Foreclosure News

Lender that took over Mutual Bank files foreclosure suits
By Andrew Schroedter
Crain's Chicago Business
October 27, 2009

Three months after taking over Mutual Bank from the FDIC, a Texas bank is cleaning up the troubled loan portfolio of the shuttered Harvey financial institution, filing foreclosure lawsuits to recover $7.54 million from a low-profile suburban hotel operator.

Foreclosures: Worst-hit cities
Foreclosure rates are easing in some of the hardest-hit areas, but the plague is spreading to new cities.
October 28, 2009

While foreclosure rates are easing in some of the hardest-hit cities, the crisis is beginning to expand into new metro areas.

On Wednesday, RealtyTrac released its list of cities with the biggest foreclosure problems during the third quarter. As expected, towns in California, Florida and Nevada dominated the top 10, with Las Vegas taking the top spot with a rate of 1 in 20 homes. That's a 53% increase over the third quarter 2008.

Artists plan to encase vacant Detroit home in ice
By David Runk
The Associated Press
October 27, 2009

DETROIT – A photographer and an architect plan to freeze one of Detroit's thousands of abandoned homes this winter, encasing it in ice to draw attention to foreclosures that have battered the region.

The project from Gregory Holm and Matthew Radune, dubbed Ice House Detroit, is the latest example of the remnants of Detroit's population loss and industrial decline serving as both artistic inspiration and canvas.

B of A wants CB Richard Ellis named Block 37 receiver
By Alby Gallun
Crain's Chicago Business
October 24, 2009

Bank of America has picked CB Richard Ellis Inc. to serve as the receiver of Block 37 days after filing to foreclose on the troubled Loop retail development.

A Cook County Circuit Court judge on Monday afternoon is scheduled to hear the bank's motion to appoint CB Richard Ellis as the receiver, a move that would wrest control of the project from its developer, Chicago-based Joseph Freed & Associates LLC, just weeks before retailers are to start opening stores there.

DETROIT (Reuters) – In a crowded ballroom next to a bankrupt casino, what remains of the Detroit property market was being picked over by speculators and mostly discarded.

After five hours of calling out a drumbeat of "no bid" for properties listed in an auction book as thick as a city phone directory, the energy of the county auctioneer began to flag.

"OK," he said. "We only have 300 more pages to go."

Foreclosures: 'Worst three months of all time'
Despite signs of broader economic recovery, number of foreclosure filings hit a record high in the third quarter
By Les Christie
CNN Money
October 15, 2009

Despite concerted government-led and lender-supported efforts to prevent foreclosures, the number of filings hit a record high in the third quarter, according to a report issued Thursday.

"They were the worst three months of all time," said Rick Sharga, spokesman for RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes.

Illinois foreclosure activity rises more than U.S. in 3rd quarter
Crains Chicago Business
October 15, 2009

Foreclosure activity rose more in Illinois in the third quarter than in the country as a whole.

Foreclosure-related filings rose 13.7 percent in Illinois in the third quarter compared with the April-June period, according to a report released Thursday by Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc.

At foreclosure auctions, broken dreams on sale
By James B. Kelleher
Reuters
October 15, 2009

The seven-bedroom, three-bath house in this city's West Garfield Park neighborhood had once been someone's American Dream.

But at a recent auction of about 100 foreclosed houses and condos, it was just Property No. 20 -- and drawing no bids from a roomful of buyers despite its bargain-basement price.

"Any interest in this home at $7,000?" fast-talking auctioneer Renee Jones asked the crowd. "If not, we'll move on."

Foreclosures Grow in Housing Market's Top Tiers
By Nick Timiraos
The Wall Street Journal
October 13, 2009

New data suggest that foreclosures are rising in more expensive housing markets.

About 30% of foreclosures in June involved homes in the top third of local housing values, up from 16% when the foreclosure crisis began three years ago, according to new data from real-estate Web site Zillow.com. The bottom one-third of housing markets, by home value, now account for 35% of foreclosures, down from 55% in 2006.

Doubts Are Cast on Value of Las Vegas's Fontainebleau
Bankrupt Project Could Need an Additional $2 Billion, Potential Bidder Says, and Pay-Off Is Long Way Off
By Alexandra Berzon
The Wall Street Journal
October 12, 2009

The Fontainebleau the luxury hotel and casino development at the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip, sits more than half-finished after falling into bankruptcy in June.