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 "home-loan" ...
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"Racial disparities in home lending"
A 2008 analysis of more than half a million home loan applications in the Dayton, Ohio, region revealed that blacks with higher incomes were denied home loans, while lower-income whites were not. The report also found that blacks were more likely to receive "high-cost loans" than whites. The real estate market denies redlining practices that were made illegal "in 1977 by the federal Community Reinvestment Act."
Tags: Home Mortgage Disclosure Act; NICAR; GIS; Community Reinvestment Advisory Group; Dean Lovelace; Dayton Human Relations Commission; Federal Housing Authority; home loans; redlining
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VA Loan Fraud
The series reveals “major banks and mortgage companies across America were systematically defrauding military veterans who were refinancing home loans”. “Federal mortgage documents show there were potentially more than 900,000 veterans since 2001 who could be victims of the scheme”. As a result of this series, veterans contacted their lenders and eventually repaid the charges.
Tags: Johnny Isakson; congressional; hearings; corruption; federal government; Wells Fargo; loan officers; interest rates
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Credit Troubles
This series looks into some of the hidden traps and power imbalances that characterize the credit industry. Business Week spoke with executives, employees and consumers of various arms of the credit industry.
Tags: credit score; home-loan; FICO; debt; consumer-law bar; repay; payment
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Behind the Meltdown
The foreclosure crisis in the Sacramento Bee's coverage area impacted more than 8,000 homes. Among the Bee's findings were that while the area's median income was about $80,000, home loan "stated income" applications indicated reported figures closer to $100,000, which were not verified before a loan was disbursed. As a result of the risky loans, many home buyers' credit ratings took a major hit, while homes dropped in value and the market was flooded with people attempting to sell. With so many vacant homes, squatters have become a problem in neighborhoods like North Sacramento's Western Avenue, which the Bee identifies as perhaps the area hardest hit by the crisis.
Tags: Foreclosures; home loans; false income reports; subprime lending; housing crisis
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Foreclosing on the American Dream
More foreclosures are filed in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina than any other county in the state.
Tags: Foreclosure; real estate; depreciation; Mecklenburg county; FHA; Federal Housing Administration; home loans; mortgage
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Holding GSEs to Accounting Standards
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the nation's fourth and fifth largest financial services companies. They hold a combined $1.5 trillion in loans and mortgage-backed securities on their books and guarantee payment on another combined $2.4 trillion in MBS held by other investors. Both the Federal Reserve and Bush Administration think the companies have grown too big, too fast and worry that they could upend the broader markets if their interest-rate hedges are wrong and there's a sudden and unexpected rate shift in the opposite direction. Kopecki broke the news that Fannie's accounting woes stretched far beyond those the government-sponsored enterprise previously disclosed. Kopecki also chronicled the problems with two Federal Home Loan Bank System board members suspected with using non-public information to sell large stakes of the Bank's stock.
Tags: GSE; government-sponsored enterprises; financial services companies; insider trading; loans; mortage-backed securities; accounting
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Chicago Matters: Money matters
These three series; "Chasing the Dream," Paycheck to Paycheck," and "Paper Bag Test," examined how money and financial matters affects different individuals and families around Chicago. "Chasing the Dream" revealed that whites earning less than $30,000 a year had a better chance of getting home loans than blacks earning more than $90,000 a year."Paycheck to Paycheck" revealed that thousands of families don't earn what they need just to meet their basic expenses. "Paper Bag Test" showed that the major retailers have three times the number of outlets in the predominantly white areas of Chicago than in the predominantly black areas.
Tags: personal finance; home loans; mortgages; poverty level; racial discrimination; racism; neighborhood businesses
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Brokered Dreams
Ohio leads the nation in home foreclosures.Some reasons discovered in this investigation were: mortgage lending is not covered under laws that prohibit deceptive sales practices; Ohio and Virginia are the only two states whose consumer protection laws do not cover mortgage lending; appraisers do not have to be licensed; and millions in licensing fees have been diverted from enforcement of lending laws to the general fund.
Tags: mortgage lending; home ownership; foreclosures; repossession; consumer protection; banks; home loans
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Habitat: Borrowed Dreams
This story discovers some negative outcomes within Habitat for Humanity, the popular charity that helps poor families become homeowners. The report found that Habitat's recipients were ill-prepared for home ownership. More than 40 percent of the local affiliate's homeowners filed for bankruptcy after moving into their homes, and nearly half of those who filed for bankruptcy did so multiple times. For many, Habitat's benefits, including its hallmark zero-interest mortgage, fell victim to crushing financial stresses. They found at least 40 examples of homeowners refinancing their no-interest mortgage, adding costly second mortgages or tacking criminal bail bond liens onto their homes. Desperate for cash paid at closing when taking a new home loan, homeowners paid fat fees and took on steep interest rates, some as high as 24 percent. Seventeen homeowners either lost their homes in foreclosure of deeded them to others. Some contributing factors involved Habitat for Humanity, for having inadequate front-end financial training, and a failure to protect Habitat mortgages from new lenders. Other factors stemmed from poverty in Memphis.
Tags: Habitat for Humanity; mortgage; bail bond liens; homeowners; bankruptcy; foreclosure; housing; loans; predatory lending; Collier County Habitat for Humanity; RISE Foundation; bankruptcy protection; low income housing
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"Grave Robbers"
This investigation involves the case of two brothers who organized an identity theft ring and kept it going for more than two years. They were accused of stealing the identities of the recently deceased and using them to obtain more than $1.5 million worth of luxury cars, loans, and merchandise. Their ringleaders also stole 23 luxury cars.
Tags: identity theft ring; criminal court records; police reports; arrest warrant affidavits; Texas open records law; taxing authorities; deed transfers; auto registrations; real estate sales price; federal crime; Countrywide Home Loans; mortgage; Michael F. Tisdale; William R. Tisdale Jr.; America's Team Mortgage; Social Security Administration