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ASSOCIATED PRESS | “President Barack Obama says the housing market is healing, but it’s time to turn the page on the “bubble-and-bust mentality” that led to the market’s collapse. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama calls on Congress to let all Americans refinance at current low rates. He wants more help for first-time homebuyers andRead more

Tim Mullaney | USA TODAY | “After years of being the USA’s foreclosure laughingstocks, Arizona and California now have better credit than the rest of us. That’s from an analysis released last week by Fannie Mae, which chronicled the performance of its $2.8 trillion loan portfolio. In states hit hardest by the housing bust — Arizona,Read more

Ashlyn Nelson | “U.S. housing markets may be emerging from the foreclosure crisis, but for many children, problems caused by the slide in home values haven’t ended. Foreclosure can have a lasting impact on children’s academic performance, says Ashlyn Aiko Nelson, an associate professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU Bloomington. “WeRead more

Allison Halliday | Realty Biz News | “According to an article by AOL , home foreclosure filings in the US reached a six and half year low in June, based on figures from a RealtyTrac. Apparently there were 127,790 properties with foreclosure filings for that month, a decrease of 14% compared to May, and a massive 35% decrease comparedRead more

Elizabeth Atkins | Eastern Morning Herald | “In the month of May 2013, foreclosure rates in Southwest Florida were down quite a bit, but not enough to prevent the area from having one of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States. Data analysis firm CoreLogic’s statistics released recently show that the foreclosure rate inRead more

BBC | “The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed parallel suits in North Carolina. Attorney General Eric Holder said the government wanted “justice for those who have been victimized.” Bank of America denied the charges, arguing “these were prime mortgages sold to sophisticated investors.” The bank already hinted it expected the suitsRead more

Mark Felsenthal and Margaret Chadbourn | Reuters “Obama will propose eliminating mortgage finance entities Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac over time, replacing them with a system in which the private market buys home loans from lenders and repackages them as securities for investors, senior administration officials said. The mortgage securitization process is deemed essential to the smooth flow ofRead more

Dennis Bovell | Broward Palm Beach Post | “Ted Koran and his wife, Karen, have been taking in unwanted or neglected animals for the past 25 years. The couple owns The Critter Place in Weeki Wachee,Florida, a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to saving animals. The two acre property, which also includes their mobile home, currently caresRead more

Kevin Bouffard | THE LEDGER | “Controversial Lakeland developer Jeff Holden may lose a significant chunk of his commercial real estate holdings to foreclosure unless he can come up with almost $18 million to pay off the mortgages. Two Holden properties have already been placed into receivership under foreclosure actions that began in February 2012 while aRead more

Donna Gehrke-White | Sun Sentinel | “The Plantation company that handles Broward and Miami-Dade’s online foreclosure auctions and Palm Beach County‘s tax lien sales declared bankruptcy after it was ordered to put up a $4.3 million bond to fight a $8.1 million jury award to its archrival for software patent infringement. On Friday, a U.S. bankruptcy judge in FortRead more