how high's the water, paw? news o'the day
housing crunch7.58 percent of homeowners nationwide fell more than 30 days behind on their mortgage payments in August. It was the fourth straight month of rising delinquencies, and the statistics suggest their pace is beginning to pick up.
housing crunch crunch crackleHomeowners with high [credit] scores when they apply for a loan are 50% more likely to "strategically default" - abruptly and intentionally pull the plug and abandon the mortgage - compared with lower-scoring borrowers... Two-thirds of strategic defaulters have only one mortgage - the one they're walking away from on their primary homes... Strategic defaulters may know that their credit scores will be severely depressed by their mortgage abandonment... But they see it as the most practical solution under the circumstances.
housing creeeeeak, crashA study to be released today by the Brennan Center for Justice found that many people now face complicated foreclosure proceedings with "no opportunity to obtain help from a lawyer." ...Hiring a private lawyer can cost over $5,000, a price out of reach for most homeowners who can't pay their mortgages.
housing friendly fireA 69-year-old man with severe medical problems has apologized for robbing a San Diego bank and says he needed money to pay his mortgage to prevent him and his 73-year-old wife from becoming homeless... He walked out with more than $100,000 but was arrested a few blocks away on the porch of a house, apparently exhausted... "It was 50-50," he told NBC. "Well, if I get caught, I get caught. I'm dying anyway, so what difference does it make?"
straw man exposed![In] a landmark ruling in a recent Kansas Supreme Court case... Landmark National Bank v. Kesler, 2009 Kan. LEXIS 834, the Kansas Supreme Court held that a nominee company called MERS has no right or standing to bring an action for foreclosure. MERS is an acronym for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, a private company that registers mortgages electronically... If MERS has no standing to foreclose, then nobody has standing to foreclose - on 60 million mortgages. That is the number of American mortgages currently reported to be held by MERS. Over half of all new U.S. residential mortgage loans are registered with MERS and recorded in its name.
...The Kansas Supreme Court stated that MERS' relationship "is more akin to that of a straw man than to a party possessing all the rights given a buyer." ...MERS as straw man lacks standing to foreclose, but so does original lender... because title had to pass to the secured parties for the arrangement to legally qualify as a 'security.' The lender has been paid in full and has no further legal interest in the claim. Only the securities holders have skin in the game; but they have no standing to foreclose, because they were not signatories to the original agreement. They cannot satisfy the basic requirement of contract law that a plaintiff suing on a written contract must produce a signed contract proving he is entitled to relief.
if it weren't for distress i wouldn't have any dress at allThe National Association of Realtors has said that in August, 2009, about one-third of all home sales were distress sales, that is, foreclosures or short sales.
the pauper chaseAs lenders slash credit card lines and close accounts, they're raising the percentage of available credit that consumers are using - a key factor in FICO credit scores - and making many people look riskier to lenders... Those who pay their bills on time and don't go over their limits are experiencing the bulk of lenders' reductions.
...A growing number of cash-strapped consumers are working with lenders to modify their mortgages so they can stay in their homes... Borrowers who have done a loan modification may not know that their score has been hurt until they're rejected for a loan.
all depends on point of viewCredit card issuers now must give consumers 45 days notice before changing interest rates or fees... Even though issuers now must give 45 days notice of "any significant change," account closures and credit line reductions don't count as major changes.
frank talk meets chamber potshotHouse Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is preparing a new draft of legislation that would set up a Consumer Financial Protection Agency... The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is leading a coalition of 25 lobbying associations against the agency plans... [and] said on Tuesday that the coalition would spend at least $2 million to defeat the CFPA proposal.
please baby please baby baby baby pleaseTreasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on Wednesday once again pressed Congress to pass a sweeping overhaul of the nation's financial regulatory system.
how it's doneThe European Union today unveiled draft legislation to toughen up the policing of financial institutions and avoid another banking meltdown. The EU plans to create a super-watchdog, with some regulatory powers over countries such as Britain, and a supervisor that would warn of early signs of trouble... The body will have the power to issue recommendations to member states which will have to comply or explain why they have not done so. The body will be formed by the heads of the European Central Bank, national central banks and European supervisory authorities.
it's so meta!The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp...is considering borrowing billions from healthy banks... Bank failures since the financial crisis struck have drained the fund to its lowest level since 1992, at the peak of the savings-and-loan crisis.
let's reviewThe savings and loans (S&L) crisis
amounted to what was the first collapse of American financial institutions since the Great Depression.
