Back when the housing market was soaring, many Americans thought of their homes as piggy banks that they could crack open at will, whether for renovating a kitchen or funding a retirement. The Great Recession put an end to that party, and in most of the country the housing market has yet to return to [...] [...more]
AARP’s legal battle against wrongful reverse mortgage foreclosures has shifted from government regulators to lenders. The AARP Foundation Litigation unit filed a class action lawsuit yesterday against Wells Fargo Bank and the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), charging that they failed to allow surviving spouses and heirs of reverse mortgage borrowers to purchase the [...] [...more]
The reverse mortgage industry is headed for its third straight year of declining loan activity in the wake of the housing crash and the exit of three of the market’s biggest lenders. New loan activity was down 37 percent in 2010 from the peak year in 2008, and 2011 will be another down year, according [...] [...more]
One of the biggest players in reverse mortgages, Wells Fargo & Co., will stop originating new reverse mortgage loans at the end of June, expressing concern that the loans are contributing to rising foreclosures among seniors. The Wells Fargo news follows a decision by Bank of America to exit the business in February. The number [...] [...more]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which regulates the reverse mortgage market, has reversed itself on a rule that was forcing some spouses of borrowers into foreclosure. AARP had filed a lawsuit against HUD, charging that the agency illegally implemented two important rule changes in 2008. The first stated that the non-recourse [...] [...more]
