Posts Tagged ‘The New York Times’
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
‘Hope’ stands as a fleeting memory for most Americans as unemployment stagnates, housing prices fall and economic growth looms as a lofty promise unfulfilled. And as we get closer to the 2012 Presidential Election, it’s becoming clear that the ideological political landscape that dominated the 2008 election cycle will be eclipsed by a menacing elephant in the room: the economy.
The President is well aware of the uphill battle he faces when it comes to convincing voters and campaign financers that his economic policies and regulations have not only been what we needed the past three years, but also what we need in the next four. According to The New York Times, President Obama has already started reaching out to the skeptical financial industry on Wall Street, hoping to win back one of his most vital sources of campaign cash.
While many on Wall Street view the President’s financial rhetoric as unfair to their industry, his apparent goal is to prove that his fiscal policies have helped to bring the banks and financial markets back to health and toward sustained growth.
The argument goes that the economy would have been dramatically worse at this stage had the Obama administration not taken the action it did in the wake of the real estate and financial crisis.
But how do you prove a negative? You can’t.
Historically, recessions have been ended by a wave of homeowner refinancing that predictably follows a lowering of interest rates. The President faces a number of obstacles to accomplishing a refinancing boom, however.
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Tags: 2012 Election, economic news, Florida real estate, Hope, housing, load modifications, Obama, Oppenheim Law, political news, politics, presidential election, Roy Oppenheim, The New York Times, underwater homeowners, unemployment
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Foreclosure Fraud, International News, Loan Modification, Roy Oppenheim, The New York Times, Underwater Mortgage | 3 Comments »
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 8th, 2011
Nearly 40% of homeowners who took out a second mortgage are underwater on their loans, but the news surrounding second mortgages isn’t all doom and gloom for Floridians, says Florida foreclosure defense attorney Roy Oppenheim.
Second mortgages refer to any loan taken out on a property that is subordinate to the first mortgage, and include home-equity loans or lines of credit.
According to data from CoreLogic and The New York Times, homeowners with a second mortgage are two times more likely to be underwater on their property. CoreLogic’s data also shows that homeowners with second mortgages are facing deeper levels of negative equity in their homes – $83,000 compared with $52,000 – than borrowers without second mortgages.
The bright side is that Oppenheim Law is seeing massive principal reduction on second mortgages through loan modifications, according to Oppenheim. It’s becoming common for the Florida foreclosure defense law firm to negotiate up to 80% in principal reductions of second mortgages, a far greater percentage than first mortgages.
A vast majority of first mortgages were cut up, bundled and sold to investors as mortgage backed securities, the process that played such an enormous role in the Florida real estate crisis. On the other hand, nearly three-quarters of second mortgages are still held by the banks that made the original loans.
The good news for Florida homeowners is that these banks are beginning to treat second mortgages similarly to consumer credit card debt, accepting minimal “pay offs” to settle up with homeowners.
Homeowners who are willing to negotiate a “short payoff” can have tremendous success reducing their second mortgage principal by 50% to 80% and then paying off the remaining balance in cash. Banks are even starting to solicit Florida homeowners with second mortgages to make initial offers for 40% to 50% reductions, which Oppenheim Law is then able to negotiate to as much as 80%.
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Tags: CoreLogic, Florida Foreclosure Defense, Florida Foreclosure Defense Attorney, Florida short sale, Loan Modification, Oppenheim Law, Roy Oppenheim, second mortgages, short sale, south florida real estate, The New York Times, underwater homeowners
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Florida short sales, Foreclosure Defense, International News, Roy Oppenheim, Short Sales, strategic default, The New York Times | 2 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 »
Saturday, April 9th, 2011
The Florida Court system, including judges, nearly faced mandatory furloughs and unpaid vacations due to an emergency shortfall in its budget. Court employees faced up to 30 days of unpaid vacation through the end of May. The reason for the short fall was the precipitous drop in foreclosure filings, which generated the fees the courts relied upon for the majority of their budget. With the huge numbers of foreclosures in years past, the estimated revenue from the foreclosure fees meant that the Florida legislature allocated less money from the general state funds to the courts. This reliance on foreclosure filings fees resulted in the courts seeming a bit too amenable to the big banks and the rushing through of foreclosures that would have benefited from more scrutiny. Knowing that the courts were not examining the documents carefully, big banks were able to forge the required paperwork on a massive scale. The forging continued until the document mill scam was uncovered.
