Saturday August 6 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

States have no place to hide from debt crisis - (www.reuters.com) The weeks-old negotiations in Washington over enlarging the federal government's borrowing authorization are so scattered and twisted that state officials reliant on federal monies for large portions of their budgets can't handicap the outcomes. "A complete unknown at this point ...," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for California's finance department of the standoff. "We just don't know where things are going to end up." Officials in Maine, and in Virginia, which was one of five AAA-rated states called out for possible ratings cuts last week by Moody's Investors Service because of the debt face-off, said they can't plan adjustments because outcomes were so clouded. "We have been examining areas where we think there could be impacts, but cannot make any firm contingency plans because of the uncertainty of what impacts we may see ...," said Jeff Caldwell, spokesman for Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. Some state and local governments, which together got $478 billion from the federal government in 2010, said they will tap reserves or borrowings and use other funds to make up for any short-run losses of federal monies. Some state finance officials have shifted bond sales because of the federal standoff and others are bracing for possible downturns in sales tax revenues if Social Security and other payments to individuals are interrupted. In Wisconsin, where federal revenue is about 29 percent, or $9.3 billion, of the annual budget, the state has enough money to fund federal programs for at least three months due to proceeds from a recent $800 million note sale and the state's ability to borrow from other funds, an official said.

Jefferson County Could Decide Thursday Whether To File For Largest-Ever Muni Bankruptcy - (www.businessinsider.com) Officials in Jefferson County, Alabama could decide as soon as Thursday whether they will file for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. The AP reports that the Jefferson County Commission will hold a special meeting Thursday night in Birmingham to decide whether they will keep trying to work out a deal with the county's sewer creditors or file for bankruptcy. The county has still yet to receive a response to a repayment plan for its $3.2 billion sewer debt. The plan, which would erase nearly $1.3 billion of the debt, was submitted to creditors more than a week ago. The meeting will come one day before the end of a 30-day negotiating period between the county and its creditors.

U.S. Rating Cut May Force Unloading of Student-Loan Debt, Citigroup Says - (www.bloomberg.com) A cut in the U.S. government’s AAA grade could force investors to sell asset-backed securities tied to student loans, causing spreads to widen “significantly,” according to Citigroup Inc. “A ratings downgrade would be a significant blow” to the $250 billion government-guaranteed sector, Citigroup analysts led by Mary Kane said in a July 22 report. “The likelihood of forced selling is elevated.” Citigroup sees a 50 percent chance of a ratings cut this year as the U.S. struggles to reduce its long-term debt. Many investors buy student-loan securities specifically because they’re so highly rated and a U.S. government credit risk, according to analysts at the New York-based lender. Money managers with rating-based guidelines would be forced to sell into a sinking market, affecting the sector more than other asset-backed debt tied to consumers, commercial mortgages and corporate loans, they wrote.

Greece Credit Rating Cut Three Levels by Moody’s - (www.bloomberg.com) Greece’s credit rating was cut three steps by Moody’s Investors Service, which said the European Union’s rescue for the debt-laden nation will cause substantial losses for investors and amount to a default. Greece’s long-term foreign currency debt was downgraded to Ca, its second-lowest rating, from Caa1, the company said in a statement in London today. Moody’s said it will reassess the risk profile of any outstanding or new securities issued by Greece after the debt exchange that’s part of the new rescue plan has been completed. “The combination of the announced EU program and the debt exchange proposals by major financial institutions imply that private creditors will experience substantial losses on their holding of Greek government bonds and this is something we need to reflect in the rating,” Moody’s senior analyst Sarah Carlson said in an interview.

RIM to Cut 2,000 Jobs on BlackBerry Share Decline - (www.bloomberg.com) Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, plans to cut 2,000 jobs, or about a tenth of its workforce, as sales slow amid market share losses to Apple Inc.’s iPhone. The reductions, across all functions, are part of a plan to “focus on areas that offer the highest growth opportunities,” RIM said today in a statement. The job cuts will leave the Waterloo, Ontario-based company with about 17,000 employees. RIM predicted last month that sales this quarter may drop for the first time in nine years. The company is losing market share in the U.S. to the iPhone and handsets running Google Inc.’s Android software, in part because it hasn’t introduced a major new BlackBerry model since August. Cheaper Google phones are also making inroads in Latin America, Asia and Europe, threatening the popularity of less expensive BlackBerry models like the Curve.

