42 Responses to “Man without Mortgage Loses Home in Foreclosure”
Barry Ritholtz Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 7:24 am
Un-Fucking-Believable . . .
Dennis Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 7:36 am
That is insane!
stonedwino Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 8:22 am
Really? Wow….B of A….what a clusterfuck…
Robespierre Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 8:38 am
And the music will not stop until someone goes to jail or is criminally charged in a very public way. Obama softness with the bankers has only embolden them. As they say “beatings will continue until moral improves”. Oh yes the foreclosed parties should just “suck it up and cope” after all these bankers are just doing God’s work
dead hobo Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 8:59 am
This is too high of a level view to be so negative. Yes, there was a screw up but nobody was tossed out and BoA says they will fix it. Except for a little paperwork, it doesn’t sound like anything else was messed up. Realistically, where are the damages assuming BoA puts everything back as it was and also assuming this high level view is the whole story? Not every screw up should be a profit opportunity if you know a lawyer.
The bigger question is, “How did this happen?” Being my normal pessimistic self, I don’t think anyone will get into trouble for it because such things don’t happen anymore. Nor will anyone look into it.
phb Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:08 am
How, pray-tell, is the judge in this case not partially responsible? BOA is not solely responsible for this level of incompetence, I mean they were just trying to protect their interest (albeit in error). All involved other than the victim, need to pay for this fiasco. IMHO of course.
dead hobo Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:39 am
BR, calm down. Yes, these poor people got screwed over but they will be made whole and nobody will get into trouble for it.
Here’s something to cheer about. The labor news was quite dismal.
Assuming the past can be used to predict the future, the S&P should go for the moon today and hit a new high. For the past year, and especially over the past few weeks, virtually all bad economic news is accompanied by a strong rise in the markets.
Maybe this is some of the change you can believe in. Before this, bad news was usually accompanied by market declines until good news appeared. Today, all news makes the markets rise.
Now that’s fucking unbelievable.
whatever Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:44 am
But..but, dont we want protection for our corporations? Otherwise, they wont invest and wont create jobs.
We should protect our corporations against any lawsuits. At the minimum, any ruling against them will be capped at $50.
Thats how we create jobs in America.
tspck Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:53 am
. . . so a couple of flunkies at ACORN cooperate in a prostitution scheme and there is literally an act of congress to disembowel the organization . . . but here when the action was conducted in a court of law, with hot and cold running lawyers, it’s “mistake may happen” and “don’t overreact”. How come?
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:54 am
@dead hobo — I think you’re missing the point here. MERS and a general laxity of documentation and procedure throughout the real estate industry has destroyed the chain of ownership, to the point that even people who own their homes outright may have have to defend their claims of ownership, and without the benefit of a strong chain of ownership documentation to support them. This is not merely an extreme oddity, but is a proof-by-example of this situation.
The banks are not properly motivated, and tend to treat this as “oops, our bad”. It really doesn’t matter whether or not they were physically evicted — the point of the matter is that they were LEGALLY evicted, until legal intervention was required to restore what was rightly theirs. And this can happen to anyone.
And even if the victims had been evicted and had to invest huge sums of time and money to correct the situation, nobody would get into trouble. Lehman, AIG, and a host of other ugly messes is proof enough of that.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:56 am
Dead Hobo:
Don’t you understand what’s going on re: the markets?
Arequipa01 Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:08 am
“Bank of America has acknowledged the error and will correct it at its own expense, said spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens.”
It is not ‘an error’. It is part and parcel of an ongoing criminal conspiracy. The significant problem here is the likelihood that the Banks will defang the Judiciary or as they say en el Perú, aquí no pasa na aaa…
There is a lot out there on this issue. A good place to start is the Landmark case.
@dead hobo — I think you’re missing the point here. MERS and a general laxity of documentation and procedure throughout the real estate industry has destroyed the chain of ownership, to the point that even people who own their homes outright may have have to defend their claims of ownership, and without the benefit of a strong chain of ownership documentation to support them.
reply:
———-
We just use the county recorder here to record ownership and security interests. Plus title insurance. Most jurisdictions do things in a similar way, I assume. If a bank stole my paid for house, I would first try to turn in into a winning lottery ticket, but would probably be disappointed and maybe get a free toaster as a premium after they fixed the problem.
Agreed the foreclosure system is a mess, but the mess is cohesive and likely to remain a mess no matter who complains about it. I’m just adjusting to reality and more evidence of a small but real and continual general decline in civilization.
Additionally, I remember speaking to a lawyer a few years ago about foreclosures. He told me that most mortgages and notes are linked together in such a way that they are legally inseparable. The mortgage becomes unenforced if the note is sold. GMAC (I think) is finding that out now, but everyone else seems to otherwise ignore this to accommodate wall street. The entire system is corrupt and the world has accepted it as change you can believe in because the corruption is inching in and being made to appear benign and in the interest of the majority. The questionable stock market is another example of corruption you can believe in.
Arequipa01 Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:13 am
“the point of the matter is that they were LEGALLY evicted, until legal intervention was required to restore what was rightly theirs. And this can happen to anyone.” Very good point.
This is an important element revealing that ownership in this country is becoming increasingly contingent. The CORPORATION is exercising executive control over instruments of the STATE. If you do not understand what that means and what its implications are, then please take some time to cogitate. And when you’re done, trying some metacogitating, and if that don’t help, well, son, there’s always marketing.
gc Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:20 am
and what part of your fortune comes from suing, likely on behalf of people who cannot afford to fight and who experience great distress to be in a lawsuit, to recover damages that are not allowed, and if awarded by a jury in a sympathetic trial court, won’t survive on appeal? You can build a fantasy around a cherry-picked single instance, but these types of errors are all over the place, and the courts are no more likely to bring everything to a halt than Bush/FED/Obama/congress were. Warren is “non-confirmable” because people fear that she just might be willing to bring everything to a halt. In this world, mark to market was changed when it stopped support bonuses and compensation. It is not the world where we allow a court to bring the Bank of America to its knees over one foreclosure.
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:22 am
@dead hobo — I agree completely — I’m just not fresh out of outrage yet.
MinnItMan Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:24 am
The acknowledgment that affidavits of default and the “attorney affidavits” used to establish the record for default judgments and judgments on the pleadings* (will explain if requested).
From WaPo:
“41-year-old Jeffrey Stephan was required to review cases to make sure the proceedings were legally justified and the information was accurate. He was also required to sign the documents in the presence of a notary.
In a sworn deposition, he testified that he did neither.”
This is very bad news for the lenders, the foreclosing attorneys, court administration and anyone who bought a post-forclosure REO property. A lot of the short-cutting used by the lender-foreclosure complex, IMO opinion, was fixable, but false sworn statements can’s be taken back, and thus will haunt the system for years. It’s early in this story, but all lawyers know this is the equivalent of the ball-bearing plants being bombed.
Now, I don’t think these two stories are related. Foreclosing after the lender has been paid is a one-hand-doesn’t-know-what-the-other-hand-is doing problem. I agree that the court should have been asking questions about the two contradicting motions and I’m at a loss as to how they could be reconciled by the lender’s attorney. Nonetheless, the buyer here clearly has recourse. This story, screwed up as it is, is still an aberation, although it should be cautionary to anyone buying at a short sale that you better be getting insurance and guarantees against this.
