04/15/2010 - Skip the mortgage, pay the credit card - In the state of California, for example, more than 10% of credit card-carrying consumers were choosing to pay that bill rather than their mortgage as of last fall, according to a recent study published by the credit reporting agency TransUnion. - www.cnn.com

04/15/2010 - Foreclosure Rates Surge, Biggest Jump in 5 Years - RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. homes taken over by banks jumped 35 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. In addition, households facing foreclosure grew 16 percent in the same period and 7 percent from the last three months of 2009. More homes were taken over by banks and scheduled for a foreclosure sale than in any quarter going back to at least January 2005, when RealtyTrac began reporting the data, the firm said. - www.foxnews.com

04/13/2010 - Bank of America Now Supports Cramdown, Giving Judges Authority To Modify Home Mortgages (VIDEO) - Unlike other forms of debt, bankruptcy judges presently lack the power to change mortgage terms. The banking and home mortgage industry want to keep it that way -- by not allowing judges the authority to change the terms, troubled homeowners are at the mercy of their lenders. They take what they get. But Tuesday, before a nearly-empty Congressional hearing room, Barbara J. Desoer, president of Bank of America Home Loans, said her bank now supports leveling that playing field - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/13/2010 - 75% Of Homeowners In Obama's Loan Modification Plan Still Owe More Than Their Homes Are Worth - the report shows, citing data through February. In other words, for every $1.00 their home is worth, they owe at least $1.25. The average homeowner that's received a five-year modified mortgage under the administration's plan had negative equity of about 35 percent prior to the program - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/09/2010 - States Move To Limit Role Of Credit Checks In Hiring. As a Hiring Filter, Credit Checks Draw Questions - “At this point we don’t have any research to show any statistical correlation between what’s in somebody’s credit report and their job performance or their likelihood to commit fraud,” he said in separate testimony to Oregon legislators in January. - www.nytimes.com

04/07/2010 - Report: Detroit bankruptcy looms without drastic change - Group says city must slash spending, downsize or it could end up more than $400M in red. Mayor Dave Bing and the City Council must reduce the size of government and slash the city's budget deficit to stave off bankruptcy or state receivership, according to a report released Monday. - www.detnews.com

04/07/2010 - Mortgage Rates Spike - The era of record-low mortgage rates is over. The average rate on a 30-year loan has jumped from about 5 percent to more than 5.3 percent in just the past week. As mortgages get more expensive, more would-be homeowners are priced out of the market – a threat to the fragile recovery in the housing market. - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/06/2010 - Florida Realtors Research Study on Foreclosures: Project Hopes to Help Florida Families, Reduce Foreclosures - "Floridians of all incomes and social backgrounds have felt the effects of the foreclosure crisis," said John Sebree, Florida Realtors vice president of public policy. "By looking to the root causes of foreclosures among individuals and families who have actually experienced it, Florida Realtors lead the way in the fight to restore confidence in real estate and get homeowners back on their feet." - www.yahoo.com

04/06/2010 - The Face of Foreclosure Florida Realtors' Report - Florida Realtors' has announced the findings of its unique Face of Foreclosure research project, designed to study the impact of foreclosures on both the Florida housing market and on individual Florida homeowners facing foreclosure. - www.trashoutpro.com

04/05/2010 - Big Banks Dominate U.S. Banking System: Study - The banks -- all of which have more than $100 billion in assets -- control nearly 56 percent of all assets in the banking system, according to an analysis of fourth quarter Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/05/2010 - Rev. Billy Talen ARRESTED After Placing 'Holy Hex' On JPMorgan - Protesting what he calls JPMorgan's financing for mountaintop removal in Appalachia, Rev. Billy Talen led his Church Of Life congregation in an Easter morning protest outside of a bank branch in New York City. - www.huffingtonpost.com

04/03/2010 - Once priced at $150k, officials seek to tear down abandoned condos - ith granite countertops and quickly snapped up by dozens of investors stand vacant today, abandoned, and in ruins. - www.yahoo.com

