Chain of Title is the dramatic true story of how, in the depths of the Great Recession, a nurse, a car dealership worker, and a forensic expert helped uncover the largest consumer crime in American history—a scandal that implicated dozens of major executives on Wall Street. They called it foreclosure fraud: millions of families were kicked out of their homes based on false evidence by mortgage companies that had no legal right to foreclose. Dayen, a contributing writer to Salon and a weekly columnist for the Fiscal Times, recounts how these three ordinary Floridians challenged the most powerful institutions in America armed only with the truth. According to Dayen’s editor, New Press editorial director Carl Bromley, “Chain of Title is a remarkable work of narrative nonfiction that tells the story of regular Americans who decide to fight rather than fold before Wall Street. Recalling the humanism of Studs…

1. Over 98,000 “bad” mortgages have been sold to investors through a government program since 2010.

2. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sells mortgages to investors at a steep discount — at times as little as 41 percent of the mortgages’ collective value.

3. Homeowners typically aren’t informed when their mortgages are sold. This prevents them from advocating for better terms, which they’re entitled to under Federal Housing Administration protection.

4. Wall Street investors pay only two-thirds* of the full mortgage value when they buy mortgages from the government (*median price).

5. Homeowners aren’t so lucky: they must pay about 124 percent* of the property value to keep their homes(*median price).

Read on.

Living the thug life….

The sale of a luxury ranch owned by former Lehman Brothers Chief Executive Officer Dick Fuld just set a new record for the most expensive property ever sold via auction, according to a report from CNBC.

Fuld’s ranch, a 71-acre spread called Big Wood River Estate, has 11 bedrooms between three houses and comes with 2,100 feet of riverfront land.  The ranch is located in Sun Valley, Idaho.

In observance of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, my office will be closed Wednesday, September 23. The following article was scheduled in advance:

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See Anh N. Tran, et al. v. Bank of New York SCOTUS Certiorari_SRCH

READ THE ENTIRE BRIEF SLOWLY AND STUDY IT.

I think we have another case here where the pen of Justice Scalia (if they grant the writ and hear the case) will be dripping with sarcasm , just like we saw in Jesinoski. The New York Law says that the “transfer” to the REMIC Trust is void if it violates the terms of the Pooling and Servicing Agreement. The problem for the banks is that they MUST rely on the PSA in order to give standing to their trustee and servicer. If the trust does not have the loan, then the trustee has no authority over the loan and neither does the servicer…

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…