"Underwater mortgages hurt Nevada tax revenues" by Jennifer Oldham | Bloomberg News, September 23, 2012
DENVER — ‘‘There are so many people like me who aren’t paying their mortgage so they can buy groceries and gas,’’ said Tamara Harris, who was rejected for loan modification programs. ‘‘It’s creating this whole false economy.’’
Must be the nonexistent recovery she's talking about.
As the nation emerges from the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, Nevada remains the only state in which the total value of single-family homes is less than the amount owed on them, according to second-quarter statistics released by CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, Calif., firm....
Lawmakers say they are concerned that public-sector job reductions will contribute to a second wave of foreclosures in an economy already reeling from the nation’s worst unemployment rate. They are working on programs to help homeowners like Harris....
‘‘You really can’t fix the economy until you fix housing,’’ said Terry Johnson, director of Nevada’s Department of Business & Industry. ‘‘If you are a business person, you want to know if there will continue to be demand for goods and services. If purchasing power is being curtailed by negative equity, you think about that.’’
Homebuilders think the inventory of existing homes is being suppressed by a law enacted last year that requires banks to present the original deeds of trust before starting foreclosures, said John Oceguera, the Nevada State Assembly speaker and a congressional candidate....
The guy is complaining that fraudulent foreclosures are down even as the banks hold properties off the market to keep prices up.
Lawmakers and banks need to discuss a program that would reduce the principal homeowners like Harris owe on underwater mortgages in exchange for the lending institution receiving part of the profit when a house sells, he said....
Once again, the banks are HELPING THEMSELVES!
‘‘If you were to walk through the building you would see office after office after office that’s empty,’’ said Susan Brager, the commission’s chairman, who also owns a home that she says is worth half of what she paid for it. ‘‘It creates a cycle. The more people who are laid off, the more homes go into foreclosure, and the more people don’t buy dishwashers and cars.’’
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Gee, I thought banks were our friends.
At least that's not the case in good ol' Mass.:
"Write-downs give some homeowners a break; Pushed by government incentives and political pressure, mortgage lenders are forgiving millions in loans" by Jenifer B. McKim | Globe Staff, October 07, 2012
BROCKTON — The loan modifications are part of a federal government-driven campaign to help “underwater” borrowers — people who owe more than their homes are worth — and deal with the long-lingering foreclosure crisis.
Yup, there is that federal government coming to help. Go tell it to the Robbins.
Lenders, who have traditionally resisted wiping out mortgage debt, are now forgiving millions of dollars in loans, pushed by government incentives, political pressure, and a $25 billion settlement between five major lenders and 49 attorneys general....
But there is still disagreement among policy makers, economists, and housing advocates over the benefits of principal write-downs.
Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, prompted a political backlash in July when he rejected a US Treasury plan to give the taxpayer-controlled lenders money to fund write-downs.
In a letter to Congress, DeMarco allowed that up to 248,000 borrowers could be eligible for help, saving taxpayers as much as $500 million. Nonetheless, he turned down the plan saying it “would not make a meaningful improvement in reducing foreclosures in a cost effective way for taxpayers.”
I keep telling you the government works for the banks, not you. It's no big $ecret why anymore.
Specifically, he warned of added administrative costs and the potential for “moral hazard,” meaning that by forgiving debt for some homeowners, the government might encourage others to default on their mortgages so they, too, could receive bailouts....
Translation: WALL STREET BANKS GET CONTINUOUS BAILOUTS with YOUR MONEY for all their fraud and deception while you do NOT, Amurkn!
Despite DeMarco’s stance, the number of principal write-downs is expected to swell as lenders work to meet guidelines of the national agreement reached in February between attorneys general and five major US banks over alleged foreclosure fraud and sloppy paperwork.
I love the way the monied mouthpiece minimizes the massively criminal foreclosure fraud scheme.
The Treasury Department in February also tripled financial incentives for lenders to offer principal write-downs to homeowners as part of the federal Making Home Affordable program.
Oh, the BANKERS had to be BOUGHT OFF to DO the RIGHT THING!!!
Related: Obama's Foreclosure Failure
And nothing has changed in nearly three years.