It involved the failure of more than 1,000 such associations with total assets in excess of $500 billion.
The cost of clearing up the aftermath eventually spiraled to about $160 billion, nearly $125 billion of which was funded directly by taxpayers.
...The crisis rumbled on for years... including the 1988 collapse of Silverado Savings, where Neil Bush, [George W. Bush]'s brother, was a director. The crisis led to the failure in 1986 of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation.alsoThe S&L crisis has been written
out of the Reagan hagiography, but the fact is that deregulation in effect gave the industry - whose deposits were federally insured - a licence to gamble with taxpayers' money, at best, or simply to loot it, at worst.
...But there was also a longer-term effect. Reagan-era legislative changes essentially ended New Deal restrictions on mortgage lending.
...These restrictions were put in place in the 1930s by political leaders who had just experienced a terrible financial crisis, and were trying to prevent another. But by 1980 the memory of the Depression had faded. Government, declared Reagan, is the problem, not the solution; the magic of the marketplace must be set free.
And so the precautionary rules were scrapped.back to the futureThe Federal Reserve Board has rejected a request by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for a public review of the central bank's structure and governance... The Obama administration proposed on June 17 a financial-regulatory overhaul including a "comprehensive review" of the Fed... The Fed was to lead the study and enlist the Treasury and "a wide range of external experts."
housing fart in a hurricaneSo far, the Hope for Homeowners program, launched during the Bush administration, adjusted a total of
50 homeowner loans - with a grand total of
one making it through Federal Housing Authority insurance. Two programs set up during the Obama administration have reworked 420,000 loans. [emphasis added]
supporting the troops dept.In a growing trend, banks are refusing to honor VA-backed loan agreements... Banks and VA representatives blame the high standards that houses must meet to qualify for VA-backed loans: home repairs must be completed before escrow closes, the escrow period is longer and if escrow does not close the buyer's fees are repaid. Other loans have no such requirements and make it easier to sell damaged and structurally insecure homes.
brother can you spare a quarterThe House has agreed to give the jobless in a majority of states another 13 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits... Jobless benefits have already been extended to record lengths through federal intervention... About 5 million of those unemployed, about one-third of the total, have been out of work for six months, another figure that far outpaces recent recessions. There are about six people looking for every job available.
how high's the water?An estimated 400,000 people are expected to lose their checks by the end of this month [September] and 1.4 million will by the end of the year, according to the National Employment Law Project.
now comes the denoumentCongressional leaders had hoped to extend [unemployment] benefits before the end of September, when some 400,000 recipients were expected to use them up. But while the House of Representatives last month passed a bill, jobless benefits legislation stalled in the Senate due to a dispute over how many workers should be eligible.
great crashThousands of jobless Oregonians hit a wall Sunday when they tried to file their weekly unemployment claims after the Oregon Employment Department's telephone lines clogged and computers crashed... The demand that helped crash the department's phone and computer systems reflects the state's soaring 12.2 percent unemployment rate.
never any reagan cheese when you want itThe line on the graph keeps running upward, and over the past year it takes off like 747 gaining altitude. It's the annual number of emergency food boxes given out by the Oregon Food Bank... 27 percent of Oregon households with children reported reducing the size of their children's meals... And that was before things got worse.
just take this self-quizThursday is National Depression Screening Day
People who wish to be screened for depression can do so Thursday, Oct. 8, at one of 1,000 sites nationwide or by completing an online questionnaire. The annual screening day is sponsored by major mental health organizations, including the National Institute of Mental Health... The screening is not meant to diagnose depression but to steer people to qualified professionals.
...or not.Listing of National Depression Screening Day sites
Click on the state where you would like to find a site and then click on a city or town in your area... Call these sites directly for directions and hours for the free screenings.
< clicked on the state of Oregon >...No Screening Sites were found. Click return to map and search again.
