Foreclosures

Occupy Still Really Mad at Wells Fargo, Plans to Announce New Campaign Today

It's been a while since we've heard any rumblings from Occupy and disgruntled homeowners in general. But that's not to say they haven't been actively pissed-off. In fact, the group has been working up a new campaign, behind the scenes, which they plan to launch today. This morning, homeowners/Occu ... More >>

Protesters to Occupy Wells Fargo Bank Today

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the group Occupy Our Homes, an arm of the national Occupy Movement. And how else would you expect members to celebrate the group's birthday than a big, festive, tent-pitching occupation? At 11 a.m. sharp, protesters will march on down to the Wells Fargo bank ... More >>

Few Homeowners Have Requested Independent Foreclosure Reviews

By now, it's old news that many people lost or nearly lost their home because of banks' errors during the foreclosure crisis. A 2010 ProPublica analysis, for example, found that around a quarter of loan modification rejections occurred because the mortgage service provider couldn't find certain docu ... More >>

FBI Caught 26 Investors Who Rigged Foreclosure Bids During the Housing Crisis

Earlier this month, Norman Montalvo, of Concord, pleaded guilty to bid-rigging at foreclosure auctions. He was the 26th person the FBI has caught since the agency began investigating real estate foreclosure auctions sometime during the housing crisis. Bid-rigging occurs when real estate investors c ... More >>

Foreclosures Crisis' Effect on the Election Could Be Deeper Than Just Policy Debate

The 2012 general election will be the first since the national rate of mortgage delinquencies rose above 10 percent. While it seems the fever broke in early 2010, when nearly 15 percent of home loans were past due, the country's foreclosure rate is still twice as high as it was pre-recession.And for ... More >>

More Foreclosures in a Community Means Lower Voter Turnout, Says Study

History will eventually figure out the social implications of the foreclosure crisis -- its longterm effect on the wealth gap between minorities and white people, its role in gentrification, whether it permanently alters the popular conception of the America Dream, etc.Some early returns are in. A s ... More >>

Here's What the State's Historic Foreclosure Protection Bill Means to Homeowners

One of the worst parts of going through a foreclosure is the sense of helplessness. There's a lot of waiting and hoping and let-me-transfer-you-over run-arounds. The process feels closed and distant, marked by indifferent operators and vague brief loan modification denial letters. Yesterday the Cal ... More >>

Occupy Bernal Postpones Visit to Wealthy Wells Fargo Lobbyist at Home

(Update 8:23 a.m.): We've just been informed that Occupy has postponed the planned march over to Alfredo Pedroza's house tonight while they negotiate with Mayor Ed Lee. According to Buck Bagot, the group is hopeful they can make progress today "toward the cancellation of scheduled foreclosure-relate ... More >>

Occupy Bernal Proves Occupy Movement Isn't Totally Ineffective

Back in December we told readers about the newer, much more civilized arm of the local Occupy movement, dubbed Occupy Bernal Heights. The goal of this new Occupy group was not to pitch tents on public property, but to stop foreclosures and help troubled homeowners get affordable refinancing.So how s ... More >>

The Culture of Foreclosure Auctions

In this week's feature story, "The Dispossessed," several real estate investors who attended a foreclosure auction declined to give their names. Real estate investors who buy foreclosed property after all, don't have the best public reputation -- one homeowner interviewed for the story called them " ... More >>

S.F. Housing Advocates Hope Private Investors Will Help Calm Foreclosure Crisis

There is at least one potential solution to the foreclosure crisis. Many housing advocates in San Francisco favor a strategy called Stabilizing Urban Neighborhoods, or the SUN model. The SUN model was first initiated and has drawn positive reviews in Boston, a city with a similar housing ... More >>

The Dispossessed: Bayview Homeowners Fight Foreclosures

Wells Fargo Accused of Discriminatory Home Foreclosures

Later this evening, frustrated San Franciscans will descend on the home of Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf to shame him, once again, over his gross wealth and our gross despair. And if that isn't enough to rattle him, this might be: The National Fair Housing Alliance is accusing the big banker of racial ... More >>

S.F. Elderly Woman Fights Foreclosure, Predatory Lending

Latanya Marie Session, a San Francisco woman, is locked in a bitter dispute over her foreclosed home, which she lost while she was in the hospital suffering from a brain injury.Session's daughter and appointed guardian, Bess Kennedy, filed a complaint in 2010 after the bank foreclosed on her mother' ... More >>

