This is a definitely a nightmare. The Dodd-Frank bill is not strengthen to include hedge funds into mortgage guidelines. Banks and non-banks are held accountable for their actions on mortgages. Now add hedge funds to the list.

Seven years after the real estate market crashed, major investors are again buying mortgages by the thousands. This time, they are buying from the government — at a significant discount. 

Emilie Udell for the Center for Public Integrity

Julius Uwansc was in trouble with his mortgage after refinancing in 2009, just after the real estate bubble popped. Like millions of others, he found himself owing more on his house than it was worth.

The Nigerian-born father of four moved into his house on Richardson Road in Gwynn Oak, Maryland, in 2005. “We loved it because it has this big yard where the kids can play,” Uwansc says.

But soon after closing on the…

By Andy Metzger, Matt Murphy and Michael Norton STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, SEPT. 17, 2015…..The Senate took a big step on Thursday toward giving some legal assurances to those who purchase homes in foreclosure, a controversial step opposed by the branch’s liberal wing. On a 31 to 7 vote in its first formal session since July, the Senate passed a measure that would limit property title challenges to a three-year window going forward. The bill now goes to the House.

Source: Foreclosure title clearing bill clears Senate | masslive.com

Great job David Dayen!

A Seattle housing activist on Wednesday uploaded an explosive land-record audit that the local City Council had been sitting on, revealing its far-reaching conclusion: that all assignments of mortgages the auditors studied are void.

That makes any foreclosures in the city based on these documents illegal and unenforceable, and makes the King County recording offices where the documents are located a massive crime scene.

The problems stem from the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems(MERS), an entity banks created so they could transfer mortgages privately, saving them billions of dollars in transfer fees to public recording offices. In Washington state, MERS’ practices were found illegal by the State Supreme Court in 2012. But MERS continued those practices with only cosmetic changes, the audit found.

That finding has national implications. Every state has its own mortgage laws, and some of the audit’s conclusions may not necessarily apply elsewhere…

A former paralegal at a personal injury firm forged the signatures of 76 state Supreme Court justices to create more than 100 bogus judicial orders in structured settlement matters, prosecutors allege.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office said Thomas Rubino, while a paralegal at Paris & Chaikin, forged 117 orders that purported to be judicial orders authorizing the transfer of structured settlement rights.

See Indictment, Statement of Facts, and Voluntary Disclosure Form.

Rubino, 42, pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Wednesday on 117 counts of second-degree forgery and 117 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.

Both are D felonies, which carry statutory maximums of 2 1/3 to 7 years.

Read more: http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/id=1202737413993/Paralegal-Indicted-for-Forging-Signatures-of-76-Judges#ixzz3m41hiDAq

Originally posted on Findsen Law:Harvard Amicus Brief on MERS Some of the best quotes, Mortgage servicing companies, banks, courts and government agencies haveall expressed astonishment at the extent to which MERS database is inaccurate. (p. 24) “Simply put, ‘MERS is the Wikipedia of land registration systems.’ Culhane v. Aurora Loan Services, 826 F. Supp.…

https://findsenlaw.wordpress.com/2015/09/16/mers-lacks-legal-authority-and-public-accountability-2/

After raising the benchmark interest rate for its standard modification program twice in the last three months,Fannie Mae is set to drop the benchmark rate back down to the lowest level it’s ever been.

Beginning Sept. 15, Fannie Mae will lower its required interest rate for standard modifications from 4.25% to 4%.

The standard modification rate has only been that low three other times since the modification interest rate was first established in Jan. 2012.

Read on.