The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "foreclosures" ...
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Bad Neighbor Banks: How Big Lenders Spread Blight
Across South Florida, on block after block, homes abandoned in the foreclosure crisis have become eyesores, depressing property values, and posing health and safety hazards for nearby families. The Sun Sentinel investigated and found who was responsible for letting these homes rot: some of the world’s largest banks.
Tags: Hazards; property; banks; public health; public safety
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Foreclosure Crisis
The reporters reveal the underlying flaws in a public-private debacle involving the Obama administration's program that depended on the good faith of mortgage servicers.
Tags: mortgage; foreclosure; housing market; home
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Inside Fannie Mae
Internal documents obtained by the Free Press showed that contrary to Fannie Mae's public statements that it was doing everything possible to help struggling borrowers keep their hopes, it was quietly denying homeowners' requests to modify their loans if they were more than 12 months behind in their payments.
Tags: Fannie May; borrow; homeowner; foreclosure
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Trashing Your Tax Dollars
The NBC2 Investigators uncovered wasteful spending in a multi-million dollar federal program mean to re-stabilize neighborhoods hard hit by foreclosures. The program - called NSP (Neighborhood Stabilization Program) - utilized stimulus money approved during the George W. Bush administration to buy foreclosed homes, refurbish them and then sell them to families who would live in them, thus stabilizing a neighborhood. In our area, the program was administered by our county (Lee) and another program was administered by our city (Fort Myers). Our investigation of the county-run program found they were throwing away perfectly good appliances and replacing them with more expensive products. Not only could they have kept those appliances in the home - leaving them more money to refurbish others - but the appliances they did throw away could have gone to people in need in our community. Ultimately, our story forced the county to change policies in the program. They now coordinate with a local non-profit to donate all appliances and equipment once meant for the landfill.
Tags: broadcast; neighborhoods; foreclosed homes; appliances
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The Next Housing Shock
An investigation of the foreclosure robo-signing scandal.
Tags: Forgery; Housing Market
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Bailed Out Banks Snap Up Tax Liens
Many big banks that were bailed out by taxpayers were not helping those taxpayers, but instead buying tax liens. Many of those tax liens purchases were in the same neighborhoods as homes those same banks were foreclosing on.
Tags: banks; foreclosure; tax liens
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Short Sale Shenanigans
The story uncovers a little known practice in this post-bubble real estate world: the people who make money flipping and flopping houses in a time of crashing prices and foreclosures.
Tags: flopping houses; short sale; housing market; foreclosures
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Tale of Three Cities: Foreclosures Don't Always Follow the Script
An extensive examination of foreclosures in three cities found that the patterns leading to foreclosure and the events afterwards do not always follow common assumptions.
Tags: foreclosures; home owners; interest rates; home
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"NetNet's Mortgage Repurchase Exposure Series"
This series seeks to elucidate the "history of hidden risk at financial institutions" and the frequent negative outcomes. The reports indicate that banks were "seeking to reassure shareholders and citizens alike that unknown risks were under control." Some of the stories in this series involve the rise and fall of Citigroup's mortgage program and a "Primer On The Foreclosure Crisis."
Tags: Citigroup; foreclosure; financial crisis; mortgage; SEC; Excel; database; repurchase
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All the Devils are Here: The Hidden Story of the Financial Crisis
This book offers an attempt to exlore all the various forces -- on Main Street, Washington and Wall St. -- that lead to the financial crisis of 2008. They explored the extent that subprime loans fed the crisis; how Wall Street dictated the degraded lending terms; and the efforts of federal regulators to thwart predatory lending at the state and local levels.
Tags: financial crisis; subprime lending; housing crisis; foreclosure; predatory lending; Wall Street; Contrywide; Ameriquest; Goldman Sachs; Merrill Lynch; AIG;