Michael Hobbs's (michaelhobbs) Blog

  Calculated Risk reported Friday that First United Bank in Illinois is the 43rd FDIC-insured institution to fail in 2012 and it is the seventh to fail in Illinois in 2012. First United Bank is the 39th Chicago-area bank to fail since the onset of the financial crisis. The failed bank was purchas...

  According to reports by the Mortgage News Daily website, misuse of the FHA Pre-foreclosure Sale Program, may have cost the Department of  Housing and Urban Development (HUD) over $1 billion in claims that did not meet program requirements.  Was it short sale fraud or was it poor documentation a...

How would you feel about having the homes in your neighborhood securitized?  We have all probably heard the news that the housing market is finally turning the corner, and we could well be on our way to a housing recovery and out of one of the greatest economic crisis of our time. We have also pr...

  The Chicago metro area had the best home sales volume in 59 months according to reports by the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR). In the last year sales were up 28.5%. There were 9,240 new and existing homes sold in the nine-county Chicago metropolitan area, compared to the 7,188 homes sol...

  Have you noticed that many fellow Americans still have that look on their face? You may even ask them, “Why such a sad look on your face my friend?” Last week, Corelogic, a national data aggregator, reported that rising home values helped 1.3 million homeowners get out from "underwater" in the ...

  Many home owners who have been drowning in negative equity are finally facing relief as the markets report rising home prices. According to data from CoreLogic, a provider of consumer, financial and property analytics, negative equity mortgages declined in the second quarter of 2012, falling fr...

  Average home prices in the Chicago Metropolitan area  rose 2.7% in the last month, a story echoed in many cities across the country after the release of the , the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index. According to the index, Home Price Indices rose in July with both the 10- an...

  When you think about your parents or even your grandparents, does homelessness come to mind?  Likely not, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen to them. Just two weeks ago, we received a call from an older couple who had lived in their suburban house for a couple decades.  Things had not gon...

In recent years T.V ads about reverse mortgages surfaced targeting those aged 62 and over.  The ads promised “retirement your way” and “true financial security”. Some even pitching reverse mortgages as “free money”. Reverse mortgages, also known as HECM loans, are backed by the Federal Housing Ad...

This week, the BMRA (Building Materials Reuse Association) is hosting their Market Development Summit in Detroit, Michigan, called Re-Nailed for thought leaders and industry participants. BMRA is a 501 c3 non-profit educational and research organization whose mission is to facilitate building dec...