Ten major banks are settling with the Federal Reserve to repay bilked borrowers $5.2 billion in direct assistance. The settlement…
Category: News Clips
Bo’s news clips: More affordable housing for Austin’s Mueller community
The rigging of an international lending rate may have cost Fannie and Freddie Mac $3 billion in borrowing costs. While…
Bo’s news clips: Austin looks for new ways to pay for low-income housing
With all the chips on the table, including social and housing programs, all eyes focus on the continuing bargaining as…
Bo’s news clips: S TX housing shortage caused by the area’s oil and gas boom
As the nation prepares to cut budgets in light of the “fiscal cliff,” federal housing programs for poor households receive…
Bo’s news clips: “tiny people, building their tiny houses.”
As the economy slowly improves, persons pressed into crowded households are relocating to new units, but some stay in extended…
Bo’s housing clips: Improvements in national housing economy
A weak but slowly recovering housing industry become the rally point for the US economy as home equity improves to…
Bo’s housing clips: Media focus remains on housing finance
Ever-so-slowly moving to reconcile screwing thousands of borrowers, big banks have completed about $22 billion in customer relief through September.…
Bo’s housing clips: “The ones that do have cars are talking about sleeping in their cars.”
The plight of mortgage holders appears to have improved somewhat as delinquency rates decline. The priorities of those who overspend…
Bo’s housing clips: Austin police get tough on homeless; Arlington votes to waive taxes for expensive apartments
With high rollers coming to town to take in the F-1 hoopla, Austin police respond to downtown merchants who are…
Bo’s housing news clips: Banks sued, offer refunds
Tuesday Report, October 30, 2012 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service In an attempt to pare…
Bo’s housing news clips: Stunning fall in family net worth
The Census Bureau shakes out sad numbers from the Great Recession and finds that the housing bust accounts for most…
Bo’s housing news clips: Low mortgage rates does not mean more own homes
Some banks are not only too big to fail but they’re too big for cities to serve code violations on…
Bo’s housing news clips: causes and social repercussions of housing segregation
A cluster of reports and articles on NIMBY movements offer details on the causes and social repercussions of the continuing…
Bo McCarver’s housing news clips for May
DOJ receives rare praise in financial crisis cases By Aruna Viswanatha Reuters May 25, 2012 One part of the Justice…
Bo’s housing news clips: Study finds zoning segregates lower-income students in lower-scoring schools.
A news analysis of Texas’ allocation of federal housing funds shows the process fosters continued segregation. Although the HUD programs…
Bo’s housing news clips: National home foreclosures and Galveston housing woes are top stories in recent weeks
Tuesday Report, April 17, 2012 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Wrangling between the Galveston Housing Authority…
Bo’s housing news clips: Cost of living in Austin is ‘Out of Reach’ for most renters
Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service by Bo McCarver A few economists are now saying that the…
Falkenberg: Learning a lot from the Rankin debacle – Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg wrote her column today on former Harris County Housing Authority executive director Guy Rankin… When…
Bo’s housing clips: Battered by crisis, poor still find paths to home ownership
Compiled by Bo McCarver. Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service As default notices and foreclosures continue, the…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 3-13-2012
The Obama Administration promises zero-tolerance for infractions of mortgage rules negotiated in a settlement with big banks last month. Mortgages…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 3-6-2012
Another federal program to help beleaguered homeowners has fizzled: after two years, less than 3 percent of a $7.6 billion…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 2-28-2012
Market analysts, eager to see silver linings after years of dark news, perceive a recovery in the housing industry as…
HUD boss Shaun Donovan jumps into President Obama mortgage melee – POLITICO.com
A story in Politico on the deal with the banks and HUD Secretary Donovan’s role is worth a read. I…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 2-21-2012
A white paper released by the Fed that offered ways to revive the housing industry has drawn the ire of…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 2-14-2012
Although big banks are forfeiting $26 billion to settle with the federal government over fraud charges, the main change will…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 2-7-2012
Present negotiations with big banks over reconciliation of sleazy mortgages would turn much of the enforcement over to states. Thus…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 2-14-2012
Although big banks are forfeiting $26 billion to settle with the federal government over fraud charges, the main change will…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 1-31-2012
Reporters snooping into Freddie Mac’s business dealings discover that the quasi-governmental organization makes money by screwing homeowners it’s supposed to…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 1-24-2012
A settlement between big banks and the government is expected this week. Homeowners screwed by robo-signing and other sleazy scams…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 1-17-2012
Foreclosure rates dropped by a third last year — but not because of better financial times for homeowners. Fearing federal …