Texas AG calls for halt in foreclosures

[Sam Spade]

Haven't been posting much on this, but foreclosure document fraud is maybe the biggest story you haven't really heard about that finally started hitting the wires a few weeks ago.  Texas is the first non-judicial foreclosure state to take action, with Chase and BoA having halted everything in judicial foreclosure states after Old Republic said they weren't insuring anything.

And it goes much deeper than this...

http://blogs.chron.com/primeproperty/2010/10/ag_attempts_to_stop_foreclosur.html

[Torie]

Haven't been posting much on this, but foreclosure document fraud is maybe the biggest story you haven't really heard about that finally started hitting the wires a few weeks ago.  Texas is the first non-judicial foreclosure state to take action, with Chase and BoA having halted everything in judicial foreclosure states after Old Republic said they weren't insuring anything.

And it goes much deeper than this...

http://blogs.chron.com/primeproperty/2010/10/ag_attempts_to_stop_foreclosur.html

Texas does not have an anti-deficiency law, which is kind of frightening. That might be one reason, Texas (beyond loose land use restrictions, and tons of flat buildable land), never had much of a real estate bubble.

[TeePee4Prez]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!  I'm sorry.  I don't care if it's the "unliberal position" or not and in this case I maybe more conservative than a Texas AG, but because of our current overpriced market, I say let 'em tank!  Good riddance to people to fell for this stupidity.  Housing is one area I'm very laissez-faire in.

[Frink]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!  I'm sorry.  I don't care if it's the "unliberal position" or not and in this case I maybe more conservative than a Texas AG, but because of our current overpriced market, I say let 'em tank!  Good riddance to people to fell for this stupidity.  Housing is one area I'm very laissez-faire in.

Liquidate labor, liquidate farmers, liquidate stocks, liquidate the homeowners, and purge the rottenness from the system. After all all these people are just morons who wanted to own a home and none of them are victims of foreclosure fraud, right?

[TeePee4Prez]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!  I'm sorry.  I don't care if it's the "unliberal position" or not and in this case I maybe more conservative than a Texas AG, but because of our current overpriced market, I say let 'em tank!  Good riddance to people to fell for this stupidity.  Housing is one area I'm very laissez-faire in.

Liquidate labor, liquidate farmers, liquidate stocks, liquidate the homeowners, and purge the rottenness from the system. After all all these people are just morons who wanted to own a home and none of them are victims of foreclosure fraud, right?

Well, I know that quote is from Andrew Mellon, Herbert Hoover's Secretary of Treasury.  With labor and enterprise, no way.  With housing, these artifical things propping up the market are hurting young professionals and people trying to get a start and the people who tripped over themselves driving up home values artificially are hurting me so yes, I'm gonna have to take Mr. Mellon's theory in part here.

[Frink]

Well, I know that quote is from Andrew Mellon, Herbert Hoover's Secretary of Treasury.

With a few changes, yes.

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With the way the market often works; the distinction can be very artificial.

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"Artificial"? Really? I would think stocks are a far more artificial entity than a house would ever be. Or are you referring to the general bubble in prices we experienced from about 1998-2007? Housing isn't the first sector we've had a bubble in you know..

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They prop up the market no more.

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No, the people who were lead like lemmings into risky subprime mortgages that shouldn't have been offered in the first place and now are subject to foreclosure fraud aren't the problem. The credit ratings agencies who misrated Mortgage Backed Securities on the basis of Subprime loans, lenders who gave out too many risky loans, and investment banks who willfully propped up the bubble (again like lemmings) are the culprits.

Punishing a bunch of defrauded current homeowners because there was a bubble in prices earlier in the decade that contributed to the financial crisis, but ultimately had more to do with the actions of a very small group of people than themselves.

[Sam Spade]

Haven't been posting much on this, but foreclosure document fraud is maybe the biggest story you haven't really heard about that finally started hitting the wires a few weeks ago.  Texas is the first non-judicial foreclosure state to take action, with Chase and BoA having halted everything in judicial foreclosure states after Old Republic said they weren't insuring anything.

And it goes much deeper than this...

http://blogs.chron.com/primeproperty/2010/10/ag_attempts_to_stop_foreclosur.html

Texas does not have an anti-deficiency law, which is kind of frightening. That might be one reason, Texas (beyond loose land use restrictions, and tons of flat buildable land), never had much of a real estate bubble.

Texas did have a real estate bubble - in the 1970s.  Collapsed in the 1980s.  Witnessed it first hand in my childhood.

Right now (and since 2000), the real reasons are - high property taxes and strong home equity protections, as well as what you mentioned above - the last meaning that people could not borrow against their house more than 80% of its assessed value.  In fact, home equity loans didn't exist in Texas until the late 1990s.

[TeePee4Prez]

Well, I know that quote is from Andrew Mellon, Herbert Hoover's Secretary of Treasury.

With a few changes, yes.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

 

With the way the market often works; the distinction can be very artificial.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

"Artificial"? Really? I would think stocks are a far more artificial entity than a house would ever be. Or are you referring to the general bubble in prices we experienced from about 1998-2007? Housing isn't the first sector we've had a bubble in you know..

You must be logged in to read this quote.

They prop up the market no more.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

No, the people who were lead like lemmings into risky subprime mortgages that shouldn't have been offered in the first place and now are subject to foreclosure fraud aren't the problem. The credit ratings agencies who misrated Mortgage Backed Securities on the basis of Subprime loans, lenders who gave out too many risky loans, and investment banks who willfully propped up the bubble (again like lemmings) are the culprits.

Punishing a bunch of defrauded current homeowners because there was a bubble in prices earlier in the decade that contributed to the financial crisis, but ultimately had more to do with the actions of a very small group of people than themselves.

I wish that graph applied to my local market because prices have spiked, but aren't seeming to drop as much as the Case-Shiller Index.  Philadelphia and to some extent New York spiked beyond affordability for a lot of young professionals, but really haven't dropped to pre-bubble levels.

[CARLHAYDEN]

Sam,

Good to see someone else is paying here is paying attention to this situation.

From what I can see, it is far more pervasive than the industry wants to admit.

A lot of regional and local financial institutions have a lot of money riding on commericial real estate, where there are similiar documentation problems.

The slopiness in the financial industry of a few years ago is really going to bite.

[Frink]

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Yes some places will remain more sought after places to live even when a housing bubble bursts. Doesn't really have much to do with whether to condemn victims of foreclosure fraud though.