S&S Real Estate Blog

WASHINGTON – Feb. 28, 2012 – Acting Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Carol Galante announced a new premium structure for FHA-insured single-family mortgage loans: FHA will increase its annual mortgage insurance premium (MIP) by 0.10 percent for loans under $625,500 and by 0.35 percent for loans above that amount. Upfront premiums (UFMIP) will increase by […]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Oct. 7, 2011 – Bank of America, the nation’s largest mortgage servicer, is offering Florida homeowners up to $20,000 to short sale their homes rather than letting them linger in foreclosure. The limited time offer has received little promotion from the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank, which sent emails to select Florida Realtors earlier […]

NEW YORK – Oct. 11, 2011 – Wells Fargo released its Economic Outlook for Florida yesterday, and the news was positive, though not by much. The company says the state is recovering more quickly that the nation in general, but part of the reason is that the state fell so far during the crash. Still, […]

OVIEDO, Fla. – Oct. 11, 2011 – Retirees Neil and Marilyn Strawbridge haven’t made a mortgage payment so far this year, and yet Bank of America has not sent them even a foreclosure notice. With foreclosures taking an average of 21 months to get through the court system in Florida – longer than in almost […]

SANTA ANA, Calif. – June 8, 2011 – Banks and distressed home sellers stand to lose more than $375 million this year from a short sale scam that has sellers and banks agreeing to sell homes at very undervalued prices, according to a new study by CoreLogic. In discovering the short sale fraud scam, CoreLogic […]

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. – June 9, 2011 – Federal mortgage giant Fannie Mae more than doubled the amount of time Florida attorneys have to complete a foreclosure, acknowledging the reality of the state’s overwhelmed court system and problems with foreclosure paperwork. Law firms now have 450 days (about 15 months), up from 185 (six […]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – May 17, 2011 – The Attorney General of Florida, a state where almost half of all mortgaged homes are underwater – opposes efforts that would force the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers to reduce the principal on loans owed by struggling U.S. homeowners. Attorneys general in all 50 states are part of […]

WASHINGTON – May 16, 2011 – Although the 2,314-page Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act signed into law last year doesn’t affect real estate brokers and agents as much as, say, mortgage originators, it does have some significant implications for the industry, said Phillip Schulman, a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm […]

May 12, 2011 – Stung by the crash of the housing market, some struggling homeowners are using a little known but increasingly popular provision of the bankruptcy code to eliminate second mortgages and avoid foreclosure. Statistics are hard to come by, but bankruptcy lawyers say the provision has been used effectively on hundreds, if not […]

WASHINGTON – Feb. 2, 2011 – The cost of getting a mortgage is rising as higher fees hit more borrowers, including those with stellar credit. For the first time since 2009, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are raising risk fees they charge lenders on loans they buy for resale to investors. The mortgage giants are […]