Archive for the ‘The Wall Street Journal’ Category
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012
Over a year ago I felt compelled to call out The Wall Street Journal after a particular column really got under my skin.
It’s time to call them out once more. Not for another column, but rather, a lack of one.
In October 2010 their column “The Politics of Foreclosure” made light of the plight many of my clients have undergone, and shrunk the foreclosure crisis down to a mere inconvenience for a few Washington insiders.
You and I, of course, know different.
And as the crisis grew wider and wider, and the expansiveness of the banks fraud became even more apparent, The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board continued to be a haven for outdated ideas, protection of the status quo and disgust for anyone trying to do good by the American homeowner.
When the AG settlement was first announced back in February, the Wall Street Journal called it a ‘bank job’ worthy of the Barker gang.
I found it disturbingly amusing that a settlement that was basically little more than a public spanking for the banks angered them so. The settlement didn’t land a single banking executive in jail, yet the columnists at The Wall Street Journal still treat the banks as the victims in the housing crisis.
The crisis, you know that the banks basically created.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board still believes the banks didn’t illegally foreclose on a single homeowner, something I personally know not to be true.
Either their editorial board is remarkably stupid or just ignorant.
And so I shouldn’t be all that surprised that they have been silent after the Department of Housing and Urban Development released audits that laid out how pervasive the culture of fraud was amongst our nation’s lenders.
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Tags: bank fraud, bank jobs, columns, dow jones & company, economics, foreclosure, foreclosures, mass media, mortgage, Oppenheim Law, politics, Real Estate, real property law, reminder, Roy Oppenheim, The Politics of Foreclosure, The Wall Street Journal, wall street, Wall Street Journal, wall street journal editorial board, wall street journal opinion
Posted in Foreclosure Fraud, Mortgage Settlement, Robosigning, The Wall Street Journal | No Comments »
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the economy at Shaker Heights High School,Shaker Heights, Ohio, Jan. 4, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
We really haven’t seen President Obama insert himself directly into the housing crisis, but there are rumblings that he may do just that during Tuesday’s State of The Union address.
The fact is that is what homeowners have been clamoring for. A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found 58% of Americans want the government to do more to help people keep homes.
According to HousingWire, Ohio senator Sherrod Brown told reporters today that there was evidence that Obama would address the robo-signing case which involves several major banks. A North Carolina congressman even said there were rumours that Obama would announce a settlement, something HUD secretary Shaun Donovan suggested last week was ‘very close’, as we mentioned in our Week In Review on Friday.
For the record, Obama’s press secretary refused to confirm any details, saying only that the President was “focused on the issue of housing”.
Between Dononvan’s comments and the recent white paper sent out by the Federal Reserve, it seems that more and more top government officials are finally realizing how important the housing market is to our economic recovery, not to mention their own political survival.
This is not news to us here at the South Florida Law Blog.
In the Huffington Post last September, Roy Oppenheim called housing the “thousand pound gorilla in the room” in the 2012 election, as many of the states with the highest underwater mortgages, such asFlorida, are also key electoral swing states. The pressure on Obama to be more aggressive on the banks is growing in Washington, and it’s about time.
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Tags: barack obama, foreclosure, gallup poll, housing and urban development, housing crisis, HUD, Huffington Post, president, President Obama, principal reduction, republican, Roy Oppenheim, shaun donovan, sherrod brown, state of the union, usa today, Wall Street Journal
Posted in Federal Reserve, Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Foreclosure Defense, Huffington Post, Obama, Roy Oppenheim, The Wall Street Journal | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011
Taking a cue from Oppenheim Law, the Obama Administration is mulling over plans to reduce the number of foreclosed homes on the market by renting them out, according to the Wall Street Journal.
As the large inventory of distressed homes on the market continues to push a reduction in home prices as well as an increase in rental prices, the government is thinking about renting the homes owned by Fannie and Freddie.
The proposal has two benefits:
- Reducing the amount of distressed homes for sale
- Clearing the surplus of homes currently unoccupied.
These benefits would be the keys to a successful housing market recovery. Increasing the amount of rental properties available can also stabilize rent prices, which have been going up as foreclosed families wait before buying another home.
While the benefits of the proposal are obvious, it is still just a proposal. It’s too bad the Administration did not listen to Oppenheim Law back in 2009 when we advocated using the inventory of foreclosed homes to benefit communities, instead of just letting them sit unoccupied and cause suburban blight.
The Government could easily enact the proposal by ordering Fannie and Freddie to sell their foreclosed homes to investors who promise to rent them out. The investors could then hire management companies to look after the houses. If the Administration decides to follow through with the plan, the Government might actually make money on the deal and help the housing recovery at precisely the right time for it: before the next wave of foreclosures hit. That way, the market can be more resilient when the next hit comes and absorb more losses.
Tags: fannie mae, Florida foreclosures, Freddie Mac, Oppenheim Law, President Obama
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, The Wall Street Journal | 3 Comments »
Friday, July 8th, 2011
Is homeownership still part of today’s American Dream? A recent article in the Wall Street Journal shared some old school advice on buying a home in today’s economy, more along the lines of Depression Era thinkers versus Baby Boomer spenders.
1. Buy what you can afford without scrimping on other needs. If you need to save for retirement or college, save. Don’t think your Florida home is going to pay for them.
2. If you need to move in less that seven years, then rent, don’t buy. You will be hard pressed to break even on your Florida home unless you live in it for a long time.
3. Values could stay depressed for many years. The only way you can plan to build equity in your Florida home is to pay down the mortgage.
Whether buying or selling a Florida short sale or foreclosure or renting; make smart decisions in light of today’s economy. Today’s housing market is still unraveling.
