My neighbor, Sheryl Jean, has written an excellent investigative article for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press on the alleged improprieties of mortgage giant Ameriquest. Individual consumers are suing Ameriquest Mortgage Co., a subsidiary of ACC Capital Holdings, while the mortgage company is trying to cut settlement deals with the attorneys general or regulators in 30 states, including Minnesota. According to Jean’s report, Ameriquest set aside US$325 million late last month to settle outstanding investigations by the states. Meanwhile Minnesota customers are charging that Ameriquest “charged them exorbitant fees, failed to disclose loan terms and provide documents before closing, inflated home appraisals, forged documents, and used bait-and-switch sales tactics.”
My cynical side says the real estate bubble has finally popped when the corporate dailies are going after big mortgage companies like Ameriquest. My optimistic side says this is community journalism at its best and we need to do everything we can to encourage it.
Update: Sunday, 14 August 2005 04:45PM CDT: Add to this my pal Julio Ojeda-Zapata’s coverage of Verizon’s EV-DO rollout in the Twin Cities and the corporate media is clearly starting to feel its oats:
“But Verizon’s steep prices and tech headaches mean you must weigh your options carefully before committing to a wireless-data plan and the related hardware.”
Reporting on his trials of the highspeed wireless data service, Ojeda-Zapata writes that Verizon’s claims of 400Kbps - 700Kbps throughput is overstated by half:
“But in our trials on a newsroom laptop, we sometimes managed only 200 to 300 kilobits. Verizon said indoor use may mar performance. It added that our loaner card may have been partially incompatible with laptops other than the one it provided for testing.”
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