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Tag: mortgages

Foreclosure Settlement Filed; But Banks’ Crimes Go Largely Ignored

In the weeks after the mortgage settlement was announced by the Federal Government, I waited under baited breath to the see it in its entirety. Almost every week I read a different report stating the documents to finalize the settlement were about to be filed in court. And as each reported deadline came and went, I grew more and more […]

Friday Round-Up — Bank Of America Makes Deal; Return of Rocket Docket?; Foreclosed Military To Receive Pay Day

Fri Mar 9, 2012 by on Florida Law News

Bank of America to Reduce Principal For 200,000 Underwater Homeowners First some good news, if you’ve got an underwater mortgage owned by Bank of America. BofA has come to a separate agreement with the US government to to help reduce some the fines it owes to the Housing and Urban Development Agency from last month’s huge settlement. Bank of America […]

House Flippers Getting Mortgage Relief? Obama Expands HAMP

Homes need to be occupied. That is the bottom line. Today’s housing market needs a dramatic overhaul and it’s been long overdue for a fix. So we don’t have the time to be contemplating moral hazards anymore. So I’m OK with President Obama extending mortgage assistance to owners of multiple homes. According to Bloomberg, the administration will open up the […]

Settlement Or No Settlement; Homeowners You Must Stand Your Ground!

If there was anything positive that came out of the prolonged discussions between the states and the banks on the mortgage servicing settlement, it was that banks were reluctant to go full steam ahead in the foreclosure process while talks were ongoing. But even before the settlement was announced, we saw signs that pointed to more foreclosures in 2012. According […]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Past Their Prime

Wed Feb 15, 2012 by on Florida Law News

There were two players conspicuously absent when last week’s $25 Billion settlement was unveiled; two players that absolutely should have been front and center. What are their names? If you’ve followed the housing crisis as closely as we have, then you probably know. Our old and unwanted cousins Fannie and Freddie. Their omission from the settlement was perhaps its biggest […]

Eric Schneiderman: This Millennium's Elliot Ness?

We here at the South Florida Law Blog decided to clock in a few hours this weekend, because if we didn’t we’d probably fall behind President Obama’s new man-in-the trenches Eric Schneiderman. The New York Attorney General, only days into his appointment as the head of the newly-formed Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group has already issued subpoenas to 11 financial […]

Rewarding the Rascals: Banks and Mortgage Modifications

Everyone knows that hindsight is a wonderful thing. Now our friends at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston have issued a voluminous study of mortgage modifications during 2008. Until October 2008, the financial crisis had not reached full bloom. However, the study is extremely insightful into the rational behavior of banks and why mortgage modifications, up until now, have been […]

The Tipping Point: Rebirth of HOLC?

Wed Mar 11, 2009 by on Florida Foreclosures

As the economy continues to worsen and confidence generally erodes as reflected in part by the Dow Jones Index dropping 25 percent since the beginning of 2009, the question arises: is there indeed a magic bullet to turn the world economy around? Some have suggested that Wall Street’s exportation of toxic mortgage-backed securities to investors throughout the world was “evil […]