It's a mortgage problem that is likely to intensify as home-owning baby boomers by the millions shift into retirement: Although they may have significant financial assets tucked away in retirement accounts, their diminished monthly incomes may not be sufficient to meet some lenders' hyper-strict underwriting rules (via latimes.com): http://lat.ms/KFewWp

MetLife, the biggest life insurer in United Sates, made an announcement that it will fold down its operation in mortgage business (via retirementplanning.org): http://bit.ly/MNkDYw

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s (JPM) EMC Mortgage unit was sued for breach of contract by a trust that financed the purchase of residential mortgage loans (via Bloomberg.com): http://bloom.bg/JZHmU3

Existing home sales in the United State increased in April and remain above a year ago, while home prices are also on the up, according to the latest data from the National Association of Realtors (via nuwireinvestor.com): http://bit.ly/KmJrGa

Shaking off a prolonged impact from the recession, fundamentals are gradually improving in all of the major commercial real estate sectors, according to the National Association of REALTORS® quarterly commercial real estate forecast.  The apartment rental sector has fully recovered and is growing (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/KU7hrp

In a case involving mortgage lending but which has direct application to real estate brokerage, the Supreme Court of the United States has determined that a violation of Sec. 2607(b) of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RESPA”) only occurs when a split of a settlement-service fee paid by a consumer to a real estate settlement-service provider is split with a third party (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/KY8cat

Bank of America Corp., the second- biggest U.S. lender, will repurchase $330 million of home loans from Freddie Mac, the mortgage company supported by taxpayers, after flaws were found in how they were created (via sfgate.com): http://bit.ly/KDsuX9

Federal Judge Agrees With MFI-Miami and Northern Michigan Attorney -- Fannie Mae Foreclosure Could Violate Northern Michigan Couple's Rights Under U.S. Constitution (via MarketWatch.com): http://on.mktw.net/LF2qQ5

The difference in how states handle foreclosures may determine how quickly their housing markets make a full recovery, according to a new report by Capital Economics (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/KM6exL

Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas is giving up his 25-year fight with residents in Marin County, Calif., over developing his ranch into a digital media production studio. Instead, he now wants to sell the land and have it turned into a low-income housing project (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/KM5DvU

A group of 60 members of Congress, led by two CPAs turned lawmakers, have written a letter to the Financial Accounting Standards Board warning of “disastrous consequences” for American businesses and the real estate industry if FASB’s proposed changes in lease accounting standards are approved (via accountingtoday.com): http://bit.ly/K9CtnJ

FDIC Sues Bank Of America, JPMorgan, Others Over Toxic Mortgage Bonds That Sank Two Illinois Banks (via HuffingtonPost.com): http://huff.to/K91fo2

The Rodriquez family is about to lose their American Dream, over $250 dollars (via actionnewsjax.com): http://bit.ly/L1BSGq

Thousands of condo-unit owners and buyers could soon be in line for some welcome news on mortgage financing: Though officials are mum on specifics, the Federal Housing Administration is readying changes to its controversial condominium rules that have rendered large numbers of units ineligible for low down payment, insured mortgages (via seattletimes.nwsource.com): http://bit.ly/KLKkcG

Foreclosure activity sinks to a five-year low (via therepublic.com): http://bit.ly/JumsWD

In a real estate shopping spree of epic proportions, the daughters of Formula 1 Racing boss Bernie Ecclestone have snapped up hundreds of millions of dollars worth of high-profile properties in the past 18 months (via online.wsj.com): http://on.wsj.com/JjObzQ

The Bay Area real estate market might be in a mini housing bubble that's being fueled by Facebook's IPO (via huffingtonpost.com): http://huff.to/LjYFj1

Lesbian couple charged with staging anti-gay offense to accuse HOA after spat over dogs (via denverpost.com): http://bit.ly/JI9Hy7

Real estate agents help local ‘heroes’ buy homes (via washingtonpost.com): http://wapo.st/K7iFQQ

In an effort to curb foreclosures, Bank of America is offering some of its defaulting home owners relocation assistance of anywhere from $2,500 to as much as $30,000 if they agree to complete a short sale (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/KDqukX

A judge has decided that an 8-year-old girl can stay with her grandparents in their Clearwater senior community (via baynews9.com): http://bit.ly/JuANbM

