U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan is in Las Vegas on Thursday to discuss the recent robo-signing settlement with Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. Still, that was only a start and there are many programs that were designed to fix the foreclosure crisis that have barely touched the Las Vegas housing market. We ask the Secretary about those programs and the future of housing.
Much of the Attorney General's term has been dominated by efforts to untangle mortgage fraud by brokers, real estate professionals and the banks themselves. The first of what has been promised as a series of victories by state attorneys general was the settlement in the robo-signing case.
The dust is beginning to settle after the federal government and 49 states agreed to settle with five banks over allegations of fraudulent foreclosure documents. The deal will pay homeowners who lost their homes some money and will allow people facing foreclosure the opportunity to have the interest or the principal lowered on their mortgages. But how much impact can that make? And will it only speed up the process of getting more homes onto the market, which will push prices even lower?
Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez-Masto has guts. She's taken on big banks, like Bank of America, for allegedly frauding homeowners in her state. On our show, we discuss what she can do as state attorney general, and whether her efforts will, in fact, help Nevada homeowners.
Do you have any questions or suggestions for the state's AG? Let us know in the comment section below.
