Turning its scrutiny to bigger fish in the subprime mortgage scandal, the Justice Department is investigating whether lenders or Wall Street firms defrauded investors in the sale of risky mortgage securities, its Criminal Division chief disclosed Thursday.

"We absolutely are looking at the conduct of the securitizers themselves, and what did they say to those who purchased the (securities)," Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer told a commission created by Congress to investigate causes of the nation's economic collapse. More

http://alternative2foreclosure.com/ask-a-question/

It is one thing to worry about the safety of your spouse who is serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

It is another thing to be afraid that while he or she is gone, the bank will take away your house and your loved one will have nowhere to come home to.

Linda Kellam, 50, knows both those fears. Her husband James, 49, is serving in Afghanistan with the 1218 Transportation Unit of the Army National Guard, which is based in West Palm Beach.

By the time he was deployed July 8, they had both lost their jobs in layoffs. Then the bank tried to foreclose on their Greenacres condo. They became casualties of the mortgage crisis. More

Tracy, CA Real Estate

After more than three years of a painful housing swoon, real estate experts predict that lower prices, attractive mortgage rates, and a tax perk from Uncle Sam will create the most vibrant spring home selling season in some time. "This is going to be probably the most pleasant experience for a home seller in the last four or five years," says Mike Larson of Weiss Research. "If you have been beating your head against a wall, this is going to feel a lot better." But even if the market does perk up, buyers are likely to retain the upper hand throughout 2010. So to help property owners get the best selling price they can—without burying themselves in expenses—U.S. News has created a list of 10 cheap ways to boost a home's sales price by spring.  More

Central Valley Real Estate www.PMZ.com

This article is likely to be quite controversial considering it's content and source.  It is interesting to see how the world views our crisis. - JG

----

Samah El-Shahat, Al Jazeera's resident economist, will be writing a regular column analysing key elements that have contributed to the global financial downturn and its impact across the world.

America: A bank-owned state

In my last column I introduced the idea that America's handling of the financial crisis, and in particular the way it has refused to deal with the banks, is more in keeping with how an "emerging" economy might behave and act.

So this week, I will say that America has become a bank-owned state, allowing its banking oligarchs to suffocate the economy so they can survive at any price.  More

-----

http://www.jeffgreen.pmz.com 

Personal bankruptcies soared last year in Western states hit hardest by the real-estate bust.In states such as California, Arizona and Nevada, where housing prices soared and then collapsed during the past decade, consumer bankruptcy filings rose roughly twice as much as the national average increase of 32%. Homeowners fell behind on mortgages and could no longer tap into their home equity to pay down other debts.

"There's a close relationship between high levels of household debt, including mortgage debt, and bankruptcy filings," said Samuel J. Gerdano, executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute, a research organization made up of attorneys, accountants and other bankruptcy professionals. "That...has been exacerbated by the bursting of the housing bubble."  More

PMZ Real Estate

A substantial number of homeowners are still facing foreclosure, and some are often desperate for help but aren’t sure where to turn. On Tuesday, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed a new law requiring lenders to provide troubled homeowners with information about free mortgage counseling before they can begin any foreclosure process, overriding Governor Carcieri’s veto of the bill. The legislation will take effect 60 days from passage. Its purpose is to ensure that at-risk homeowners have access to all the resources and information available to them to prevent foreclosure, according to its sponsors, Sen. Elizabeth A. Crowley of Central Falls and Rep. David A. Segal of Providence, whose hometowns respectively had the highest and third-highest foreclosure rates in southern New England in 2008. More

PMZ Real Estate