From Crain’s Chicago Business | Johnson Publishing Co. has sold its headquarters at 820 S. Michigan Ave. to Columbia College Chicago, though it did not disclose terms of the sale. In a press release, Johnson Publishing said it will continue to occupy the building under an 18-month lease.
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Report: Aggressive lending doomed Broadway Bank
Signage gets changed in the window at Broadway Bank at 5960 N. Broadway. The bank was seized by the FDIC on Friday, Apr. 21, 2010. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)
A regulatory autopsy into the April failure of Chicago’s Broadway Bank, which was owned by the family of failed U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias, faulted management for pursuing an aggressive growth strategy in commercial real estate.
A heavy emphasis on such lending was “exacerbated by the bank’s significant emphasis on out-of-territory lending and large borrower relationships,” according to a report released Tuesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s Office of Inspector General.
Although not a primary reason for its failure, the FDIC also cited Broadway’s investments in higher-risk collateralized debt obligations. Get the full story »
Illinois AG calls for more foreclosure transparency
An abandoned foreclosed house in Highland Park in 2009. (David Trotman-Wilkins/Chicago Tribune)
Mortgage servicers would not be able to put a home into foreclosure until they could detail specifically why all modification efforts failed, under legislation proposed Tuesday by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
The bill, which would amend the Illinois Mortgage Foreclosure Act, also is intended to prevent the practice of cutting corners and rubber-stamping foreclosure files as accurate as they head toward judgment, a practice that has drawn headlines and spawned an ongoing investigation into lenders’ internal practices by the attorneys general of all 50 states. Get the full story »
BofA in ‘hand-to-hand combat’ over mortgages
A quick settlement of the 50-state probe of the U.S. mortgage foreclosure crisis would be the best solution for all involved, the chief executive of Bank of America said on Tuesday.
The call for a settlement by Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan was followed by comments from Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who told a Senate hearing that a settlement with lenders was still months off.
“We’re thinking in terms of months rather than a year or longer but it depends really on how far we get,” said Miller, who is heading up a probe by all 50 state attorneys general. Get the full story »
Not enough loan mods in Chicago area, report says
Mortgage loan servicers in the Chicago area are not agreeing to enough loan modifications and aren’t committing adequate resources to help troubled homeowners save their homes, concludes a new report issued Tuesday by a Chicago-based housing advocacy group.
Housing Action Illinois found that of 516 loan modification applications submitted between December 2009 and September, 44 percent were approved, 16 percent were denied and 40 percent of the applications were still pending at the end of September. Most of the approvals involved trial payment plans, not permanent loan modifications, the study found. Get the full story »
Ch. 5 anchor Goldblatt lists Deerfield home
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | WMAQ-Ch. 5 news anchor and reporter Jeff Goldblatt and his wife have listed their four-bedroom house in Deerfield for $749,000.
Goldblatt, 41, joined NBC-5 in September after concluding a two-year run at WFLD-Ch. 32 as a news anchor. He was a Fox News correspondent for nearly a decade before that. Get the full story »
N.C. banking chief to oversee Fannie, Freddie
North Carolina Banking Commissioner Joseph A. Smith Jr. is being tapped by the White House to head the regulatory agency that oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has been without a permanent director since August 2009. A new director would preside over the mortgage-finance titans just as an intense political battle begins over what should happen to the companies. Get the full story »
CB Richard Ellis completes $650M debt refinancing
CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. said Thursday it has lined up $1.5 billion in new credit and refinanced $650 million in debt under its credit agreement. Get the full story »
Kohl’s increases 2011 store openings to 40
Kohl’s Corp. is set to open more new stores in 2011 than it originally planned, citing more favorable conditions and availability in the commercial real estate market.
The mid-tier U.S. department store operator, which operates 1,089 stores, had planned to open 30 new stores next year but now intends to open 40, Chief Financial Officer Wes McDonald said on a call with analysts. Get the full story »
BofA seeks dismissal of robo-signer suit
Bank of America Corp. has urged a federal judge to throw out a racketeering lawsuit over its alleged use of “robo-signers” in foreclosures.
The largest U.S. bank said Indiana plaintiffs who lost their home to foreclosure in 2009 failed to show they were harmed by its alleged practice of routinely submitting perjured affidavits, given they might have lost their home anyway. Get the full story »
Mortgage rates fall to fresh low: 4.17%
Rates on fixed mortgages dropped to their lowest levels in decades this week after the Federal Reserve unveiled a massive bond-buying program to help spur economic growth. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the average rate for 30-year fixed loans fell to 4.17 percent from 4.24 percent last week. That’s the lowest on records dating back to 1971. Get the full story »
Foreclosures up in Illinois, bucking U.S. decline
A sharp uptick in initial foreclosure filings in Illinois meant the state did not follow the pattern of the nation as a whole, which saw a 4 percent decrease in foreclosure filings in October.
The number of homes that received an initial notice of default in Illinois, the first step in the foreclosure process, rose 24 percent in October, to 8,388 Illinois homes, from 6,780 in September. Altogether, the number of all types of foreclosure filings in Illinois totaled 16,969 last month, an increase of almost 7 percent from September but down almost 15 percent from a year ago. Get the full story »
Fed to buy $105B worth of bonds in first phase
The Federal Reserve says it will buy a total of $105 billion worth of government bonds starting later this week as it launches a new program to invigorate the economy. Get the full story »
Mortgage applications post third straight gain
Applications for mortgages rose last week for the third straight week.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday overall applications increased 5.8 percent from a week earlier, driven by gains in purchase and refinance applications. Get the full story »
With no tax credit, Chicago home sale prices fall
The good news is that more than half of Illinois counties saw gains in median home sale prices during the third quarter. The bad news is that most of the Chicago area played no part in that good news.
In Cook County, the median selling price fell 14.3 percent during the three months that ended in September, a combination of a 16.3 percent price decline in condos and a 7.9 percent drop in single-family home prices, according to data released Wednesday by the Illinois Association of Realtors. Other counties that experienced price declines were Kane, where the median price fell 13.3 percent; Kendall, down 8.3 percent; and McHenry, down 3.7 percent. Get the full story »
