Sharga Says Unemployment Now Main Cause of Foreclosures
October 28, 2010, Bloomberg via The Washington Post

Rick Sharga, senior vice president for marketing at RealtyTrac Inc., talks with Bloomberg's Lisa Murphy about U.S. home foreclosures and the outlook for the housing market.


Foreclosure Mess Will Take Years to Clean Up
October 28, 2010, MSNBC.com

How long will it take before the American nightmare of home foreclosures is over? Three years after the housing bubble collapsed under the weight of lax mortgage underwriting, some 5.5 million families have lost their homes or are in the process of losing their homes to foreclosure. And the number could go far higher:  Without a change in government policy, some 11 million borrowers are at risk of losing their homes, according to a research report earlier this month by Amherst Securities, which advises investors in mortgage-backed securities. That’s roughly one-fifth of the 55 million mortgages outstanding on the 80 million homes in the U.S.


Insurers Ease on Amnesty
October 29, 2010, Wall Street Journal

Title insurers have decided not to require lenders to provide a blanket shield from claims caused by flawed foreclosures after discussions around crafting an industry-wide agreement fell apart. First American Financial Corp. said Thursday that the Santa Ana, Calif., company had concluded that requiring banks to indemnify the title insurer from foreclosure errors resulting in questions about who owns clear title to a property was unnecessary "given the actions taken by lenders to remediate deficiencies and to improve their processes going forward," said Dennis Gilmore, First American's chief executive.


BofA Hires Former Va. AG, and Justice Official For Foreclosure Defense
October 28, 2010, Washington Post

Former state and federal prosecutors are among the growing phalanx of lawyers being hired by Bank of America as it seeks to defend itself against accusations of wrongdoing in processing foreclosures. Richard Cullen, former attorney general of Virginia, and Brian Boyle, who served as a deputy assistant U.S. attorney general during President George W. Bush's tenure, are among those who have been helping the company deal with a multistate probe launched by all 50 states.


Will Bankers Go to Jail for Foreclosure-gate?
October 19, 2010, TIME Magazine

More and more, Foreclosure-gate is looking like the housing bust's Enron. One of the amazing developments of the unraveling of the financial crisis has been the fact that there have been so few people we can actually point to and say without a doubt that guy or gal is a crook. Yes, Bernie Madoff and his fellow ponziers, but they were only flushed out by the financial crisis. They didn't really cause it.


Secrets of Florida's "Foreclosure King"
October 28, 2010, Huffington Post

A troubling truth about today's white collar crime wave is that wherever there is a complicated fraud, there is usually a lawyer helping make it happen -- or even a whole firm of lawyers.


U.S. Lawyer Forms Foreclosure Resistance Movement
October 27, 2010, Reuters via New York Times

In a stately 19th century mansion in the middle of this former textile mill town, a local political scion has formed a mortgage foreclosure resistance movement. O. Max Gardner III, 65, pioneered techniques in preventing big banks from foreclosing on loans and has taught his methods to 559 other lawyers in the last four years.  "He's Atticus Finch," said April Charney, an attorney with Jacksonville Legal Aid in Florida, referring to the lawyer in the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" who is seen as a model for lawyers protecting the disadvantaged.


Florida Foreclosure Auction Cancellations `Frustrating' to Judge
October 27, 2010, Bloomberg

The Miami judge managing a backlog of 80,000 foreclosures said it’s “frustrating” that lenders including Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. continue to cancel foreclosure auctions.

Foreclosure Activity Up Across Most US Metro Areas
October 27, 2010, Associated Press

The foreclosure crisis intensified across a majority of large U.S. metropolitan areas this summer, with Chicago and Seattle — cities outside of the states that have shouldered the worst of the housing downturn — seeing a sharp increase in foreclosure warnings. California, Nevada, Florida and Arizona remain the nation's foreclosure hotbeds, accounting for 19 of the top 20 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates between July and September, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.


Wells Fargo Admits Mistakes in 55,000 Foreclosures
October 27, 2010, Washington Post

Wells Fargo, which has stood by its foreclosure paperwork for weeks as other major lenders discovered errors and halted sales, conceded Wednesday it had discovered some flaws in its documents as well.


Mortgage Industry Bristles at `Robin Hood' Foreclosure Theories
October 27, 2010, Bloomberg

The mortgage industry is casting aside concern that its foreclosure practices are rife with unfixable errors, even as executives acknowledge inappropriate practices such as robo-signing, officials said at a conference. The “number of attorneys that signed off on” the policies used when Wall Street firms packaged mortgages into bonds means it’s likely that the trusts used to hold the debt will be able to prove they own the loans in almost all cases, said Philip Seares, a managing director at Citigroup Inc. who run its trading of whole loans.


NYC Judge Shows Problem With Bank “Technicalities” Defense
October 27, 2010, Naked Capitalism

A story at the New York Daily News on a foreclosure case dismissed by Judge Arthur Schack illustrates that the problems that banks are having with foreclosures, which they are characterizing as “technical” or “paperwork” run deeper than that. And that is before you get to the issue that we have discussed at length on this blog, namely, the failure to convey promissory notes and related liens as stipulated by the contract governing mortgage securitizations, the pooling and servicing agreement.


