KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Sunday September 25 Housing and Economic stories

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Renters pose as owners, steal house-equity cash - (www.ocregister.com) Authorities have arrested seven people, including some in the United States illegally, on suspicion of posing as owners of at least 20 homes they were renting, taking out $5.9 million in home-equity loans and pocketing the cash. The suspects, some of whom are Korean and Chinese nationals, reportedly stole the homeowners’ identities to conduct the transactions, authorities said. One of the suspects is believed to be a resident of Garden Grove, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Christopher Derry said. Two of the targeted homes were in Orange County: a five-bedroom house on Spartan Street in Mission Viejo and a four-bedroom house on Threewoods Lane in Fullerton, he said. A loan for $200,000 was taken out on the Mission Viejo home, and one for $250,000 was taken out on the Fullerton home, Derry said. The rest of the homes are in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Individual law enforcement agencies had been working on their respective cases for a while and had recently begun cooperating, Derry said.

Foreclosure Pipeline in NY is 693 months and 621 Months in NJ - (Mish at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) The Bad News

· Average Loan in Foreclosure Is Delinquent for Record 599 Days

· Of the nearly 1.9 million loans that are 90 or more days delinquent but not yet in foreclosure, 42 percent have not made a payment in more than a year with an average delinquency of 397 days, also a new record.

· As of the end of June, 4.1 million loans were either 90 or more days delinquent or in foreclosure, as delinquencies remain two times and foreclosures eight times pre-crisis levels.

· On average, at the current rate of foreclosure sales, judicial foreclosure states would require 111 months to work through inventories of loans that are 90 or more days delinquent or in foreclosure as compared to non-judicial states, which would be able to clear the inventories in approximately 32 months.

· Most of the foreclosure “outflow” is back into delinquency

· Loans deteriorating over 90 days still outnumber foreclosure starts 2:1

· Foreclosure starts outnumber sales by a factor of almost 3:1

Reverse Mortgages: Do the Benefits Outweigh the Risks? - (www.dailyfinance.com) There are no income or credit requirements, and the loan has no monthly payment. Instead, the lender pays the homeowner, and the reverse mortgage balance rises as a result, accruing interest and fees. Lenders get repaid when the owner either moves or dies, and the home is sold. HECMs are insured by the Federal Housing Administration, so if for the sale price of the home falls short of the loan amount, FHA pays the lender the difference. "Reverse mortgages are full of pitfalls and they are very expensive -- but they are very valuable to the people for whom they work," says Margot Saunders, at counsel with the NCLC. "If you are sitting on a mortgage and you can afford to make payments on it, and have home equity and other assets, this is probably not a good idea. But if you are 85 years old and have $250 a month in income and a $500,000 house, it's a great idea no matter how much it costs, because the lender will give you money you don't otherwise have."

The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging - (www.www.ips-dc.org) By the same token, corporations don't dodge taxes. People do. The people who run corporations. And these people — America's CEOs — are reaping awesomely lavish rewards for the tax dodging they have their corporations do. In fact, corporate tax dodging has gone so out of control that 25 major U.S. corporations last year paid their chief executives more than they paid Uncle Sam in federal income taxes. This year's Institute for Policy Studies Executive Excess report, our 18th annual, explores the intersection between CEO pay and aggressive corporate tax dodging. We researched the 100 U.S. corporations that shelled out the most last year in CEO compensation. At 25 of these corporate giants, we found, the bill for chief executive compensation actually ran higher than the company's entire federal corporate income tax bill. Corporate outlays for CEO compensation — despite the lingering Great Recession — are rising. Employment levels have barely rebounded from their recessionary lows. Top executive pay levels, by contrast, have rebounded nearly all the way back from their pre-recession levels.

A Close Look At The Motives Behind The Solyndra Raid - (www.businessinsider.com) In any Chapter 11 filing the senior lenders have preference. This means that if there are any liquidation proceeds Senior Creditors get their money back first. It is important to note that those same senior lenders have significant influence regarding how the company’s assets are disposed of. In the case of Solyndra, the senior lender is also the largest equity owner, Argonaut Ventures, an investment vehicle controlled by George Kaiser. Argonaut got the preferential position when it agreed to make a $75mm term loan to Solyndra back in February of 2011. Note: DOE representatives participated in the structuring of the Argonaut term loan. The DOE specifically granted the preferred position. Six months ago the good folks at the DOE had to have known that Solyndra was a sinking ship. If we later hear that either the DOE or the President were shocked and surprised that Solyndra went into the tank, then we know they are lying. In the layer cake of creditors the highest tier is the DIP (Debtor in Possession). This loan is only granted after a chapter filing. It is approved by the court and as a result stands first in line. The DIP lender has significant sway in the timing and the manner of assets sales. Not surprisingly, the proposed provider of the DIP is Argonaut. (The deal calls for a 15% rate and an $80,000 front end fee. Not bad for a four-week loan)