Tags: florida foreclosure, Florida real estate, Real Estate, The Wall Street Journal
Posted in Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Florida short sales, The Wall Street Journal | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
Word on the street is credit rating companies are committing mortgage fraud, and ‘the street’ is none other than Wall Street.
With a foreclosure fraud financial crisis this intense and prolific, there’s certainly enough blame to go around for everyone, but we have one more culprit to add to the list! News broke this week that the SEC is investigating and considering civil fraud charges against credit rating companies for their role as “key enablers” of our country’s financial meltdown.
Critics of the leading credit rating companies like Standard and Poor’s argue that these firms fueled the $1 trillion Wall Street mortgage-securities machine before the boom ended.
Regulators, however, should not be free from blame: there is clear evidence of incompetence and deliberate neglect by the SEC in keeping credit rating companies in line. The fact is that credit rating companies and the SEC itself have served as co-conspirators with Wall Street banks to bury us in this seemingly insurmountable hole.
According to the Wall Street Journal, SEC officials are finally investigating whether the ratings companies committed fraud by failing to do enough research to be able to adequately rate the pools of subprime mortgages and other loans that underpinned mortgage-backed securities.
Allegations continue to swirl that the credit rating companies relied on incomplete or out-of-date information about the pools of loans in the mortgage-backed securities or ignored obvious problems among subprime loans to give unduly high ratings to slices of deals, known as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), that were then sold to investors.
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Tags: Foreclosure Fraud Crisis, mortgage fraud, Wall Street Journal
Posted in Florida Law News, Foreclosure Fraud, Roy Oppenheim, The Wall Street Journal | 1 Comment »
Saturday, June 11th, 2011
Mortgage Rates Set Fresh 2011 Low After Jobs Report
Fixed rate home mortgage loans dropped for the eighth straight week to a new low for 2011 amid concerns of another economic slowdown this year, according to data from Freddie Mac and a report by The Wall Street Journal.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.49%, down from 4.55% last week and 2010’s 4.72% average. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages fell from 3.74% to 3.68%. 15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.17% in 2010.
Lawyers Get More Time to Finish Foreclosures
Florida foreclosure defense is translating into more time for plantiff bank attorneys to complete a foreclosure, according to an article in the Palm Beach Post.
Due to the reality of Florida’s overloaded court system and swirling questions surrounding the validity of foreclosure paperwork, Fannie Mae is now allowing bank attorneys up to 450 days (about 15 months) for lawyers to complete a foreclosure before fines are levied. The previous time limit was 185 days, or about six months.
The increased time needed to complete a foreclosure legally and correctly against a homeowner is due in large part to Florida foreclosure defense attorneys working to protect the rights of South Florida homeowners, according to Roy Oppenheim.
Obama Blames Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase for Modification Failures
The three largest U.S. mortgage lenders are getting some heat from the Obama administration for the failures of the federal foreclosure-prevention program, according to The Associated Press.
The lackluster performance of Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase with helping homeowners lower their mortgage payments has led the Obama administration to remove financial incentives it had given these lenders.
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Tags: AP, Associated Press, Bank of America, chase, economic slow down, Florida foreclosure news, Foreclosure News, Freddie Mac, HAMP, homeowners foreclose on banks, mortgage modifications, Obama, Obama Administration, real estate headline review, real estate headlines, The New York Times, The Palm Beach Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wells Fargo
Posted in Associated Press, Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Foreclosure Defense, International News, Loan Modification, Palm Beach Post, Roy Oppenheim, Short Sales, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
The good:
All we can say is, you never know!
When the real estate market collapsed, Miami’s downtown epitomized the worst excesses of the building boom. Glittering new towers sat mostly vacant. Today Miami’s downtown real estate is booming and bustling with life and commerce thanks to foreign investors and renters.
A report by the Miami Downtown Development Authority indicates that 85 percent of new condo units are occupied. Downtown Miami’s population now numbers about 70,000 compared to 40,000 ten years ago. In spite of Miami-Dade’s 13.2% unemployment rate, downtown bars, shops and restaurants buzz with activity at the end of the workday. Sales at the swank Icon Brickell average 47 units a month.
The bad:
Clearing the backlog of foreclosures slows again as some delinquent homeowners successfully maintain that their mortgage companies can’t prove they own the loans, therefore forfeiting their right to foreclose. After last fall’s robo-signing debacle, many homeowners are waking up and realizing their banks are guilty of sloppy practices at best and forgery at worst. Oppenheim Law continues to see banks dismiss foreclosures.
And the ugly:
Double Dip Housing is no Ameri-cone Dream
As South Florida housing prices hit a new low, the The New York Times and Wall Street Journal chime in unison with a cherry on top: Goodbye, American Dream. It seems renting is the new ‘black’ in real estate fashion as desperate sellers watch not-so-desperate buyers sit on the sidelines waiting for the bottom to hit; while they rent in Miami luxury.
The S&P/Case-Shiller National Index, released today, indicated prices nationwide fell 4.2% in the first quarter after declining 3.6% in the fourth quarter of 2010, in spite of increases in 2009 after the home buyer tax credit and early 2011.
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Tags: Brickell, foreclosures stall, how to defend against foreclosure, Miami, Miami Condo Market, Oppenheim Law, Real Estate, real estate recovery, RealtyTrac, Roy Oppenheim, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Trulia
Posted in Bank Fraud, Florida foreclosures, Florida real estate, Foreclosure Defense, Foreclosure Fraud, International News, Roy Oppenheim, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal | 3 Comments »
Over a year ago I felt compelled to call out The Wall Street Journal after a particular column really got under my skin.