In the WaPa story, it’s a lot harder to see where this is going to go. For one thing, “document cases,” the core practice of foreclosure and collections attorneys where there is no answer or defense offered, and thus are usually defaulted, may become much less “routine” as courts may are now justified in asking for actual testimony, as opposed to relying on uncontradicted affidavits. These bad affidavits are the evidentiary basis for the judgment and calling these into question systematically, especially for docketed judgments, is going to make a lot of folks very sad.
Go short on the processing companies or any publicly traded component of this system.
rktbrkr Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:27 am
BOA is correcting the error “at their own expense”, now thats really sweet of them, I wonder who else should be expected to pay.
Florida started speeding up the FC process for the benefit of the banks (surprise) a few months ago, it seems like the banks are getting their way and the courts are rubber stamping their foreclosures. You’d think any bias by the courts would be with the homeys but I guess money talks louder.
You have to wonder how many other fukkups are occurring in the sand states.
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:36 am
Hernando de Soto has authored an excellent book that attempts to answer the question of why so many other attempts to copy the US miracle of capitalism that works (he wrote it a few years back) have failed, and he comes down to the property title system that we inherited from the Brits, which permits exchange of property as a commodity. He provides extensive documentation in his book of how other nations have failed in this.
Without such a system, the wealthy can pervert the system and legally steal property from the little people. This is where we are heading, in our journey to reshape the US into the world’s largest banana republic.
Property rights are the bedrock upon which democracies reside. When property “rights” become fluid things, that bedrock is swept away.
Here’s a short article on de Soto’s thesis: Cities of the Poor III: Law and Ownership
Mark E Hoffer Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:03 am
constantnormal Says: September 23rd, 2010 at 9:54 am
@dead hobo — I think you’re missing the point here. MERS and a general laxity of documentation and procedure throughout the real estate industry has destroyed the chain of ownership, to the point that even people who own their homes outright may have have to defend their claims of ownership, and without the benefit of a strong chain of ownership documentation to support them. This is not merely an extreme oddity, but is a proof-by-example of this situation.
The banks are not properly motivated, and tend to treat this as “oops, our bad”. It really doesn’t matter whether or not they were physically evicted — the point of the matter is that they were LEGALLY evicted, until legal intervention was required to restore what was rightly theirs. And this can happen to anyone.
And even if the victims had been evicted and had to invest huge sums of time and money to correct the situation, nobody would get into trouble. Lehman, AIG, and a host of other ugly messes is proof enough of that.
Diana Olick was right - the home price double dip is not only here, it is getting worse. RealtyTrac reported overnight that general foreclosure activity (i.e., default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) — were reported on 338,836 properties in August, a 4 percent increase from the previous month. One in every 381 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month. The spin is that this was a modest decline (5%) from August 2009, but represents another inflection point in a trend which up to now had been declining. “The trend lines of decreasing default notices and increasing bank repossessions converged in August, with virtually the same number of new default notices and bank repossessions for the month — a clear indication that the clogged foreclosure pipeline is being carefully managed on both ends by lenders and servicers,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “On the front end, seriously delinquent loans are rolling into foreclosure at an unusually slow rate, while on the back end the dammed-up inventory of properties already in foreclosure is moving to REO in steady stream rather than a flood — presumably to prevent further erosion of home prices.” Of course, banks are doing all in their power to prevent the realization by the consumer class of just how much lower home prices have still to go. Most notably, the bulk of the foreclosure action in August occurred in bank repossessions, which came at 95,364 U.S. properties in August, the highest monthly total in the history of the report and about 2 percent higher than the previous peak of 93,777 bank repossessions (REOs) in May 2010. August REO activity increased 3 percent from the previous month and was up 25 percent from August 2009 — the ninth straight month where REOs have increased on a year-over-year basis. In other news, we expect Jim Cramer to come out with another call, like his wrong summer 2009 pronouncement that the bottom of housing is here.
More from RealtyTrac:
Nevada, Florida, Arizona post top state foreclosure rates in August
Nevada continued to document the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate for the 44th straight month, with one in every 84 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August — 4.5 times the national average. Nevada maintained the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate despite a 25 percent year-over-year decrease in foreclosure activity in August — the 11th straight month where Nevada foreclosure activity has decreased on a year-over-year basis.
Florida foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis for the fifth straight month in August, but the state’s foreclosure rate still ranked second highest among all states. One in every 155 Florida housing units received a foreclosure filing in August — 2.5 times the national average.
One in every 165 Arizona housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate, and one in every 194 California housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation’s fourth highest state foreclosure rate.
One in every 220 Idaho housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation’s fifth highest state foreclosure rate. A total of 2,915 Idaho properties received a foreclosure filing in August, an increase of nearly 9 percent from the previous month and an increase of 11 percent from August 2009. Idaho was the only state with a top 5 foreclosure rate to document a year-over-year increase in foreclosure activity.
Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 in August were Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois and Hawaii.
Five states account for more than 50 percent of national total
California alone accounted for 20 percent of the national total in August, with 69,143 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the month — a 3 percent increase from the previous month but a 25 percent decrease from August 2009.
Florida accounted for nearly 17 percent of the national total, with 56,877 properties receiving a foreclosure filing — a 10 percent increase from the previous month but a 9 percent decrease from August 2009. Florida default notices were down 46 percent from August 2009 but increased 2 percent from the previous month, ending five straight months of month-over-month decreases in Florida default notices.
Michigan, Illinois and Arizona each accounted for about 5 percent of the national total in August, with 17,764 Michigan properties receiving foreclosure filings, 16,808 Illinois properties receiving foreclosure filings, and 16,510 Arizona properties receiving foreclosure filings.
Other states with foreclosure activity totals among the nation’s 10 highest in August were Georgia (16,366), Texas (14,290), Ohio (13,479), Nevada (13,385), and Washington (6,760).
Metro foreclosure hot spots continue downward trend
All 10 metro areas with the nation’s highest foreclosure rates in August posted year-over-year decreases in foreclosure activity for the second month in a row.
The Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., metro area documented the highest foreclosure rate among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more, with one in every 73 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, despite a 25 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from August 2009.
Foreclosure activity in Modesto, Calif., decreased 10 percent from August 2009, but the city still documented the nation’s second highest metro foreclosure rate, with one in every 95 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August. Six other California metro areas had foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10: Stockton at No. 3 (one in every 100 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing); Merced at No. 6 (one in 111); Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 7 (one in 113); Bakersfield at No. 8 (one in 120); Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 9 (one in 124); and Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville at No. 10 (one in 125).
Two Florida metro areas registered foreclosure rates among the top 10: Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., at No. 3, with one in every 104 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing; and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 5, with one in every 111 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.
Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Rand Paul, the Republican nominee, have agreed to a live debate on "Fox News Sunday" on Oct. 3.
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Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Rand Paul, the Republican nominee, have agreed to a live debate on "Fox News Sunday" on Oct. 3.
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
Aaron Brown said in an interview that he is unhappy with the current state of cable news. Brown, who was a prominent anchor on CNN from 2001-2005 and now teaches journalism at Arizona State University, spoke to the online website ...
42 Responses to “Man without Mortgage Loses Home in Foreclosure”
Barry Ritholtz Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 7:24 am
Un-Fucking-Believable . . .