“There’s a very robust debate going on about the place that principal reduction can have in working out problems in the housing and mortgage market,’’ said Joe Smith, monitor of the North Carolina-based Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight, which is overseeing the bank settlement. “The experience (in coming months) we have will help inform that discussion.”
Five years after the crash. Little late, donchathink?
The settlement with Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citibank, and Ally Financial Inc., owner of GMAC Mortgage, requires about $10 billion in principal write-downs over the next three years....
Chump change when you consider those banks make about twice that in profit each quarter.
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"Consumers are flocking to shorter loan terms; Refinancing priorities take turn toward caution" by Jenifer B. McKim | Globe Staff, October 14, 2012
As mortgage interest rates fall further into uncharted territory, more homeowners in Massachusetts and across the United States are refinancing home loans to shorter terms, paying off their debts faster and saving thousands of dollars.
Economists say the trend indicates that lowering long-term debt has become a bigger priority for many borrowers than cutting monthly mortgage payments.
“You see people more averse to debt generally,” said Mike Fratantoni, vice president of research and economics for the Mortgage Bankers Association, a trade group based in Washington. “There has been a lot learned about the cost of taking on too much.”
Meaning they don't want to borrow from the bank (blog editor smiles).
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Refinancing has surged over the last few weeks following another drop in rates spurred by last month’s Federal Reserve decision to keep buying mortgage-backed securities on a monthly basis.
Yup, WALL STREET is back to the SAME OLD SHENANIGANS and the Fed is PRINTING MONEY to BUY the CRAP!
And you WONDER WHY PRICES keep RISING, Americans?
The Fed’s aim is to inject money into the economy by keeping downward pressure on mortgage rates....
And THAT CAUSES INFLATION, folks -- meaning YOUR BUCK has LESS PURCHASING POWER!
Shorter loan terms also mean buyers pay less interest over the life of a loan, a savings that can be huge....
And that NEVER MAKES USURIOUS BANKS HAPPY!
Amy Tierce, a regional vice president at Fairway Independent Mortgage in Needham, counsels borrowers who are on tight budgets to opt for reduced payments and longer terms. She recommends that mortgage holders pay off all other debts and save six months worth of monthly expenses before considering a truncated loan term....
If they could save money they wouldn't be in this position.
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More financially stressed homeowners in Massachusetts and across the country are getting mortgage loan modifications that cut their payments enough to keep them from falling into foreclosure, according to federal data and local housing specialists....
The improving success rate for modifications comes as banks are under mounting pressure from federal and state officials to offer real relief to borrowers in danger of losing their homes. Although lenders prefer not to make any loan concessions, they also are increasingly interested in avoiding more foreclosures, which have hurt their profits in recent years....
What an absolute load of BS that paragraph is.
Bryan Hubbard, spokesman for the Office of the Comptroller, said the rate of on-time payments has steadily improved as banks, pushed by regulators, have become agreeable to providing assistance that is more substantive than symbolic....
Some local nonprofits say lenders have become even more willing to rework loans since a $25 billion multistate settlement was reached earlier this year between attorneys general and five major US banks over accusations of sloppy and fraudulent mortgage practices....
Yeah, but they want to avoid foreclosures (sigh).
Related: Coakley Caves
That is what democratically-elected governments do in the face of big banks.
Paul Willen, senior economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said the growing success of loan modifications is a sign of an improving economy. ‘‘The good news is that the foreclosure crisis is ebbing,’’ he said.
A few years ago, with the US unemployment rate at 10 percent, loan modifications often proved to be a temporary fix, he said. The modest payment reductions offered by lenders then were not enough to keep out-of-work property owners from ultimately defaulting.
‘‘There was a time when helping out borrowers was a hopeless job,’’ Willen said....
Yeah, the poor, altruistic, selfless banks.
Despite the progress in making loans more affordable, there are still myriad complaints about lenders’ efforts. For instance, some borrowers say companies ask for the same documents over and over, delaying loan decisions for months. Gary Klein, a Boston attorney who has filed many cases against major banks over foreclosure practices, said lenders too often steer borrowers away from Home Affordable Modification Program deals....
