Posted by Madison Backhouse on February 5, 2011
Our San Bernardino individual bankruptcy lawyers were interested to see that Congress is now considering addressing the wave of foreclosures through the bankruptcy system. HousingWire reported Feb. 1 on a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is considering legislation that would give bankruptcy judges the power to order foreclosure mediation. The proposal is not a new proposal to allow “cramdowns,” which would give bankruptcy judges the power to modify loans directly. Rather, judges would be able to order both the homeowner and the lender to the mediation table. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, chair of the hearing, said the program would give borrowers access to an accountable decision-maker, which is typically unavailable in loan workouts.
Whitehouse pointed out that the Obama administration’s HAMP loan modification program has not helped nearly as many homeowners as predicted, in part because compliance is entirely voluntary. Rather than relying on banks to police themselves – a potential conflict of interests – the new proposal would give bankruptcy judges the power to order mediation.
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Posted by Zachary Ogilvie on February 3, 2011
WHEN the federal government took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two teetering mortgage-finance agencies, in September 2008 it was meant to be temporary. Yet their surreal existence as shareholder-owned prisoners of the state looks likely to drag on for years.
Nobody is happy with the status quo. The federal government routinely guarantees 85% or more of newly issued residential mortgages, primarily through Fannie, Freddie, and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). But withdrawing that support is impossible while the housing market is so fragile. The Treasury is scheduled to release a proposal for overhauling America’s housing-finance system as early as next week. But rather than resolve the status of Fannie and Freddie, it is likely to lay out several options, none of which is likely to become law any time soon.
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The role of the FHA, which is to guarantee mortgages with low downpayments to families of modest means in return for a fee, is relatively uncontroversial. T
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Posted by Sophie Egge on February 3, 2011
Some ideas to think about before kicking them out or offering financial help It’s always been like this: parents stretch to pay for their children’s college tuition and expenses for four years, and then the check writing stops. But today’s extended road to adulthood and harsh economic realities are pressuring the “Bank of Mom and Dad” to stay open much longer: Almost three-quarters of students ages 18 to 25 are getting some financial help from parents, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. Look at these changes:
Student debt College graduates in 2009 carried the highest amount of student loan debt ever: an average of $24,000, up 6 percent from 2008, according to the Project on Student Debt.
Unemployment Nearly 9 percent of the class of 2009 can’t find jobs, an increase from 5.8 percent in 2008 and, again, the highest annual rate on record for college graduates ages 20 to 24.
Housing crunch Unemployment and underemployment have created boomerangers. In a 2009 P
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Posted by Madison Backhouse on February 1, 2011
Our Rancho Cucamonga foreclosure defense attorneys wrote earlier this month about a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision invalidating two foreclosures in which the bank could not prove ownership. So we were interested to see a column from CBS MoneyWatch columnist Jane Bryant Quinn using that case as an example of how homeowners can fight an unfair or outright illegal foreclosure. Homeowners might worry that a lawyer costs too much, Quinn wrote, but there’s often little or no upfront cost thanks to the contingency fee structure used by most consumer attorneys. (This is what HOWARD | NASSIRI uses in litigation as well.) And legal representation can be a powerful tool to call attention to sloppiness and illegal behavior by banks.
The Massachusetts homeowners in the case, Antonio Ibanez and married couple Mark and Tammy LaRace, purchased their homes in 2005 and defaulted in 2007. In between, the mortgages were securitized — bundled into groups and sold as investments. The lenders seeking to foreclose were the trustees for those investments, not the owners of the mortgages, who are the only entities with the right to foreclose.
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