OTHER STORIES:

El-Erian Says U.S. Vulnerable to Downgrade - (www.bloomberg.com)

Bunds Losing to Treasuries as Default Swaps Count Costs of Merkel’s Rescue - (www.bloomberg.com)

Oil at $120 Becomes Biggest Energy Bet as Futures Leave Forecasters Behind - (www.bloomberg.com)

Rival Debt Plans Being Assembled by Party Leaders - (www.nytimes.com)

With Washington at Impasse, Worry Over Investor Reaction - (www.nytimes.com)

Petrobras to Raise as Much as $91 Billion in Debt to Fund Spending Program - (www.bloomberg.com)

House, Senate leaders unveil dueling debt-limit plans - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Senate and House Split as Obama Is to Address Budget - (www.nytimes.com)

Boehner to Offer Plan to Avert Default, Deny Obama ‘Blank Check’ - (www.bloomberg.com)

Debt-limit compromise elusive as separate strategies take shape in House, Senate - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Lawmakers split as debt deadline looms, markets uneasy - (www.reuters.com)

Food Costs Rising as Coke, Chipotle Pass on Commodity Increases - (www.bloomberg.com)

Drug prices to plummet in wave of expiring patents - (www.finance.yahoo.com)

Friday August 5 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

New CA law gives added protection to short sale hopefuls - (www.signonsandiego.com) A new California law will further protect homeowners pursuing short sales by barring first and secondary lienholders from going after sellers for money owed after the short sales close. Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 458, authored by Senate Majority Leader Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro,) into law on Friday. A short sale is a transaction in which the homeowner owes more on the loan than the property is worth. To sell the home, the lien holder or lien holders must approve the sale because the amount owed to the lien holder will be "short" of what is currently owed by the borrower. Real estate tracker DataQuick said short sales made up 17.7 percent of Southern California home resales in June. The new law builds on the protections offered by a previous law, SB 931, which required the first lien holder in a short sale to accept an agreed-upon payment as the full payment for the outstanding loan balance. The previous law did not address junior lien holders. The new law, which became effective immediately, now prohibits secondary lien holders from pursuing deficiencies after a short sale closes.

Vancouver Realtor® Charged in Slavery Case - (www.theprovince.com) A Vancouver couple who allegedly brought a Filipina nanny into their home, stole her passport and forced her into domestic slavery are facing additional charges following an arraignment hearing Thursday in B.C. Provincial Court. Oi Ling Nicole Huen and Franco Yiu Kwan Orr were each charged under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in May with organizing the illegal entry into Canada of a 38-year-old woman. The couple have now also been charged with employing a foreign national, while Orr faces an additional charge of misrepresentation, after allegedly providing false information in a 2008 application for a temporary work visa for the woman. Investigators say the couple took the woman's passport from her and forced her into servitude 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Son of Fannie and Freddie? Maybe Not, But Still Scary - (www.thefiscaltimes.com) Is the Federal Home Loan Bank System, which issues more debt securities than any other entity in the country besides the federal government, taking too many risks? The FHLB was established during the Great Depression to provide low-cost “advances” to financial institutions so they could push money out into communities. And over the years it has advanced hundreds of billions of dollars to its almost 8,000 member banks (it had $804 billion in outstanding debt at the end of the first quarter) and never suffered a loss. Now some wonder if it is going too far out on the financial limb. As demand for advances has declined amid the slowdown in mortgage lending, the 12 regional Federal Home Loan Banks have excess capital that needs to be returned to members or put to work. A rising portion of that money is going into the securities markets. Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates the FHLBs as well as mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has spent much of the past year warning the FHLBs about the dangers of investing in securities.

Officials warn that foreclosure probes may prove inadequate - (www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com) Since flawed foreclosure practices by the nation2019s biggest banks became last fall's biggest scandal, federal bank regulators and the attorneys general of all 50 states launched simultaneous investigations[1]. But there are an increasing number of warnings that neither of those efforts have addressed the full scope of the problem. Most notably, Elizabeth Warren, a senior Obama administration advisor warned [2] about the ongoing probes in Congressional testimony last week: "I think there's a real question about whether there's been an adequate investigation." After news about fraudulent and missing mortgage documentation raised questions last fall about the legitimacy of foreclosure actions, all 50 states launched a joint investigation. A group of federal bank regulators launched a separate investigation. As we'd noted [3], some observers had low expectations for the federal investigation all along, especially given the involvement of the historically bank-friendly [4] Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Strict lending is good for you and the economy - (www.firsttuesdayjournal.com) Only homebuyers capable of putting down a minimum 20% down payment, with jobs to make mortgage payments and carry the property they purchase are truly qualified to receive home loan financing. This was not a practice in the norm during the Millennium Boom when the Federal Reserve (the Fed) flooded the markets with money and Congress eased lending regulations, allowing mortgage lenders to originate risky and imprudent loans. [For more information on the important real estate fundamentals including the 20% down payment principle, see the June 2011 first tuesday article, The 20% solution: personal savings rates and homeownership.] After some wrist slapping from legislation and the media, the banks, lenders and GSEs are again learning how to make mortgage loans and are now reinstating past discarded standards in their lending policy manuals. This is a positive step toward establishing healthier habits for American financial institutions. [For more information on past and current American housing policies, see the June 2011 first tuesday article, Subsidizing the American dream.]