Dennis Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 7:36 am
That is insane!
stonedwino Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 8:22 am
Really? Wow….B of A….what a clusterfuck…
Robespierre Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 8:38 am
And the music will not stop until someone goes to jail or is criminally charged in a very public way. Obama softness with the bankers has only embolden them. As they say “beatings will continue until moral improves”. Oh yes the foreclosed parties should just “suck it up and cope” after all these bankers are just doing God’s work
dead hobo Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 8:59 am
This is too high of a level view to be so negative. Yes, there was a screw up but nobody was tossed out and BoA says they will fix it. Except for a little paperwork, it doesn’t sound like anything else was messed up. Realistically, where are the damages assuming BoA puts everything back as it was and also assuming this high level view is the whole story? Not every screw up should be a profit opportunity if you know a lawyer.
The bigger question is, “How did this happen?” Being my normal pessimistic self, I don’t think anyone will get into trouble for it because such things don’t happen anymore. Nor will anyone look into it.
phb Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:08 am
How, pray-tell, is the judge in this case not partially responsible? BOA is not solely responsible for this level of incompetence, I mean they were just trying to protect their interest (albeit in error). All involved other than the victim, need to pay for this fiasco. IMHO of course.
dead hobo Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:39 am
BR, calm down. Yes, these poor people got screwed over but they will be made whole and nobody will get into trouble for it.
Here’s something to cheer about. The labor news was quite dismal.
Assuming the past can be used to predict the future, the S&P should go for the moon today and hit a new high. For the past year, and especially over the past few weeks, virtually all bad economic news is accompanied by a strong rise in the markets.
Maybe this is some of the change you can believe in. Before this, bad news was usually accompanied by market declines until good news appeared. Today, all news makes the markets rise.
Now that’s fucking unbelievable.
whatever Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:44 am
But..but, dont we want protection for our corporations? Otherwise, they wont invest and wont create jobs.
We should protect our corporations against any lawsuits. At the minimum, any ruling against them will be capped at $50.
Thats how we create jobs in America.
tspck Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:53 am
. . . so a couple of flunkies at ACORN cooperate in a prostitution scheme and there is literally an act of congress to disembowel the organization . . . but here when the action was conducted in a court of law, with hot and cold running lawyers, it’s “mistake may happen” and “don’t overreact”. How come?
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:54 am
@dead hobo — I think you’re missing the point here. MERS and a general laxity of documentation and procedure throughout the real estate industry has destroyed the chain of ownership, to the point that even people who own their homes outright may have have to defend their claims of ownership, and without the benefit of a strong chain of ownership documentation to support them. This is not merely an extreme oddity, but is a proof-by-example of this situation.
The banks are not properly motivated, and tend to treat this as “oops, our bad”. It really doesn’t matter whether or not they were physically evicted — the point of the matter is that they were LEGALLY evicted, until legal intervention was required to restore what was rightly theirs. And this can happen to anyone.
And even if the victims had been evicted and had to invest huge sums of time and money to correct the situation, nobody would get into trouble. Lehman, AIG, and a host of other ugly messes is proof enough of that.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:56 am
Dead Hobo:
Don’t you understand what’s going on re: the markets?
Arequipa01 Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:08 am
“Bank of America has acknowledged the error and will correct it at its own expense, said spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens.”
It is not ‘an error’. It is part and parcel of an ongoing criminal conspiracy. The significant problem here is the likelihood that the Banks will defang the Judiciary or as they say en el Perú, aquí no pasa na aaa…
There is a lot out there on this issue. A good place to start is the Landmark case.
@dead hobo — I think you’re missing the point here. MERS and a general laxity of documentation and procedure throughout the real estate industry has destroyed the chain of ownership, to the point that even people who own their homes outright may have have to defend their claims of ownership, and without the benefit of a strong chain of ownership documentation to support them.
reply:
———-
We just use the county recorder here to record ownership and security interests. Plus title insurance. Most jurisdictions do things in a similar way, I assume. If a bank stole my paid for house, I would first try to turn in into a winning lottery ticket, but would probably be disappointed and maybe get a free toaster as a premium after they fixed the problem.
Agreed the foreclosure system is a mess, but the mess is cohesive and likely to remain a mess no matter who complains about it. I’m just adjusting to reality and more evidence of a small but real and continual general decline in civilization.
Additionally, I remember speaking to a lawyer a few years ago about foreclosures. He told me that most mortgages and notes are linked together in such a way that they are legally inseparable. The mortgage becomes unenforced if the note is sold. GMAC (I think) is finding that out now, but everyone else seems to otherwise ignore this to accommodate wall street. The entire system is corrupt and the world has accepted it as change you can believe in because the corruption is inching in and being made to appear benign and in the interest of the majority. The questionable stock market is another example of corruption you can believe in.
Arequipa01 Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:13 am
“the point of the matter is that they were LEGALLY evicted, until legal intervention was required to restore what was rightly theirs. And this can happen to anyone.” Very good point.
This is an important element revealing that ownership in this country is becoming increasingly contingent. The CORPORATION is exercising executive control over instruments of the STATE. If you do not understand what that means and what its implications are, then please take some time to cogitate. And when you’re done, trying some metacogitating, and if that don’t help, well, son, there’s always marketing.
gc Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:20 am
and what part of your fortune comes from suing, likely on behalf of people who cannot afford to fight and who experience great distress to be in a lawsuit, to recover damages that are not allowed, and if awarded by a jury in a sympathetic trial court, won’t survive on appeal? You can build a fantasy around a cherry-picked single instance, but these types of errors are all over the place, and the courts are no more likely to bring everything to a halt than Bush/FED/Obama/congress were. Warren is “non-confirmable” because people fear that she just might be willing to bring everything to a halt. In this world, mark to market was changed when it stopped support bonuses and compensation. It is not the world where we allow a court to bring the Bank of America to its knees over one foreclosure.
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:22 am
@dead hobo — I agree completely — I’m just not fresh out of outrage yet.
MinnItMan Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:24 am
The acknowledgment that affidavits of default and the “attorney affidavits” used to establish the record for default judgments and judgments on the pleadings* (will explain if requested).
From WaPo:
“41-year-old Jeffrey Stephan was required to review cases to make sure the proceedings were legally justified and the information was accurate. He was also required to sign the documents in the presence of a notary.
In a sworn deposition, he testified that he did neither.”
This is very bad news for the lenders, the foreclosing attorneys, court administration and anyone who bought a post-forclosure REO property. A lot of the short-cutting used by the lender-foreclosure complex, IMO opinion, was fixable, but false sworn statements can’s be taken back, and thus will haunt the system for years. It’s early in this story, but all lawyers know this is the equivalent of the ball-bearing plants being bombed.
Now, I don’t think these two stories are related. Foreclosing after the lender has been paid is a one-hand-doesn’t-know-what-the-other-hand-is doing problem. I agree that the court should have been asking questions about the two contradicting motions and I’m at a loss as to how they could be reconciled by the lender’s attorney. Nonetheless, the buyer here clearly has recourse. This story, screwed up as it is, is still an aberation, although it should be cautionary to anyone buying at a short sale that you better be getting insurance and guarantees against this.
In the WaPa story, it’s a lot harder to see where this is going to go. For one thing, “document cases,” the core practice of foreclosure and collections attorneys where there is no answer or defense offered, and thus are usually defaulted, may become much less “routine” as courts may are now justified in asking for actual testimony, as opposed to relying on uncontradicted affidavits. These bad affidavits are the evidentiary basis for the judgment and calling these into question systematically, especially for docketed judgments, is going to make a lot of folks very sad.