Banks `Want to Sit Down' With States to Discuss Foreclosures
October 27, 2010, Bloomberg

A 50-state task force investigating U.S. foreclosure practices may meet with lenders as early as this week, less than a month after JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. suspended some home seizures. “We’ve had several conference calls with major lenders,” Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said in an interview, declining to specify which ones. “The banks want to sit down with the attorneys general. These meetings are being set up,” said Suthers, whose office is a member of the executive committee of the task force.

U.S. Home Prices Drop 0.2% in August
October 26, 2010, Market Watch

Home prices fell 0.2% in August, according to the Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s, in a report labelled “disappointing” by its compilers. This is the first drop in the index after four straight monthly gains as demand spiked by the homebuyer tax credit that expired at the end of April.


Housing Gloom Deepens
October 26, 2010, Wall Street Journal

Home sales picked up in September, but the long-term picture for housing is growing grimmer, say analysts and economists who are pushing back forecasts for a housing recovery. Earlier this year, the housing market appeared poised for a turnaround, three years after it peaked. Federal tax credits for buyers spurred a flurry of activity, and the economy was adding jobs. That led some economists to forecast housing would hit bottom and begin to recover this year.


Foreclosure Mess May Hurt Housing Market, FDIC Says
October 25, 2010, Reuters

The foreclosure mess won't be cleaned up quickly and could hurt the housing market, which is already a weak link in the economic recovery, regulators said on Monday. Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp that guarantees deposits at many of the banks accused of failing to properly vet foreclosure documents, said lawsuits stemming from the problem could clog up the real estate market.

Foreclosures: A Paperwork Fiasco
October 23, 2010, New York Times

After months of horror stories, it seemed that the real estate mess could not get any worse. But now, the nation is in the middle of yet another foreclosure crisis. Revelations that the nation’s biggest banks may have fudged crucial documents in their rush to reclaim tens of thousands of homes have the public in an uproar. Attorneys general from all 50 states announced sweeping investigations into the industry’s foreclosure practices. The nation’s top financial regulators have also ordered reviews. Peter Miller disagrees with the New York  Times.


Mortgage Mess: Shredding the Dream
October 25, 2010, Business Week

The foreclosure crisis isn't just about lost documents. It's about trust—and a clash over who gets stuck with $1.1 trillion in losses. Wall Street's unspoken strategy has been to kick mortgage losses down the road until an economic recovery re-inflates the housing market. The faulty-foreclosure crisis has forced the issue back into the present tense, triggering a fight over who will bear the brunt of those losses. The combatants—all of whom are trying to minimize their share of the damage—include

Major title insurer insists lenders vouch for foreclosure paperwork
The Washington Post — October 20, 2010

The country's largest title insurer said Wednesday that banks and other lenders must vouch for the accuracy of their mortgage documents before the firm will write insurance for a foreclosure sale.

Fannie, Freddie bailout could double, regulator says
The Washington Post — October 21, 2010

The federal bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could double in size during the next three years, according to projections from the companies' federal regulator.

Rep. Waters requests moratorium on foreclosures, while her challenger questions the merits of her plan
The Argonaut — October 21, 2010

Residential and commercial foreclosures have emerged as a campaign issue in the Nov. 2 election, and the incumbent and challenger in the 35th Congressional District race are expressing disparate views on what action the federal government needs to remedy the ongoing challenge for Californians on the brink of losing their homes.

Kucinich plans to introduce bill to force banks to try harder to help homeowners
The Plain Dealer — October 20, 2010

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich will announce Thursday morning he is planning to introduce legislation to force banks to try harder to modify loans for homeowners in trouble.

Foreclosure probe: Problems aren't 'systemic'
CNNMoney — October 21, 2010

WASHINGTON — A federal probe investigating five large mortgage servicers has found some improper foreclosures, but officials have yet to find systemic, "structural" problems with processing, according to the U.S. Housing Secretary.

Largest Bank Will Resume Foreclosure Push in 23 States
The New York Times — October 19, 2010

Bank of America announced on Monday that it would resume home foreclosures in nearly two dozen states, despite the running controversy over how banks handled tens of thousands of cases of homeowners facing eviction.

Foreclosure Crisis Triggers Debate on Role of Mortgage Registry
Bloomberg — October 18, 2010

On July 1, a federal judge took away Robert Bellistri’s house in Arnold, Missouri.

Underwater homeowners hanging on
Inman News — October 19, 2010

Fears that droves of underwater homeowners will walk away from their homes in "strategic defaults" may be overblown, research by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco suggests.

US issues new rules for appraisers
Bloomberg News — October 19, 2010

WASHINGTON — Real estate appraisers must be free from outside pressure or any financial interest in properties they review under regulations unveiled yesterday by the Federal Reserve Board.

Fannie, Freddie, Citigroup suspend foreclosure referrals to Florida law firm
HousingWire — October 15, 2010

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Citigroup have stopped referring foreclosure cases to the Florida Law Firm of David J. Stern over allegations related to the law firm's business practices.