OTHER STORIES:

Americans' Wealth Is Stolen - (www.readersupportednews.org)

Budget Hero: Game to balance the budget - (marketplace.publicradio.org)

Forensic audit saves rental property! - (www.patrick.net)

Mortgage 'robosigning' goes on - (finance.yahoo.com)

Bair: Mortgage Industry Didn't Think Borrowers Were Worth Helping - (www.propublica.org)

Made in USA: Wealth Inequality - (Charles Hugh Smith at www.oftwominds.com)

China boosts holdings of US Treasury securities - (finance.yahoo.com)

SoCal house buyers sit on the sidelines due to falling prices - (www.irvinehousingblog.com)

How is a $729,000 government-backed mortgage viewed as affordable housing? - (www.doctorhousingbubble.com)

Apartments are popular development among builders - (www.latimes.com)

Thursday August 4 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Canadians mow grass, then own property next door - (www.toledoblade.com) A few Sandusky landowners will soon come to own the abandoned grassy plots beside their homes -- as long as they or their tenants mow the lawn long enough to earn them. Under Sandusky's new Mow to Own program -- believed to be unusual in Ohio -- homeowners living next to properties that are abandoned but made useless by zoning laws can take care of the land for up to two years, until the value of their maintenance matches the parcel's value. Then they own the city-owned land for good. "There's a lot of maintenance that we've had to do, so [the program] will free our people up to take care of city property," said Sandusky chief planner Carrie Handy. The program, which takes effect in August could eventually relieve the city's maintenance cost for dozens of "unbuildable" parcels while letting adjacent homeowners add the land to their properties and increase their home values. The plan could be especially effective in Sandusky, a city that is home to hundreds of parcels laid out before the spread of the automobile's popularity and lacking driveways and garages.

Irish people question why they should be sacrificed to pay private banker debt - (www.enoughcampaign.org) Richard Boyd Barrett TD today congratulated the people of Iceland for their leadership on resisting the power the bankers: “The result of the Icelandic referendum is a fantastic example of people power. For the second time in just over a year the people of Iceland have stood up to their politicians, defied the threats of international bankers, financers and governments, and issued a second resounding ‘No’ to a deal that would nationalise the €4 billion losses of the failed Icesave bank. Almost one in three Icelandic voters opposed the deal even though seventy percent of the parliament supported paying and the government were opposed to even holding a referendum. “Here in Ireland we are being told that we must put €70 billion into a toxic banking system to compensate gamblers and speculators for their losses. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, tens of thousands are emigrating, people are struggling to repay mortgages and our public services are collapsing.

Foreclosure scammer sentenced for $55M swindle, but Greenspan still free - (www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com) Jeff McGrue, 51, of Tacoma, Wash., who was found guilty in January of swindling California homeowners facing foreclosure, has been sent to prison for up to 25 years for running a foreclosure rescue rip-off. He had promised to prevent foreclosure through the paying off of their mortgages, but in reality doing no more than sending their lenders fake notes and keeping the money the homeowners sent to him, prosecutors say. The evidence presented during a four-day trial in U.S. District Court showed that Mr. McGrue orchestrated the foreclosure-rescue scheme from the fall of 2007 through the fall of 2008 through a company he called “Gateway International.”

Short sale fraud plagues the housing market - (money.cnn.com) Just as the housing market began to collapse near the end of 2007, a real estate agent in Bridgeport, Conn. asked Regions Bank if it would accept a $102,375 bid on a home that was underwater on its mortgage. Under the impression that this was the best offer on the home, Regions agreed to the short sale and released the mortgage it owned on the home. Later that same day, the new owner -- an investment group owned by another real estate agent -- resold the home to a buyer who had been lined up before the short sale transaction went through. The final sale price: $132,500, netting the seller a cool $30,000 -- a profit that should have gone to Regions. In this latest twist on short sale fraud, scammers have found a way to rip off mortgage lenders by tens of thousands of dollars -- sometimes in a matter of hours.

