Archive for the ‘Deficiency Judgements’ Category

Residential Real Estate Market Already Headed Over Fiscal Cliff

Saturday, November 10th, 2012

Roy Oppenheim’s commentary was originally published on Yahoo! Homes and is being republished on South Florida Law Blog with their permission.

Thelma and Louise Going Over The CliffThey say there is no rest for the weary, and that seems especially appropriate for our nation’s elected officials.

Election Day may be still be fresh in our rear-view mirror, but in case you have forgotten, the lame duck session of Congress begins Monday. And they will have little time to celebrate or lick their wounds, because the economy is under a very real threat.

The media has dubbed it the “Fiscal Cliff”. This cliff, which is a series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts set to be enacted on December 31st, could drive the economy back into a recession, according to a new Congressional Office Budget report.

Here’s the problem: for people like myself on the front lines of the real estate market, the fiscal cliff is not some imminent threat, it’s already here.

When it is all said and done, DC’s landscape is almost identical to what is was before Tuesday, and the very same problems that were ignored during the election are now staring us right back in the face.

Let’s be real, Thelma and Louise are inches away from driving over the Grand Canyon. That is where we are right now with the housing market. I am not trying to scare anyone, but for those of us on the front lines of the housing crisis, there are some troubling signs.

There have been many cautious signs of improvement in real estate over the last few months, and on paper the housing market is starting to stabilize.
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Strategic Defaulters Are Public Enemy #1 Again (Unless They’re on Wall Street)

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012

Roy Oppenheim’s commentary was originally published on Yahoo! Homesand is being republished on South Florida Law Blog with their permission.

Deficiency judgments are probably the last thing any homeowner under threat of foreclosure wants to think about.

For the uninitiated, a deficiencyis when the proceeds from a foreclosure sale, or a short sale, don’t cover the balance of the mortgage loan. In a recourse state, such as Florida or 39 other states, it is legal for the lender to go after the homeowner for that deficiency when a deficiency judgement is awarded.

My experience has been that if a bank actually does bother to seek a deficiency judgement, there is a good chance it can either be severely reduced or negotiated, especially if you have an attorney.

But it looks like the pendulum is starting to swing in the other direction, if you have a loan backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

A report just released by the inspector generalfor the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees both of the government-sponsored enterprises, suggests Fannie and Freddie should be much more aggressive in recovering deficiency judgments, in order to mitigate their losses.

The FHFA stresses their report is not an “encouragement to aggressively pursue borrowers who do not have the ability to pay their mortgages.” (Of course you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip.) Instead it centers on an old and familiar target: the strategic defaulter.

Now the inspector general’s office is just doing their job. They were asked to perform an audit, and they did. But there is a just a whiff of hypocrisy that is both arrogant and outrageous.
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Foreclosure Mills, Bank Fraud and the Housing Market — 2011′s Top Headlines Pt. 2

Saturday, December 31st, 2011
Continuing our list here’s Pt. 2 of our Top 10 stories for 2011 —

As 2011 got underway we were presented with a fascinating yet disturbing report by the Florida Association of Court Clerks called “Unfair, Deceptive and Unconscionable Acts in Foreclosure Cases”. It brought these horrible practices into the harsh light of day.

“What we got from this is the state has had the opportunity to see where the laws have been broken,’ Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock said at the time, “and frankly, it is in large part thanks to the work of the defense attorneys.

We cited April Charney from the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and Peter Ticktin and many others wonderful attorneys who have taken bank officers’ depositions, challenged judges rulings and fought the good fight for the Florida homeowner.

#4 — Cracked! Humpty Dumpty, Chase and GMC, the Bank Fraud Foreclosure Crisis Continues to Fall!

Somewhere along the line, the overly ambitious bankers on Wall Street had the “great idea” of slicing and dicing the interest of the Promissory Note and literally severing it from your Mortgage. Why? Convenience,expediency, and, arguably, greed. And much like Humpty Dumpty after his great fall, the banks couldn’t bring the mortgages and their corresponding Notes all back together again. The banks were accused of fraud and perjury trying to do just that.

# 3 — Housing Market Poll: When Will Florida Recover?

If Americans are right, 2012 will finally be the magic year for the housing market. Over 2,000 adults were polled by Trulia and RealtyTrac , and the majority, 22 percent, said most Americans think the housing market will fully recover in the new year. A mere 10 percent thought a recovery would happen this year, while nearly a quarter of those surveyed predicted a bumpy road until 2015 and beyond.
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How to Avoid a Foreclosure Hangover: Deficiency Judgment

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

Deficiency judgments are potent, expensive and on the rise according to

experts quoted in a recent foreclosure defense Wall Street Journal article!

If Oppenheim Law had a warning label it might read:

Deficiency judgments can be hazardous to your financial health. For best results hire a foreclosure defense attorney.

Deficiency judgments are today’s toxic wake up call.

Continue Reading…


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