Housing pressures increase in Boston
in The Boston Globe on June 16, 2014 by Lawrence Harmon
THE DIFFICULTY of finding and holding onto an economical rental unit in Boston is enough to make a grown man cry. Not just any man, but Stephen Key, a Hall of Fame member of the World Martial Arts Federation. Key, 53, has shown the skill and courage needed to reach grandmaster status in kung fu. Yet he shed tears last week while describing his efforts to keep a roof over the head of his wife and three children on Norwell Street in Dorchester after government-sponsored mortgage giant Fannie Mae foreclosed on his former landlord and moved to evict the building’s tenants.
Read moreCan Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be shamed into changing?
in The Boston Globe on June 12, 2014, by Paul McMorrow, Globe Columnist
MASSACHUSETTS PICKED a fight with the federal government and the companies behind half the country’s mortgages last week. Attorney General Martha Coakley’s decision to sue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nationalized mortgage giants, is a preemptive strike meant to defend the state’s tough foreclosure prevention laws. It’s also a serious uphill slog. Chicago was the last government to take on Fannie and Freddie, and it lost the fight badly.
Read moreThe Fallout From Coakley's Buyback Suit
Attorney General Martha Coakley filed a lawsuit against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in Suffolk Superior Court today, saying the two federally-backed mortgage giants are in violation of Massachusetts law because they refuse to participate in programs which allow delinquent homeowners to "buy back" their homes at reduced prices. - See full article at: http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/news159787.html#sthash.fzYsmwI3.dpuf