Flash Mobs Battle Spanish Banks to Halt Foreclosures - (www.bloomberg.com) Luis Dominguez got up at dawn to take a 5 a.m. bus to join a human chain around a Madrid home threatened with foreclosure. Three weeks earlier, the crowd had come to him after he telephoned for help. “I was facing eviction and they saved me from losing my home,” said Dominguez, 74, a pensioner with a walking stick in one hand and a five-foot placard saying “Stop Evictions” in the other. “I came today to show my gratitude and support.” The 300 protesters, organized by a group called La Plataforma de los Afectados por la Hipoteca, or PAH, managed to win a reprieve for the property’s owner, a single mother with a disabled son. Rising unemployment in Spain may lead to 300,000 foreclosures this year and next, according to Adicae, a rights group representing bank customers. Spain has become a battleground between banks hurt by a five-fold increase in residential mortgage arrears since 2007 and debt-laden homeowners who are appealing to the government to reduce the burden on those facing foreclosure.

OTHER STORIES:

Was Ross Perot on to something in 1992? - (www.youtube.com)

Job market dictates real estate market - (www.tidewaternews.com)

Chart That Explains Everything Wrong With US Healthcare System - (www.zerohedge.com)

$1.7 million house sells -- after 20 price cuts - (huntingtonhomes.ocregister.com)

Return of the Gold Standard as world order unravels - (www.telegraph.co.uk)

Tel Aviv tent city erected in protest against high house prices - (www.guardian.co.uk)

The silent liquidity squeeze - the story of excess reserves - (www.truth-out.org)

Why the Drop in Foreclosures is Not Good News - (www.thefiscaltimes.com)

95% Of Americans Are Getting Poorer Every Year - (www.businessinsider.com)

Bay Area house sales, prices drop from year earlier - (www.sfgate.com)

Bank-owned house sales impact market - (www.siouxcityjournal.com)

The Real State of US Housing - (www.theautomaticearth.blogspot.com)

House Sellers Need to Chop Prices Even Further Than They Realize - (www.dailyfinance.com)

Wednesday August 3 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

June U.S. Jobs Picture Gloomy in Many States - (www.bloomberg.com) Jobless rates jumped in June from the month before in more than half of the U.S. states as sinking public employment reversed the trend of steadily improving labor conditions in the first half of 2011, Labor Department data released on Friday showed. Altogether, 28 states and the District of Columbia registered unemployment rate increases from the month before and eight states had rate decreases. From a year before, the rates dropped in 39 states and rose in eight states and the District of Columbia, Labor Department data showed. In May, only 13 states and the District registered increases over the month and only four states had increases over the year. The unemployment rate in Nevada rose to 12.4 percent from 12.1 percent in May, in the first rise this year. The state continued to register the highest jobless rate in the country.

Players in a Greek Drama - (www.nytimes.com) This summer, David Riley is one of the world’s most powerful financial analysts. Not only does he have the power to effectively put a “sell” on Uncle Sam, but on Friday he roiled global markets after he said the Greek rescue package would constitute a limited default on the country’s debt. The analyst, who is based in London, oversees the 30-person government bonds team inside Fitch Ratings, which could soon downgrade the debt of the United States government from its historical, gold-plated, triple-A rating if politicians in Washington cannot agree to raise the debt limit.

Fitch calls default, Greece pledges no let-up on debt - (www.reuters.com) Fitch ratings agency declared Greecewould be in temporary default as the result of a second bailout, which Athens said had bought it breathing space. But the agency pledged to give Greece a higher, "low speculative grade" after its bonds had been exchanged and said Athens now had some hope of tackling its debt mountain, which most economists still expect to force a deeper restructuring in the future. An emergency summit of leaders of the 17-nation currency area agreed a second rescue package on Thursday with an extra 109 billion euros ($157 billion) of government money, plus a contribution by private sector bondholders estimated to total as much as 50 billion euros by mid-2014. Under the bailout of Greece, which supplements a 110 billion euro rescue plan by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in May last year, banks and insurers will voluntarily swap their Greek bonds for longer maturities at lower rates.

