A bit about contruction and mortgages…
Richard Bell, 48, president and CEO of Harborside Mortgage Corporation, has pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity. Bell pleaded guilty before U….
William D. Edgar, 49, Verona, Pennsylvania, was sentenced in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania federal court to 37 months of incarceration and five years supervised release on his conviction of conspiracy, bank fraud, and wire fraud. According to the court …
A white paper titled, “Rebuilding the Mortgage Industry - the Path Back to Profitability” details how originators and investment banks can cost-effectively improve the quality of their portfolios. The changes recommended include using fraud and risk management technology…sharing data across the industry to catch more fraud and better identify early payment default risk.
“The whole thing was predicated on the idea that real estate prices would keep going up, and up and up, and up.” House of Cards [60 Minutes]
A judge formally unsealed a 35-count Indictment charging 13 individuals in a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $20 million in home equity and business lines of credit between February 2004 and November 2005. Seven more people have pleaded guilty…
Gandhi Ben Morka, a real estate appraiser who was convicted at trial of several offenses related to his involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn to 60 months in prison. In addition, Judge Lynn order…
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Because a fair number of readers are finding their way here today via the Star-Tribune and a piece penned by Jim Buchta on Mortgage Rates since the Fed cut, we wanted to post a couple of graphics to help everyone understand the wild swings that occured in the mortgage market this week - which was one of the more volatile in recent memory. Here’s what happened: Immediately after the emergency 75bp cut by the Fed on Tuesday, mortgage bonds began to improve in price. By the time lenders released pricing on the morning of Wednesday the 23rd, we were seeing rates as low or lower than the all-time modern lows of early 2003 (5.125% or so for a 30 year fixed.) Which lasted for about two hours. Then, as often happens, the stock market began to recover, and mortgage bonds started a two-day selloff. By the end of the day Thursday, mortgage rates were back above the levels prior to the Fed cut. Mortgage bonds recovered some ground on Friday, as stocks took another tumble, and by market close, rates were virtually unchanged from where they were prior to the Fed cut. Still with us? Here’s a couple of graphics to help (click to biggify): This chart (courtesy of mortgagemarketguide.com, annotations ours) represents mortgage bond prices, which move opposite of rates, so the highest point on the chart is the lowest point for rates. *Bankrate is a notoriously horrible proxy for actual rates (they record paid advertisers rates, which are utter fantasy) but gives a fair measure of directional trends. If you are looking for up to the minute news on mortgage rates and the factors that drive them, check out the BTM: Quick news/Twitters section on the upper right, or subscribe to BTM Twitters. Also, one small correction from the Strib - We don’t run CTX Mortgage in Plymouth, this is just where we hang our shingle.
Dack Daugherty, St. Louis, Missouri, was sentenced to 44 months in prison on conspiracy and money laundering charges in connection with a mortgage fraud ring that operated primarily in South St. Louis, Missouri. Additionally, as part of his sentence, D…
Two bills requested by Attorney General Rob McKenna that would protect Washington residents from mortgage foreclosure scams and make it easier to prosecute identity theft cases are scheduled for public hearings on Friday, Jan. 25. ยท Protecting Washi…