Arizona Real Estate News Access
All the real estate and mortgage news you need to know in Arizona
Categories:

Archives:
Meta:
August 2009
S M T W T F S
« Jul   Sep »
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
08/30/09
GMAC loan division closing, 103 jobs being eliminated
Filed under: General, Business, Real Estate, Mortgages, Finance
Posted by: Lillian Wong @ 9:23 pm

GMAC Mortgage’s Ditech Home Loans division is closing its mortgage underwriting center in Phoenix and laying off 103 workers.

The work volume will be handled at Ditech’s main offices in Costa Mesa, Calf., said GMAC spokeswoman Jeannine Bruin.

Bruin said the Phoenix center does mortgage underwriting, processing and pre-funding. The center, located on Cotton Center Boulevard near Interstate 10 and Broadway Road, will close in November. Bruin said employees can apply for jobs in Costa Mesa or other GMAC locations. She would not comment on severance packages.

The lease on the 3-year-old Phoenix center expires soon, and Ditech had space available at its headquarters in Orange County, Calif., to handle the work being done here, Bruin said. With the mortgage center’s closure, GMAC’s presence in Arizona will be substantially diminished.

“We will have a handful of employees remaining in Phoenix in commercial finance and auto finance roles,” said Bruin, who would not disclose specific numbers.

The mortgage lending sector has been hit by the housing slump, the recession and a consumer credit crunch that has constrained lending. The Valley has lost 11,600 financial services jobs since the recession started in late 2007, going from 151,200 in December 2007 to 139,600 in July of this year, according to the Arizona Department of Commerce.

The Valley’s unemployment rate for July was 8.4 percent, up from 3.5 percent in November 2007. The state’s July jobless rate was 9.2 percent, up from 4.2 percent in November 2007, according to ADOC.

GMAC Mortgage/Ditech

Address: 4405 E. Cotton Center Blvd., Phoenix
Layoffs: 103
Date: Nov. 6
Reason: Work to be moved to Ditech’s Orange County, Calif., headquarters
HISTORY: Established 1995, acquired by GMAC in 1999
Web:
www.gmacmortgage.com or www.ditech.com

Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks Friday, August 28, 2009



Bookmark and Share
Subscribe

share

comments (0)
Less credit? You may not get dinged
Filed under: General, Finance
Posted by: Lillian Wong @ 8:33 pm

As more credit-card issuers close accounts or slash borrowing limits without customers’ consent, it raises questions.

Among them: What impact do these moves have on credit scores?  more…



Bookmark and Share
Subscribe

share

comments (0)
Judge: LifeLock alerts are not legal
Filed under: General, Business
Posted by: Lillian Wong @ 6:13 pm

LifeLock Inc. is preparing to roll out a new identity-theft-prevention product in light of a federal judge’s decision against the Tempe-based company.

The ruling should not result in immediate changes for LifeLock’s customers, but the company is developing an alternative to the practice that has been challenged in court, Chief Executive Officer Todd Davis said.   more…



Bookmark and Share
Subscribe

share

comments (0)
Rentable housing numbers vex cities
Filed under: General, Real Estate
Posted by: Lillian Wong @ 5:50 pm

With mounting foreclosures, investors are snapping up homes and renting them to tenants at bargain rates. But in the long run, the trend could shake the stability of Valley neighborhoods and hurt cities’ efforts to promote homeownership, community leaders warn.

Some cities that have been hit hard by foreclosures are trying to wrap their arms around the problem.   more…



Bookmark and Share
Subscribe

share

comments (0)
Stimulus housing aid begins flowing in Phoenix
Filed under: General, Mortgages
Posted by: Lillian Wong @ 5:37 pm

After business dried up in May, Jodi Morris’ employer, an insurance agent, stopped sending paychecks.

 

Since then, the 43-year-old single mother has had to sell almost all of her furniture - her kitchen table and chairs, bed frames, dresser and armoire, and living room set - to pay the bills.   more…



Bookmark and Share
Subscribe

share

comments (0)
‘Extreme Makeover’ home for sale for $1.3 million
Filed under: General, Real Estate
Posted by: Lillian Wong @ 5:26 pm

The first home in Arizona to get the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” treatment is for sale, the family blessed with the two-story mansion saying it is looking to escape the crushing bills that came with the house.  more…



Bookmark and Share
Subscribe

share

comments (0)
Bank Insurance Fund Down 20 Percent in 2Q
Filed under: General, Business, Finance
Posted by: Lillian Wong @ 5:07 pm

The agency that guarantees bank deposits said Thursday there are no immediate plans to borrow money from the government to bolster its insurance fund, which fell 20 percent to $10.4 billion in the second quarter.

 

That’s the fund’s lowest point since 1992, at the height of the savings-and-loan crisis. Some analysts have warned that the fund could fall below zero by year’s end because of the pace of bank failures.  more…



Bookmark and Share
Subscribe

share

comments (0)
Valley housing attracting cash
Filed under: General, Real Estate
Posted by: Lillian Wong @ 4:56 pm

Half-a-billion dollars in cash was spent on down payments and home purchases in metropolitan Phoenix last month.

That tally doesn’t include mortgages on homes. It’s the pure cash figure buyers spent on existing Valley homes in July, according to Arizona housing analyst RL Brown. In his recent “Phoenix Housing Market Letter,” Brown uses the figure to prove the housing market is showing signs of life after last year’s crash.  more…



Bookmark and Share
Subscribe

share

comments (0)
Valley’s commercial real-estate crisis to worsen
Filed under: General, Real Estate
Posted by: Lillian Wong @ 4:43 pm

The Valley’s commercial real-estate crisis isn’t just about buildings, it’s about everything and everyone inside.

The impact isn’t as easy to see as the fallout from the home-mortgage mess, with its sea of empty homes and for-sale signs, but it’s likely to become more noticeable to Valley consumers as the commercial crisis worsens this year, predicts Scottsdale consultant Robert Kline.   more…



Bookmark and Share
Subscribe

share

comments (0)
Struggling homeowners left in limbo
Filed under: General, Real Estate, Mortgages
Posted by: Lillian Wong @ 3:35 pm

Five months into the $75 billion federal program meant to toss a lifeline to homeowners facing foreclosure, most people in need of help are still floundering.

Overall, about 15 percent of borrowers across the country who are eligible for the program have been offered help from their lender, according to a recent U.S. Treasury Department report. Of those homeowners, 9 percent have participated in a trial loan modification. President Barack Obama’s administration is calling for lenders to ramp up their efforts and help 500,000 more homeowners by November.   more…



Bookmark and Share
Subscribe

share

comments (0)