“Any attorney general, lawyer, bank director, judge, regulator or member of Congress who does not open their eyes to the abuse, ask pertinent questions and allow proper investigation and discovery is only assisting in the concealment of what may be the fraud of our lifetime.” -Nye Lavalle Quite possibly, you’ve never head of Nye Lavalle. If you have, it probably …
O Max Gardner III’s Top 12 Predictions for 2012
1. Home Values: Home values will continue to decline during 2012 and I do not expect the bottom of the real estate market to be reached until the 3rd Quarter of 2014. My best guess for any type of sustained recovery in the housing market is no sooner than the 3rd Quarter of 2021. The number of homes in foreclosure will …
Gretchen Morgenson, Josh Rosner Naming Names in Financial Fiasco
In their book Reckless Endangerment, Gretchen Morgenson and Josh Rosner try to do something there’s been far too little of in the analysis of the financial crisis thus far: single out the people who really played key roles in creating the economic mess we find ourselves in today. The authors appeared on the Daily Ticker to discuss the book and …
Industry Insiders Speak Out About Mortgage Modifications
Yesterday, Yves at Naked Capitalism shared this revealing clip from The Dylan Ratigan Show in which a former employee at Litton and and a former consultant to Fannie Mae share their perceptions of the modification “efforts” to date. Unsurprisingly, the former mortgage servicer indicates that many borrowers who should have been eligible for modifications were denied simply because it was more …
Who’s to Blame for the Mortgage Mess? Banks, Not Homeowners
Another excellent article by Abigail Field in DailyFinance. As the foreclosure crisis has escalated over the past several months, one overarching debate has been about who bears the most blame: homeowners or banks? After everything I’ve learned and written about the foreclosure mess, my verdict is: The banks are responsible for 90% of the problem, troubled homeowners 10%. Yes, every …
FDIC Calls for Better Disclosure of Servicer Conflicts of Interest in Second Mortgates
From Naked Capitalism. There are lots of reasons why servicers are failing to make deep enough mortgage mods to salvage viable borrowers (ones who still have a decent level of income). One of the most troubling is that the parent bank often also has a large book of second mortgages, and writing down first mortgages would require them to ding …
Overview of the Government’s Programs to Reduce Principal on Underwater Mortgages
Via ProPublica, Dec. 17, 2010, by Karen Weise The Obama administration has been increasing its support for programs to induce banks and others to trim loan balances for homeowners that owe more than their homes are worth. Here’s an overview of the three programs trying to increase the number of underwater borrowers who can get help. See related story: Fannie …
Fannie and Freddie’s Regulator Opposes Reducing Mortgages for Struggling Homeowners
Via ProPublica, Dec. 17, 2010, by Karen Weise The Obama administration has been pushing for banks and investors to cut mortgage balances for homeowners who owe more than their home is worth. But the regulator for the biggest investors of them all — the government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — won’t let the two do it. The administration and some …
On the Mortgage Mess, Fannie and Freddie Point Blame Elsewhere
Via Marian Wang ProPublica, Dec. 2, 2010 Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee this week, executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—the two government-controlled mortgage giants—blamed other players in the foreclosure mess, noting that that they’re not responsible for the day-to-day management of mortgage loans but instead rely on banks to do so fairly with borrowers. Fannie Mae’s executive vice …
Secrets of Florida’s “Foreclosure King”
From the Huffington Post by David Callahan. New insights into how foreclosure mills operate have emerged in Florida, where the state attorney general is going after David Stern, a lawyer known as the “Foreclosure King.” Stern’s business model was based on volume and his firm was paid $1,400 to produce documents for each foreclosure. That put a premium on churning out …