Borders collapse signals a new retail chapter - (www.ft.com) At a store on the southwest corner of New York’s Central Park, signs blaring “Everything must go!” and “Nothing held back” were put up overnight, confirming that Borders had entered its final chapter – and that US retail was beginning a new one. The loss-making book chain was sent into liquidation this week and its going-out-of-business discounts, flagged in big yellow letters on Friday, dispelled the usually cosy feel of its Columbus Circle store. The previous day several lunchtime customers had nestled into its quieter corners: a woman browsing the religion section with a bowl of water for her dog; a man splayed like a sun-bather on the floor of the events zone. Borders’ role as a home-away-from-home is one reason why its extinction has been greeted with sadness. But the company’s demise – leavingBarnes & Noble as the US’s only national book chain – is about more than the end of an era in books.

The calls grow louder for Obama to just ignore the debt ceiling - (www.businessinsider.com) The debt ceiling is currently a political crisis threatening to be an economic one, and soon it could turn into a constitutional crisis. The calls are getting louder for Obama to ignore Congress and unilaterally raise the debt ceiling. In a NYT op-ed, Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule liken a unilateral hike in the debt ceiling by Obama to Abraham Lincoln's suspension of Habeus Corpus during the Civil War -- a unilateral move done for the good of the country. Paul Krugman loved Obama's fiery press conference yesterday, and said the 14th Amendment route was the likely step forward: "Let the GOP go ahead and try to impeach: the whole world knows who’s intransigent here."

OTHER STORIES:

Debt crisis: Deal sought to head off stock plunge - (finance.yahoo.com)

EU aims for quick Greek debt swap end of August: source - (www.reuters.com)

Euro rescue deal fails to dispel fears - (www.ft.com)

In Greek Pact, Compromises and Intrigues - (www.nytimes.com)

Weidmann Says Greek Crisis Package May Weaken Incentive for Budget Reforms - (www.bloomberg.com)

Vietnam’s Inflation Accelerates to 22%, Highest Among Economies in Asia - (www.bloomberg.com)

Boehner Said to Seek $3 Trillion Cuts, Signal for Markets - (www.bloomberg.com)

Boehner tells GOP he will unveil new debt strategy - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Debt talks collapse between Obama, Boehner - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Debt dispute boils: Capitol's hot, inside and out - (www.bloomberg.com)

No end in sight as Obama restarts debt talks - (finance.yahoo.com)

Jobless rates jump in 28 states in June - (www.reuters.com)

Regulators shut 2 banks in Florida, 1 in Colorado - (www.bloomberg.com)

Tuesday August 2 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

BofA Mortgage Settlements Magnify Capital Strain as $50 Billion Gap Looms - (www.bloomberg.com) Bank of America Corp. (BAC) may have to build its capital cushion by $50 billion and renege again on Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan’s pledge to raise the firm’s dividend as mortgage losses drain funds. Expenses tied to soured home loans may total $20.4 billion in the second quarter, pulling the bank further from capital ratios demanded under new international standards, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company said June 29. The gap may equal 2.75 percent of risk-weighted assets starting in 2013 -- at about $18 billion for each percentage point -- crimping Moynihan’s ability to raise dividends and repurchase shares. “They are likely to be in capital-building mode for longer than previously anticipated,” Jason Goldberg, a Barclays Capital analyst, said in an interview. For now, he said, “I’m hard-pressed to see meaningful capital redeployment.”

Man pleads guilty to mortgage fraud in $4M scheme - (www.thestamfordtimes.com) A city man has admitted to defrauding mortgage lenders as part of a $4 million fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Christian Tudorof, 43, waived his right to indictment Monday and pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan G. Margolis in New Haven to one count of wire fraud. According to court documents and statements made in court, between December 2006 and March 2007, Tudorof submitted mortgage applications to a number of different mortgage lenders in association with the purchase of residential properties in Florida, Arizona and Connecticut. In many of the mortgage applications, he provided false information and failed to disclose information to the mortgage lender, according to U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Tom Carson. Citing an example, Carson said after Tudorof obtained one mortgage to purchase a home in Florida, he deliberately failed to disclose the existence of this mortgage when he applied for mortgages on the other properties purchased in his name. He also falsely represented in the mortgage applications that he intended to live in some of the homes that he intended to purchase when, in fact, he had no intention of occupying these homes, according to Carson.

