DS News

» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 85 South Dakota RANK: 42 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate SEPTEMBER 2014 0.94% 0.69% 3.4 YEAR AGO 0.86% 1.01% 3.7 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE 9.7% -31.8% -0.3 Top County MCCOOK COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate SEPTEMBER 2014 1.01% 3.47% YEAR AGO 2.10% 5.13% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -51.8% -32.4% Top Core-Based Statistical Area RAPID CITY, SD 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate SEPTEMBER 2014 0.95% 0.92% YEAR AGO 1.00% 1.25% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -4.6% -26.3% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the September 2014 foreclosure rate. All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate reflects preliminary September 2014 figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. Wisconsin RANK: 28 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate SEPTEMBER 2014 2.22% 1.32% 5.5 YEAR AGO 2.46% 1.89% 6.6 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -9.6% -30.0% -1.1 Top County CRAWFORD COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate SEPTEMBER 2014 4.27% 3.81% YEAR AGO 3.52% 2.18% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE 21.4% 74.9% Top Core-Based Statistical Area MARINETTE, WI-MI 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate SEPTEMBER 2014 1.98% 1.90% YEAR AGO 2.73% 1.99% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -27.5% -4.5% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the September 2014 foreclosure rate. All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate reflects preliminary September 2014 figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. Alabama RANK: 31 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate SEPTEMBER 2014 3.60% 1.12% 6.6 YEAR AGO 3.76% 1.32% 6.4 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -4.1% -15.1% 0.2 Top County COOSA COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate SEPTEMBER 2014 3.76% 2.01% YEAR AGO 3.22% 2.04% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE 16.8% -1.8% Top Core-Based Statistical Area 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate SEPTEMBER 2014 3.59% 1.89% YEAR AGO 3.35% 2.04% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE 7.1% -7.5% MOBILE, AL note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the September 2014 foreclosure rate. All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate reflects preliminary September 2014 figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. IN THE NEWS Former Alabama Bank Manager Sentenced for Fraud A former branch manager of an Alabama bank that received assistance through the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was sentenced after pleading guilty to fraud, the Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP) announced recently. Phillip Owen, 36, of Selma, Alabama, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and was sentenced to six months in federal prison, after which he must serve six months of community confine- ment as a special condition of five years of supervised release. Owen was ordered to pay $217,540 in restitution. Court documents show that Owen, while working as a branch manager for Superior Financial Services in Attalla, Alabama, from September 2007 to May 2009, approved and/ or recommended approval for loan applica- tions containing false information from bank customers. According to the court records, Owen's illegal actions included overvaluing vehicles that were the subject of loan applica- tions, disbursing loan proceeds to individuals who were either not entitled to the proceeds or not involved in the loan transaction, and prematurely releasing loan collateral. Owen then approved the loans despite not hav- ing verified the loan applicants' information even though he knew he hadn't done so and recommended the approval of further loans. According to the courts, Owen was occasion- ally compensated with narcotics for approving fraudulent loans. Owen approved loans for bank custom- ers who would not have otherwise qualified for those loans, and often the amounts of the loans exceed the amount of collateral that was put up to secure them. Superior was forced to write off more than $217,000 as a result of Owen's actions. e parent company of Superior Bank and Superior Financial Services, Superior Ban- corp, Inc., headquartered in Birmingham, received $69 million in relief from federal taxpayer funds through TARP in December 2008. SIGTARP reported that the relief money Superior received was never repaid. "Owen, while a bank manager for Supe- rior Financial Services, a bank that had been bailed out by taxpayers through TARP and which later failed, paid for his narcotics using bank dollars," said Christy Romero, SIG- TARP. "In exchange for his narcotics, Owen approved bank loans knowing that customers had falsified the loan applications, and he of- ten inflated the loans beyond the value of the underlying collateral. Owen's fraud caused the bank to suffer more than $217,000 in bank losses. TARP was designed to stabilize banks and our financial system during a time of crisis, not to finance crime. SIGTARP and our law enforcement partners will track down those guilty of exploiting taxpayers' TARP investments and ensure that justice is served for their crimes." e announcement of Owen's sentenc- ing was made by Romero and Joyce White Vance, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. e sentencing hearing was presided over by District Court Judge Virginia Emerson Hopkins in a federal court in Birmingham. Alabama's foreclosure rate of one filing for every 1,526 housing units was well below the national average of one in every 1,069 in October 2014, according to RealtyTrac. KNOW THIS

• Cover