Teeth, please

Slow-to-no mortgage fixes

Banks and other mortgage lenders have been slow so far to modify struggling homeowners' loans, but they now face a deadline. Congress and the White House should hold them strictly to it.

Obama administration officials recently gave the lenders until November to record 500,000 mortgage loan modifications under a voluntary federal program designed to avoid foreclosures.

So far, the results of the federal program, called Making Home Affordable, are not encouraging. A report issued Tuesday by the Treasury Department showed that only 9 percent of the 2.7 million delinquent borrowers eligible for loan modifications have received help. Those homeowners have missed at least two mortgage payments.

Meanwhile, the number of foreclosures continues to rise. More...

Under new management and shareholders wiped out

Two banks in region are seized and sold

By Michael Braga

Regulators on Friday shut down First State Bank of Sarasota and Community National Bank of Sarasota County, two institutions that played in risky loans during the real estate boom and crumbled when the bubble burst. More...

Rising tide sinks homeowners

Survey: 'Underwater' Mortgages To Hit 48 Percent

A new study indicates that by 2011 nearly half of American homeowners will have a house worth less than what they owe on the mortgage. When more is owed, than what the house is worth, it's called being under water. One-fourth of U.S. homeowners are estimated to be under water on their mortgages already. NPR