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HAPPY MOTHERS DAY GG YOU ARE THE BEST MOM IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!
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MONDAY MAY 7
The Causes of the Foreclosure Crisis This paper presents 12 facts about the mortgage market. The authors argue that the facts refute the popular story that the crisis resulted from financial industry insiders deceiving uninformed mortgage borrowers and investors. Instead, they argue that borrowers and investors made decisions that were rational and logical given their ex post overly optimistic beliefs about house prices. Activists 'liberate' Northeast Portland foreclosed house in

2012

A crowd of about 200 people chanting, We got sold out. Banks got bailed out, marched from a Northeast Portland park to liberate a foreclosed home Tuesday and return it to its last resident. Home is where the heart is, declared Alicia Jackson, 45, as members of the Portland Liberation Organizing Council produced a key to the brick-fronted home.

April 2012 Observations

Mortgage

Performance

Calls for mortgage assistance get louder in Washington Pressure is mounting on a key federal regulator to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce loan principal amounts for struggling homeowners, after disclosures that a plan to do that was scuttled even though it was aimed at saving taxpayer money and helping to heal the housing market.

Total Active Count: All active loans as of monthend including loans in any state of delinquency or foreclosure. Post-sale loans and loans in REO are excluded from the total active count. Delinquency Statuses (30, 60, 90+, etc): All delinquency statuses are calculated using the MBA methodology based on the payment due date provided by the servicer.

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac asks government for $19M; posts $1.2B loss in Q1 Government-controlled mortgage giant Freddie Mac is requesting $19 million in additional federal aid after posting a loss for the first quarter of this year. The requested amount is less than the $146 million that Freddie received from the government for the fourth quarter of 2011. The company received $7.6 billion for all of 2011 and $13 billion for all of 2010.

Surprise we might actually meaningful housing reform this year

begin

By far, the most important front in this battle is over the future of housing finance. Today, the government is underwriting or assuming 100 percent of the credit risk on practically every new mortgage thats originated. With regard to outstanding mortgages, the government is responsible for 100 percent of the default risk on about $6 trillion of the roughly $10 trillion market.

The Foreclosure Landscape in 2012: Recent Court Ruling to Have Dramatic Impact What trends will shape the mortgage foreclosure landscape in 2012? As I look towards the next 12 months, Im expecting that the most influential trend will be a recent Connecticut Supreme Court ruling that could have a significant impact on who can sue to foreclose. .

The state of Missouri is looking for victims of foreclosure abuse The state of Missouri is looking for victims of foreclosure abuse and homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages who may be eligible for some of the nearly $200 million received from a national settlement..

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This Edition Of The ForeclosureGate Gazette Contains Active Links

WEEKEND DIGEST MAY 7 MAY 11, 2012

ACADEMIA ADVERSARIES ADVOCATES BLOGOSPHERE LEGAL LEGISLATE OP-ED HOMEOWNERS NEWS ForeclosureGate Is A Public Service Homeowner Coalition And Cooperative, Created To Exchange News And Information And To Advance Justice For American Homeowners

TUESDAY MAY 8
Minneapolis woman foreclosed upon, but soldiering on When the 46-year-old single mother of two sons faced eviction from her north Minneapolis house last fall, about 50 Occupy demonstrators camped in and around the weathered two-story house in protest. A crew from Al Jazeera English interviewed her. Consumer rights legend Ralph Nader discussed White in a Chicago Tribune opinion piece. Protesters in Miami clean garbage foreclosed homes and dump it at bank from

2012

The residents of the Liberty City neighborhood came together to clean up the abandoned property and later in the day planned on delivering the collected trash to a Bank of America branch. Trenise Bryant, a member of the Miami Workers Center who organized the event said, ''Banks maintain foreclosed properties in white neighborhoods why can't they.''

Mass. AG Coakley Launches HomeCorps Addressing the foreclosure crisis is one of the most important things we can do to restore a healthy economy. Utilizing funds stemming from the recent nationwide state-federal settlement over unlawful foreclosures, the Attorney Generals Office is launching a statewide foreclosure prevention and borrower support initiative entitled the HomeCorps.

A New Reality for Law Firms Clients have figured out that much of what lawyers do is a commodity that can easily be outsourced far more cheaply. Law firms always had a few dynamic partners who wielded disproportionate influence both within and outside the firm, and another group who may have been highly skilled and specialized, but were rarely seen by clients.

Maine Republican Governor Vetoes Bill Offering Protection For Homeowners In Foreclosure Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) vetoed a bill on Friday designed to increase regulation of foreclosure proceedings. The bill, which passed Maine's House and Senate with bipartisan support, would have required banks to show proof of ownership or an original mortgage note before foreclosure proceedings.

