Inland Real Estate Corporation (Investors/Analysts):
        Dawn Benchelt, Investor Relations Director
        (630) 218-7364
        ir@inlandrealestate.com
        or
        Inland Communications, Inc. (Media):
        Joel Cunningham, Media Relations
        (630) 218-8000 x4897
        cunningham@inlandgroup.com

Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/inland-real-estate-corporation-pays-may-and-declares-june-cash-distribution-to-common-stockholders-2012-05-17

Last Saturday night, Norman Rousseau reportedly spent hours trying to fix an old RV. He was facing the prospect of foreclosure, and he wasn’t about to see his family forced onto the street. Then mid-morning, with the RV’s engine in pieces, he shot and killed himself, CBS Los Angeles reports

Rousseau, who lived in Newbury Park, California, has left a wife and stepson to deal with an ongoing battle with Wells Fargo, according to a lawsuit filed in January 2011 by Norman and his wife, Oriane (h/t Alternet).

“Our thoughts are with the friends and family of Mr. Rousseau at this difficult time. The eviction has been postponed and we will continue to work with Mrs. Rousseau,” a Wells Fargo spokesperson said to The Huffington Post in an email. “Despite current reports, we tried repeatedly to find affordable options for the family.”

The trouble started when the Rousseaus refinanced their mortgage, finding out much later that their interest rate actually increased after they did so, the lawsuit states. On top of that, the lawsuit claims that the couple was convinced to roll their credit card debt into the loan, ostensibly prolonging and increasing that debt as well, according to Chris Gardas, the attorney representing the Rousseau family.

At the time, the deal “tasted like honey” to Rousseau, who believed she and her husband had made a solid financial decision, Gardas told The Huffington Post.

Then in May 2009, Wells Fargo allegedly denied it had received the Rousseaus payment for that month. Later, the bank would change its story, blaming the mix-up on putting a stop on the couple’s check, CBS Los Angeles reports.

What ensued were repeated and inaccurate requests for payment from Wells Fargo, along with excessive fees and a denied loan modification, according to the lawsuit. That climaxed in a lockout that appears to have led Norman Rousseau to his death, according to the lawsuit. The eviction has now been delayed two weeks, according to the family’s attorney.

Oriane has no desire to stay in the home that’s the scene of her husband’s suicide, the family’s lawyer says. She’s living in a hotel paid for by local church members but, should that support run out, she may be forced to return until evicted.

Norman Rousseau now counts among the victims of the foreclosure crisis driven to tragic ends. Just last week, a Connecticut woman facing foreclosure shot her 85-year-old mother before turning the gun on herself, The Hartford Courant reports. The event is sadly reminiscent of a senior Ohio couple who, also facing foreclosure, were found with fatal gunshot wounds.

Wells Fargo has originated a third of all residential U.S. mortgages, the most in the country and triple the share of the runner-up, JPMorgan Chase, according to Bloomberg. The bank is also one of five that agreed to pay a $25 billion settlement over allegations of mortgage fraud. It recently received a $3.1 million fine for “highly reprehensible” behavior related to one Louisiana man’s mortgage.

Wells Fargo isn’t likely to suffer similar punitive damage here, the family’s lawyer told The Huffington Post. “Instead, everybody just says they’re doing their job.”

As of last night, Mrs. Rousseau told Gardas that she has yet to hear personally from a Wells Fargo spokesperson.

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/17/norman-rousseau-foreclosure-victim-suicide-wells-fargo_n_1521743.html

Foreclosure activity in the U.S. fell last month to its lowest level since the start of the credit crisis in 2007, driven largely by drops in states such as California, where the process occurs outside of the courtroom.

Foreclosure filings – default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions – were logged on 18,780 homes, according to RealtyTrac. That was a drop of 5% from the prior month and a 14% decline from April 2011. One in every 698 U.S. housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month.

States where a court order is not needed to take back a home appear to be bouncing back faster than those that need one. The Times wrote about the distinction between judicial and non-judicial foreclosure states in this 2010 article.

The so-called non-judicial states such as California, Arizona and Nevada collectively posted a 7% decline in foreclosure activity last month from the prior month and a 29% drop from the same month last year.

In states where a court order is needed to take back a home, states such as Florida, New York and New Jersey, foreclosure activity dropped 3% from the prior month but was up 15% from the same month a year earlier. 