Michigan foreclosure firm implicated in robosigning - (www.michiganmessenger.com) A Massachusetts county clerk says a forensic examination of documents filed by Troy-based Orlans Associates, one of the largest foreclosure firms in Michigan, shows that the company has engaged in illegal robo-signing. Robo-signing is when a bank, mortgage company or foreclosure company has multiple people sign documents with the name of the person who is supposed to sign those documents and then has them notarized as having been signed by that person. In the case of Orlans, the signer was supposed to be attorney Marshall Isaacs, but he has now been implicated in two states for having had others sign his name and notarize that he did so. Kevin Harvey, first assistant clerk for the Southern Essex District Register of Deeds in Massachusetts, says a private mortgage fraud investigator brought the robo-signing to the attention of his boss, John O’Brien. That investigator, Steve Dibert, runs MFI-Miami which has offices in Florida as well as Traverse City. “Steve [Diberts]’s work on Marshall Isaacs was confirmed by our certified mortgage fraud examiner Marie McDonnell here in Massachusetts and his name is on our registry’s robo-signers list,” Harvey told the Michigan Messenger. Dibert spent 18 years in the mortgage industry before starting MFI-Miami, which has investigated over 700 questionable mortgage documents in 11 states and Washington, D.C. He was the primary source in providing Ingham County Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel Jr. with the information that led to a major lawsuit against banks, mortgage companies and mortgage foreclosure firms for “tens of millions” in tax payments allegedly improperly withheld from the state and county.

Invalid Mortgage Assignments Rampant in Massachusetts County - (www.totalmortgage.com) A couple of times over the past couple of months we’ve discussed the efforts being made by the Register of Deeds for South Essex County (Massachusetts) to recoup missed recording fees from MERS (the Mortgage Electronic Registration System). The Register, John O’Brien, contends that his county may have missed out on as much as $22 million worth of recording fees since 1998 as a result of MERS. MERS is an electronic system that was created in order to allow mortgage originators to more easily securitize mortgage and bundle them into mortgage backed securities. It also allowed those using MERS to avoid many of the transfer fees charges by various county and state offices under the centuries old system devised to transfer properties from one party to another. There’s only one problem, and that is that mortgage transfers through MERS may not exactly be legal. Recently, Judge Robert E. Grossman of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled in a lengthy dicta that property transfers under MERS are illegal. While this ruling is not binding in Massachusetts, it may be instructive. According to a Housingwire article from last Friday, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Massachusetts validated some assignments through MERS. Seemingly at odds with this ruling is one from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (U.S. Bank v. Ibanez) that seemed to invalidate many assignments through MERS. I’m not a lawyer or a legal expert, but it seems clear that there is no real consensus on this issue at this time.

Foreclosure Freeze Proposed - (www.housingpredictor.com) An Ohio member of Congress has proposed a resolution that would enact a temporary freeze on foreclosures across the U.S. similar to the Great Depression. The proposal would enact a moratorium on all residential foreclosures. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) offered the resolution before the House Financial Services Committee. The proposal asks President Barack Obama to declare a “national residential mortgage foreclosure emergency,” and also urges state lawmakers to use their “police powers” to enact moratoriums on foreclosures. The resolution sites a variety of issues troubling the housing market stating, “Whereas the United States finds its housing market in a precarious and unstable state, where homeowners' mortgage balances are routinely larger than the current value of their homes and where people are losing their homes at an alarming rate. “The President of the United States should declare a national residential mortgage foreclosure emergency and, through such declaration, encourage the States, by use of their police power, to enact a moratorium on residential mortgage foreclosures similar to the moratorium enacted by the State of Minnesota in 1933 and upheld by the Supreme Court.” Kaptur represents Ohio, which has been devastated by the foreclosure crisis and is one of 18 states designated for the federal government’s Hardest Hit Fund targeted to help mostly unemployed homeowners at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure. Rising unemployment in the region is triggering a massive second wave of foreclosures in many areas of the state, including hard hit Cleveland.

OTHER STORIES:

As Number Of Foreclosed Homes Grows, So Does Mold - (www.npr.org)

Free the Housing Finance Market from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - (www.heritage.org)

Advice on my situation. First time buyer. - (www.patrick.net)

Foreclosure prevention - (www.patrick.net)

San Diego House Sales Drop In June - (www.10news.com)

Bernanke Pledges More Monetary Stimulus, Dollar Tanks, Gold Soars - (www.Mish)

Poverty in America, Part I - (Charles Hugh Smith of www.oftwominds.com)

Job changes by field - (si.wsj.net)

Mortgage applications drop for the fourth week - (www.reuters.com)