Beazer leaving area amid investigations
Beazer Homes USA, a home builder under federal investigation, said Friday it will stop building in the Charlotte market and close its national mortgage unit -- a business in which it says employees violated federal housing regulations.Beazer said it will pair with Countrywide Financial as a preferred mortgage lender.  Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender, has become the poster child of the U.S. mortgage crisis prompted by lending to people with sketchy credit and enabling some to buy houses they couldn't afford. Charlotte's Bank of America is buying the troubled lender.

Beazer Homes faces up to $15M fine for loan violations
Beazer Homes (BZK) said Thursday that some employees at its mortgage division broke federal loan laws from at least 2000 through early this year. The builder said it expects to pay up to $15 million in regulatory fines and losses and to restate its financial results all the way back to 1999.The Atlanta-based company, one of the nation's largest home builders, also said roughly two of every three buyers canceled their contracts from July to September.Beazer is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney's office in North Carolina on allegations that it broke rules governing down payment assistance, sold homes to low-income buyers who couldn't afford them, falsified documents and charged higher fees than the regulations allow.

US Home Foreclosure filings up 99% from September 2006; Top home builder says 68% of its prospective buyers cancelled orders in the company's fiscal fourth quarter Home builder Beazer reported that 68% of its prospective home buyers cancelled their orders in the company's fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Sept. 30th. The cancellation rate was almost double the 36% of customers who cancelled orders and gave up deposits in the prior quarter.

Beazer Home forced to sell Homes at Aucton
Hard times for Beazer has homeowners angry.  An auction of foreclosed Beazer homes may offer insight into the state of the housing market, reports CNBC's Jane Wells. One Beazer home sold for $303,000.   The auction infuriates homeowner Virginia Licitra who bought her Beazer home for $455,000 just a year ago. See CNBC News report