Daily News related to the Foreclosure Crisis

The biggest unpunished heist in human history - Max Keiser

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09/25/24

More Americans At Risk of Losing Their Homes This Year Than Last
More Americans are at risk of losing their homes this year compared to 2023, according to new mortgage data from Intercontinental Exchange. While the delinquency rate dropped in August, it was still 5 percent higher than last year, indicating more Americans might be having trouble paying off their mortgages in 2024.
The national delinquency rate fell three basis points to 3.34 percent last month, declining by 0.9 percent from July. And the number of borrowers with a single payment past due dropped by 26,000, but those who had 60-day delinquencies rose by 1,000, the report found. "Although foreclosure rates are still below pre-pandemic levels, there has been a slight uptick in serious delinquencies," Kevin Thompson, a finance expert and the founder and CEO of 9i Capital Group, told Newsweek.
"This could be attributed to rising mortgage payments. For many Americans, the increasing costs of insurance and property taxes are pushing their overall payments higher than they had anticipated."
There was bad news for serious delinquencies too. That number, which encompasses loans 90 days or more past due but not in active foreclosure, increased by 14,000, reaching a six-month high.

09/23/24

Wall Street Has Moved Vast Sums of Its Trading to Its Federally-Insured Banks
Taxpayer-backstopped federal deposit insurance at commercial banks in the U.S. was never meant to be a get-rich scheme for the wild and voracious appetites of traders on Wall Street. But a quarterly report produced by the federal regulator of national banks – those operating across state lines – shows that vast amounts of trading on Wall Street is now taking place inside the federally-insured commercial banks that are owned by the trading powerhouses on Wall Street: JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America. (Wall Street trading houses have been allowed to own federally-insured banks since the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 under the Wall Street friendly Bill Clinton administration.)

09/19/24

The Stock Market Had a Psychotic Episode After the Fed Rate Cut Yesterday, Plunging 479 Points from the Day’s High
The Federal Reserve yesterday cut its benchmark interest rate, the Fed Funds rate, for the first time in four years. The cut was by half a point rather than the customary quarter point increments typical of Fed rate moves. Only one member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), Michelle Bowman, voted against the action. Bowman wanted a quarter point cut according to the FOMC announcement. A Fed rate cut of a quarter point to a half point was widely anticipated by the market, so the stock market’s wild swings were puzzling to veteran Wall Street watchers.

09/16/24

Everything this Book Predicted on Wall Street Megabanks Ruling their Regulators Is Now Unfolding
It is rare for a book to be so comprehensive and insightful that it provides a roadmap for the future – especially when its cast of characters are the lawyered-up megabanks on Wall Street and their legions of lobbyists and public relations flacks. We’re referring to Taming the Megabanks: Why We Need a New Glass-Steagall Act by Arthur E. Wilmarth, Professor Emeritus of Law at George Washington University.

09/12/24

U.S. FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY DECLINES BOTH MONTHLY AND ANNUALLY IN AUGUST 2024
IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data and analytics, today released its August 2024 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 30,227 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — down 5.3 percent from a month ago and down 11 percent from a year ago.
"Foreclosure activity has remained relatively steady in recent months, with both foreclosure starts and completed foreclosures declining in August," said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. "While overall activity is significantly lower than the peaks seen during the 2008 financial crisis, when filings exceeded 300,000 per month, the current economic environment, coupled with rising interest rates and affordability challenges, suggests a continued focus on potential housing market instability."
Nevada, Florida, and Illinois post highest foreclosure rates Nationwide, one in every 4,662 housing units had a foreclosure filing in August 2024. States with the highest foreclosure rates were Nevada (one in every 2,473 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Florida (one in every 2,605 housing units); Illinois (one in every 2,837 housing units); South Carolina (one in every 2,877 housing units); and New Jersey (one in every 3,227 housing units).

09/12/24

Bankruptcy in Real Estate: What to Do When Faced with Foreclosure?
This episode of “Terra Firma: Conversations on Commercial Real Estate” features hosts Stacey C. Tyler and Stephen Tanico talking with Eric Chafetz, partner in Lowenstein’s Bankruptcy and Restructuring Group, about office market bankruptcies, and what to do when a building is going into foreclosure. Eric explains that, because creditors are required to stop a foreclosure proceeding when a single asset real estate company files for bankruptcy, they are seeking the benefit of an automatic stay and the related breathing room to try to work out their affairs and maximize value—often through recapitalization or a sale. The discussion covers such topics as the section 363 sale process, including where a nontraditional finance source purchases the debt at a discounted price; the benefits of a foreclosure sale; and the implications of a receivership. The lawyers also address the speed of bankruptcy proceedings, the importance of venue, and the growing role of hedge funds at the intersection of real estate and bankruptcy.

09/12/24

The Fed Just Kicked the Capital Increases for the Dangerous Megabanks and their Derivatives Down the Road for Years
When the next megabank blows up from its derivative exposure, you can add the names Jamie Dimon and Patick McHenry to former Republican Congressmen Randy Hultgren and Kevin Yoder as four of the men who greased the skids for another derivatives banking crisis. (For our report on the role played by Hultgren and Yoder, see our 2021 report here.) Dimon and McHenry are the latest lead players in the disastrous history of derivative regulation in the U.S.

09/06/24

Bradley Comment Letter Highlights Questions Regarding the CFPB’s Statutory Authority to Issue Contemplated Mortgage Servicing Rulemaking
On July 10, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a proposal to amend the existing mortgage servicing rules in Regulation X. The substance of the proposal has attracted a lot of attention and deservedly so. If enacted, the proposed rule would completely overhaul the default servicing framework in Regulation X and institute mandatory translation and interpretation requirements for certain written and oral disclosures. However, many servicers are also concerned about whether the CFPB has the requisite statutory authority to enact these proposals. We analyzed the CFPB’s purported authority for this proposal under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) and believe that there is significant risk that a court would find that the CFPB lacks the authority to issue rules governing default-related servicing and translation and interpretation services. We explain this analysis in a comment letter that we recently filed and submitted to the CFPB on behalf of a group of mortgage servicer clients.

09/05/24

A Wall Street Regulator Is Understating Margin Debt by More than $4 Trillion – Because It’s Not Counting Giant Banks Making Margin Loans to Hedge Funds
Most market watchers rely on the monthly margin debt figures published by Wall Street’s self-regulator, FINRA, as the reliable gauge in determining how much of securities trading on Wall Street is being done with borrowed money, known as margin debt. According to the FINRA data, as of March 31, 2024, margin debt stood at $784.136 billion. Margin Loans Data from FINRA Unfortunately, FINRA only has access to margin debt data filed by the brokerage firms it regulates (also known as brokers and dealers). Thanks to the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, which allowed federally-insured banks to be gobbled up by the trading casinos on Wall Street, the vast bulk of margin debt is now being loaned out not by brokerage firms but by giant banks where the U.S. taxpayer will be on the hook for a bailout if they go belly up from bad gambles – as occurred in the crash of 2008.

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