Irvine Housing Blog

IHB sez ” I expect better from the New York Times.”

Really?  With Paul Krugman as their “go to” guy on economics, a Keynesian true believer… the NYT has been shilling for Goldman Sachs and all of the money center banks since the creation of the Federal Reserve…what makes one think that they have anything rational to say about banking today?

The prospect of zombie encumbrances from beyond the grave does not scare me. Owning real estate in the first place - that’s the real fear!

As I see it the Irvine CA market is still inflated and with WTF prices and sellers reluctant to reduce prices I don’t see much change here for the foreseeable future…with me finding out last week that my current landlord is also going through loan modification and possible foreclosure the time has come where I must conclude that I am better off buying a property out of state and am making plans to settle down outside of California, its with great regret that I come to this conclusion, I am not going to go down the path of renting again since I will have no clue as to who is in trouble or not in this area…thank you Irvine renter for saving me from buying something here in Irvine and being stuck here I am so glad that I am not tied down to a house that is declining in value…good luck with everything and hope that one day I may be able to return to California once all the kool aid has gone!!  Adios amigos!!

Hilariously, with all that info and controversy, the “I expect better from the New York Times” was the statement that most caught my attention also.  Personally, I do not expect anything but, lies, spin, mischaracterizations, and just plain bad information from The New York Times.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39740025

Maybe MERS is doomed afterall ? This could get really ugly quick. Who in their right mind would put a huge bet on a forclosed property with this current news. Can you imagine the fallout if these 2 professors could be correct ?

Grad you made right decision and you are free now.
IMHO, if you are not rich already or cannot make very good money from your job (like $180K a year), when you sign the mortgages paper, you are unofficially a slave of the TIC – you have work hard for next 15 years before you are free again.
But you still can choose other areas, such as Ladera Ranch or Corona, where the home prices maybe bottomed, especially if you buy a REO or short sell.

Here is the thing, if MERS, and these foreclosures, and whatever other garbage you can throw out there is “fraud,” then this doesn’t stop at just foreclosed properties.  It affects over 64 million individual properties that are part of this whole “system of fraud.”

Like IR said, this is simple.  Once the foreclosure is complete and the trustee’s deed has been delievered, you have a clean piece of property.  Period.  Unless you have a procedural defect in the foreclosure, it is virtually impossible to have the foreclosure undone.  Period.

Come to think of it, maybe foreclosure properties are the only “safe” pieces of property to buy….....

Re: MERS and the lack of public recordation.  The borrower still owes the money whether the lender has the right to foreclose or not.  The interest, fees and penalties will keep accruing on the note which the lender owns, unless the lender can not show they own the note, which may or may not be an issue connected to MERS.  I think many of you are getting confused with ownership of real property, being a party to a mortgage contract, and public recording.

“I expect better from the New York Times.”

Ha IR, I agreed with everything you said except for this. I could tell from it’s soft-headed liberal, “oh boo-hoo for the poor squatters” tone that this was a NY Times article before I ever checked the URL. And I just love that ridiculous line of “reasoning” that somehow the squatters could win the house. I’ve heard that before from some dumb commentator and I was in disbelief.

The NYT is horrible, a dying relic, a dinosaur bellowing as it sinks into the tar pits. Good riddance!

“Orange County had the smallest year-over-year sales decline in the region, with transactions down 10.7%. Regionwide, they’re down 16% from September of 2009, and by as much as 23.7% in Riverside County.”from Lansners blog

Sales in Riverside County down 23.7%?  Whoa!  Prices soon to follow.  Riverside is gonna get a price shellacking.

And what happens if the Title Companies have so many claims from “illegal” foreclosures that the Title Company itself goes bankrupt? It wouldn’t take long with enough claims. That’s my real worry, as my TI policy covers fraud, etc. Next, the Title Companies would have to be bailed out. The insurance is only as good as the company backing it.

Perfect combination of clip art and caption with the lady screaming, “I lost your house in foreclosure, and I want it back!  It’s mine.  Give it back to me!”, IR. 

On the other hand, since I was just harrassing Roger Banowetz to use spell check and grammar check next time, I should be equal opportunity and say the same to you.  Running a grammar check in something like Word before posting would catch painful-to-read errors like “their is no protection” that spellcheckers can’t find.

How ‘bout this one, guys - “Winning bid on mortgage buys family heartache”

Roberta and Randall Strand took $97,606 out of their paid-off house to buy a foreclosed home at a courthouse auction. Five months later, they found out they actually bought the second mortgage, and that the bank planned to foreclose on the first mortgage, leaving them out in the cold.

what about short sales? can title issues pop up in short sales?

SRY, IR, but imho in this article you omitt mentioning a few important points. Firstly, there are cases where the servicing banks foreclosured homes they didn’t have any title to at all! In some instances, the houseowner didn’t even have a mortgage anywhere. In such a case, of course anyone who bought this at an auction is in jeopardy. You can’t keep stolen property, EVEN if you xourself did nothing wrong!

Secondly, as you certainly know, nowadays the “governmental records” only say that MERS is owning the mortgage. This doesn’t say anything about the REAL lender at all, making it very difficult for the title insurers to determine the legality of a foreclosure.

Thirdly, actually there have been reports about thugs being hired by the banks to break into houses BEFORE the foreclosure proceedings had come to their elgal conclusion! In some cases it were even the wrong houses. And the local police department did NOTHING to stop this or to hold the burglars accountable. The Sherrifs seem to hold the opinion that this is an excusable misdemeanor which doesn’t have to be prosecuted as long as a bank is behind this. So, if you’re a houseowner, good luck with trying to stop this illegal behaviour by legal means!

Amd then, there have been a few cases where the court essentially voided the mortgage because of intolerable fraud by the banks! In such instances, the homeowners actually won their house. Of curse, this is the exception for the rule, but it has been reported in the media, and so we should expect more homeowners to fight the foreclosure, hoping the chaotic record keeping of the servicers, together with the banks lawyers shamelessly lying to the court, will result in such a favorable outcome for them, too. And that the banks illegally tried to save some bucks by employing “robo signers” gives every homeowner fighting his foreclosure a good argument at court. Maybe most of them won’t be awarded by the court with a mortgage free house, but at least it will delay the mortgage process considerably.

This doesn’t say that the ethics of the sqatters, who don’t pay back their debts and live in the house rent free, should be recommended. But the ethics of the banks, who didn’t pay due dilligence to record keeping and verifying the claims is unethical, too. And most of the time the banks have the stronger lever, and enforce their “rights”, wether they are legal or not. And this may result in some foreclosures later being successfully contested in court. So, sry, but imho your article here is rather onesided, and leaves important facts out of the picture.