04/02/2010 - HOLY BUBBLE! Church Foreclosures Have Nearly Tripled Since '07 - Foreclosure proceedings against U.S. churches have nearly tripled since December 2007, when the recession began, compared with the previous seven years, which included the dot.com bust and economic downturn. - www.reuters.com

04/01/2010 - HOLY BUBBLE! Church Foreclosures Have Nearly Tripled Since '07 - Improbable as it sounds, house flipping -- that hallmark of American real estate mania -- is making a comeback. All around the country, but especially in some of the regions hit hardest by the housing slump, investors are swooping in on distressed properties and banging them into shape for sale to first-time home buyers, vacation-home seekers, and people looking for rental income - www.yahoo.com

03/31/2010 - Writing a hardship letter to your lender can be hard - Tips on how to weave a persuasive tale of financial woe while quickly communicating the facts to elicit a certain amount of sympathy - www.sun-sentinel.com

03/31/2010 - House Flipping Is BACK. House Flippers in U.S. Crowd Courthouse Steps in Hunt for Deals - Competition is so stiff that experienced flippers such as Sergio Rodriguez and Brian Bogenn look back with nostalgia at last year, when they turned over 48 residences in the Phoenix area. - www.bloomberg.com

03/30/2010 - Geithner Issues Another Warning On Commercial Real Estate VIDEO: - Mounting losses from commercial real estate loans will continue to be a problem for the U.S. and especially smaller banks, but it can be managed, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Monday. - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/30/2010 - Warren: Half Of All All Commercial Mortgages Are Underwater VIDEO - "They are [mostly] concentrated in the mid-sized banks," Warren told CNBC. "We now have 2,988 banks-mostly midsized, that have these dangerous concentrations in commercial real estate lending." - www.cnbc.com

03/29/2010 - LNR trying to fix troubled commercial mortgages. LNR Property Corp managing about 25 percent of Wall Street's distressed commercial real estate debt - The CMBS portfolio puts LNR's roughly 300 South Beach employees on the front lines of the latest credit debacle to threaten the ongoing economic recovery: billions of dollars lent to commercial real estate during the boom times that now are tied to property worth less than the loans. - www.sun-sentinel.com

03/26/2010 - Obama Reverses Course, Will Order Lenders To Cut Mortgage Principal For Struggling Homeowners - The multifaceted effort will allow people who owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth to get new loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, a government agency that insures home loans against default. - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/26/2010 - FHA's Florida fiasco. Nearly 18% of all FHA loans in Miami are delinquent, making it one of the most troubled locales in the nation. - The poor performance of Florida's FHA loans has helped drag the agency down to its lowest point in decades, raising concerns that taxpayers will have to bail it out. The agency is in the midst of overhauling its operations to shore up reserves, which have fallen well below the level required by Congress. - www.cnn.com

03/25/2010 - Mortgage help coming? Unemployed and 'underwater' to get mortgage relief - For some unemployed borrowers, the effort would require servicers to reduce or suspend monthly mortgage payments for up to six months, an administration official said. Under fire to do more to stop the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration will announce Friday new steps to help the unemployed and those who are "underwater" with a bigger mortgage than their home is worth. - www.cnn.com

