The Borings alleged trespass claim on Google Street View.

Upon appeal in the 3rd circuit in Pennsylvania was case against Google's Street View service.

The appeal stated representatives of Google drove up the ungated driveway of "Boring" residence and took photos of their property 'including the pool area'

The court compared "knocking" to "driving up and taking photos" and cited that knocking was more intrusive to privacy than what Google did, but knocking in itself did not pass muster for a 'highly offensive' act.  The appeals court held that "no person of ordinary sensibilities would be would be shamed, humiliated, or have suffered mentally as a result of a vehicle entering into his or her ungated driveway and photographing the view from there."

Regarding the plaintiff's claim for 'unjust inrichment' the court stated ""it cannot be fairly said that the Boringsconferred anything of value upon Google.""

It seems that the photographs of Plaintiffs property was indeed boring. Maybe too boring for PA courts to grant relief.

via Bloomberg Law Reports.

Boring v. Google, Inc., 598 F. Supp. 2d 695 (W.D. Pa.
2009

Among the provisions taking effect Monday:

•Issuers will be prohibited from raising rates on new accounts for 12 months.

•Issuers can't impose retroactive rate increases, meaning that rate hikes on outstanding balances generally will be prohibited. The exception to this is consumers who are 60 days or more late with their payments.

However, card issuers can still raise your rate on new purchases at any time, as long as they provide 45 days' written notice.

•People under age 21 will have to get an adult co-signer to get a credit card if they can't show they have the means to pay off the debt on their own.

Card issuers also will be barred from offering freebies to college students on campus to get them to apply for a card.

•Any amount you pay above the minimum payment will be applied to the balance with the highest interest rate.

•Issuers must show you how long it would take you to pay off your card and the total cost if you just made minimum payments. (That's assuming you don't charge more on the card.)

"If you had no idea of how damaging minimum-payment syndrome is, you get it now," said Todd Mark, vice president of education at Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Dallas.

One rotten thing some card issuers have done in response to the law is double the minimum payment for some cardholders from 2.5 percent of the total balance to 5 percent.

"It may be more difficult for these consumers to realize the benefit from this provision," said Bill Hardekopf, chief executive of LowCards.com.

•Card issuers won't be able to charge interest on balances from a prior billing cycle that have been paid, a practice known as "double-cycle billing."

•Due dates for card payments must be the same each month.

•Credit card issuers will be prohibited from opening an account or increasing the credit limit on an existing account unless the issuer has considered whether the borrower has the ability to repay the debt.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Foreclosure filings on homes in the first quarter of 2010 jumped 22 percent when compared with the same period last year, a new report from Foreclosure Listing Service Inc. said Thursday.

The Addison-based foreclosure data surveyor said 16,137 foreclosure postings were filed during the first quarter of 2010, up from 13,259 last year.

Foreclosures filings on residential real estate also jumped in every major North Texas county when comparing the first quarter to last year's comparable quarter.

Dallas, Collin, Denton and Tarrant counties posted increases in foreclosure postings on residential real estate comparing the first quarters of 2009 and 2010.

However, foreclosure filings dropped in Dallas, Tarrant and Collin counties when comparing the first quarter of 2010 to the last quarter of 2009, the report said.

McLEAN, Va. (AP) -- Rates on 30-year mortgages remained almost flat this week as the Federal Reserve said it would keep rates near record lows to help the economy recover.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.98 percent this week, down slightly from 4.99 percent last week, Freddie Mac said Thursday. Last year at this time, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.10 percent.

Rates are still above the record low of 4.71 percent set in early December. They've been held around 5 percent by a Federal Reserve program to pump $1.25 trillion into mortgage-backed securities to try to keep rates low and make home buying more affordable.

On Wednesday, the Fed said it still expects to end the program as scheduled on March 31. However, the central bank did say that it remains open to changing that timetable if necessary.

Freddie Mac collects mortgage rates on Monday through Wednesday of each week from lenders around the country. Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a given day, often in line with long-term Treasury bonds.

The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages fell slightly to 4.39 percent from 4.40 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac.

Rates on five-year, adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 4.25 percent, down from 4.27 percent a week earlier. Rates on one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages dropped to 4.29 percent from 4.32 percent.

The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. The nationwide fee for loans in Freddie Mac's survey averaged 0.6 point for 30-year, 15-year and five-year loans. It averaged 0.5 point for one-year loans.

Cities in the so-called Sand States dominated the foreclosure rankings in 2009, with the 20 worst-hit metro areas residing in Nevada, Florida, California and Arizona.

Las Vegas had the largest number of foreclosure filings of any city last year, with 12% of its households receiving at least one during the year, according to RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed homes. That was more than five times the national average.

Cape Coral, Fla., was a close second with 11.9% of its households; Merced, Calif., was third with 10.1%.

The good news is that all top 20 cities recorded declines in foreclosure filings in the last three months of the year.

The bad news is that the foreclosure plague is spreading beyond these usual trouble spots, according to RealtyTrac's CEO, James Saccacio. And, nationwide, foreclosures grew 21.2% during the year.

"Areas like Provo, Utah, Fayetteville, Ark., Portland, Ore., and Rockford, Ill., all posted foreclosure rates above the U.S. average in 2009," he said. "And markets like Honolulu, Minneapolis and Seattle saw foreclosure activity increase at more than twice the national pace over the past 12 months."

He added that the new foreclosure wave seems more grounded in traditional foreclosure causes, such as job losses, than those recorded in the Sand States, where they were much more "bubble related."

In cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami and Bakersfield, Calif., soaring home prices of the mid 2000s drove homebuyers to desperate measures, such as taking on hybrid adjustable rate mortgages, also called toxic ARMS. These products only remained affordable as long as home prices grew; once prices stopped rising, borrowers began to default.

New hotspots

Some cites that had escaped the worst of the default demon in prior years saw foreclosure filings -- default notices, auction sales and bank repossessions -- soar. The Gulfport area of Mississippi recorded a year-over-year spike of 784%. Houma, La., recorded a 379% gain, and Roanoke, Va., filings jumped 352%.

Despite the big increases, however, the foreclosure rates for those cities ranked in the bottom third of the nation. For example, Gulfport was number 180 out of 203 metro areas listed.

Filings in Boise, Idaho, on the other hand, grew 103% but that was enough to put it 24th among cites, the highest ranking of any place outside the Sand States.

In contrast to the boom areas, cities where home prices never soared have endured far fewer foreclosures. The lowest rate of filings for any of the cities covered in the RealtyTrac report were found in Burlington, Vt., and Utica, N.Y, each of which had a miniscule 0.05% filing rate.

The housing boom, with its annual double-digit price increases, mostly bypassed areas like those, enabling buyers to escape the necessity of stretching their incomes to cover high housing costs.

In Burlington, the median home price has stayed under $230,000, and median home prices in Utica have been very cheap, not more than $120,000 at any time.

For cities like that, few foreclosures are caused by mortgage related issues and, as long as the local economies don't crash, defaults should remain well under national averages.