 2008 11:49 AM CDT

Lender CEO OK’d Judge’s Refi While Class Action Was Pending, Magazine Says

When a California appeals court judge sought a $1 million mortgage and a $900,000 credit line to refinance his 8,200-square-foot home in January 2004, a loan officer for Countrywide Financial determined that the credit line was “above what guidelines allow.” But the mortgage lender’s chief executive, Angelo Mozilo was the…

Jul 22, 2008 5:57 PM CDT

1000s of Criminals Worked in Florida Mortgage Industry

To work as a mortgage broker in Florida, an individual has to be licensed. But no licensing requirement applies to mortgage originators. As a result, tens of thousands of individuals helping Florida homeowners get mortgages haven’t been licensed–among them, 5,306 loan originators with criminal histories, reports the Miami Herald in…

Jul 21, 2008 6:28 PM CDT

Cross on House Brings $80K Tax Break

For George Michael, a cross placed on the side of his $3 million lakefront mansion in suburban Chicago resulted in a tax break of almost $80,000. But now officials in Lake Bluff, where it is located, say he owes $115,000 in fines for failing to get the village’s permission to…

Jul 17, 2008 7:43 PM CDT

Feds Probe Possible Fraud in IndyMac Bank Failure

In the wake of the FDIC’s takeover Friday of IndyMac Bancorp Inc., the FBI is now investigating possible fraud by the lender concerning mortgage loans made to high-risk borrowers. “Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage lender, is also under scrutiny,” reports the Associated Press. “Over the last year, and…

Jul 16, 2008 9:46 PM CDT

Countrywide Agrees to Pay $325K to Settle Trustee’s Late Fee Accusations

Countrywide Home Loans has agreed to pay $325,000 and investigate its records of payments from about 300 borrowers to settle a dispute with a bankruptcy trustee in Pittsburgh. The Chapter 13 trustee, Ronda Winnecour, had asserted in filings last October that Countrywide lost or destroyed more than $500,000 in checks…

Jul 16, 2008 12:09 PM CDT

Feds Delay IndyMac Foreclosures

Bad news at the failed IndyMac bank is apparently good news for at least some of its struggling mortgage borrowers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which has taken over IndyMac’s operations and opened the bank under federal oversight today, is temporarily halting the foreclosure proceedings on past-due loans within its…

Jul 14, 2008 10:00 PM CDT

Towns Abuzz Over Backyard Bees

Add honeybees to the list of pets with a purpose that a growing number of residents are now keeping in urban areas. But, as with backyard chickens, not everyone is happy about the trend. In South Portland, Maine, for instance, the town adopted an ordinance in May requiring beekeepers to…

Jul 11, 2008 9:31 PM CDT

Housing Law Doesn’t Protect Right to Mezuzah, Appeals Court Rules

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Fair Housing Act does not protect the right of condominium owners to display mezuzot on their doorframes. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the federal law requires accommodation for the handicapped but not for religion, the New York Sun…

Jul 11, 2008 11:05 AM CDT

Foreclosure Crisis Worst Since 1930s Great Depression

As mortgage foreclosure filings in June rose 53 percent from the previous year’s figure, and bank seizures of such homes rose 171 percent, experts say the U.S. is in its worst housing crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Almost one in every 500 U.S. homes is directly affected…

Jul 10, 2008 4:16 PM CDT

Fla. Law Firm Has Filed About 70 Fraud Suits Against Lenders

Some borrowers who say their lenders hid the true terms of their onerous loans are suing for fraud. One law firm that is eager to help is the Affirmative Defense Group in Margate, Fla. Lawyer Frank Ingrassia says the firm has filed about 70 such suits on behalf of borrowers…

Jul 10, 2008 11:08 AM CDT