Tommy The Cat

What's the problem? Lenders Limited loans with strict standards for credit and qualification, condos are "out" of the traditional loan scheme, mortgage rates creeping up. MERS - Title Chain Busted Foreclosure fraud caused by banks short-cutting the mortgage processing using the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS). Banks saved billions on traditional mortgage filings at the county level and loan endorsement paperwork. Result? The court systems have no legislation to direct them so foreclosures are stalled or out and out turned away for lack of proper documentation. This shadow inventory continues to build. MERS busted the chain of title; title insurance companies are very wary and Lender's follow suit. There is no end to this mess in sight either. Valuation New homes can't get construction loans that match costs. Equity dollars don't exist to cover the shortfall. New construction values are dragged down by falling home prices and foreclosures which screw down the neighborhood values. Banks aren't lending against construction costs anymore and more distressed homes mean more downward pressure on values. HAMP and Similar Gummint Programs Epic FAIL. HAMP hasn't been distributed, it was a joke administered by Jokers. Lenders ignored HAMP funds. Prognosis? More of the same. The US economy recovered in the past by having new residential housing construction lead the way. Ain't happening and the unprecedented economic recovery before housing isn't being realized. This Cat thinks we are going to see some style of Fed-based housing recovery action which must include much less restrictive loan qualification criteria, Fed-based loan insurance guarantees, Fed-based money...wait, isn't that the mess we just left? Yep. As I said. More of the same.

The fundamental MERS model is to reduce costs by eliminating the necessary assignments of interest at each stage, and the public recordings that make it all transparent and virtually fraud-proof. Don't confuse the facts of the MERS software design with its ultimate results.

It is now widely recognized that MERS... Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Wikipedia ...facilitated fraud by lenders, servicers, foreclosers and securitizers. Even on the most charitable interpretation it is very difficult to believe that MERS was not fraudulent by design. Let me first concisely summarize the two main problems, and then move on to the most recent developments that put the final nails in MERS's coffin. I'll conclude with my argument that there really was some "not so intelligent" design behind all of this. But it is coming back to bite the hand that feeds. The big banks will not survive the monster they created. Whenever those who are critical of MERS and the banksters post blogs about the multiple frauds, we are attacked by commentators -- presumably industry hacks -- who try to obfuscate the issues. But recent court cases as well as testimonies before elected representatives confirm our two main claims. First, many or most foreclosures that are taking place are illegal because those doing the foreclosing do not have legal standing. And, second, the practices that created the foreclosure problems also mean that the mortgage backed securities are actually unsecured debt. That means banks must take them back, so they are toast. It all comes back to MERS's business model: it destroyed the chain of title. Much of the rest of the fraud and scandal we are witnessing follows on from that because the banks want to foreclose the properties before the securities holders put back the fraudulent securities. The problem is that the destruction of the clear chain of title makes it impossible to foreclose, so the banks used robo-signers to forge documents in the hope they could paper over their home thefts. But homeowners, courts, legislators, securities investors, and title insurers have caught on to the scam. In addition to the forgeries, MERS and bank officials and lawyers are committing perjury in court in the hope that they can confuse the issues sufficiently that they can complete the home thefts. However, improper foreclosures produce houses that cannot be sold legally -- so the can is just kicked down the road to the next crisis, which will reveal that those who have purchased foreclosed homes have no legal title to them. And so their debts will also be unsecured. MERS has created a disaster that will not be resolved for at least a decade, perhaps a generation. Given the scale of foreclosures (projected at 13 million by 2012), future home purchasers face a pretty good chance that if they are buying pre-owned housing, their title to the property is dubious.

This paper is well researched, includes over 50 references and one of the authors is Dowell Meyers, Ph.D You wouldn't put much faith in him? Did you read the paper? If we listened to every expert and academic, we would have unemployment anywhere between 5 and 20%, interest rates between 3 and 15%, and gas prices between $2.50 and $10.00 a gallon. Seriously, everyone's got an opinion. Did anyone read the paper? This isn't a simple, forum-board rant of an opinion, it is as much a sceintific study and breakdown of an inevitable aging problem. And its consequences.

Don't question you one iota, flacorp, I own properties in the Panhandle and south of you Lee/Collier Counties. Much of the same to report.

Not only a long one but a very uncertain one. We are cutting new ground here and since much of the mess we are in was contrived... Non Political Report On Financial Fraud ...it appears that no one really knows how to undue the damage that has been done. Or when it can be undone. Or if it can be undone. Think about this problem. We have a statistically undeniable swing to an oversupply of housing by the Generational Housing Market fact finding. We have a mortgage and banking financial system that seriously needs reworking. Foreclosures are continuing to flood the supply side equation. <insert any additional related issues as you please> Here we are in 2011 and not only are we no nearer to a resolution of any of our problems, we have more and potentially greater problems ahead. Another five years, imo, at least. 10? 15? You're talking to a Cat who told RE agents and brokers in 2005 that it would be until 2011 that things would flush out. Paint me pessimistic...and dead wrong.

