Robo Signer Banks Appear Before Congress
By Admin
This post at the Distressed Property Institute Blog summarizes the problems that mortgage servicers and banks may face as a result of foreclosure documentation irregularities.
Some of the nation’s largest banks will appear before the Senate Banking Committee today to explain their actions regarding the “robo-signing” scandal in which lenders allegedly filed thousands of inaccurate documents in foreclosure cases. This scandal initially led to the recent foreclosure freezes by major lenders.
A 125-page report just released by the Congressional Oversight Panel may influence the conversation on Capitol Hill. Alluding to the size, scope and potential large-scale consequences of this scandal, the report said: “If documentation problems prove to be pervasive and, more importantly, throw into doubt the ownership of not only foreclosed properties but also pooled mortgages, the consequences could be severe.”
CNNMoney.com reported the overall concern is that the “banks will be forced to buy back mortgages that had been bundled and sold in the $7.6 trillion market for Residential Mortgage Backed Securities, or RMBS. That could result in severe losses for the banks and destabilize the still-fragile financial system.”
Today’s appearances will include Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, and sessions will continue on Thursday. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on developments, what’s said, and the repercussions for real estate agents.
Related Articles
By hdnelson
Each month we try to compare some reports about the national real estate market to what we see in our local markets. While nationally the blog Calculated Risk reported that short sales increased significantly in the 4th quarter, we only saw 27% (a very modest rise if any) of last year’s short sales close in Q4. There was also a report from Marc Hanson that the percentage of REO (bank owned) sales In December fell in California as an overall percentage of sales in that market. In our market the number of closed sales that were bank owned rose from 38 in November to 43 in December (up 12%). Our market agrees with the article that $200-300k is the new normal for homebuilders. The article shows that the percentage of sales in the west under $300k was 42% in 2007, but is now 65%. In Kitsap County, the percentage of sales under $300k was 54% (1945 of 3615 total sales) in 2007 and in 2011 was 72% (1829 of 2538 total sales). More at http://tinyurl.com/7pljyjx
Read Story
By hdnelson
The number of closed sales in Kitsap County in January fell about 37% from December and was about 6% lower than a year ago. Pending sales rose about 42% compared to last month and were about 16% higher than a year ago. In December, there were 195 closed sales and 191 pending sales. In January there were 123 closed sales and 275 pending sales. 48% of the closed sales were distressed properties (compared to 32% last month). 46% of the pending sales were distressed properties (compared with 38% last month). Among closed distressed sales, bank owned sales were more than 3 times the number of short sales closed. This month we will report that the median price dropped sharply. This reflects the higher percentage of sales that were distress properties. More at http://www.prowserealestate.com/Blog/Kitsap-Real-Estate-Market-Report-February-2012
Read Story
By hdnelson
The influential real estate and economics blog Calculated Risk has posted that “The Housing Bottom is Here”. He differentiates between new home sales increasing - this is happening already - and housing prices reaching a bottom, which he thinks nationally will occur in March 2012.
There are several reasons I think that house prices are close to a bottom. First prices are close to normal looking at the price-to-rent ratio and real prices (especially if prices fall another 4% to 5% NSA between the November Case-Shiller report and the March report). Second the large decline in listed inventory means less downward pressure on house prices, and third, I think that several policy initiatives will lessen the pressure from distressed sales.
See http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/02/housing-bottom-is-here.html
Read Story
Reader Discussion
Be the first to comment, using the form below.