RELATED:

Newest housing data show improvements

Mortgage deal cash to go to legal services, counselors

Jerry Brown releases revised budget to close $16-billion gap

Article source: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-foreclosure-activity-sinks-to-a-five-year-low-20120517,0,1037879.story

        For further information contact:
        Stephanie Singer
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Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/realtorsr-raise-awareness-at-real-estate-rally-2012-05-17

Foreclosure starts in Illinois are on par with those in other areas, but the state’s court-supervised foreclosure system continues to bog down properties in the process.

Almost 7.5 percent of mortgage loans on one- to four-unit residential properties in Illinois were in foreclosure at the end of March, compared with a national average of 4.39 percent, according to data released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

“Illinois and New Jersey trail only Florida as being the worst in the country, and they’re getting worse,” said Jay Brinkmann, the association’s chief economist. “The rate in Illinois is more than twice that of California. In the judicial states, the problem continues to get worse in terms of the backlog of loans in the foreclosure process.”

Added Michael Fratantoni, the association’s vice president of research and economics: “This is not a case that loans are entering foreclosure at a greater extent than in nonjudicial (states). It’s that they’re staying in foreclosure longer.”

Illinois is not alone, according to the trade group’s quarterly national delinquency survey. In judicial states, the percentage of loans in the foreclosure process reached an all-time high of 6.9 during the first quarter. That compares with a rate of 2.8 percent in nonjudicial states, the lowest since early 2009.

“That difference is due entirely to the systems some states have in place that effectively block timely resolution of nonperforming loans,” Fratantoni said. “Hard-hit markets like Arizona that have moved through their foreclosure backlog quickly are seeing home price gains this spring.”

In Arizona, foreclosures are not handled in the courts.

Consumer advocates maintain that processing foreclosures through a court system provides more protections and rights for homeowners. There are 21 states that process foreclosures through their court systems. Eleven of them, including Wisconsin, New Mexico, Maryland and Pennsylvania, have foreclosure inventories lower than the national average.

Of all loans in foreclosure nationally, 52.4 percent are in five states: Illinois, Florida, California, New York and New Jersey.

The overall national picture for mortgage delinquencies showed improvement in the quarter. The combined percentage of loans in foreclosure or at least one payment past due, at 11.3 percent, was at the lowest reading since 2008. Only four states — Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Washington — registered first-quarter increases in the 90-day-plus delinquency rates.

Foreclosure activity typically slows in the first three months of the year, but some of the overall improvement in delinquency rates is tied to modest gains in the job market, economists said.

“The report has some considerable good news in it in terms of where we are in the housing recovery,” Brinkmann said. “The improvement does reflect a generally improving jobs picture over the last year.”

Thirteen months ago, the Illinois Supreme Court formed a committee to study the state’s mortgage foreclosure process and how different rules affect the proceedings here, and how other states have handled an unprecedented number of foreclosure cases.

This spring, the committee made recommendations to the court. Most involved paperwork changes and giving homeowners more notice about their rights. But the committee also recommended that the Supreme Court require that, in most cases, foreclosure sales be held within 45 days of the expiration of the redemption period, the date by which a homeowner can make the mortgage current and keep the property.

mepodmolik@tribune.com

Twitter @mepodmolik

Article source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0517-foreclosure-20120517,0,2807699.story

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/us-foreclosure-trends-improved-april-but-state-level-data-point-to-more-repossessions-ahead/2012/05/16/gIQAUEVeUU_story.html

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Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/real-estate-survey-shows-pros-think-floridas-market-outlook-improved-in-1st-quarter-of-2012/2012/05/16/gIQAEv60TU_story.html

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/real-estate-agents-help-local-heroes-buy-homes/2012/05/15/gIQAu1VvTU_story.html

Mayur Arora is seeing something few would have expected in Vancouver’s real estate market – people walking away from deposits on houses, convinced prices will fall further.

“It happened twice in the last month. One [deposit] was $75,000 and one was a $20,000 deposit, the guys just walked away from it,” said Mr. Arora, who runs Oneflatfee.ca in Surrey, B.C. “They are going to wait it out. So they lost $75,000 and $20,000, but if the market comes down $150,000 on a $1.5-million house, that’s not uncommon.”

Vancouver’s once-overheated housing market has cooled sharply, with the average price falling nearly 10 per cent in April from a year ago to $735,315, according to figures released Tuesday by the Canadian Real Estate Association. That was the largest drop since the recession and it marked the fourth decline in the past five months.