Athena53, there is nothing more than I can say except

Opportunities are still limited, if you are talking about the present. IMO, if you can buy housing that can be leased where the rent payments cover all or the great part of debt, maintenance, taxes and other expenses of Lessor ownership, having your investment to be your downpayment (equity), this makes sense. In most cases, if a home can be bought where these parameters can be met, then you have purchased at the right price. Dr. Meyers is pointing out in a very lengthy and detailed way that the run-up in housing prices was a contrived one. That this trend will end as the Baby Boomer era comes to its close. We live in an aging society where there are more and more seniors and (by ratio) less and less replacement (younger) buyers. This means a swelling of inventories, supply exceeding demand substantially. "Once past the tipping point, market adjustments will cascade in virtually every community, as the ratio of seniors to working age adults will increase for the greater part of two decades." The translation of this statement is that what goes up must come down since the market driven upswing in housing prices was a function of the reverse situation. More young buyers (Baby Boom) and fewer senior net sellers. The key to your statement is long term goals and I would agree. Welcome but it's funny that you would use the terms "outside the box". City planners, real estate researchers and others who have no choice but to deal with the statistical evidence have been reporting this swing in the housing market for years now. I believe that this irrefutable shift in population patterns is very much inside the box. The problem is that your local Realtor, financial advisers, mortgage brokers, news supplier and other daily sources who report on real estate ignore these realities. If they ever cared to look outside their own boxes in the first place. Truth many times is neither fun, conducive to business nor good print. It's uncomfortable and unsettling to have to adjust to the dawning age but the dawning age doesn't care one bit about anything except the truth.

This paper is well researched, includes over 50 references and one of the authors is Dowell Meyers, Ph.D You wouldn't put much faith in him? Did you read the paper?

Here are a few snippets from the articles: "In order to cover the trail of deceit MERS and the banks are stealing homes as fast as they can in the hope that no one will notice the fraud. Meanwhile, they are destroying real estate values and adding to the headwinds that are pushing our economy into the first great depression of the 21st century. " "That homeowners would default on the unaffordable mortgages was a foregone conclusion. Indeed, it was the desired result of the business model. The preferred marketed loans tell it all: Subprimes! NINJAs! Liar's loans! Washington helpfully changed bankruptcy law to make it more difficult for a homeowner to get out of mortgage debt in preparation for the wave of defaults that everyone knew would result. Wall Street would get the homes, and homeowners would still have to pay on the debts. Then the foreclosed property would be resold, with more fees for everyone in the finance food chain, and the whole process through to default would begin again -- a nice virtuous cycle." "Destruction or forgery of the paperwork was absolutely necessary to cover the trail of fraud from origination of the mortgage to securitization and finally to the inevitable foreclosure. Again, destruction of documents was not a mistake. It was the business model." "MERS also made it easy to run the foreclosure frauds -- banksters could doctor the electronic entries whenever they wanted, and could claim that all paperwork including the notes had been lost. The servicers then hired Burger King robo-signers to manufacture new documents, and handed out notary stamps so they could certify the validity of whatever false information might enable swift passage through "rocket docket" courts." "The banks did not expect homeowners to fight back -- by squatting their own homes, by hiring lawyers, and by coalescing into support groups. They really, truly believed they would get away with the whole scam -- the biggest scandal in human history." "I do not see how we can describe the entire housing finance system as anything other than a massive fraud designed to cheat borrowers out of their income and wealth, and then out of their home." And that, dear readers, is the short version of how we got into this mess.

In a three-part Huffington Post article, Randall Wray details the workings of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS), a vehicle created by bankers to avoid paperwork and disguise the movement and ownership of trillions of dollars in mortgages and notes. MERS has destroyed the public land records by breaking the chain of title to millions of homes. Wray's effort is slightly diluted by his occasional political commentary. Nonetheless, his series is by far the most illuminating discussion of MERS; its origin, its structure, and its impact that I have found. WARNING: What follows is as sickening as it is illuminating Anatomy of Mortgage Fraud, Part I: MERS's Smoking Gun Anatomy of Mortgage Fraud, Part II: The Mother of All Frauds Anatomy of Mortgage Fraud, Part III: MERS'S Role in Facilitating the Mother of All Frauds

Statues may be aimed at particular, targeted issue. Prosecutors as in this case are always looking to broaden the target. The more encompassing any law can be (by upper court rulings), the greater the latitude for prosecuting attorneys.

Several but primarily Source

Problem: The 78 million baby boomers have driven up housing demand and prices for three decades since beginning to buy homes in 1970 and continuing up the housing ladder. What will happen when boomers begin to sell off their high-priced homes to relatively smaller and less-advantaged generations? Results and conclusions: Sellers of existing homes provide 85% of the annual supply of homes sold, and home sales are driven by the aging of the population since seniors are net home sellers (a net home seller does not make a purchase of a home with the proceeds from the sale). The ratio of seniors to working-age residents will increase by 67% over the next two decades; thus we anticipate the end of a generational housing bubble. We also find that younger generations face an affordability barrier created by the recent housing price boom (i.e. an escalation in prices that has exceeded income). City planners and housing authorities are seeing study after study that there is coming generational transition in the housing market that will upset the historic balance of buyers and sellers. Residents in most states are net buyers of homes well into their 50s. The resulting upward pressure on demand by the large baby boom generation will soon peak, and after age 70 they will be net sellers in all except three states.The baby boomers will finally start retiring from the housing market. Their demand for housing will begin to contract, and then will decline at an accelerating rate. Boomers will dominate the housing market, as they have through their entire adult lives, when the ratio of seniors to working-age adults soars by 67% in the next two decades (2010-2030). This tilt toward age groups that are Sellers of housing is historically unprecedented. The baby boom generation was born over a period of 18 years 1970-1990, and once its sell-off commences, it could dominate the housing market for up to two decades. Home buyers and house owners must adjust their thinking for a new era that reverses many longstanding assumptions. Whereas decline once occurred in the central city, it may now be concentrated in suburbs with surpluses of large-lot single-family housing. Whereas the major housing problem was once affordability, it could now be homeowners' dashed expectations after lifelong investment in home equity. All of these reversals result from the aging of the baby boomers.

Along comes the latest from Case-Schiller who reports “On a year-over-year basis, sales are down more than 25% and the month’s (Oct 2010) supply of unsold homes is about 50% above where it was during the same months of last year.” Double Dip A Reality? I certainly think it is and I beloeve there is worse news yet to come.