But DON'T LET THAT SPOIL the MSM's AGENDA-PUSHING SLOP!
Eliza Parad, an organizer with the nonprofit activist group Chelsea Collaborative, which helps troubled homeowners, said even borrowers with HAMP loans are wary because those modifications can add years to loan terms and require a large payment at the end....
But the banks and government are HELPING YOU!!
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Also see: Mortgage Modification Mess
The Help Homeowners Got
With help like that....
"Top mortgage banks report record profits" by Christina Rexrode and Daniel Wagner | Associated Press, October 13, 2012
NEW YORK — Is the mortgage market really back?
The country’s two biggest mortgage lenders, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, reported Friday that a surge in home lending pushed them to record profits.
JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon declared that the housing market ‘‘has turned the corner.’’
Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf said that ‘‘every quarter, we have more confidence.’’
************************
There were signs, though, that the boom isn’t as strong as it might seem.
The large majority of mortgage lending was driven not by people buying new homes but by owners refinancing mortgages, which is less helpful to the housing market.
The business was also propped up by government programs, like a federal initiative meant to encourage refinancing, and the Federal Reserve’s pledge to buy more mortgage-backed bonds.
The banks’ mortgage units are also a magnet for legal disputes, with both banks facing new mortgage-related lawsuits just this month. And nobody knows how long the revenue gains will last....
Still, the numbers were eye-catching, and it’s all against a backdrop of signs nationwide that the fractured housing market could be healing. A Federal Reserve survey earlier this week found that a stronger housing market helped economic growth in almost every part of the country. Home sales are up, prices are rising more consistently in most places, and builders are more confident....
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Well, there is always public housing:
"Barely supervised, some housing chiefs stray badly; Globe review finds a system vulnerable to incompetence, indolence, and worse" by Sean P. Murphy and Scott Allen | Globe Staff, October 14, 2012
Easton’s former housing director spent hours at work sending flirtatious e-mails to various men, then resigned before an audit last June showed she had badly neglected the apartment buildings she was supposed to manage. By then, Susan Horner had a new job: teaching other housing officials how to improve their performance.
What I've come to learn over these last six years is GOVERNMENT is simply ONE LONG PARTY for ADMINISTRATORS!
The housing director in Winchester has a second full-time job as a courthouse lawyer, requiring him to be away from the housing authority for 31.5 hours a week the last three years. When the law office learned about Joseph M. Lally’s second job, it froze his pay and launched an audit of his work. But Winchester officials did nothing, saying they’re satisfied Lally gets his town work done on nights and weekends.
How much taxpayer loot is he getting for a part-time job?
Peabody’s former housing director resigned after TV cameras caught him spending much of the work week in local sports bars and social clubs in 2009. Nonetheless, the housing authority board let Frank Splaine stay on the payroll for five extra months, helping to boost his pension, and gave him a $27,000 severance check to boot.
Like I have said, GOVERNMENT SERVICE is ONE BIG PARTY -- even here is Democratic Massachusetts!
Housing directors face remarkably little accountability for their work managing housing for more than 300,000 elderly and low-income people in Massachusetts, a Boston Globe investigation has found. Though the federal and state governments pump $1.2 billion a year into local housing budgets, oversight comes from local boards mainly chosen by mayors or in little-noticed elections. All too often, no one is sharply focused on how money — or time — is spent.
In the worst cases, tenants pay the price for inattentive or indifferent management, enduring leaky roofs, bad heating, rodent infestation, and other hardships.
“Housing authorities are off the books, as far as state and local scrutiny is concerned,” said Barbara Sard, a former senior policy adviser to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development now with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank in Washington.
The scandal in Chelsea, where former housing director Michael E. McLaughlin is suspected of diverting millions from renovation funds to pay for his lavish salary and other perks, may be the most serious breach of trust in public housing since 2004, when Springfield housing director Raymond Asselin and four members of his family went to prison for running a $1 million system of bribes and kickbacks.
