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FTC targets mortgage rescue scams Premium Content

By Inman News, Wednesday, July 15, 2009.

The Federal Trade Commission today announced a coordinated national effort to crack down on mortgage rescue scams, with federal regulators and 23 state attorneys general taking action against 178 companies accused of deceptively marketing foreclosure rescue and loan modification services.

At a press conference Los Angeles with California Attorney General Jerry Brown, the FTC announced four new lawsuits, bringing to total number of mortgage foreclosure rescue and loan modification scam cases the Commission has brought since April to 14.  more...

Lower rates spur refi demand

By Inman News, Wednesday, July 15, 2009.

Lower rates sent applications to refinance mortgages shooting up 17.7 percent the week ending July 10, but requests for purchase loans were down 9.4 percent, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in releasing the results of its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.

Requests for refis accounted for 54.9 percent of all mortgage applications, up from 48.4 percent the previous week.  more...

$5.5M in refunds settles kickbacks lawsuit Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Wednesday, July 15, 2009.

Refund checks are in the mail to more than 50,000 Californians who allegedly overpaid for natural hazard disclosure reports because the real estate brokerages that listed their homes were taking kickbacks from the company producing the reports.

A total of $5.5 million in refunds are being paid out to consumers under the terms of a class-action lawsuit settlement. But the lawyers who filed the case ended up taking home nearly twice that much: $9.47 million in attorneys' fees plus $363,000 in expenses, or $9.83 million in total.  more...