Mortgage Debt & Home Equity

Nemo Dat Trumps Bona Fide Purchaser

10/18/11

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court just handed down a second major mortgage foreclosure ruling, Bevilacqua v. Rodriguez.  The case was an Ibanez follow-up dealing with the rights of a purchaser at an invalid foreclosure sale. I thought this was a no brainer case and said so in an amicus brief co-authored with some of the Credit Slips crew.

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The Sweep-It-Under-the-Rug Housing Plan

10/18/11

There is $700 billion in negative equity in the US. That is the critical figure. Any housing plan that doesn’t take a serious bite out of that $700 billion isn’t worth discussing. It’s just window dressing. And that’s exactly what the latest iteration of the Tom Miller-led AG mortgage servicing settlement is.

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The Way Forward: Going in Circles?

10/11/11

The latest proposal for dealing with the mortgage crisis comes from The Way Forward by Daniel Alpert, Robert Hockett and Nouriel Roubini (AHR), a policy paper sponsored by the New America Foundation.  AHR present is an incredibly wide-ranging proposal covering all sectors of the economy, not just housing, but I'm going to limit my comments to their mortgage crisis proposal. 

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More on Foreclosure File Reviewers

10/09/11

A simple google search for "foreclosure file reviewer" turns up a bunch of interesting things, including who is searching, what Level 2 means (as opposed to Level 1 or Level 3) and the involvement of Promontory, a financial services consulting firm headed by a former Comptroller of the Currency:

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Robosigning 2.0: Mortgage Foreclosure File Reviewers

10/08/11

Do you have what it takes to be a Mortgage Foreclosure File Reviewer Level 2?  An intrepid researcher forwarded to me a job ad for a mortgage foreclosure reviewer who will be reviewing bank foreclosures per the OCC/Fed servicing fraud consent orders.

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OCC Servicing Settlement--Will Homeowners Get Screwed (Again)?

10/04/11

The WSJ reports on the latest development in the implementation of the OCC's mortgage servicing fraud consent orders.  It seems that the banks will have OCC approved "independent" foreclosure review consultants (chosen and paid by the banks) review foreclosure files from 2009-2010 and pay homeowners damages if there are any problems found.  

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Mortgage Documentation Issues Close to (My) Home

10/03/11

The Arizona Supreme Court currently has under review a mortgage documentation case, Vasquez v. Saxon Mortgage, Inc. Just by chance, the Court was on its annual visit to the University of Arizona law college, where I teach, for the oral argument on Sept. 22. So of course I was in the audience at the argument, along with my students from our new Mortgage Clinic and a related course, called the Mortgage Crisis. We’ve been analyzing and debating the opposing arguments since.

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Housing Finance: Role of the Government Guarantee

09/12/11

I'm testifying before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday about the role of the government guarantee in housing finance (a/k/a wtf do we do with Fannie and Freddie). My testimony is here.

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Nevada AG: Securitization Fail

08/30/11

The Nevada AG is looking to reopen the 2008 AG settlement with BoA:  the AG alleges rampant and immediate non-compliance with the settlement.  The NYT coverage missed what is arguably the bigger story:  the Nevada AG came out and alleged a securitization fail.  The NY AG moved in this direction in his BNYM settlement action intervention, but was a little more oblique on that point.

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More on Refinancing Plan

08/27/11

Chris Mayer, one of the authors of the refinancing plan, a version of which is currently being considered by the administration, wrote in to the comments on an earlier post, protesting my characterization of his proposal. I have no argument with Chris about there being too many frictions in the refinancing process. I'm not sure that this is the best way to fix them, however, and I'm also puzzled by what problem the proposal aims to solve.

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