Supervisor John Avalos Tries to Stop Foreclosures with New Legislation

​While in New York City, Occupy protesters celebrated their 6-month of anniversary with mass arrests in Zuccotti Park, protesters in San Francisco are celebrating their anti-big bank existence with legislation that will, hopefully, put an end to these egregious home foreclosures citywide Occupy Be ... More >>

Occupiers to Put on Ugly Hospital Gowns to Confront Wells Fargo Executive

​No better way to draw sympathy than to put on a hospital gown, right? Needless to say, protesters in San Francisco are getting creative with their campaign against Wells Fargo, the nefarious big bank that's screwed one too many homeowners out of their homes. Occupy Bernal Heights, along with the ... More >>

Occupy Bernal Heights to "Auction" Home of Wells Fargo CEO

​This weekend, San Francisco families are planning to descend on the front steps of Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf's home to deliver a foreclosure notice of their own, and stage a mock auction to show the wealthy financier the same kind of humiliating treatment that local families have experienced, t ... More >>

Occupy Bernal: Neighbors to Dump Banks on Valentine's Day

These are just really cool t-shirts​If you are bitter about Valentine's Day, who better to take it out on than Wells Fargo and other big banks? After all, they are the ones who broke your heart, right?We know they've hurt a lot of hearts in Bernal Heights, which is why Occupy Bernal has big plans ... More >>

Occupy Oakland: Protesters Arrested While Occupying Foreclosed Home

​A day after police cleared them out of a camp in West Oakland, Occupy protesters took over a foreclosed home, which they were attempting to claim as a meeting space. Like every other occupation, this one also went awry. As KGO reports, police arrived at 1415 and 1417 10th St. on Thursday where ac ... More >>

For the Bob Cratchit in Us All

San Francisco Homeowners Evicted, but Refuse to Leave

God damn you, Bank of America!​If Occupy SF has done anything useful, it's inspire the community to find new ways to stand up to big banks. Last week, we told readers about how members of the Occupy movement are establishing a credit union in San Francisco. And today, housing advocates are joining ... More >>

Timeless -- and Timely -- as Ever

Move Your Money Day: San Francisco Residents to Dump Their Banks

​In what could be the first practical request by the Occupy Movement yet, protesters are asking everyone across the nation to take part in the "Move Your Money Day" tomorrow and divert their investments from big banks. It might seem ambitious, but considering how the mass exodus of customers from ... More >>

Bayview Woman to Break into Her Foreclosed Home, Reclaim it

Fibonacci Blue via Flickr Reclaiming what's yours​The list of places being occupied by people who are mad as hell is growing. Justin Herman Plaza has been taken over by an encampment of OccupySF protesters, and others are lining Market Street by the Federal Reserve Bank to protest "corporate greed ... More >>

San Francisco Woman Granted Restraining Order Against Wells Fargo

Read the Fine Print​A San Francisco judge has temporarily blocked Wells Fargo Bank from kicking another resident out of her home.Court documents show that Keng Hee Paik, a San Francisco resident, filed a restraining order against Wells Fargo after the bank started foreclosure proceedings on her Su ... More >>

Jerry Brown Announces $2 Billion Settlement with Wells Fargo

Hope you've got room in there for the billions you owe Californians...​The office of Attorney General Jerry Brown announced today that Wells Fargo has agreed in a settlement to offer home-loan modifications worth $2 billion, and will also pay $32 million in restitution to borrowers who lost their ... More >>

Why Obama's mortgage-relief program failed

SF Gov InAction: Meet the Guardian's Imaginary Friend and Congratulate the Department of Technology on Its Fictitous $750,000 Tech Center

When your whole government shuts down so that it can go to Washington D.C. and lobby for handouts, you know you've reached a point of no return. Economically it's a sign of total defeat, an acknowledgment that we are a zombie municipality that needs fresh infusions of federal blood just to go thr ... More >>

Dogs also losing their homes in foreclosure

I'd Buy That for a Dollar: S.F.-Area Home Sales Surge

Prices for homes here in San Francisco have dropped from preposterous to merely ridiculous -- and, as a result, sales are up. Way up.In December, 19.7 percent more homebuyers took the plunge than one month earlier. The December 2008 sales numbers represented a 36 percent leap from December 2007 sale ... More >>

The American Dream's $700 billion price tag

Golden Gate Skateparks and Venezuelan Wage-Fixing — It's SFGovernmentInAction!!!