heads up from ALTA...eminent domain considered for underwater mortgages.....that's CRAZY!!!!

ALTA Joins Coalition Opposing Use of Eminent Domain for Underwater Mortgages
A private investment firm is working to set up deals in Richmond, California, and North Las Vegas, Nevada, asking the cities to use eminent domain to buy out underwater mortgages. Under this scenario, the private investment firm, Mortgage Resolution Partners (MRP), would then resell the property. The concern is that the properties will be undervalued and the original investors that own the mortgages are left holding the bag. Last week, ALTA joined a coalition of industry partners in opposing this Advisory Services Agreement.

The California letter is available here and the Nevada letter can be read here.

The coalition stated, “We believe that the MRP proposal raises very serious legal and constitutional issues. No jurisdiction has ever used eminent domain to acquire underwater mortgages in securitized pools. Such a novel use of the eminent domain powers is unprecedented and would, in our view, not survive the multiple legal challenges that would ensue.”

For more information on this issue, please contact ALTA’s director of state government affairs, Madeleine Nagy.

Have you read this book, Other People's Money?

I am reading it but I confess that I got stuck about halfway through and haven't felt like finishing it.  It's well written, don't get me wrong, but it's not the book I thought it would be.  I thought it would be an interesting story about the housing crisis but so far it's nostalgia for a NYC housing development interspersed with an anti-capitalist undertone.

I'll be back to comment again after I finish the book but for now I'd say it is less about the housing crisis and more about the ever changing value of real property and how unless you have control over the land beneath your feet, you are vulnerable to losing it.  That's life and that has nothing to do with what we went through these last several years.

fines levied for illegal kickback affiliations

The CFPB cited the following firms: Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., United Guaranty Corp., Radian Guaranty Inc. and Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp.

The consumer agency claims the four insurers received lucrative business referrals from lenders by purchasing captive reinsuance that the CFPB has deemed "essentially worthless but was designed to make a profit for the lenders."

As part of the deal, the insurers have agreed to end the practice, paying $15 million in penalties and undergoing constant monitoring by the CFPB.

http://www.housingwire.com/news/2013/04/04/breaking-four-mortgage-insurers-pay-15-million-cfpb-action

Sure...let's make the same damn mistake again....sure.

The Obama administration is engaged in a broad push to make more home loans available to people with weaker credit, an effort that officials say will help power the economic recovery but that skeptics say could open the door to the risky lending that caused the housing crash in the first place.

President Obama’s economic advisers and outside experts say the nation’s much-celebrated housing rebound is leaving too many people behind, including young people looking to buy their first homes and individuals with credit records weakened by the recession.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-administration-pushes-banks-to-make-home-loans-to-people-with-weaker-credit/2013/04/02/a8b4370c-9aef-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_story.html

PS - The comment section is great.  ;)

I don't know about you, but I'm loving...

that all the title insurance trade papers are talking about best practices and escrow account management rather than how to create affiliations and joint ventures.

Hallelujah.