Value Sinking Fastest on Homes Priced Low to Start
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DURING the great housing bubble, it was the least expensive homes whose prices went up the most. And now it is those homes that are suffering the most.

A Happy Ending to a Raw, but Common, Tale
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Lilla Roberts is a 73-year-old retired physical therapist, a pleasant, engaging woman who moved to this country from Jamaica 46 years ago. In 1988, she bought a small house in Jamaica, Queens, putting down $25,000, and taking out a mortgage for around $120,000. For many years, she religiously made her mortgage payments.

How to Improve Your Financial Willpower
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So here’s how to turn a few powerful psychological principles in your favor and save more, pay off debt and live a richer life.

Why Savings Account Rates Are So Pathetic
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Savers just can’t catch a break. Because of persistent low interest rates, anyone looking for decent returns that are also safe has had a tough time this year. Most of the best savings accounts, for instance, don’t even top a 1.5 percent annual yield.

Pending Home Sales Rose 10.4% in October
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The number of people who signed contracts to buy homes rose in October, the third gain since contract signings hit a decade low.

Luxury Home Contracts Fall
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Toll Brothers, the nation’s largest builder of luxury homes, said on Thursday that its new-home contracts fell 27 percent in its most recent quarter from the year-earlier period.

Housing Still Awaits Its Happy Ending
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October new-home sales sank 8.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of only 283,000, just off record lows, while existing-home sales slid 2.2% in October to a 4.43 million annual rate. On Tuesday, S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index data through September is expected to show a 0.5% month-on-month fall, while pending home sales figures Thursday are also expected to remain weak.

Slump in Housing Prices Deepens
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The U.S. housing market is showing signs of falling deeper into a slump that could weigh on the nation's economic recovery. Home prices nationwide were down 1.5% in the third quarter, compared with a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index released Tuesday. The drop reflects the sharp fall in home sales after government home-buying tax credits expired earlier this year. Prices fell even more, by 2%, in the third quarter, compared with the second quarter.

What Happened to the Government’s Short Sales Program?
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In April, the Obama administration formally rolled out a new program, called Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives, that was designed to spur more short sales, where banks allow homeowners to sell their homes for less than the mortgage debt outstanding. Like other foreclosure-prevention initiatives, this one appears to be off to a slow start — just 342 sales have been completed through September.

Refinancing Plunges as Mortgage Rates Rise
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Refinance activity plunged last week as mortgage rates rose for the third straight week to the highest level since August, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

Foreclosure Probe: Big Banks Told Not to ‘Fix Fraud’
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Ohio’s attorney general threw a wrench into the banking industry’s push to quickly restart foreclosures by fixing faulty paperwork, and pressed them to modify mortgage loans.

Home Prices Falling at Faster Rate, New Report Shows
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The decline in home prices is accelerating across the nation, according to a new report, and a record number of foreclosures is expected to push prices down further through next year.

For Fannie, a Glimmer of Light in the Gloom
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The housing market just earned a much-needed moral victory. Although more than 4 percent of loans held by Fannie Mae are still delinquent, the rate declined recently as banks and the government refined their foreclosure prevention programs, Fannie’s monthly housing summary showed.

Foreclosures Bank Owned Risks Decline in the U.S.
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The risk posed by foreclosures, including government-related and foreclosures bank owned, has diminished in the U.S. for the 2010 third quarter. However, housing market experts stated that the decline is not much as to merit a conclusion that the housing industry crisis is at its end.

The Fed and Foreclosures
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There are two sides to every delinquent loan — a lender who made a bad lending decision and a borrower who cannot repay. Yet, banks have never acted as if they bear responsibility for the mortgage mess.

F.H.A. Rule Changes for Mortgage Borrowers
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HOME buyers with sketchy credit who are unable to qualify for conventional mortgages may now find it more costly and difficult to obtain loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration.

Don’t Just Tell Us. Show Us That You Can Foreclose
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Some in the industry believe that questions about this issue — known as “legal standing” — are trivial. They say it’s just a gambit by borrowers’ lawyers to throw sand in the foreclosure machine. Nine times out of 10, bankers say, the right institutions are foreclosing on the right borrowers.

Maybe so. But the United States Trustee Program, the unit of the Justice Department charged with overseeing the integrity of the nation’s bankruptcy courts, is taking a different view. The unit is stepping up its scrutiny of the veracity of banks’ claims against borrowers, and its approach is evident in two cases in federal bankruptcy court in Atlanta.