|
FOX:New Home Sales Tumble |
|
Friday, 23 December 2005 |
|
New Home Sales Tumble 11.3%, Biggest Decline in 12 Years Sales of new U.S. homes fell 11.3 percent in November, the biggest decline in nearly 2 years, as the number of houses for sale hit a record high, according to a government report on Friday that offered more evidence of a cooling housing market. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Investigations Continue in Ohio |
|
Friday, 23 December 2005 |
|
Auditors at door of Dominion Homes State and federal agencies are investigating the business practices of Dominion Homes. The Dublin-based builder has come under scrutiny because so many of its customers can’t pay their mortgages and can’t sell their houses for what they paid for them. See Special News Reports - Brokered Dreams |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Tuesday, 20 December 2005 |
|
Tennessee builders to pay $226,000 in kickback settlement Nine Tennessee home builders will pay $226,000 to the U.S. Treasury in a settlement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development for allegedly getting kickbacks from a Tennessee title company, HUD said today...The builders involved in the settlement announce today are Oaktree Homes, Vintage Homes, Bronze-Christian, P & G Capital Partners, Summit Homes, Lenox Homes, Riverbirch Homes, Richard and Milton Grant Co. and Downing Homes Inc. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Mortgage Fraud fastest growing crime |
|
Tuesday, 20 December 2005 |
MORTGAGE FRAUD RUNS RAMPANT
Mortgage fraud is one of the in the United States, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reports. In fiscal year 2005, nearly 22,000 incidents of suspicious activity were reported by the banking industry, up from 17,000 the year before. The FBI reports the loss from this crime was more than $1 billion in fiscal year 2005, compared with $429 million the previous year. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
FBI Investigation of Mortgage Fraud |
|
Tuesday, 20 December 2005 |
THE RISE OF MORTGAGE FRAUD
How It Impacts You
206 FBI indictments/informations (down from 241 in Fiscal Year 2004).
170 FBI convictions (consistent with 172 convictions in Fiscal Year 2004)
$1,014,000,000 (FBI) reported loss (up from $429,000,000 in Fiscal Year 2004 |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Tuesday, 20 December 2005 |
|
Monday Morning Mycology - December 5, 2005 |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Sunday, 18 December 2005 |
A neighborhood crime that alarms can't prevent
Neighborhoods in North Texas are facing a quiet crime wave that yields millions in illegal profits for unscrupulous real estate insiders.Mortgage fraud scams can leave homeowners with hyper-inflated home values and higher property taxes while houses are left empty and go to seed before defrauded banks foreclose. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Sunday, 18 December 2005 |
Neighbors suspect scam in home sales
Alan Baugh's curiosity was piqued when the one-story, four-bedroom, three-bath home down the street sold quickly for far more than he thought it was worth..."In my mind, this is organized crime – with buyers, sellers and real estate professionals all cooperating with each other," said Mr. Baugh, a mortgage banker. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Township Engineer Pleads Guilty |
|
Friday, 16 December 2005 |
Former Old Bridge official admits corruption
Old Bridge's former community development director pleaded guilty Thursday to receiving illegal gifts from a developer doing business with the local government. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
KPRC Chan.2 Troubleshooters Report |
|
Friday, 16 December 2005 |
Made-To-Order Home Missing Something Very Important
A Houston-area woman's dream of a new home for the holidays is dashed when a typo causes a change in her floor plan, the KPRC Local 2 Troubleshooters report. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Licensed, bonded and unaccountable |
|
Thursday, 08 December 2005 |
The Oregon Construction Contractors Board fails to discipline bad
The board has done little as contractors avoided nearly half the damages ordered by the agency. During the past 10 years, the board awarded some $55 million to homeowners, suppliers and subcontractors, but only about $28 million was paid, CCB records show. Homeowners stand the best chance of collecting, but The Oregonian's analysis shows that many end up like Stuart, who won board-ordered damages of $364,000 but has been paid zilch. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Oregonian Editorial- Contractor License Needs Teeth |
|
Thursday, 08 December 2005 |
Contractors board needs some teeth
It's too easy to get a contracting license in Oregon, and the industry-dominated regulatory system is too lax - Getting a barber's license requires 1,100 hours of training; getting a contractor's license requires only 16 hours of classes, followed by a test. And that's just the least of Oregon's problem with its alarmingly lax system of qualifying and policing its building contractors. In a front-page report Sunday, Jeff Manning of The Oregonian described how the industry-dominated Oregon Construction Contractors Board oversees a regulatory operation in which: Contractors skate by without paying millions of dollars in board-ordered damages to aggrieved homeowners. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Asbury Park Press four-part series |
|
Thursday, 08 December 2005 |
Broken hearts, broken deals
Marlboro developer Anthony Spalliero, accused of using bribes and go-go dancers to buy officials' support of his projects, has a history of accusations that he used and abused women to get his way. For years, Spalliero, 63, the developer of an estimated 1,000 houses in Marlboro, maintained two separate families, and had ready access to a supply of potential girlfriends for himself and his friends. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Kickbacks Illegal Referral-fee Schemes Prosecuted |
|
Sunday, 04 December 2005 |
Referral kickbacks take a bruising
The federal government has mounted its most aggressive campaign in decades to stamp out illegal referral-fee schemes... Congress conducted hearings and found that consumers across the country were being misled and harmed — steered to what were often higher-cost settlement and mortgage companies — solely because of backdoor payoffs among real-estate, lending, title insurance and other companies. The message to the industry should be equally clear," Montgomery said. "We will not only investigate those who give, but those who receive kickbacks."...Maybe the word finally will get out: Real-estate referral kickbacks are bad for consumers. They violate federal law, invite big financial penalties and could lead to jail time. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Jury awards $11.5 million for loan fraud |
|
Friday, 02 December 2005 |
Texas jury rules against Ocwen
A jury in Galveston, Texas, has awarded $11.5 million to a customer of Ocwen Financial Corp. and its former Ocwen Federal Bank subsidiary, after determining they committed fraud in servicing her home equity loan. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Home 