Go short on the processing companies or any publicly traded component of this system.
rktbrkr Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:27 am
BOA is correcting the error “at their own expense”, now thats really sweet of them, I wonder who else should be expected to pay.
Florida started speeding up the FC process for the benefit of the banks (surprise) a few months ago, it seems like the banks are getting their way and the courts are rubber stamping their foreclosures. You’d think any bias by the courts would be with the homeys but I guess money talks louder.
You have to wonder how many other fukkups are occurring in the sand states.
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:36 am
Hernando de Soto has authored an excellent book that attempts to answer the question of why so many other attempts to copy the US miracle of capitalism that works (he wrote it a few years back) have failed, and he comes down to the property title system that we inherited from the Brits, which permits exchange of property as a commodity. He provides extensive documentation in his book of how other nations have failed in this.
Without such a system, the wealthy can pervert the system and legally steal property from the little people. This is where we are heading, in our journey to reshape the US into the world’s largest banana republic.
Property rights are the bedrock upon which democracies reside. When property “rights” become fluid things, that bedrock is swept away.
Here’s a short article on de Soto’s thesis: Cities of the Poor III: Law and Ownership
Mark E Hoffer Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:03 am
constantnormal Says: September 23rd, 2010 at 9:54 am
@dead hobo — I think you’re missing the point here. MERS and a general laxity of documentation and procedure throughout the real estate industry has destroyed the chain of ownership, to the point that even people who own their homes outright may have have to defend their claims of ownership, and without the benefit of a strong chain of ownership documentation to support them. This is not merely an extreme oddity, but is a proof-by-example of this situation.
The banks are not properly motivated, and tend to treat this as “oops, our bad”. It really doesn’t matter whether or not they were physically evicted — the point of the matter is that they were LEGALLY evicted, until legal intervention was required to restore what was rightly theirs. And this can happen to anyone.
And even if the victims had been evicted and had to invest huge sums of time and money to correct the situation, nobody would get into trouble. Lehman, AIG, and a host of other ugly messes is proof enough of that.
Diana Olick was right - the home price double dip is not only here, it is getting worse. RealtyTrac reported overnight that general foreclosure activity (i.e., default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) — were reported on 338,836 properties in August, a 4 percent increase from the previous month. One in every 381 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month. The spin is that this was a modest decline (5%) from August 2009, but represents another inflection point in a trend which up to now had been declining. “The trend lines of decreasing default notices and increasing bank repossessions converged in August, with virtually the same number of new default notices and bank repossessions for the month — a clear indication that the clogged foreclosure pipeline is being carefully managed on both ends by lenders and servicers,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “On the front end, seriously delinquent loans are rolling into foreclosure at an unusually slow rate, while on the back end the dammed-up inventory of properties already in foreclosure is moving to REO in steady stream rather than a flood — presumably to prevent further erosion of home prices.” Of course, banks are doing all in their power to prevent the realization by the consumer class of just how much lower home prices have still to go. Most notably, the bulk of the foreclosure action in August occurred in bank repossessions, which came at 95,364 U.S. properties in August, the highest monthly total in the history of the report and about 2 percent higher than the previous peak of 93,777 bank repossessions (REOs) in May 2010. August REO activity increased 3 percent from the previous month and was up 25 percent from August 2009 — the ninth straight month where REOs have increased on a year-over-year basis. In other news, we expect Jim Cramer to come out with another call, like his wrong summer 2009 pronouncement that the bottom of housing is here.
More from RealtyTrac:
Nevada, Florida, Arizona post top state foreclosure rates in August
Nevada continued to document the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate for the 44th straight month, with one in every 84 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August — 4.5 times the national average. Nevada maintained the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate despite a 25 percent year-over-year decrease in foreclosure activity in August — the 11th straight month where Nevada foreclosure activity has decreased on a year-over-year basis.
Florida foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis for the fifth straight month in August, but the state’s foreclosure rate still ranked second highest among all states. One in every 155 Florida housing units received a foreclosure filing in August — 2.5 times the national average.
One in every 165 Arizona housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate, and one in every 194 California housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation’s fourth highest state foreclosure rate.
One in every 220 Idaho housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation’s fifth highest state foreclosure rate. A total of 2,915 Idaho properties received a foreclosure filing in August, an increase of nearly 9 percent from the previous month and an increase of 11 percent from August 2009. Idaho was the only state with a top 5 foreclosure rate to document a year-over-year increase in foreclosure activity.
Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 in August were Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois and Hawaii.
Five states account for more than 50 percent of national total
California alone accounted for 20 percent of the national total in August, with 69,143 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the month — a 3 percent increase from the previous month but a 25 percent decrease from August 2009.
Florida accounted for nearly 17 percent of the national total, with 56,877 properties receiving a foreclosure filing — a 10 percent increase from the previous month but a 9 percent decrease from August 2009. Florida default notices were down 46 percent from August 2009 but increased 2 percent from the previous month, ending five straight months of month-over-month decreases in Florida default notices.
Michigan, Illinois and Arizona each accounted for about 5 percent of the national total in August, with 17,764 Michigan properties receiving foreclosure filings, 16,808 Illinois properties receiving foreclosure filings, and 16,510 Arizona properties receiving foreclosure filings.
Other states with foreclosure activity totals among the nation’s 10 highest in August were Georgia (16,366), Texas (14,290), Ohio (13,479), Nevada (13,385), and Washington (6,760).
Metro foreclosure hot spots continue downward trend
All 10 metro areas with the nation’s highest foreclosure rates in August posted year-over-year decreases in foreclosure activity for the second month in a row.
The Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., metro area documented the highest foreclosure rate among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more, with one in every 73 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, despite a 25 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from August 2009.
Foreclosure activity in Modesto, Calif., decreased 10 percent from August 2009, but the city still documented the nation’s second highest metro foreclosure rate, with one in every 95 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August. Six other California metro areas had foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10: Stockton at No. 3 (one in every 100 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing); Merced at No. 6 (one in 111); Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 7 (one in 113); Bakersfield at No. 8 (one in 120); Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 9 (one in 124); and Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville at No. 10 (one in 125).
Two Florida metro areas registered foreclosure rates among the top 10: Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., at No. 3, with one in every 104 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing; and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 5, with one in every 111 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.
Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Rand Paul, the Republican nominee, have agreed to a live debate on "Fox News Sunday" on Oct. 3.
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
Aaron Brown said in an interview that he is unhappy with the current state of cable news. Brown, who was a prominent anchor on CNN from 2001-2005 and now teaches journalism at Arizona State University, spoke to the online website ...
Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Rand Paul, the Republican nominee, have agreed to a live debate on "Fox News Sunday" on Oct. 3.
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
Aaron Brown said in an interview that he is unhappy with the current state of cable news. Brown, who was a prominent anchor on CNN from 2001-2005 and now teaches journalism at Arizona State University, spoke to the online website ...
Barry Ritholtz Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 7:24 am
Un-Fucking-Believable . . .
Dennis Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 7:36 am
That is insane!
stonedwino Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 8:22 am
Really? Wow….B of A….what a clusterfuck…
Robespierre Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 8:38 am
And the music will not stop until someone goes to jail or is criminally charged in a very public way. Obama softness with the bankers has only embolden them. As they say “beatings will continue until moral improves”. Oh yes the foreclosed parties should just “suck it up and cope” after all these bankers are just doing God’s work
dead hobo Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 8:59 am
This is too high of a level view to be so negative. Yes, there was a screw up but nobody was tossed out and BoA says they will fix it. Except for a little paperwork, it doesn’t sound like anything else was messed up. Realistically, where are the damages assuming BoA puts everything back as it was and also assuming this high level view is the whole story? Not every screw up should be a profit opportunity if you know a lawyer.
