Monday Morning Cup of Coffee takes a look at stories across the HousingWire news desk, with more coverage to come on bigger issues.
As the first-quarter earnings season starts to come to a close, a new trend started to unfold in CEO letters to shareholders, according to an article in CNBC.
CEOs usually send the letters along with the company’s proxy statement in the spring because proxy statements are due within four months of every company’s fiscal year ending.
The article explained that most CEOs have a tendency to take this time to boast about their accomplishments.
But this year was a little different, with some CEOs taking the opportunity to rmark on recent, not-so-grand events. A full list of CEOs telling it like it is is available in the original USA Today article.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon dealt with a year filled billions of dollars of settlements, mostly related to mortgage securities.
"The bad news was bad," he wrote. "The most painful, difficult and nerve-wracking experience that I have ever dealt with professionally was trying to resolve the legal issues we had this past year."
However, Dimon stressed that despite all of the negative, JP Morgan came out strengthened. And, despite the loss, Dimon's 2013 compensation package was raised to $20 million.
Thousands of homeowners will open their mailboxes to a pleasant surprise as Everbank Financial is prepared to write $1,050 checks to 25,389 of its customers, even though no errors were found in reviews of their foreclosure files, an article in The Washington Post explained.
As HousingWire reported a week ago, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a status update on how much of that $3.9 billion payback fund has actually been paid out, and how much of the $6 billion in foreclosure prevention actions has been collected by the government.
EverBank was one of the last mortgage servicers to sign on to an amended government order born out of the rob-signing scandal, the article stated. And this particular situations comes out the foreclosure settlement that that the bank inked with the OCC and the Federal Reserve in August.
The Las Vegas housing market is doing much better, with widespread appreciation offering broad economic benefits to the Las Vegas Valley, the Las Vegas Review-Journal said in an article.
“Because the market has worked through a big chunk of its inexpensive, distressed homes, investor interest is starting to wane, sales will be driven more by people who are buying a place to live in,” Brian Gordon, a SalesTraq principal, which is the real estate research company that conducted the study.
“As availability creeps north, and the demand side of the equation becomes more sustainable, overall price appreciation is likely to slow,” Gordon added in the article.
Every ZIP code in the Las Vegas area enjoyed a 2013 boost, ranging from a low of 6.9% in Boulder City’s 89005 to a high of 53.2% in 89107, around Decatur Boulevard and U.S. Highway 95.
Continuing with the news on the housing recovery, the same type of positive reports cannot be found in South Florida.
A series in the Miami Herald, unfolds how far removed the poor neighborhoods in Miami are from the housing recovery.
Although Miami-Dade County is making international headlines for its swaggering resurgence from the housing crash, in the north-central neighborhoods comprising ZIP code 33147, the crisis still exists.
Meanwhile, many homes are still in the labyrinth of foreclosure, and those property owners who survived are struggling with the fallout from neighbors who lost their humble homes.
The neighborhoods' main hope clings on the promise of an intensifying focus on redeveloping the 79th Street corridor.
The Federal Insurance Corp. reported no bank closing this week.