The scandals in both cities speak to the vulnerability of housing authorities to fraud and abuse, sometimes taking advantage of regulators who seem to be looking the other way. Until the Globe revealed McLaughlin’s $360,000 salary in November 2011, he consistently earned “high performer” awards from HUD, which entitled him to reduced oversight of his work. The agency showered similar accolades on the Medford Housing Authority under director Robert Covelle, who resigned last spring amid charges that he illegally funneled work to friends and family.
Likewise, Horner, the former Easton housing director, had been named Massachusetts “member of the year” by the state’s public housing officials in 2009, the year before she resigned after her racy work-time e-mails were revealed. HUD officials had raised concerns about Horner’s poor leadership as early as 2005, but did little more than ask her to submit improvement plans — something she apparently never did.
An Easton housing board member, Thomas Downey, said the state was no help either.
Downey said he tried for years to get the state Department of Housing and Community Development to pay attention to the festering problems, including Horner’s frequent absences and the deteriorating condition of the apartments. But he couldn’t even persuade state officials to appoint a state representative to the five-member Easton board as the law requires, thus denying the board the potential tie-breaking vote on firing Horner. The position remained vacant for seven years.
Hey, at least they help the homeless here.
“They knew” what a bad job Horner was doing, said Downey, who was elected to the Easton board in 2007. “It went on for a long time before I began making noise . . . The state knew and allowed it to go on.”
Contacted at her home, Horner declined to comment.
But state officials say they have limited influence over housing directors, who owe more allegiance to their local boards and political sponsors than to state bureaucrats and often regard themselves as political powers in their own right.
McLaughlin, the former Chelsea chief, forged close political ties to Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray, hosting fund-raisers and urging his employees and tenants to attend political events for Murray and Governor Deval Patrick. Now, two grand juries are investigating whether McLaughlin broke the law — Murray himself had to answer questions under oath as part of the state investigation — since housing directors are legally banned from political fund-raising.
Related: Murray's Moment
It's gone. Forget about governor, scum.
For years, McLaughlin’s work for Murray gave him a powerful ally he
could turn to for favors — such as helping his son obtain a state job —
or advice, exchanging nearly 200 cellphone calls with Murray in 2010 and
2011.
In Easton, state housing officials proved to be deferential to
Horner. They pointedly say it was up to the local board — not them — to
fire Horner if they were unsatisfied. However, the Housing and Community
Development Department officials also concede that the problems reflect
a bigger issue.
“There is clearly a need to reform the public housing system to increase accountability at local housing authorities for executive directors and board members in order to protect taxpayer dollars and ensure that residents are getting the services they need,” it said in a statement.
Since the Chelsea controversy erupted, state auditor Suzanne Bump has intensified her review of housing authority finances, issuing several tough reports over the past year, including the audit of Easton that found 23 problems, ranging from unsanitary apartments to money missing from the laundry room.
But the watchdog agency is trying to overcome a troubling history: Bump’s predecessor, A. Joseph DeNucci, failed through repeated audits over a decade to detect enormous financial irregularities in Springfield under Asselin or in Chelsea under McLaughlin.
Critics say that part of the problem in Massachusetts is the huge number of housing authorities — 242 — each run like a separate fiefdom, with its own board and a chief often selected for political rather than managerial skills. Only the state of Texas has more housing authorities than Massachusetts, making state or federal oversight of each individual authority challenging.
The vast number of authorities also strains the leadership talent pool, requiring 1,210 board members statewide. Many board members provide little real oversight — the five-member Chelsea board, which resigned en masse in 2011, didn’t even know how much they were paying McLaughlin — while others show signs of serious dysfunction.
At the tiny Georgetown housing authority, the executive director and two board members nearly came to blows during a 2010 confrontation in director Diane Jodoin’s office over how checks were being handled. Jodoin and Bertha Foster, then 78, and Kay Ogden, then 61, ended up swapping charges of kidnapping, harassment, and assault and battery in Haverhill District Court.
“I thought they were going to kill me,” Jodoin testified, explaining that she used her hands to move Foster aside when the pair tried to block her from leaving.
“She loses her temper,” Foster countered in an interview. “She just shoved me out of the way and slapped away my hand. She has a temper; let’s face it.”