The bigger question is, “How did this happen?” Being my normal pessimistic self, I don’t think anyone will get into trouble for it because such things don’t happen anymore. Nor will anyone look into it.
phb Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:08 am
How, pray-tell, is the judge in this case not partially responsible? BOA is not solely responsible for this level of incompetence, I mean they were just trying to protect their interest (albeit in error). All involved other than the victim, need to pay for this fiasco. IMHO of course.
dead hobo Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:39 am
BR, calm down. Yes, these poor people got screwed over but they will be made whole and nobody will get into trouble for it.
Here’s something to cheer about. The labor news was quite dismal.
Assuming the past can be used to predict the future, the S&P should go for the moon today and hit a new high. For the past year, and especially over the past few weeks, virtually all bad economic news is accompanied by a strong rise in the markets.
Maybe this is some of the change you can believe in. Before this, bad news was usually accompanied by market declines until good news appeared. Today, all news makes the markets rise.
Now that’s fucking unbelievable.
whatever Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:44 am
But..but, dont we want protection for our corporations? Otherwise, they wont invest and wont create jobs.
We should protect our corporations against any lawsuits. At the minimum, any ruling against them will be capped at $50.
Thats how we create jobs in America.
tspck Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:53 am
. . . so a couple of flunkies at ACORN cooperate in a prostitution scheme and there is literally an act of congress to disembowel the organization . . . but here when the action was conducted in a court of law, with hot and cold running lawyers, it’s “mistake may happen” and “don’t overreact”. How come?
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:54 am
@dead hobo — I think you’re missing the point here. MERS and a general laxity of documentation and procedure throughout the real estate industry has destroyed the chain of ownership, to the point that even people who own their homes outright may have have to defend their claims of ownership, and without the benefit of a strong chain of ownership documentation to support them. This is not merely an extreme oddity, but is a proof-by-example of this situation.
The banks are not properly motivated, and tend to treat this as “oops, our bad”. It really doesn’t matter whether or not they were physically evicted — the point of the matter is that they were LEGALLY evicted, until legal intervention was required to restore what was rightly theirs. And this can happen to anyone.
And even if the victims had been evicted and had to invest huge sums of time and money to correct the situation, nobody would get into trouble. Lehman, AIG, and a host of other ugly messes is proof enough of that.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:56 am
Dead Hobo:
Don’t you understand what’s going on re: the markets?
Arequipa01 Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:08 am
“Bank of America has acknowledged the error and will correct it at its own expense, said spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens.”
It is not ‘an error’. It is part and parcel of an ongoing criminal conspiracy. The significant problem here is the likelihood that the Banks will defang the Judiciary or as they say en el Perú, aquí no pasa na aaa…
There is a lot out there on this issue. A good place to start is the Landmark case.
http://loanworkout.org/2009/09/landmark-v-kesler-mers-kansas/
dead hobo Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:10 am
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:54 am
@dead hobo — I think you’re missing the point here. MERS and a general laxity of documentation and procedure throughout the real estate industry has destroyed the chain of ownership, to the point that even people who own their homes outright may have have to defend their claims of ownership, and without the benefit of a strong chain of ownership documentation to support them.
reply:
———-
We just use the county recorder here to record ownership and security interests. Plus title insurance. Most jurisdictions do things in a similar way, I assume. If a bank stole my paid for house, I would first try to turn in into a winning lottery ticket, but would probably be disappointed and maybe get a free toaster as a premium after they fixed the problem.
Agreed the foreclosure system is a mess, but the mess is cohesive and likely to remain a mess no matter who complains about it. I’m just adjusting to reality and more evidence of a small but real and continual general decline in civilization.
Additionally, I remember speaking to a lawyer a few years ago about foreclosures. He told me that most mortgages and notes are linked together in such a way that they are legally inseparable. The mortgage becomes unenforced if the note is sold. GMAC (I think) is finding that out now, but everyone else seems to otherwise ignore this to accommodate wall street. The entire system is corrupt and the world has accepted it as change you can believe in because the corruption is inching in and being made to appear benign and in the interest of the majority. The questionable stock market is another example of corruption you can believe in.
Arequipa01 Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:13 am
“the point of the matter is that they were LEGALLY evicted, until legal intervention was required to restore what was rightly theirs. And this can happen to anyone.” Very good point.
This is an important element revealing that ownership in this country is becoming increasingly contingent. The CORPORATION is exercising executive control over instruments of the STATE. If you do not understand what that means and what its implications are, then please take some time to cogitate. And when you’re done, trying some metacogitating, and if that don’t help, well, son, there’s always marketing.
gc Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:20 am
and what part of your fortune comes from suing, likely on behalf of people who cannot afford to fight and who experience great distress to be in a lawsuit, to recover damages that are not allowed, and if awarded by a jury in a sympathetic trial court, won’t survive on appeal? You can build a fantasy around a cherry-picked single instance, but these types of errors are all over the place, and the courts are no more likely to bring everything to a halt than Bush/FED/Obama/congress were. Warren is “non-confirmable” because people fear that she just might be willing to bring everything to a halt. In this world, mark to market was changed when it stopped support bonuses and compensation. It is not the world where we allow a court to bring the Bank of America to its knees over one foreclosure.
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:22 am
@dead hobo — I agree completely — I’m just not fresh out of outrage yet.
MinnItMan Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:24 am
The acknowledgment that affidavits of default and the “attorney affidavits” used to establish the record for default judgments and judgments on the pleadings* (will explain if requested).
From WaPo:
“41-year-old Jeffrey Stephan was required to review cases to make sure the proceedings were legally justified and the information was accurate. He was also required to sign the documents in the presence of a notary.
In a sworn deposition, he testified that he did neither.”
This is very bad news for the lenders, the foreclosing attorneys, court administration and anyone who bought a post-forclosure REO property. A lot of the short-cutting used by the lender-foreclosure complex, IMO opinion, was fixable, but false sworn statements can’s be taken back, and thus will haunt the system for years. It’s early in this story, but all lawyers know this is the equivalent of the ball-bearing plants being bombed.
Now, I don’t think these two stories are related. Foreclosing after the lender has been paid is a one-hand-doesn’t-know-what-the-other-hand-is doing problem. I agree that the court should have been asking questions about the two contradicting motions and I’m at a loss as to how they could be reconciled by the lender’s attorney. Nonetheless, the buyer here clearly has recourse. This story, screwed up as it is, is still an aberation, although it should be cautionary to anyone buying at a short sale that you better be getting insurance and guarantees against this.
In the WaPa story, it’s a lot harder to see where this is going to go. For one thing, “document cases,” the core practice of foreclosure and collections attorneys where there is no answer or defense offered, and thus are usually defaulted, may become much less “routine” as courts may are now justified in asking for actual testimony, as opposed to relying on uncontradicted affidavits. These bad affidavits are the evidentiary basis for the judgment and calling these into question systematically, especially for docketed judgments, is going to make a lot of folks very sad.
