Category
Current Events
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08.15.09Colonial BancGroup FAILFrom MarketWatch: Colonial BancGroup Inc. became the largest bank failure this year after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation seized the struggling Alabama-based lender Friday and sold it to BB&T Corp. Late Friday, the FDIC announced four other banks had been closed: Community Bank of Las Vegas and its Arizona subsidiary, Community Bank of Arizona; Union Bank, Gilbert, Ariz; and Dwelling House Savings and Loan, Pittsburgh. The Colonial BancGroup deal will knock roughly $2.8 billion off a pool of money, known as the Deposit Insurance Fund, which the FDIC maintains to guarantee bank customer deposits. Lost in much of the Colonial implosion is the effect ...
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08.13.09Federal Agents Raid Taylor Bean & WhitakerFrom the Wall Street Journal: Federal agents raided the Florida offices of Colonial BancGroup Inc. and wholesale mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. on Monday, days after a financial deal between the two firms fell through. The special inspector general for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program said its agents had executed search warrants at the two offices in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the inspector general for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A spokeswoman for the TARP watchdog said the warrants were sealed and could provide no further details about the probe. Colonial spokeswoman ...
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08.13.09Foreclosures reach new highsFrom the Wall Street Journal: The number of U.S. properties for which a foreclosure filing was received hit its third record in five months as they jumped 32% in July from a year earlier and rose 7% from June, according to online foreclosure concern RealtyTrac. Chief Executive James Saccacio said that despite continued federal- and state-government efforts to put together a safety net for distressed homeowners, "we're seeing significant growth in both the initial notices of default and in the bank reposessions." As the wave of option-ARM mortgage resets begins to crest, once can expect that the pace of foreclosures will not abate ...
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12.15.08Bank Failures 24 and 25Number 24: Haven Trust Bank, Duluth Georgia; Number 25: Sanderson State Bank, Sanderson, Texas. Will we get 30 for the year? 24 || 25, originally uploaded by Libertinus.
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12.15.08US homes lose $2 trillion in 2008From CNN: American homeowners will collectively lose more than $2 trillion in home value by the end of 2008, according to a report released Monday. The real estate Web site, Zillow.com, calculated that home values have dropped 8.4% year-over-year during the first three quarters of 2008, compared with the same period of 2007. Some 11.7 million Americans are now "underwater," owing more on their mortgage balances than their homes are worth. Zillow collects home values and analyzes home price trends in 163 markets; all but 30 registered price drops over the nine months ended September 30, compared with the same nine-month period of 2007. "This ...
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12.11.08November foreclosures drop 7%From CNN: Foreclosure filings dropped 7% from October to November, according a report released Thursday. But don't break out the bubbly. The tide of foreclosures may be ebbing now, but the flood isn't over yet. "There are several indications that this lower activity is simply a temporary lull before another foreclosure storm hits in the coming months," James Saccacio, RealtyTrac's CEO, said in a statement. November foreclosure filings fell to 259,085, or one for every 488 households in the nation, according to the latest report from RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosure properties. That was down from October, but up 28% from November ...
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12.02.08Foreclosures hurting home sellersFrom CNN: Selling a home in this market is hard enough. Competing in a neighborhood flooded with foreclosed homes that are heavily discounted is nearly impossible. There are nearly a million repossessed homes on the market right now. And these homes, dubbed in the industry as REO (real estate owned) properties, are being marketed by the most motivated of all sellers - that is, the lenders stuck holding the bag when homeowners default. On average, foreclosed homes are priced almost 40% lower than normal real estate listings, according to data supplied by Trulia.com, the real estate Web site. "Distressed sales [like foreclosures and short ...
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12.01.087 years until the bottomFrom the Atlanta Real Estate Investor Wire: According to economist Mike Shedlock, and based upon data from Japan, the housing market won’t hit bottom for another seven years. never been to Vegas..., originally uploaded by circulating.
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11.28.08Problem bank list balloons to 171From The Street: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s list of problem banks ballooned nearly 50% as banks profits nearly evaporated in the third quarter, as the credit crisis reached its boiling point, the agency said Tuesday. Net earnings of commercial bank and savings institutions under the FDIC's protection totaled just $1.7 billion in the third quarter, down 94% from a year earlier, according to the FDIC's quarterly banking report, which was released Tuesday. The quarter was the second weakest, following the fourth quarter of 2007, since 1990, according to the agency. There are roughly 171 banks, up from 117 institutions, with a combined ...
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11.25.08Existing home sales tumbleFrom CNN: Sales of existing homes fell in October and prices continued to decline as potential buyers remain sidelined by the weak economy, according to a real estate group's report issued Monday. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales by homeowners slid in October to an annual pace of 4.98 million. That was down 3.1% from September's revised reading of 5.14 million. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com were expecting sales to have declined to an annual rate of 5.05 million in October. On a year-over-year basis, sales were down 1.6%. "Many potential homebuyers appear to have withdrawn from the market due to the stock-market collapse ...