Texans Abused by Builders, Abandoned by the TRCC
With the creation of the Texas Residential Construction Commission in 2003, Texas homebuilders were shielded from liability and given a free pass to build shoddy homes.  The following stories are true accounts of homeowners who are now left with nothing and no way to hold their homebuilders accountable.

Drees Homes Buys Back Defective Houses
Are you having problems with your Drees Home?  Be persistant Drees will do the right thing.

Spending public money to shore up real estate prices won't make housing more affordable
The Senate bill hashed out Wednesday, in rare bipartisan haste, typifies Black's frustration. In its current form, the bill would provide $10 billion in tax-exempt bonds to local governments and housing agencies so that they can refinance sub-prime loans. In other words, public dollars would be used to reduce the amount of money troubled borrowers owe on their mortgages.

U.S. Chamber shields corporations, rigs legal system at consumers' expense
"U.S. Chamber and its corporate financers are lobbying to keep abusive, binding mandatory arbitration clauses as the status quo.  Just ask Jamie Leigh Jones what she thinks of the status quo. "Jamie was raped, drugged, beaten, and then confined to a shipping container by KBR/Halliburton employees while working in Iraq.  Because of a clause placed in her employment contract, KBR is trying to force Jamie to submit to a binding, secret, non-appealable arbitration.  These are the types of corporations U.S. Chamber is trying to protect.

A message from Janet Ahmad - HUD Sec. Jackson Resigns & Home Builders "Death Sprial" give Hope for Tomorrow

HUD in turmoil as secretary resigns
The Bush administration's top housing official, under criminal investigation and intense pressure from Democratic critics, announced Monday he is quitting. Jackson, 62, has been fending off allegations of cronyism and favoritism involving HUD contractors for the past two years. The FBI has been examining the ties between Jackson and a friend who was paid $392,000 by Jackson's department as a construction manager in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Democratic Precinct Caucus passes Resolutions to Establish a Home Lemon Law and Amend The Federal Arbitration Act 
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the Democratic Party in order to protect consumers when purchasing a new home has the same rights afforded new car buyers and supports passage of a Home Lemon Law...That the Democratic Party in order to protect consumers and their constitutional rights supports and recommends the amendment of the Federal Arbitration Act. Use examples to submit Resolutions to your Democrat or Republican Caucuses

Texas Supreme Court: Moving at a Snail's Pace
Remember Bob and Jane Cull and their 10-year battle with Houston homebuilder Bob Perry over their problem-plagued home? Of course you don't. Apparently, the Texas Supreme Court doesn't either...The case has focused attention on how construction disputes can last for years without resolution and raised questions about possible influence of big-dollar campaign contributions. Bob Perry is the biggest campaign contributor in Texas. He has given money to every member of the Texas Supreme Court, which now sits in judgment on the Cull case.

Broken Promises Plague Suburban Development
"We were expecting a real nice, clean community," Spector said. "We'd moved from California, and we were expecting the planned communities to be similar to the planned communities we'd lived in in California." Spector says what he got instead was a community dominated by renters and out-of-town investors. Residents say the community is plagued by drug dealing, gang graffiti and poorly maintained properties.  See home builder related articles: Housing Market Tracker - Homeowners Fighting Back Against Homebuilders

Associated Press Reports: Feds investigating Countrywide lender
Federal authorities are investigating Countrywide Financial Corp. for securities fraud, according to media reports. The FBI is in the early stages of an inquiry into whether officials misrepresented the company's financial position and the quality of its mortgage loans, the Wall Street Journal first reported on Saturday, citing law enforcement officials and finance executives. The Justice Department is also involved in the investigation into the nation's largest mortgage lender, said the New York Times, which also cited anonymous sources who said they were not authorized to discuss ongoing criminal matters.

Illinois Subpoenas Countrywide, Wells Fargo
Attorney General Lisa Madigan has issued subpoenas to Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., and Wells Fargo Financial Illinois, Inc., to determine whether the lenders unfairly steered African American and Latino borrowers into higher cost home loans in violation of fair lending and civil rights laws. The study also found marked disparities in loan pricing between white and non-white borrowers, with African American borrowers three times as likely as white borrowers to receive a high-cost home loan and Latino borrowers twice as likely...According to the Chicago Reporter study, the wealthiest African American homeowners are still more likely than the poorest white borrowers to get placed in high-cost loans.

Fannie, Freddie agree to new appraisal standards
The two largest sources of U.S. mortgage financing agreed on Monday to sponsor a new home appraisal watchdog to prevent inflated home values...Since Wall Street gladly bought and bundled home loans for investors during the housing boom, lenders may have felt more comfortable inflating loan amounts. Cuomo filed subpoenas against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine whether the companies stood by as that happened.

One in 10 home loans is under water: Economy.com
One-tenth of U.S. homeowners hold mortgages that are larger than the worth of their homes, Moody's Economy.com said on Friday.Nearly 8.8 million homeowners, or 10.3 percent, are in over their heads, its chief economist, Mark Zandi, estimates...

Fraud compounds woes of housing crisis
As the U.S. housing meltdown forces hundreds of thousands of Americans from their homes, the extent to which fraud was a factor in the crisis is just coming to light. Products such as stated-income loans -- known as "liar loans" because no proof of income was needed -- led to widespread misrepresentation by borrowers about their earnings. But far more sinister forms of fraud, including identity theft and "straw buyers" -- those created using fake documents -- are also coming into the open.

NASAA Calls on FINRA, SEC to Improve the Integrity of Securities Arbitration System by Removing Mandatory Industry Representative from Arbitration Panels
The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) today called upon the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to take immediate action to improve the fairness of the system of securities arbitration, beginning with the removal of the mandatory industry representative from arbitration panels used to resolve securities disputes involving customers and industry.