03/25/2010 - Obama Foreclosure Plan Makes It Harder For Banks To Reduce Principal For Underwater Homeowners - Obama's Foreclosure Plan Has A Key Flaw That's Hurting Homeowners. The Obama administration's plan to help struggling homeowners has had the unintended consequence of making it harder for them to get the most effective kind of mortgage relief -- principal reductions. - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/25/2010 - Citigroup Signs Up For Government's Loan Modification Program - With Citi on board, now four big owners of home mortgages in the U.S. have joined the program - part of the Obama administration's $75 billion loan modification plan aimed at reducing monthly payments to help customers stay in their homes. Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. already participate - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/24/2010 - Bank Of America To Start Reducing Principal On 'Underwater' Mortgages - Bank of America's announcement came as another report pointed to continuing problems in the housing market. The government said new home sales dropped to a record low last month, a day after the National Association of Realtors said sales previously occupied homes also fell in February, the third straight monthly decline. - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/24/2010 - Average American In Obama's $50 Billion Mortgage Plan Still Owes More Than Their Home Is Worth - The average homeowner may owe their lender as much as two-and-a-half times more than the home is worth, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program states in its new report examining the administration's year-old Home Affordable Modification Program - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/23/2010 - PHOTOS: The U.S. Cities Hit Hardest By The Recession - Cities In Florida, California Lag Nation - In a new report out this week, the Brookings Institution tracks the uneven impact of the downturn on employment levels across the country's 100 largest metropolitan areas. - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/23/2010 - Average Homeowner In Obama Foreclosure Program Underwater, Yet Principal Cuts Rare - The average homeowner may owe their lender as much as two-and-a-half times more than the home is worth, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program states in its report examining the administration's year-old Home Affordable Modification Program - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/17/2010 - More homeowners are opting for 'strategic defaults' - Underwater on their mortgages and angry at banks, more borrowers are choosing to hand over the keys, even if they can afford the payments. Time was when Americans would do almost anything to hang on to their homes. But that commitment appears to be fraying as more people fall behind on their loans while watching the banks and lenders that helped trigger the financial crisis return to prosperity. - www.latimes.com

03/17/2010 - Bailout Watchdog To Shine Light On Mortgage Program - The formula is designed to calculate whether lenders are better off foreclosing or modifying the loan so borrowers can get back on track with payments. Housing counselors complain that many borrowers who are denied are not given a clear explanation. - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/15/2010 - California foreclosure starts rise nearly 20% in February - The number of California homes pushed into the foreclosure process by banks jumped 19.7% in February from the month prior, according to a report released Monday. There is a growing gap between those Californians falling behind on their house payments and those actually losing their homes, according to the report by ForeclosureRadar.com. - www.latimes.com

03/15/2010 - New round of foreclosures threatens housing market - About 5 million to 7 million properties are potentially eligible for foreclosure but have not yet been repossessed and put up for sale. Some economists project it could take nearly three years before all these homes have been put on the market and purchased by new owners. And the number of pending foreclosures could grow much bigger over the coming year as more distressed borrowers become delinquent and then, if they can't obtain mortgage relief, wade through the foreclosure process, which often takes more than a year to complete. - www.washingtonpost.com

03/15/2010 - WATCH PART ONE: Michael Lewis Explains The Wall Street Collapse As A Story Of 'Mass Delusion' - The former bond trader is releasing a book this week called The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. According to CBS, the result of his 18-month investigation attempts to explain, - www.huffingtonpost.com

Watch CBS News Videos Online

03/15/2010 - WATCH PART TWO: Michael Lewis Explains The Wall Street Collapse As A Story Of 'Mass Delusion' - The former bond trader is releasing a book this week called The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. According to CBS, the result of his 18-month investigation attempts to explain, - www.huffingtonpost.com

Watch CBS News Videos Online

03/15/2010 - Hardest Hit States Given Only Weeks To Decide How To Spend $1.5B In Housing Funds - Guidelines issued under the U.S. Treasury Department's Fund for Hardest Hit Housing Markets on March 5 gave housing finance agencies in California, Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Michigan just six weeks to come up with plans on how to spend their share of the money. - www.huffingtonpost.com

03/15/2010 - California foreclosure starts rise nearly 20% in February - The number of California homes pushed into the foreclosure process by banks jumped 19.7% in February from the month prior, according to a report released Monday. There is a growing gap between those Californians falling behind on their house payments and those actually losing their homes, according to the report by ForeclosureRadar.com. - www.latimes.com