Residential Capital, or ResCap, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York on Monday, unable to make payments on debt taken out to finance soured home mortgages. The filing will separate the money-losing ResCap subsidiary from Ally's auto loan and banking businesses, allowing them to grow and speed up repayment of Ally's bailout from 2008 and 2009, Ally said in a statement (via latimes.com): http://lat.ms/JHfIXT

Report: Housing Market Recovery Has Officially Begun (via business.time.com): http://ti.me/JCLVk2

JPMorgan Allegedly Forecloses On Home Two Months After Its Purchase (via huffingtonpost.com): http://huff.to/L4mipo

A fight between a Northern Virginia winery and a local homeowners association has ended with the state’s highest court overturning a ruling that had effectively shut down a Fauquier County winery’s tasting room last summer (via washingtonpost.com): http://wapo.st/JPaJWV

A lawsuit currently in the Florida Supreme Court has the potential to undo “hundreds of thousands of foreclosures and open up U.S. banks to severe financial liabilities in the state” (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/JERvlX

Mississippi Couple Rehabs Wrong Foreclosed House (via abcnews.go.com): http://abcn.ws/Mdse4S

Wilber is a one-and-a-half-year-old Vietnamese pot-bellied pig who was being evicted by a Houston Texas Home Owner Association (HOA) known as the Cypresswood Community Improvement Association.  Wilber lives with the Sardo family and they were informed in a letter on April 6, 2011 that their Association wanted Wilber removed from their home and threatened to file a lawsuit.  The reasoning behind the letter was that pot-bellied pigs are livestock and are not “common” or “traditional” pets and are therefore forbidden by Association rules (via allpetnews.com): http://bit.ly/KcYO6i

Why home inspections have become more important (via washingtonpost.com): http://wapo.st/JgKWbW

Florida Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Thursday in a lawsuit that could undo hundreds of thousands of foreclosures and open up banks to severe financial liabilities in the state where they face the bulk of their foreclosure-fraud litigation (via ChicagoTribune.com): http://trib.in/JjcjNk

Builders have struggled to compete with distressed homes that sell at big discounts, so one major home builder has found a way it also can cash in on the discounts. For the past year, Beazer Homes USA has been buying up distressed homes and turning them into rentals, hoping that one day these renters will become home buyers (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/IGRaNJ

Judge rules HOA can rent out investor's home (via abcactionnews.com): http://bit.ly/JEeOgm

Foreclosed homes are increasingly being purchased or rented by those who are turning the homes into sites of illegal activity: Indoor marijuana farms (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/Jm6FKk

This month’s Legal Minute segments get back to basics; namely, the purchase and sale of real estate.  We’re focusing on some key components of purchase agreements which apply to both commercial and residential property, and for good measure we throw options to purchase into the mix as well.

Click on the links below to listen:

The Remedy of Specific Performance (May 26, 2012)

As always, archived segments are available by visiting the Real Estate Radio Hour page of my website, and be sure to tune in to the show live every Saturday from 10 AM - 11 AM, Central Time, on WCCO Radio 830 AM.

A U.S. judge has rejected UBS AG's bid to dismiss a federal regulator's lawsuit accusing it of misleading Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into buying billions of dollars of risky mortgage debt (via Reuters.com): http://reut.rs/KAfVdO

An Austin, Texas, man was sentenced Thursday in the Western District of Texas to 61 months in prison and was ordered to forfeit $84,010 for his role in operating a foreclosure-rescue scam in Southern California and elsewhere that charged distressed homeowners fees in exchange for fraudulently delaying foreclosure sales (via loansafe.org): http://bit.ly/KnoWML

Largest Mortgage Lender Takes Bigger Bite of Market Share (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/K1yiNl

Mortgage workouts at Freddie Mac dropped to 14,000 in the first quarter from 35,000 a year ago and 50,000 in mid-2010. The change is attributed to a decrease in seriously delinquent loans to $72.8 billion in the first quarter from $82.1 billion a year earlier and to the transition of borrowers ineligible for HAMP to the new Standard Modification program (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/JnicJT

Three lawyers—one dead, one disbarred and one reportedly still in practice—are among 14 new defendants charged in a major, ongoing federal investigation of alleged corruption in Las Vegas homeowner associations (via abajournal.com): http://bit.ly/K4QDqI