With the major banks virtually halting all of their foreclosures due to the document mill scandals, the fees have dried up and now we can see the impact of the courts falling asleep at the switch. The tremendous irony in the matter is that the failure of the courts to properly scrutinize fraudulent foreclosures, leading to the halting of new foreclosures and the drying up of the courts’ fees, would have lead to new foreclosures. Only this time, court employees would have been processing their own foreclosures. According to the Sun-Sentinel, most of the hardship of the court furloughs would’ve been felt by low income employees who are already struggling to make ends meet.
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Tags: Florida Foreclosure Defense, Florida foreclosures, mortgage fraud, Oppenheim Law, Real Estate, Roy Oppenheim, South Florida Business Journal, south florida real estate, subprime bonds, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Weston Title
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Foreclosure Defense, Foreclosure Fraud, Roy Oppenheim, Sun Sentinel | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
The government official who recently left office over the housing crisis is someone who actually fought for the people instead of laying the groundwork for a cushy job awaiting him in the private sector. Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for TARP resigned his post effective Wednesday, March 30. On his way out the door, he was still publicly arguing with the Treasury over the legacy of the $700 billion dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”).
Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com called Barofsky “easily one of the most impressive and courageous political officials in Washington” for his willingness to stand up to some of the most powerful people, institutions, and special interest lobbies in Washington and Wall Street.
On March 29, before his departure from office, he wrote a piece for the New York Times titled “Where the Bailout Went Wrong.” The piece, so vicious in its criticisms of the TARP program and politicians in Washington, prompted the Wall Street Journal to run excerpts from it along with their own commentary on the TARP fiasco.
Of the failed bailout Barofsky wrote:
“Two and a half years ago, Congress passed the legislation that bailed out the country’s banks. The government has declared its mission accomplished, calling the program remarkably effective ‘by any objective measure.’ On my last day as the special inspector general of the bailout program, I regret to say that I strongly disagree . . . Almost immediately [after passage], as permitted by the broad language of the act, Treasury’s plan for TARP shifted from the purchase of mortgages [that would have helped everyday homeowners] to the infusion of hundreds of billions of dollars into the nation’s largest financial institutions, a shift that came with the express promise that it would restore lending.”
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Tags: bailout, bailouts, economy, foreclosure crisis, Neil Barofsky, Obama, op-ed, Oppenheim Law, Roy Oppenheim, salon.com, TARP, The New York Times, Troubled Asset Relief Program, Where the Bailouts Went Wrong
Posted in Florida Law News, From the Heart, International News, Roy Oppenheim, Salon.com, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
Reporting on the winning and losing headlines, South Florida Law Blog brings you the break down and what this means to the Florida homeowner.
While South Florida is #1 for mortgage fraud and foreclosure settlement talks between banks and the Obama administration appear futile at best, this week’s new was not all doom and gloom.
Check out Oppenheim Law’s and Weston Title’s picks in the week’s winners and losers for Florida foreclosure, real estate and the economy.
Winners
Pending home sales up 18% in Miami-Dade
Pending home sales rose 18 percent in Miami-Dade County over the course of the past month, according to new data released today by the Miami Association of Realtors.
Pending home sales, which include single-family home and condominium unit sales, were also up 3.24 percent month-over-month in March, the figures show.
“Increased pending sales reflect the existence of pent-up demand and should result in strengthening home values as distressed housing inventory continues to be absorbed,” said Jack Levine, chairman of the board of Miami Realtors.
Hiring Shows Growing Strength
The American job market is starting to show some muscle, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The jobless rate, our most politically salient measure of economic health, edged down to 8.8% in the fourth consecutive monthly decline despite the fact that more Americans entered the job market.
“It’s a very solid report that shows the labor market gaining momentum,” said David Greenlaw, an economist with Morgan Stanley in New York.
The public sector remained a weak point, as local governments shed 15,000 jobs last month in an effort to close budget gaps, but many other sectors showed strong growth, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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Tags: Florida Foreclosure Defense, Florida foreclosures, mortgage fraud, Oppenheim Law, Real Estate, Roy Oppenheim, South Florida Business Journal, south florida real estate, subprime bonds, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Weston Title
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Florida short sales, Foreclosure Defense, Foreclosure Fraud, Roy Oppenheim, Short Sales, South Florida Business Journal, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Weston Title & Escrow | No Comments »
