Articles Posted in Real Estate

The 2008 bailout of the American financial industry was based on a law enacted by Congress, Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (TARP).   Under rushed and pressured emergency conditions, Congress passed the legislation with very little understanding of why the economy was crashing.  There was a sense that the housing boom had something to do with…

It’s election season.  Every single Florida lawmaker is up for reelection this year because this is a redistricting year.  The Florida House, Florida Senate, and US Congressional district lines were redrawn after the release of the population and demographic data from the 2010 census.   Redistricting happens every ten years after the census is done.  Then…

David Dayen has a fantastic post up on Firedoglake.com debunking all the much celebrated recent good news in the media on housing issues. Headlines proclaim home sales are up, prices are up, bidding wars, realtors going door to door begging people to sell, inventory down, home-builder industry exuding “confidence”. On the ground, we know what’s…

The dearth of meaningful solutions to the housing crisis has local officials considering a complex, controversial loan modification proposal that has piqued the interest of several municipal governments across the nation.  The proposal has a component that taps into local government’s constitutional authority and power to take private property for a public purpose upon paying…

Amy Johnson, now 93 and facing foreclosure, thought the loan she purchased from Lehman Brothers, the now disgraced and defunct investment bank, was a fixed mortgage loan for $140,000.  She and her late husband hadn’t had a mortgage on the home since they’d paid it off sixty years ago.  After her husband died, she was…

Six Easy Steps to a Government of the Banks, For the Banks, By the Banks Maintain a spinning revolving door between big finance and legislators, law enforcers, and regulators to ensure friends are in powerful positions. Fund an army of lobbyists ready to provide rapid-response, detailed, Wall Street-friendly analysis of proposed legislation and regulation (here,here, here,here, etc). Horde of academics-for-hire to…

Our elected state officials (49 State Attorneys General) and appointed banking regulators (FDIC, Fed, OCC, Treasury) have already sold out the American people with a farcical, weak, and insulting settlement with Chase, Wells, Citi, BoA, and Ally/GMAC.  Now those same farcical, weak, and insulting terms seem to be under consideration with more financial institutions. We’ve seen…

On September 27, 2012, there will be a hearing on the motion to form an official borrowers’ committee for any person with a GMAC originated or serviced mortgage, GMAC foreclosure fraud, GMAC modification fraud, GMAC real estate document fraud. September 27, 2012 at 10:00am U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York “Bankruptcy Court” Courtroom 501…

America’s economic crash was caused by financial industry middlemen.  They sold hundreds of mortgage-backed investment scams to pension funds, 401k managers, municipalities, non-profit endowments, and international investors like small towns in Europe.  The investment scams, bonds based on fraudulent ratings and assurances of soundness, seemed to be a safe, secure a way to earn money. …

Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, MERS, is a mortgage database that was created in the mid-1990s by the nations’ top financial institutions and mortgage lenders.  Back then, a few county level elected officials, who were tapped with the responsibility to guard the integrity of their local land records, voiced deep concerns over MERS.  Those few dissenters were ignored or silenced. …