Mr. Douglas Elmendorf, Director of the CBO, What Have You Done? The question is Mr. Douglas Elmendorf, in your role as Director of the Congressional Budget Office, did you deliberately withhold, mask and knowingly deliver grossly distorted information vital to the current and future economic, political and social wellbeing of the United States of America during the most severe, prolonged and damaging national economic emergency since the 1930s?....

Thousands of foreclosures in limbo one year after Stern firm's collapse The so-called foreclosure king of Florida knew his reign was over four months before his law firm's doors would officially shutter. "There's nothing left for you here. There's nothing left for me here. We're done. And that's the end of the story," one of David J. Stern's chief employees remembers him telling her in November 2010, according to her deposition.

The new American household: 3 generations, 1 roof As of 2010, 4.4 million U.S. homes held three generations or more under one roof, a 15% increase from 3.8 million households two years earlier, according to the latest data available from the Census Bureau.

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This Edition Of The ForeclosureGate Gazette Contains Active Links

WEEKEND DIGEST MAY 7 MAY 11, 2012

ACADEMIA ADVERSARIES ADVOCATES BLOGOSPHERE LEGAL LEGISLATE OP-ED HOMEOWNERS NEWS ForeclosureGate Is A Public Service Homeowner Coalition And Cooperative, Created To Exchange News And Information And To Advance Justice For American Homeowners

WEDNESDAY MAY 9
California Homeowner in Foreclosure Wins Quiet Title A Riverside, California homeowner, Denise Saluto, who was in foreclosure filed for quiet title against Deutsche Bank National Trust, as trustee for Long Beach Mortgage, and its successors and/or assigns, and Washington Mutual Bank, successor in interest to Long Beach Mortgage Company and won by default. National Mortgage Settlement Expires In 2015, Banks Battling To Keep Reforms From Becoming Permanent But the legal agreements among the banks, and the states and federal government hold for only three-and-a-half years; the pledge runs out in 2015. Now many of these banks are battling California Attorney General Kamala Harris over her push to make.

2012

The Long Wait: Surviving Foreclosure in Brooklyn On the third floor of the Brooklyn Supreme Court, the list goes up every morning. The daily record of scheduled foreclosure mediation meetings lists each case, along with the corresponding plaintiff, defendant and the past number of conferences.

Lifeline for Washington homeowners facing foreclosure Working out of a small basement office in Shoreline, Candace Sheehan and her colleagues offer a lifeline to homeowners coping with everything from missed mortgage payments to foreclosure. Every month, thousands of people call the Washington Homeownership Information Hotline for help.

Fannie and Freddie Charitable Donations? Aren't Fannie and Freddie insolvent and in conservatorship? Whatever one thinks of corporate charitable donations, they are a lot harder to justify when the corporation is insolvent. Critically, as far as I can tell, the sponsorship is from Fannie and Freddie themselves, NOT their charitable foundations--at least there is no indication that it is the foundations, not the GSEs involved.

Former Morgan Stanley Foreclosure Violations

Unit

Cited

for

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday ordered to review thousands of foreclosures conducted by a mortgage-servicing unit it sold this year and said it would levy fines against the investment bank. The consent order requires Morgan Stanley to hire an independent consultant to review foreclosures handled by the firm's former Saxon Mortgage Services unit between 2009 and 2010.

Feds cut pay of execs at bailed out firms The federal government has ordered executives at three companies bailed out by U.S. taxpayers during the 2008 financial crisis to take a pay cut. The Treasury Department says nearly 70 executives at American International Group Inc. (AIG), Ally Financial Inc., and General Motors Co. (GM) had their annual compensation reduced by 10 percent. The CEOs of each company had their pay frozen at 2011 levels.

Foreclosures give rise to a new industry Ken Major climbs the steps of a county courthouse in a San Francisco suburb with $500,000 in cashiers checks in one hand and a list of addresses in the other. Major is a buyer for Waypoint Real Estate, an Oakland-based investment firm that is scooping up foreclosed homes in California.

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This Edition Of The ForeclosureGate Gazette Contains Active Links

WEEKEND DIGEST MAY 7 MAY 11, 2012

ACADEMIA ADVERSARIES ADVOCATES BLOGOSPHERE LEGAL LEGISLATE OP-ED HOMEOWNERS NEWS ForeclosureGate Is A Public Service Homeowner Coalition And Cooperative, Created To Exchange News And Information And To Advance Justice For American Homeowners

THURSDAY MAY 10

2012

Florida Supreme Court to hear landmark foreclosure case The Florida Supreme Court will decide whether financial firms can escape or remedy allegations of fraud in foreclosure proceedings by voluntarily dismissing the case. The case is a landmark in Florida since many financial firms rely on the dismissal-refile option to fix issues stemming from foreclosure complaints.