Go short on the processing companies or any publicly traded component of this system.
rktbrkr Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:27 am
BOA is correcting the error “at their own expense”, now thats really sweet of them, I wonder who else should be expected to pay.
Florida started speeding up the FC process for the benefit of the banks (surprise) a few months ago, it seems like the banks are getting their way and the courts are rubber stamping their foreclosures. You’d think any bias by the courts would be with the homeys but I guess money talks louder.
You have to wonder how many other fukkups are occurring in the sand states.
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:36 am
Hernando de Soto has authored an excellent book that attempts to answer the question of why so many other attempts to copy the US miracle of capitalism that works (he wrote it a few years back) have failed, and he comes down to the property title system that we inherited from the Brits, which permits exchange of property as a commodity. He provides extensive documentation in his book of how other nations have failed in this.
Without such a system, the wealthy can pervert the system and legally steal property from the little people. This is where we are heading, in our journey to reshape the US into the world’s largest banana republic.
Property rights are the bedrock upon which democracies reside. When property “rights” become fluid things, that bedrock is swept away.
Here’s a short article on de Soto’s thesis: Cities of the Poor III: Law and Ownership
Mark E Hoffer Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:03 am
constantnormal Says: September 23rd, 2010 at 9:54 am
@dead hobo — I think you’re missing the point here. MERS and a general laxity of documentation and procedure throughout the real estate industry has destroyed the chain of ownership, to the point that even people who own their homes outright may have have to defend their claims of ownership, and without the benefit of a strong chain of ownership documentation to support them. This is not merely an extreme oddity, but is a proof-by-example of this situation.
The banks are not properly motivated, and tend to treat this as “oops, our bad”. It really doesn’t matter whether or not they were physically evicted — the point of the matter is that they were LEGALLY evicted, until legal intervention was required to restore what was rightly theirs. And this can happen to anyone.
And even if the victims had been evicted and had to invest huge sums of time and money to correct the situation, nobody would get into trouble. Lehman, AIG, and a host of other ugly messes is proof enough of that.
Diana Olick was right - the home price double dip is not only here, it is getting worse. RealtyTrac reported overnight that general foreclosure activity (i.e., default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) — were reported on 338,836 properties in August, a 4 percent increase from the previous month. One in every 381 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month. The spin is that this was a modest decline (5%) from August 2009, but represents another inflection point in a trend which up to now had been declining. “The trend lines of decreasing default notices and increasing bank repossessions converged in August, with virtually the same number of new default notices and bank repossessions for the month — a clear indication that the clogged foreclosure pipeline is being carefully managed on both ends by lenders and servicers,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “On the front end, seriously delinquent loans are rolling into foreclosure at an unusually slow rate, while on the back end the dammed-up inventory of properties already in foreclosure is moving to REO in steady stream rather than a flood — presumably to prevent further erosion of home prices.” Of course, banks are doing all in their power to prevent the realization by the consumer class of just how much lower home prices have still to go. Most notably, the bulk of the foreclosure action in August occurred in bank repossessions, which came at 95,364 U.S. properties in August, the highest monthly total in the history of the report and about 2 percent higher than the previous peak of 93,777 bank repossessions (REOs) in May 2010. August REO activity increased 3 percent from the previous month and was up 25 percent from August 2009 — the ninth straight month where REOs have increased on a year-over-year basis. In other news, we expect Jim Cramer to come out with another call, like his wrong summer 2009 pronouncement that the bottom of housing is here.
More from RealtyTrac:
Nevada, Florida, Arizona post top state foreclosure rates in August
Nevada continued to document the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate for the 44th straight month, with one in every 84 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August — 4.5 times the national average. Nevada maintained the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate despite a 25 percent year-over-year decrease in foreclosure activity in August — the 11th straight month where Nevada foreclosure activity has decreased on a year-over-year basis.
Florida foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis for the fifth straight month in August, but the state’s foreclosure rate still ranked second highest among all states. One in every 155 Florida housing units received a foreclosure filing in August — 2.5 times the national average.
One in every 165 Arizona housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate, and one in every 194 California housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation’s fourth highest state foreclosure rate.
One in every 220 Idaho housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation’s fifth highest state foreclosure rate. A total of 2,915 Idaho properties received a foreclosure filing in August, an increase of nearly 9 percent from the previous month and an increase of 11 percent from August 2009. Idaho was the only state with a top 5 foreclosure rate to document a year-over-year increase in foreclosure activity.
Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 in August were Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois and Hawaii.
Five states account for more than 50 percent of national total
California alone accounted for 20 percent of the national total in August, with 69,143 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the month — a 3 percent increase from the previous month but a 25 percent decrease from August 2009.
Florida accounted for nearly 17 percent of the national total, with 56,877 properties receiving a foreclosure filing — a 10 percent increase from the previous month but a 9 percent decrease from August 2009. Florida default notices were down 46 percent from August 2009 but increased 2 percent from the previous month, ending five straight months of month-over-month decreases in Florida default notices.
Michigan, Illinois and Arizona each accounted for about 5 percent of the national total in August, with 17,764 Michigan properties receiving foreclosure filings, 16,808 Illinois properties receiving foreclosure filings, and 16,510 Arizona properties receiving foreclosure filings.
Other states with foreclosure activity totals among the nation’s 10 highest in August were Georgia (16,366), Texas (14,290), Ohio (13,479), Nevada (13,385), and Washington (6,760).
Metro foreclosure hot spots continue downward trend
All 10 metro areas with the nation’s highest foreclosure rates in August posted year-over-year decreases in foreclosure activity for the second month in a row.
The Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., metro area documented the highest foreclosure rate among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more, with one in every 73 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, despite a 25 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from August 2009.
Foreclosure activity in Modesto, Calif., decreased 10 percent from August 2009, but the city still documented the nation’s second highest metro foreclosure rate, with one in every 95 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August. Six other California metro areas had foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10: Stockton at No. 3 (one in every 100 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing); Merced at No. 6 (one in 111); Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 7 (one in 113); Bakersfield at No. 8 (one in 120); Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 9 (one in 124); and Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville at No. 10 (one in 125).
Two Florida metro areas registered foreclosure rates among the top 10: Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., at No. 3, with one in every 104 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing; and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 5, with one in every 111 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.
'Fox <b>News</b> Sunday' to Host Kentucky Senate Debate - NYTimes.com
Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Rand Paul, the Republican nominee, have agreed to a live debate on "Fox News Sunday" on Oct. 3.
Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
Aaron Brown: Cable <b>News</b> Is Too Political
Aaron Brown said in an interview that he is unhappy with the current state of cable news. Brown, who was a prominent anchor on CNN from 2001-2005 and now teaches journalism at Arizona State University, spoke to the online website ...
robert shumake
'Fox <b>News</b> Sunday' to Host Kentucky Senate Debate - NYTimes.com
Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Rand Paul, the Republican nominee, have agreed to a live debate on "Fox News Sunday" on Oct. 3.
Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
Aaron Brown: Cable <b>News</b> Is Too Political
Aaron Brown said in an interview that he is unhappy with the current state of cable news. Brown, who was a prominent anchor on CNN from 2001-2005 and now teaches journalism at Arizona State University, spoke to the online website ...
42 Responses to “Man without Mortgage Loses Home in Foreclosure”
Barry Ritholtz Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 7:24 am
Un-Fucking-Believable . . .
