After two years at the top of the heap, Florida no longer holds the distinction as the nation's top fraud spot. Rhode Island made its first appearance to lead the list, which covers 2008. ...more

March 17, 2009

rhode island tops mortgage fraud lsit ...more

March 16, 2009

With tightened credit markets strangling the supply of home loans, a growing number of buyers in the Tampa Bay area have turned for help to an obscure program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ...more

February 6, 2009

A Sarasota lawyer has admitted participating in what authorities have said was an $82.7 million mortgage loan scheme that defrauded seven banks. ...more

February 4, 2009

The default rate for mortgages recently insured by the Federal Housing Administration has been climbing, an alarming trend for an agency that is playing a vastly expanded role in the mortgage market and backing roughly a quarter of all the loans made last year. ...more

January 26, 2009

Rates on 30-year-fixed mortgages dropped this week to their lowest levels in at least 37 years, as the Federal Reserve pledged to pour money into the mortgage market in an effort to spur the moribund U.S. housing market. ...more

December 19, 2008

El Capitan Crossings was supposed to be a place where needy families could realize the American dream of home ownership. ...more

November 30, 2008

Publicly breaking with the Bush administration's official stance, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposed Friday to use $24 billion in government funding to help 1.5 million U.S. households avoid foreclosure. ...more

November 15, 2008

Starting early next year, Pasco County will offer $20 million in down payment help to prospective home buyers, part of a push to put people into the foreclosed and abandoned homes that riddle the county. ...more

October 22, 2008

Starting early next year, Pasco County will offer $20 million in down payment help to prospective home buyers – part of a push to put people back into the foreclosed and abandoned homes that riddle the county. County commissioners today effectively rewrote a proposal by the county's Community Development office for spending $19.5 million in federal housing money aimed at addressing the national housing crisis. The county will add $6 million of its own housing money to increase the federal funding's reach. The proposal original presented to commissioners would have spent $16.3 million on buying and rehabbing run-down homes to make them sellable. Another $4 million was put into helping low- and moderate-income people get mortgages. ...more

October 21, 2008