In a market once famous for being overheated, Mr. Arora said he hasn’t seen a bidding war in months. “It’s totally a buyers’ market. Buyers are determining the price,” he said. “And sellers are surprisingly accepting it. They are taking it.”

One reason for the decline is fewer buyers from Asia, something that had been driving parts of the Vancouver market in recent years, according to agents. “The number of buyers from China is definitely down this year,” said Andrew Hasman, a real estate agent who specializes in high-end homes. “We’re seeing far fewer buyers from that part of the world and that’s the reason our sales are down.”

Mr. Hasman said money flowing out of China has slowed considerably and Canadian banks have also tightened their mortgage lending rules, especially on larger loans commonly associated with high-priced real estate. Jean Zhang, who works for Sutton Group in Vancouver, agreed and said she is also seeing fewer immigrant buyers.

Over all, home sales increased slightly last month across Canada and the average price jumped 0.9 per cent on a year-over-year basis to $375,810, according to CREA figures. Prices were up in 80 per cent of all local markets. Toronto remained one of the hottest markets, with sales up 2.5 per cent and the average price climbing 8.4 per cent to $517,556 from a year ago.

“While growth in Canadian housing activity has lost some steam over the last year, the level of Canadian home prices and sales remain high,” said Diana Petramala, an economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank. She added that low interest rates continue to push demand and estimated that Canadian housing is 10 to 15 per cent overvalued, particularly in Toronto and Vancouver.

While Toronto has garnered much attention for its price appreciation and flurry of activity, it’s not the only real estate market that’s bustling.

In Regina, year-to-date prices are 9.4 per cent higher than the same period a year ago. Sales and average prices set a record last month, driven by strong population growth, including migration, and the lowest jobless rate in the country. The average home price in Regina is now $312,873, according to CREA.

“The picture that emerges from the April existing homes statistics continue to support our view that housing market activity – at least on the resales side – is on a path of moderation over all in Canada but that regional divergences remain,” said Robert Hogue, a senior economist at Royal Bank of Canada.

Not everyone is convinced there’s a housing bubble. Economic fundamentals are driving activity and prices, and many markets are still undersupplied, said Peter Norman, chief economist at Altus Group.

He points to an improving labour market, low interest rates, population growth and pent-up demand from the recession as driving activity. “I wouldn’t say it’s out of control but it certainly indicates strengthening demand in a relatively supply-constrained market,” he said.

Even in Toronto, where talk of a bubble is most concentrated, rising prices simply reflect population growth of about 100,000 people a year in a city where “severe land constraints” are limiting the ability to build single homes, he said.

Article source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/vancouvers-real-estate-swoon-deepens/article2433053/

WASHINGTON |
Tue May 15, 2012 4:52pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The housing regulator for mortgage-giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Tuesday said laws under consideration in California to halt illegal foreclosures could restrict mortgage credit and hamper necessary home seizures.

In a letter to California legislators, the Federal Housing Finance Agency disclosed concerns with a measure to increase civil penalties for so-called “robosigning” of mortgage documents and a proposal that attempts to protect delinquent borrowers from losing their homes.

The term robosigning describes the practice of bank workers signing off on foreclosure documents en masse without verifying information in the paperwork.

The regulator said the proposed legislation in California would loosely define robosigning in a way that may include any incomplete mortgage document.

“Such a strict liability approach is punitive, will have a chilling effect on the processing of lawful foreclosures and…may lead to reduced credit availability or higher interest rates,” according to the letter from FHFA’s General Counsel, Alfred Pollard, to state senators and assembly members.

The regulator also raised concerns about a proposal that would give more protections to tenants whose rentals are in the foreclosure process. Pollard said the legislation does not include a “bona fide” lease requirement and could result in property owners gaming the system.

The regulator also claimed the two measures would go beyond the recent $25 billion multistate settlement with five large U.S. banks over foreclosure practices such as robosigning, and could possibly pose “significant risks for the housing markets.”

Some attorneys general disagreed over the scope of the final mortgage accord, including California Attorney General Kamala Harris. California, which has the highest number of properties in the foreclosure pipeline, has since taken the lead on using federal dollars from the settlement to offer mortgage relief.

(Reporting by Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Andrew Hay)

Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/15/us-usa-housing-idUSBRE84E1DX20120515