Mortgage Debt & Home Equity

QM Isn't "Plain Vanilla"

11/04/13

The American Banker's lead article today is about how the Qualified Mortgage (QM) concept is really an enactment of the "plain vanilla" mortgage provision that the White House had unsuccessfully pushed to have included in what become the Dodd-Frank Act.  That's just wrong. 

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Housing Finance Reform: the Role of the PLS Market

10/01/13

I testified on housing finance reform today before Senate Banking. It was a strange experience being in the Hart and Dirksen Senate Office Buildings with the shutdown. The halls were eerily empty. Fortunately, the Senate Banking Committee is continuing to do the people's business.

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QM and Nonjudicial Foreclosures

10/01/13

The Dodd-Frank Act provides that failure to verify a borrower's ability to pay on a home mortgage entitles the borrower to a "asset a violation...as a matter of defense by recoupment or set off".  15 USC 1640(k). 

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Foreclosure Crisis Update

10/01/13

Year Six of the great foreclosure crisis came to a close on June 30 with no real end in sight.  Five million homes have been foreclosed and another million or more were surrendered by distressed home owners in short sales or otherwise.  We are still far from returning to a stable mortgage market.  In normal times (from 1942 to 2005 for example) about 1% of mortgages are in the foreclosure process at any given time, and another 4% or so are delinquent.  At June

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Is Federal Preemption Assignable?

09/28/13

Gretchen Morgenson had an interesting column today about judicial frustration with banks.  One of the opinions she references is a recent order by Judge William Young (Dist. Mass.) in a predatory lending suit.

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Supreme Court to hear Housing Discrimination Case

06/17/13

The Supreme Court granted certiorari today in MOUNT HOLLY, NJ, ET AL. V. MT. HOLLY GARDENS CITIZENS, on the question whether Fair Housing Act claims of race discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of housing can be proven based on evidence of disparate impact.  The case does not directly involve credit, but is being watched closely by bank lawyers and fair lending advocates for the impact it will have on Fair Housing Act litigation against mortgage lenders.

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Who is Mel Watt?

05/08/13

On May 1, President Obama nominated Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) to be the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the conservator for the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

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Jon Stewart's Residential Evil

05/08/13

Any time The Daily Show has a piece that mentions both MERS and the OCC, it gets a link on Credit Slips. There is even a short clip featuring former Credit Slips blogger and current U.S. Senator (in that order) Elizabeth Warren. 

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