Mortgage Debt & Home Equity

BONY-Countrywide Settlement Removal Reversed by 2d Circuit

02/27/12

Lost in the attention to the state-federal mortgage servicing settlement is the other major servicing fraud settlement:  the $8.5B deal between BONY as trustee for various MBS trusts and Countrywide (Bank of America) over putback claims for securitization of mortgages that didn't comply with the requirements of the securitization documents.  

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Robosigning 2.0: Coming to a Foreclosure Review Near You

02/26/12

Last October, I wrote a post entitled "Robosigning 2.0" that discussed some job ads for outsourced OCC foreclosure reviews.  I predicted based on the job ad qualifications that the foreclosure reviews would be nothing other than a whitewash.

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Pushback on the San Francisco City Assessor-Recorder Foreclosure Audit

02/18/12

Not surprisingly, there's been some attempts to downplay the significance of the SF City Assessor-Recorder foreclosure audit. The attacks have come in three flavors:  questions about the auditors' own background; questions about the accuracy of the report; and the "who cares, as these are just lousy deadbeats" argument.

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Why No Investigation?

02/16/12

Here's a bombshell: the San Francisco City Assessor commissioned a serious audit of foreclosure documentation filed in the past few years. The audit examined 400 foreclosures.  It found problems with 85% of them, often multiple problems.

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Dividing the Mortgage Settlement Dollars

02/13/12

Details are still forthcoming about the settlement between the federal government and attorneys general and the five largest servicing banks but one interesting twist that is already emerging is how the dollars are being divvied up and distributed. The total number touted, $25 billion, includes both dollars paid in cold cash to the states,  dollars paid in cold cash to wronged consumers, and "credit" for reducing principal or refinancing.

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FHFA's Fake $100 Billion Number

02/10/12

The critical point made in the Democratic Congressmen's letter to FHFA is this:  Director DeMarco's widely reported claim that principal write-downs on Fannie and Freddie mortgages will cost taxpayers $100 billion is simply false.  There are two reasons th

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The Servicing Settlement: Banks 1, Public 0

02/09/12

What are we to make of the servicing settlement announced today with much hoopla?  The short answer is not much.  The settlement is the large consumer fraud settlement ever, but it accomplishes remarkably little in terms of either alleviating the foreclosure crisis of holding to account those responsible for the housing bubble and subsequent foreclosure abuses.  As my Texas relatives say, it's “A

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Bankruptcy Implications of AG Settlement

02/09/12

Even though I was up at 4am Pacific this morning, the AG and federal government mortgage settlement was nearly old news by then. But in case you haven't heard, here is your official Credit Slips announcement--there was a $26 billion settlement.While the details are still being released, I am already concerned about how the settlement will affect bankruptcy cases.

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Congressmen raise new questions about FHFA resistance to principal reduction

02/09/12

The heat is cranking up on the seat of Edward DeMarco, acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a holdover from the last administration who has been standing in the way of a meaningful response to the mortgage crisis. FHFA is conservator of FannieMae and FreddieMac, owners or guarantors of a large percentage of US home mortgages, and thus in a position to direct the mortgage giants to take steps that would save taxpayers money, provide relief to struggling underwater homeowners, and revive the US economy.

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The Permanent Foreclosure Crisis and Obama's Refinancing Obsession

02/02/12

For the umpteenth time, President Obama has announced that his solution to the foreclosure crisis is to encourage "responsible" homeowners to refinance at lower interest rates.  Adopting the Tea Party rhetoric and blaming home buyers who got houses in 2006 for their inability to foresee what few economists foresaw, Obama has steadfastly refused to push for principal reductions and payment suspensions for homeowners behind in payments, lest their luckier neighbors who bought at lower prices become resentful.  As a result, he continues to offer help t

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