Results tagged “mortgage”

The NY Times looks at how House Republicans want Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-Brooklyn)-House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chair—to subpoena details about Countrywide Mortgage's VIP program, which gives breaks prominent people, including (allegedly) Towns. Towns' spokeswoman calls it a smear campaign, "He went to his local mortgage guy and got a normal mortgage. The guy’s from Brooklyn and doesn’t have much money and wasn’t prominent enough to be considered a V.I.P. Whether it was later transferred through the V.I.P. program, I don’t know. But he didn’t receive any favors."

This weekend, the NY Times real estate section looks at tales of would-be condo buyers who have their deposits (many in the six-figure range) with banks now suddenly worried about lending. In 2005, one couple put down a 10% deposit—and were approved for a mortgage—for a Toll Brothers two-bedroom in Hoboken; when they tried to close last fall, many banks told them to increase the deposit by 15-25% for a mortgage. Since the couple couldn't, "Toll Brothers declared them in default and kept their deposit" of $93,199. That couple is suing, as is another who forfeited their 10% deposit ($173,000) on a (non-Toll Brothers) Chelsea two-bedroom, because "mortgage brokers told them that 90 percent financing no longer existed." Some buyers buying smaller units or scraping up more money for deposits, but many contracts before last fall required buyers to be committed to the property "regardless of whether they could get financing." Jonathan J. Miller, of research and appraisal firm Miller Samuel, tells the Times, “It’s going to get worse before it gets better, because it will only start to ease when credit stabilizes.”

The NY Times announced it raised $225 million in cash from the "sale-leaseback of part of its headquarters building, one in a series of moves to pay down its debts and increase its cash cushion during a drastic slump for the newspaper industry."

Well, it's handy having a brand new trophy building: The NY Times reports, "The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits."

After the Daily News's recent stunt, in which reporters at the tabloid used fake documents to transfer ownership of the Empire State Building to a non-existent company, city prosecutors are calling for an overhaul on how the city register handles property transactions. As the News demonstrated, clerks in the office are not required to verify that the information on deeds and mortgages is correct, and some con artists exploit the loophole to claim ownership of properties, then cash in with illegitimate mortgages before disappearing. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes tells the News today that there ought to be a law giving the register's office the time and power to check transactions before they're recorded. But Sam Miller, a bureaucrat at the city Finance Department, swears these fraudulent transfers "are few and far between." And more importantly, they usually don't end up on the cover the the Daily News.

The Daily News has a clever little cover story today about how the tabloid "stole" the Empire State Building. Inspired by the Brooklyn DA's increasing number of deed fraud prosecutions, reporters decided to try the scam, which involves drawing up fake documents, making a bogus notary stamp and filing paperwork with the city to transfer the deed to the property. Grifters use the fraudulent deed to take out big mortgages, then disappear.

Stock futures are up after the Federal Reserve announced two big plans in hopes of unfreezing consumer credit. One is a $600 billion program to buy mortgage-related debt, of which the Fed says, "This action is being taken to reduce the cost and increase the availability of credit for the purchase of houses, which in turn should support housing markets and foster improved conditions in financial markets more generally." The other is a $200 billion effort to back consumer loans, like student, auto, and credit card loans; the Fed says it stepped in because "Continued disruption of these markets could significantly limit the availability of credit to households and small businesses and thereby contribute to further weakening of U.S. economic activity."

A source tells the Post that two con men who ran a mortgage scam bilking millions out of now-failed lenders like Countrywide and Washington Mutual blew obscene amounts of money on extravagant gambling trips to Atlantic City. Garri Zhigun and Aleksander Lipkin pleaded guilty earlier this month to running a 27-member gang that borrowed money to buy properties, then faked sales at inflated prices to borrow even more before defaulting on the loans. The two swindlers—who were backed by the Russian mob—made dozens of trips to Atlantic City between '05 and '06, where they were high rollers awarded with free hotel rooms and show tickets. And all this took place while Zhigun was on parole after serving two years in prison for his participation in an insurance scam involving staged car accidents.

Don’t get too comfortable homeowners – the city’s foreclosure rate is skyrocketing, up a startling 66% in the first quarter of 2008 compared to last year, according to Crain’s and the housing research site Property Shark. Queens saw more foreclosures than the four other boroughs combined, with 508 in the first quarter, up 59% from the same period in 2007.