Not long ago, lenders were handing out mortgages to anyone with a phone number and a pulse. No money for a down payment? Not a problem! Low credit score? Who cares? Incarcerated? You’ll need a place to live when you get out, right? Those easy-money days are history. As the mortgage meltdown has spread, lenders are demanding stellar credit and proof of income. Zero-down payment mortgages have just about disappeared. More…
A condominium project designed to increase pedestrian traffic and help transform
LOS ANGELES - Countrywide Financial Corp. grew from a two-man startup in 1969 to become the nation’s leading mortgage lender by deftly riding out housing boom-and-bust cycles. This time around, however, the ride has been a lot rougher, leaving the company in a scramble to regain its footing as the housing market has turned from boom to bust. To survive, it’s been forced to borrow billions of dollars, announce thousands of job cuts and dramatically restructure its lending practices to nearly eliminate risky subprime loans to borrowers with shaky credit that have led to massive foreclosures and defaults wracking the housing market. More…
From making mortgage fraud a felony to more closely tracking sex offenders, laws enacted by the Legislature get legal legs Wednesday. Starting this week, Arizona will have one of the nation’s tougher laws on mortgage fraud, a law that more closely tracks sex offenders, and a law requiring first time drunken driving offenders to use an interlock device. The most controversial of the lot - employer sanctions, which would crack down on businesses that knowingly hire undocumented workers - doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1. More…