Dennis Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 7:36 am
That is insane!
stonedwino Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 8:22 am
Really? Wow….B of A….what a clusterfuck…
Robespierre Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 8:38 am
And the music will not stop until someone goes to jail or is criminally charged in a very public way. Obama softness with the bankers has only embolden them. As they say “beatings will continue until moral improves”. Oh yes the foreclosed parties should just “suck it up and cope” after all these bankers are just doing God’s work
dead hobo Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 8:59 am
This is too high of a level view to be so negative. Yes, there was a screw up but nobody was tossed out and BoA says they will fix it. Except for a little paperwork, it doesn’t sound like anything else was messed up. Realistically, where are the damages assuming BoA puts everything back as it was and also assuming this high level view is the whole story? Not every screw up should be a profit opportunity if you know a lawyer.
The bigger question is, “How did this happen?” Being my normal pessimistic self, I don’t think anyone will get into trouble for it because such things don’t happen anymore. Nor will anyone look into it.
phb Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:08 am
How, pray-tell, is the judge in this case not partially responsible? BOA is not solely responsible for this level of incompetence, I mean they were just trying to protect their interest (albeit in error). All involved other than the victim, need to pay for this fiasco. IMHO of course.
dead hobo Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:39 am
BR, calm down. Yes, these poor people got screwed over but they will be made whole and nobody will get into trouble for it.
Here’s something to cheer about. The labor news was quite dismal.
Assuming the past can be used to predict the future, the S&P should go for the moon today and hit a new high. For the past year, and especially over the past few weeks, virtually all bad economic news is accompanied by a strong rise in the markets.
Maybe this is some of the change you can believe in. Before this, bad news was usually accompanied by market declines until good news appeared. Today, all news makes the markets rise.
Now that’s fucking unbelievable.
whatever Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:44 am
But..but, dont we want protection for our corporations? Otherwise, they wont invest and wont create jobs.
We should protect our corporations against any lawsuits. At the minimum, any ruling against them will be capped at $50.
Thats how we create jobs in America.
tspck Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:53 am
. . . so a couple of flunkies at ACORN cooperate in a prostitution scheme and there is literally an act of congress to disembowel the organization . . . but here when the action was conducted in a court of law, with hot and cold running lawyers, it’s “mistake may happen” and “don’t overreact”. How come?
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:54 am
@dead hobo — I think you’re missing the point here. MERS and a general laxity of documentation and procedure throughout the real estate industry has destroyed the chain of ownership, to the point that even people who own their homes outright may have have to defend their claims of ownership, and without the benefit of a strong chain of ownership documentation to support them. This is not merely an extreme oddity, but is a proof-by-example of this situation.
The banks are not properly motivated, and tend to treat this as “oops, our bad”. It really doesn’t matter whether or not they were physically evicted — the point of the matter is that they were LEGALLY evicted, until legal intervention was required to restore what was rightly theirs. And this can happen to anyone.
And even if the victims had been evicted and had to invest huge sums of time and money to correct the situation, nobody would get into trouble. Lehman, AIG, and a host of other ugly messes is proof enough of that.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:56 am
Dead Hobo:
Don’t you understand what’s going on re: the markets?
Arequipa01 Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:08 am
“Bank of America has acknowledged the error and will correct it at its own expense, said spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens.”
It is not ‘an error’. It is part and parcel of an ongoing criminal conspiracy. The significant problem here is the likelihood that the Banks will defang the Judiciary or as they say en el Perú, aquí no pasa na aaa…
There is a lot out there on this issue. A good place to start is the Landmark case.
http://loanworkout.org/2009/09/landmark-v-kesler-mers-kansas/
dead hobo Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:10 am
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 9:54 am
@dead hobo — I think you’re missing the point here. MERS and a general laxity of documentation and procedure throughout the real estate industry has destroyed the chain of ownership, to the point that even people who own their homes outright may have have to defend their claims of ownership, and without the benefit of a strong chain of ownership documentation to support them.
reply:
———-
We just use the county recorder here to record ownership and security interests. Plus title insurance. Most jurisdictions do things in a similar way, I assume. If a bank stole my paid for house, I would first try to turn in into a winning lottery ticket, but would probably be disappointed and maybe get a free toaster as a premium after they fixed the problem.
Agreed the foreclosure system is a mess, but the mess is cohesive and likely to remain a mess no matter who complains about it. I’m just adjusting to reality and more evidence of a small but real and continual general decline in civilization.
Additionally, I remember speaking to a lawyer a few years ago about foreclosures. He told me that most mortgages and notes are linked together in such a way that they are legally inseparable. The mortgage becomes unenforced if the note is sold. GMAC (I think) is finding that out now, but everyone else seems to otherwise ignore this to accommodate wall street. The entire system is corrupt and the world has accepted it as change you can believe in because the corruption is inching in and being made to appear benign and in the interest of the majority. The questionable stock market is another example of corruption you can believe in.
Arequipa01 Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:13 am
“the point of the matter is that they were LEGALLY evicted, until legal intervention was required to restore what was rightly theirs. And this can happen to anyone.” Very good point.
This is an important element revealing that ownership in this country is becoming increasingly contingent. The CORPORATION is exercising executive control over instruments of the STATE. If you do not understand what that means and what its implications are, then please take some time to cogitate. And when you’re done, trying some metacogitating, and if that don’t help, well, son, there’s always marketing.
gc Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:20 am
and what part of your fortune comes from suing, likely on behalf of people who cannot afford to fight and who experience great distress to be in a lawsuit, to recover damages that are not allowed, and if awarded by a jury in a sympathetic trial court, won’t survive on appeal? You can build a fantasy around a cherry-picked single instance, but these types of errors are all over the place, and the courts are no more likely to bring everything to a halt than Bush/FED/Obama/congress were. Warren is “non-confirmable” because people fear that she just might be willing to bring everything to a halt. In this world, mark to market was changed when it stopped support bonuses and compensation. It is not the world where we allow a court to bring the Bank of America to its knees over one foreclosure.
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:22 am
@dead hobo — I agree completely — I’m just not fresh out of outrage yet.
MinnItMan Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:24 am
The acknowledgment that affidavits of default and the “attorney affidavits” used to establish the record for default judgments and judgments on the pleadings* (will explain if requested).
From WaPo:
“41-year-old Jeffrey Stephan was required to review cases to make sure the proceedings were legally justified and the information was accurate. He was also required to sign the documents in the presence of a notary.
In a sworn deposition, he testified that he did neither.”
This is very bad news for the lenders, the foreclosing attorneys, court administration and anyone who bought a post-forclosure REO property. A lot of the short-cutting used by the lender-foreclosure complex, IMO opinion, was fixable, but false sworn statements can’s be taken back, and thus will haunt the system for years. It’s early in this story, but all lawyers know this is the equivalent of the ball-bearing plants being bombed.
Now, I don’t think these two stories are related. Foreclosing after the lender has been paid is a one-hand-doesn’t-know-what-the-other-hand-is doing problem. I agree that the court should have been asking questions about the two contradicting motions and I’m at a loss as to how they could be reconciled by the lender’s attorney. Nonetheless, the buyer here clearly has recourse. This story, screwed up as it is, is still an aberation, although it should be cautionary to anyone buying at a short sale that you better be getting insurance and guarantees against this.