A “major portion” of small commercial-property deals in the U.S. have fallen through because of stricter lending standards, according to a National Association of Realtors survey (via Bloomberg.com): http://bloom.bg/JWdx5x

New housing data shows some signs that the real estate market has finally bottomed out. With current mortgage rates already near all-time lows and the government tapped out, this would be welcome news. But the question is: Will this prove to be the true turning point for housing -- or another false bottom leading to further depths? (via foxbusiness.com): http://fxn.ws/LhaQMk

10 Cities Offering The Best Deals On Foreclosed Homes (via HuffingtonPost.com): http://huff.to/K5oRth

Renters of a California condo say they got a rude awakening when a group of guards hired by their homeowners association allegedly used Taser guns to evict them from a house they didn't know had been foreclosed on (via consumerist.com): http://bit.ly/JSQEgv

Self-storage companies, which rent units to small businesses and consumers under names such as “Uncle Bob’s Self Storage,” produced the best risk-adjusted return among 10 U.S. real estate investment trust indexes in the past decade, according to the BLOOMBERG RISKLESS RETURN RANKING (via Businessweek.com): http://buswk.co/K6TPoI

Is Gen Y's Live-At-Home Lifestyle Killing The Housing Market? (via Forbes.com): http://onforb.es/IVBas1

Minnesota foreclosures lowest since 2007 (via StarTribune): http://bit.ly/JJHFjh

HOA sues family over backyard swing set (via khou.com): http://bit.ly/IlFW13

Mortgage insurer MGIC Investment Corp. agreed to pay more than $550,000 to settle allegations that it refused to sell policies to women on maternity leave (via online.wsj.com): http://on.wsj.com/KzTDNB

Jeremy Mayfield loses house to foreclosure (via thatsracin.com): http://bit.ly/JBr3dq

Condo Rental Caps Present Thorny Problems (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/JQxTx5

A Florida woman says her homeowners association took control of a house she owns, evicted her renter and moved another family in without her consent (via upi.com):
http://bit.ly/KIrwvP

The Supreme Court of Virginia ruled in favor of a Lovingston-area couple in their fight against the foreclosure of their property (via wsls.com): http://bit.ly/K6GOeG

A developer pleaded guilty in US District Court for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme related to multiple condominiums sales in Massachusetts (via boston.com): http://bo.st/IgQ1x0

Seattle-based Zillow says the housing market has reached a bottom in more than half of the 30 metropolitan areas tracked in the company’s Zillow Home Value Forecast (via bizjournals.com): http://bit.ly/JChCLS

Big jumps in foreclosure activity in cities like Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, New York and Raleigh pushed the national numbers higher in the first three months of this year, according to a new report from RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure sales and data company (via CNBC.com): http://bit.ly/JZPySI

Costco shoppers will now find that they not only can buy their groceries in bulk at the warehouse retailer, but they can also shop for a mortgage too (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/JtpBr5

Solar panels cause clashes with homeowner groups (via boston.com): http://bo.st/IsucIe

Ally Financial will likely place its troubled mortgage unit into bankruptcy in the next three weeks (via nypost.com): http://nyp.st/IcqNCR

Authorities have charged a real estate agent with fraud for illegally using a client’s personal information to secure a mortgage on a property, then operate her business and collect rent from the same location (via nj.com): http://bit.ly/I9u4nb

A series of arson fires in Detroit is setting dozens of vacant buildings and homes ablaze. Firefighters, meanwhile, have a controversial proposal on the table: Let the vacant homes and buildings burn to help trim city costs (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/JARVfH

It wasn’t exactly the welcoming response from the neighborhood a couple expected when they tried to enter a home they just purchased which had been in foreclosure. Their two new neighbors held them hostage at gunpoint (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/I8ybQo

Money used for a federal program aimed at helping 18 hard-hit housing market states can now reallocate its funds to help home owners complete short sales or other foreclosure alternatives, Freddie Mac announced Monday to mortgage servicers (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/K6ns3c

A northwestern Pennsylvania woman will spend 10 years on probation for attempting suicide by setting fire to her home with a foreclosure notice (via foxnews.com): http://fxn.ws/IEyApI

One Of The Great Leading Indicators For Housing Is Finally Breaking Out (via businessinsider.com): http://read.bi/ImH0Qe