To defuse the crisis, state officials placed Jodoin on paid leave while they conducted a 17-week investigation that blamed both sides for being “frequently confrontational.” Jodoin was reinstated, though investigators faulted her for withholding key information from her board. The criminal charges were dropped.
But that didn’t end Georgetown’s dysfunction: In 2011, board chairwoman Martha Robertson, a close ally of Jodoin, had to resign after pleading guilty to her third operating under the influence offense.
Robertson came to meetings reeking of what smelled like alcohol, board member Ed Kiley said.
“She was kind of silly at meetings,” Kiley recalled. “She had a plastic cup and a straw. When you got up close, you could smell it.”
Robertson could not be reached for comment. Local police who reviewed meeting videotapes said they could reach no conclusion on Robertson’s condition.
But when Patrick, furious over McLaughlin’s conduct in Chelsea, attempted to increase the professionalism of housing authorities by reducing their numbers, the idea was rejected almost immediately by the panel Patrick assembled to consider housing reforms. Patrick argued that a smaller number of regional authorities would be more cost-effective and accountable.
“The interests are just too entrenched to make it happen,” said one commission participant, who asked not to be identified for fear of alienating others on the panel. “You would have a thousand commissioners calling their state reps and senators complaining bitterly.”
Patrick settled for recommending more training for board members and a proposal to set up a new agency that could provide administrative support for authorities with fewer than 200 units, including Georgetown.
The Patrick administration plans to file a comprehensive bill on housing authorities governance in January.
Whatever the cause, Massachusetts now has numerous public housing directors who apparently have considerable time on their hands: McLaughlin worked only 15 full days in the office in 2011, based on a Globe review of cellphone records. In Peabody, WHDH-TV filmed former director Splaine frequenting Champions Pub and the Italian American Club on five days in 2009 when he claimed to be working.
Splaine did not return telephone calls. A lawyer for McLaughlin declined to comment.
McLaughlin’s close friend Kenneth Martin, meanwhile, has time enough to be the full-time housing director in Methuen and part-time director in Ayer, jobs that require a combined 57.5 hours a week and allow him to get around the statewide $160,000 cap on director’s pay. The two authorities pay Martin a combined $184,000 and, under his contracts, neither can dismiss him without paying him several years’ salary.
Joseph Lally in Winchester claims to work even more than Martin: a stunning 69 hours a week over the last three years between his $73,000 job in Winchester and his $82,000 post representing low-income people in court for the Committee for Public Counsel Services.
Lally, 59, acknowledged in an interview that his schedule is exhausting, but he insisted he is “fulfilling my obligations” to both the housing agency and his clients.
And Lally’s board said it sees no reason to question Lally’s second job as a lawyer.
“He’s a hard worker,” said Laura Glynn, the Winchester board chairwoman. “I really don’t care what he does in his off hours so long as” the agency is well-run.
But the public defenders’ office apparently did not know that he was also a housing director, and officials there immediately began an investigation when they found out.
The Committee for Public Counsel Services “has withheld all payments and all new case assignments to Attorney Lally pending completion of our audit,” wrote William E. Shay, director of audits at the public defenders’ office in a statement to the Globe on Oct. 4.
That same day, Lally called Glynn to announce his retirement after 11 years on the job — effective Oct. 5.
Susan Horner’s nearly 20-year tenure as housing director in Easton came to a similarly abrupt end when her husband provided board members with the text of e-mails using the screen name “EastonHA.”
“She is using Easton’s e-mail address to meet men for sexual relations and is doing it during company time,” wrote Mark Horner in January 2010 to board member Downey. The couple has since divorced.
The e-mails, obtained by the Globe, cover the last few months of 2009, showing Horner engaged in extensive discussions of sex and dating with several men....
Mark Horner suggests Susan Horner’s misdeeds may have been more serious than inattentiveness: He showed a reporter a tractor with a “property of Easton Housing Authority” sticker on it at the North Attleborough home the couple once shared.
Authority records show that it was purchased for $7,500 in 2001 and “disposed” later for a sale price of zero.
Greg Horne, the housing agency’s maintenance director, said he had no idea what happened to the tractor, but Mark Horner said it had been at his house for years, used to cut the grass and clear snow. He said his ex-wife claimed it was surplus....
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