| PAULSON WEASELS OUT OF FIXING CROOKED MORTGAGE DEALS
Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. unveiled new details of the Bush administration's mortgage-relief plan yesterday, including a proposal that would grant new powers to local governments to refinance the mortgages of struggling homeowners. . . . The worst slumps are in California, Florida, Nevada and parts of the Washington region, especially Northern Virginia, Zandi said. Most of those areas have seen at least a 7 percent decline in housing prices from the beginning of the summer, he said, adding that a 20 percent decline overall is likely by early 2009. . . . The major sticking point is the investors who buy securities made up of subprime loans. For years, they provided the financial backing that allowed mortgage firms to expand their lending. No type of loan made more money for investors, or was as risky, as subprime mortgages, because they required homeowners with shaky credit to pay more interest.
State takes aim at foreclosure rescue firm
Attorney General Bill McCollum has sued a South Florida-based foreclosure rescue company, alleging the firm defrauded dozens of homeowners, and is seeking legislation to strengthen protections for those facing foreclosure.
The civil suit -- filed jointly with the Office of Financial Regulation in Broward County Circuit Court -- charges National Foreclosure Management and multiple affiliates violated the state's deceptive and unfair trade laws. The suit claims the foreclosure rescue firm or its affiliates defrauded at least 80 homeowners of about $1.7 million in home equity.
The company, which also does business as American Home Rescue Inc., selected homeowners who were facing foreclosure and had substantial equity in their homes, the suit said. The company offered to hold the homeowners' titles for a year, and refinance the debt while allowing the homeowners to stay in their houses.
Puerto Rican organization celebrates deal to keep East Orlando ...
A large East Orange County building whose facade resembles the fortresses of colonial Puerto Rico will remain a home away from home for island transplants after more than a year of uncertainty over its fate.
The Asociacion Borinquena de Florida Central, a Puerto Rican social club named after the island's native name of Borinquen, had been struggling to keep the mammoth clubhouse on Econlockhatchee Trail open in the face of rising mortgage payments.
But the oldest Puerto Rican organization in the region managed to refinance the clubhouse just short of a deadline that could have plunged it into foreclosure.
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