Real Estate
Some investors in PA still waiting after 20 years.
“The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa. showed how the leadership of Lehigh Valley International Airport followed a risky strategy of buying land around the airport in the mid-1990s. That strategy led to an inverse condemnation and court fight pitting the airport against a group of investors who had hoped to build on the land. Despite…
Read MoreThe NJ Casino Reinvestment Development Authority forced by former admin. to make bad loan.
The Press of Atlantic City reports that the former governor of New Jersey pressured the CRDA to make a $4 million loan to another state agency. Corzine’s administration pressed the agency responsible for reinvesting casino dollars to make the loan, former Executive Director Tom Carver said. The loan helped a Democratic Party contributor and Corzine…
Read MoreBehind the foreclosure crisis in three U.S. cities
To answer nagging questions about the foreclosure crisis, Jennifer LaFleur of ProPublica and Sanjay Bhatt of The Seattle Times built a database based on a random sample of some 1,200 foreclosure filings from the central county of three metro areas — Seattle, Phoenix and Baltimore. Their findings challenge some of the conventional wisdom about the…
Read MoreProperty insurance system puts Floridians at risk
Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporter Paige St. John spent the past year investigating Florida’s property insurance crisis. Her work exposed companies that continued to sell policies when they had no way to pay claims and revealed company owners who demanded rate hikes while secretly siphoning profits from their struggling businesses. The series also revealed how insurers and…
Read MoreLegal problems mount for large foreclosure processing company
Reuters correspondent Scot Paltrow reports on Lender Processing Services, a Florida company that handles half of all foreclosures in the United States. A Reuters investigation shows the company’s legal woes are more serious than previously disclosed. “Public records reveal that the company’s LPS Default Solutions unit produced documents of dubious authenticity in far larger quantities…
Read MoreLoophole allows attorneys to exploit Illinois residents facing foreclosure
A loophole in state and federal laws has made it easy for some attorneys to take advantage of Illinois residents struggling to keep their homes, according to an investigation by the Chicago Tribune. In 2006, Illinois and other states passed legislation that banned charging upfront fees for loan modifications. But the law doesn’t apply to…
Read MoreTexas governor linked to questionable real estate deals
An investigation by The Dallas Morning News found evidence that Gov. Rick Perry’s biggest real estate score was enhanced by a series of professional courtesies, and personal favors from friends, campaign donors, and the head of a Texas family with a rich history of political power-brokering. Together, they may have enriched Perry by almost $500,000,…
Read More“Tax sale” foreclosures a threat to homeowners
A report by the Huffington Post Investigative fund examines “tax sale” foreclosures. Amid the economic downturn, they are happening in Baltimore and other cities, where big banks, brokerage houses, and other investors are gaining the right from governments to collect on paltry debts of citizens. Fees and other costs swell, and homeowners who can’t make…
Read MoreFormer governor scored deal on coastal property
Reporters Jay Price, J. Andrew Curliss and Joseph Neff of The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) broke the story of how former Gov. Mike Easley and his wife Mary accepted a $137,000 discount on a coastal lot from a developer who had gotten key permits from the Easley administration. The story continued a string of…
Read MoreMassachusetts slow to discipline problem lenders
An investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University (NECIR-BU) shows that regulators in Massachusetts have been slow to discipline problem mortgage brokers and lenders compared to other New England states. “Between January 1, 2007 and June 1, 2009, The Massachusetts Division of Banks took its most stringent actions against less…
Read More