When Donna Peterson bought her dream home in Helena in 2007, she didn’t know her purchase would turn into a nightmare.

After being diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer in 2009, she lost both of her home-based businesses while undergoing treatment.

It was then that she asked Bank of America for help.

Full story is available on kxlh.com

Foreclosure commonly represents the end of a struggle. A borrower can’t pay a mortgage, loses a home and moves on.

But Karen Mena, a 38-year-old county worker, never gave up. Mena fought even after her San Bernardino home, Calif., was no longer hers. And she won the three-bedroom house back — at least for now.

Full story is available on goerie.com

No one at this year’s Urban Land Institute conference predicted when metro Phoenix’s housing market will rebound.

The annual Arizona conference, where real-estate industry leaders convene and predict the market’s movements, has been the most important summit on Valley real estate since the beginning of the housing boom nearly a decade ago. But this year, the conversations and atmosphere were different.

Full story is available on Tucson Citizen

Tino Martinez admits he helped approve billions of dollars in questionable home loans even when he thought they “would result in default and foreclosure.”

After Martinez was hired as his company’s top Midwest executive, its Chicago metro operation went from 6,000 loan applications in 2003 to more than 100,000 three years later. Another company’s Midwest operations he oversaw loaned $130 million a month to risky borrowers.

Full story is available on Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

In my State of the Union address, I laid out a blueprint for an economy that’s built to last — an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers and a renewal of American values of fairness and responsibility.

President Obama pushed Saturday for mortgage reform — an issue central to his election-year focus on the middle class.

The President, utilizing the populist rhetoric that has become his trademark on the campaign trail, slammed lenders and banks who sold loans to families who couldn’t afford them.

Full story is available on NYDailyNews

Q: My uncle recently bought a foreclosed home and now we read about the illegal robo-signing. Is there a chance that my uncle might have his house taken back?

– Pam M., Las Vegas

A: This is a good and increasingly common question. With all the discussion and news coverage surrounding these so-called robo-signing scandals, there’s no doubt that this is a serious issue for us here in Nevada.

Full story is available on Las Vegas  Review Journal

Opening a new front against the American banking industry, New York sued three of the nation’s biggest mortgage servicers over their use of an electronic database that, according to the Empire State, has resulted in widespread deception and fraudulent foreclosure practices.

The suit alleges that employees of the three institutions – Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. – filed false and misleading actions in New York and federal courts using the controversial Mortgage Electronic Registry System, undermining the state’s foreclosure process and public records system.

Full story is available on BostonHerald

Last summer, when Andy Armstrong and Jennifer Beattie put their Wyckoff house on the market, their yard was lush with shrubs and flowers, highlighting one of the home’s strongest features — its swimming pool, along with a handsome deck. When their first buyer was unable to get a mortgage, they relisted the house and learned about some of the many differences in selling a home in winter.

In fact, each season of the year has its advantages and disadvantages for both buyers and sellers, affecting sales strategies and purchase considerations.

Full story is available on NorthJersey

YEARS before the housing bust — before all those home loans turned sour and millions of Americans faced foreclosure — a wealthy businessman in Florida set out to blow the whistle on the mortgage game.

His name is Nye Lavalle, and he first came to attention not in finance but in sports and advertising. He turned heads in marketing circles by correctly predicting that Nascar and figure skating would draw huge followings in the 1990s.

Full story is available on The Washington Post