GMAC Mortgage LLC, the firm in the center of an ongoing national foreclosure controversy, has agreed to temporarily suspend foreclosure proceedings in Maine.

Attorney General Janet Mills announced last Wednesday the company agreed to halt sales on homes that have been foreclosed on until concerns about its procedures have been resolved, according to a press release. The suspension is expected to affect just under 100 properties and could last several weeks, according to the Portland Press Herald. The Maine Attorney General’s Office in October joined the other 49 states by launching an investigation into foreclosure mismanagement by some of the nation’s largest mortgage companies, including GMAC, where an employee admitted… continue reading

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The front yard of the home was littered with furniture and debris from the home, apparently put there during the foreclosure process.

A neighbor said an elderly man who owned the house died three years ago and his wife — suffering from Alzheimer’s disease — was moved to a nursing home recently. A young mother who was also living at the home with two children recently moved away. Photographs of two young girls with cats were among the items on the front lawn.

“All I know is they packed up a small U-Haul and I haven’t seen them since,” said the neighbor. “That was about four days ago.”

Now, the Humane Society is looking for homes for the cats.

“The Larimer Humane Society is desperately seeking the community’s support to find loving homes for these abandoned felines,” said Marcie Willms, a spokeswoman for… continue reading

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“It’s a good sign for Fannie Mae,” said Kurt Eggert, a professor of law at Chapman University who specializes in consumer credit issues. The good news, Mr. Eggert noted, extends to taxpayers, who have plowed more than $87 billion into Fannie since the government took the company into conservatorship in September 2008.

Still, Mr. Eggert said, “seeing the rate decline from excruciatingly high to painfully high is not all that comforting to me.”

And it could go up again. Freddie Mac, Fannie’s smaller housing finance cousin, recently reported that its delinquency rate jumped in October when Bank of America and other lending giants temporarily halted foreclosures. Fewer foreclosures meant more loans got stuck in the purgatory known as “seriously delinquent.”

But most lenders have resumed foreclosures, and last week Fannie Mae lifted its moratorium on evicting homeowners who were living in foreclosed properties. Delinquencies should decline accordingly… continue reading

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The Carlson case represents “the perfect storm” and a home buyer’s worst nightmare, said, Peter Murphy, a consultant with Tampa-based Home Encounter, a real estate consulting firm and brokerage that tracks local real estate trends.

Buyers can never be sure there won’t be a challenge to the title, Murphy said, but title insurance should protect them from liability.

“Now that doesn’t mean they’ll get to keep the house if there’s a challenge to the title and, yeah, that’s unnerving,” he said.

Home sales in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area plummeted 25 percent in October, compared to a year ago. Real estate agents said the foreclosure moratorium was partly to blame because some pending deals fell through.

Putting the homes on…. continue reading

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures rose Tuesday, getting a lift from mounting worries over a spreading debt crisis in Europe and news Chinese authorities approved a fund to invest in gold overseas.

Gold for February delivery /quotes/comstock/21e!f:gc\z10 (GCZ10 1,389, +23.00, +1.68%) , the most active contract, jumped $18.10, or 1.3%, to $1,385.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

A close around these levels would be the highest for a most-active gold contract since Nov. 11, when gold closed at $1,403.30 an ounce.

Gold is on track to gain 2.1% in November. The metal hit four consecutive record highs this month, culminating with a record $1,410.10 an ounce on Nov. 9.

Silver and copper also rallied as trading focused on events in Europe and in China.

News Hub: Spain, Italy Debt Worries Pound the Euro

Paul Vigna discusses how worries about Spanish and Italian bonds are… continue reading

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After five law firms pitched Harrisburg’s city council to help the financially beleaguered city through a potential bankruptcy, one of the council members said the city should negotiate the proposed hourly rates, which ranged from $200 to $975 hourly.

Negotiate they did. The city has chosen New York heavy-hitter Cravath Swaine & Moore to represent it through either a Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy or a move to a distressed municipality status under Pennsylvania’s Act 47. It was assumed at the time that Cravath, the largest of the five firms to pitch the city, was the one with the $975 hourly rate. But that doesn’t matter, now that the firm has decided to represent the city pro bono in what the law firm called “one of its most significant public service commitments in years.”

Partners Richard Levin and Paul H. Zumbro will… continue reading

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For the year to date, 7,583 cases were filed in the two-city district, down 8.3 percent from 8,269 for the first 10 months of last year. That included 4,875 in Buffalo and 2,708 in Rochester.

By type of case, 470 involved Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, in which the debtor seeks approval from the court to erase most personal debts and start over. Of those, 297 were in Buffalo and 173 in Rochester, and the vast majority involved individuals, not businesses.

Another 241 cases — 160 in Buffalo and 81 in Rochester — were filed under Chapter 13, where personal debts are reorganized under a repayment plan. All but 10 were individual cases.

And the Buffalo court received 11 filings under Chapter 11, in which business debts are reorganized under a… continue reading

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Thinking about using cash or debit cards over the holiday shopping season? You’re not alone! That’s what most people — or 70 percent — will be using for their gift purchases, according to a new survey by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, of which LSS of Minnesota is a member.

“Consumers are definitely thinking more about spending limits and avoiding more debt this holiday season,” said Darryl Dahlheimer, program director of LSS Financial Counseling Service.

“Regardless of the reason, one of the best gifts would be to begin 2011 with no additional holiday debt.”

Here are some good reminders to help you make it a debt-free holiday season:

Pay with cash or charge purchases and pay the bill in full when it arrives. Paying in full is one of the best financial decisions a consumer can make, either paying with cash now… continue reading

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While the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were working out how to bail out the Irish Republic, Argentina was providing another timely reminder of what could have happened if they had failed.

Last week, in its usual wilful way, the government in Buenos Aires took another modest step towards overcoming the legacy of the country’s 2001-02 economic meltdown.

Argentina has long since recovered from the economic slump and social unrest that came in the wake of the peso’s collapse.

But the consequences of its $102bn debt default persist, with the government denied access to world credit markets.

Argentina has already struck deals with the majority of its creditors. Yet before it can raise new loans, it needs to settle its… continue reading

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A year after the trauma of Dubai World’s announcement that it was to restructure US$24.9 billion (Dh91.45bn) of liabilities, the emirate can look back with some satisfaction that its most serious financial threat has been neutralised.

But it must also be aware there are still difficulties to overcome in other parts of the complex corporate infrastructure of Dubai Inc.

“Progress made but challenges remain”, was how the situation was summed up by the US investment bank JP Morgan in a recent study of Dubai’s debt situation.

“For all the recent positives in the form of the near-conclusion of Dubai World’s restructuring and successful fund-raising by the Dubai Government, the emirate still has looming debt maturities to tackle at… continue reading

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