In the WaPa story, it’s a lot harder to see where this is going to go. For one thing, “document cases,” the core practice of foreclosure and collections attorneys where there is no answer or defense offered, and thus are usually defaulted, may become much less “routine” as courts may are now justified in asking for actual testimony, as opposed to relying on uncontradicted affidavits. These bad affidavits are the evidentiary basis for the judgment and calling these into question systematically, especially for docketed judgments, is going to make a lot of folks very sad.
Go short on the processing companies or any publicly traded component of this system.
rktbrkr Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:27 am
BOA is correcting the error “at their own expense”, now thats really sweet of them, I wonder who else should be expected to pay.
Florida started speeding up the FC process for the benefit of the banks (surprise) a few months ago, it seems like the banks are getting their way and the courts are rubber stamping their foreclosures. You’d think any bias by the courts would be with the homeys but I guess money talks louder.
You have to wonder how many other fukkups are occurring in the sand states.
constantnormal Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:36 am
Hernando de Soto has authored an excellent book that attempts to answer the question of why so many other attempts to copy the US miracle of capitalism that works (he wrote it a few years back) have failed, and he comes down to the property title system that we inherited from the Brits, which permits exchange of property as a commodity. He provides extensive documentation in his book of how other nations have failed in this.
Without such a system, the wealthy can pervert the system and legally steal property from the little people. This is where we are heading, in our journey to reshape the US into the world’s largest banana republic.
Property rights are the bedrock upon which democracies reside. When property “rights” become fluid things, that bedrock is swept away.
Here’s a short article on de Soto’s thesis: Cities of the Poor III: Law and Ownership
Mark E Hoffer Says:
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:03 am
constantnormal Says: September 23rd, 2010 at 9:54 am
@dead hobo — I think you’re missing the point here. MERS and a general laxity of documentation and procedure throughout the real estate industry has destroyed the chain of ownership, to the point that even people who own their homes outright may have have to defend their claims of ownership, and without the benefit of a strong chain of ownership documentation to support them. This is not merely an extreme oddity, but is a proof-by-example of this situation.
The banks are not properly motivated, and tend to treat this as “oops, our bad”. It really doesn’t matter whether or not they were physically evicted — the point of the matter is that they were LEGALLY evicted, until legal intervention was required to restore what was rightly theirs. And this can happen to anyone.
And even if the victims had been evicted and had to invest huge sums of time and money to correct the situation, nobody would get into trouble. Lehman, AIG, and a host of other ugly messes is proof enough of that.
Diana Olick was right - the home price double dip is not only here, it is getting worse. RealtyTrac reported overnight that general foreclosure activity (i.e., default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) — were reported on 338,836 properties in August, a 4 percent increase from the previous month. One in every 381 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month. The spin is that this was a modest decline (5%) from August 2009, but represents another inflection point in a trend which up to now had been declining. “The trend lines of decreasing default notices and increasing bank repossessions converged in August, with virtually the same number of new default notices and bank repossessions for the month — a clear indication that the clogged foreclosure pipeline is being carefully managed on both ends by lenders and servicers,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “On the front end, seriously delinquent loans are rolling into foreclosure at an unusually slow rate, while on the back end the dammed-up inventory of properties already in foreclosure is moving to REO in steady stream rather than a flood — presumably to prevent further erosion of home prices.” Of course, banks are doing all in their power to prevent the realization by the consumer class of just how much lower home prices have still to go. Most notably, the bulk of the foreclosure action in August occurred in bank repossessions, which came at 95,364 U.S. properties in August, the highest monthly total in the history of the report and about 2 percent higher than the previous peak of 93,777 bank repossessions (REOs) in May 2010. August REO activity increased 3 percent from the previous month and was up 25 percent from August 2009 — the ninth straight month where REOs have increased on a year-over-year basis. In other news, we expect Jim Cramer to come out with another call, like his wrong summer 2009 pronouncement that the bottom of housing is here.
More from RealtyTrac:
Nevada, Florida, Arizona post top state foreclosure rates in August
Nevada continued to document the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate for the 44th straight month, with one in every 84 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August — 4.5 times the national average. Nevada maintained the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate despite a 25 percent year-over-year decrease in foreclosure activity in August — the 11th straight month where Nevada foreclosure activity has decreased on a year-over-year basis.
Florida foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis for the fifth straight month in August, but the state’s foreclosure rate still ranked second highest among all states. One in every 155 Florida housing units received a foreclosure filing in August — 2.5 times the national average.
One in every 165 Arizona housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate, and one in every 194 California housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation’s fourth highest state foreclosure rate.
One in every 220 Idaho housing units received a foreclosure filing in August, the nation’s fifth highest state foreclosure rate. A total of 2,915 Idaho properties received a foreclosure filing in August, an increase of nearly 9 percent from the previous month and an increase of 11 percent from August 2009. Idaho was the only state with a top 5 foreclosure rate to document a year-over-year increase in foreclosure activity.
Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 in August were Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois and Hawaii.
Five states account for more than 50 percent of national total
California alone accounted for 20 percent of the national total in August, with 69,143 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the month — a 3 percent increase from the previous month but a 25 percent decrease from August 2009.
Florida accounted for nearly 17 percent of the national total, with 56,877 properties receiving a foreclosure filing — a 10 percent increase from the previous month but a 9 percent decrease from August 2009. Florida default notices were down 46 percent from August 2009 but increased 2 percent from the previous month, ending five straight months of month-over-month decreases in Florida default notices.
Michigan, Illinois and Arizona each accounted for about 5 percent of the national total in August, with 17,764 Michigan properties receiving foreclosure filings, 16,808 Illinois properties receiving foreclosure filings, and 16,510 Arizona properties receiving foreclosure filings.
Other states with foreclosure activity totals among the nation’s 10 highest in August were Georgia (16,366), Texas (14,290), Ohio (13,479), Nevada (13,385), and Washington (6,760).
Metro foreclosure hot spots continue downward trend
All 10 metro areas with the nation’s highest foreclosure rates in August posted year-over-year decreases in foreclosure activity for the second month in a row.
The Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., metro area documented the highest foreclosure rate among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more, with one in every 73 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, despite a 25 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from August 2009.
Foreclosure activity in Modesto, Calif., decreased 10 percent from August 2009, but the city still documented the nation’s second highest metro foreclosure rate, with one in every 95 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August. Six other California metro areas had foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10: Stockton at No. 3 (one in every 100 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing); Merced at No. 6 (one in 111); Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 7 (one in 113); Bakersfield at No. 8 (one in 120); Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 9 (one in 124); and Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville at No. 10 (one in 125).
Two Florida metro areas registered foreclosure rates among the top 10: Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., at No. 3, with one in every 104 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing; and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 5, with one in every 111 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.
robert shumake
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Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Rand Paul, the Republican nominee, have agreed to a live debate on "Fox News Sunday" on Oct. 3.
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Aaron Brown said in an interview that he is unhappy with the current state of cable news. Brown, who was a prominent anchor on CNN from 2001-2005 and now teaches journalism at Arizona State University, spoke to the online website ...
robert shumake
'Fox <b>News</b> Sunday' to Host Kentucky Senate Debate - NYTimes.com
Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Rand Paul, the Republican nominee, have agreed to a live debate on "Fox News Sunday" on Oct. 3.
Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
Aaron Brown: Cable <b>News</b> Is Too Political
Aaron Brown said in an interview that he is unhappy with the current state of cable news. Brown, who was a prominent anchor on CNN from 2001-2005 and now teaches journalism at Arizona State University, spoke to the online website ...