'Homeowner Bill of Rights' Moving Along in Sacramento A set of proposed laws that aim to protect California homeowners from foreclosure abuses is working its way through the Legislature. Two key pieces of legislation in that package, widely called the Homeowner Bill of Rights, are expected to face sharp criticism from the real estate and financial sectors.

Fannie, Freddie are set to reduce mortgage balances in California As California pushes to get more homeowners into a $2-billion foreclosure prevention program, some Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers may see their mortgages shrunk through principal reduction. State officials are making a significant change to the Keep Your Home California program.

Citizens Organize To Save Washburn Home from Foreclosure Chequamegon Bay residents have formed Save Our South Shore Homes after meeting with the Superior-Duluth based Project Save Our Homes Saturday, May 5, to strategize saving the home of a Washburn family from foreclosure. The new organization is planning to rally at the Ashland.

If WE owned a pool of loans would WE allow principal reductions? The debate should center on whether reducing principal will do two things significantly reduce or even largely eliminate the potential for future default, and lead to increased consumer spending as homeowners feel something akin to the wealth effect and decide its safe to spend at least a little bit once again.

SEC Weighs Sanctions for Lawyers Who Advise on Fraudulent Deals U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators are considering extending the reach of enforcement actions in cases involving complex financial transactions to lawyers who provided the legal advice on fraudulent deals, an agency official said. Ive seen some factual situations where advice that was given didnt look like it was done in good faith.

Operator Of Virginia-Based Mortgage Modification Scheme Pleads Guilty To Fraud Howard R. Shmuckler, 68, of Virginia Beach, Va., today pled guilty to running a fraudulent mortgage modification business that received substantial fees but actually modified clients' mortgages in only a few cases.

Michigan Counties Win Big in Fannie, Freddie Lawsuit Score one for the little guy. Or maybe make that $5 million for the little guy. A Michigan county has won a lawsuit against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in what might be the first but probably wont be the last suit of its kind.

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This Edition Of The ForeclosureGate Gazette Contains Active Links

WEEKEND DIGEST MAY 7 MAY 11, 2012

ACADEMIA ADVERSARIES ADVOCATES BLOGOSPHERE LEGAL LEGISLATE OP-ED HOMEOWNERS NEWS ForeclosureGate Is A Public Service Homeowner Coalition And Cooperative, Created To Exchange News And Information And To Advance Justice For American Homeowners

FRIDAY MAY 11
7 Foreclosure Horror Stories (And One Possible Win) This week, Christine Frazer and her family were thrown out of the Atlanta home they'd lived in for 18 years, at gunpoint in the dead of night. They were not set upon by robbers, but by the Dekalb County Sheriff's department, which evicted the family at the request of Investors One Corporation. As Steven Rosenfeld reported for AlterNet, it was the fourth company to buy the family's mortgage in eight months. Will R-I-C-O Spell 'Relief' for B of A Mortgage Borrowers? While shareholders queue up for a seat at the annual Bank of America extravaganza on Wednesday and the forces of Occupy get ready to mount major protests, a small group of lawyers plots its own campaign to take on what they call the "predatory mortgage banking cartel." They are pained at the lack of real regulatory enforcement actions in the wake of the financial meltdown, and angry about how easy it's been.

2012

Rep. Brad Miller Speaks Out on Why He Wasn't Hired for Mortgage Fraud Task Force A central focus for progressives that want to see the Residential Mortgage Backed Securities working group get tough on the financial industry has been the role of executive director. Currently, the group has five co-chairs from four different federal and state agencies, and the staffers are spread through ten different US Attorney offices.

Free legal foreclosure

help

for

homeowners

facing

Foreclosure defense attorney Peter Cozmyk says he's tired of hearing about the lack of actionable information that is available to homeowners facing foreclosure issues. On Tuesday night, Cozmyk will host the Foreclosure Prevention Workshop in Sylvania to give Ohio homeowners "a fighting chance against big banks and unscrupulous lenders."

Ellen Brown, President of the Public Banking Institute, Has a Plan The 1890s were plagued by an economic depression that was nearly as severe as the Great Depression of the 1930s. The farmers lived like serfs to the bankers, having mortgaged their farms, their equipment, and sometimes even the seeds they needed for planting. They were charged so much by a railroad cartel.

Queens Supreme Court Canceled Foreclosure Sales Again Mr Miles, a private investor who made the trip out to Queens from the Bronx, was visibly frustrated with the canceled sales. "Ever since they had those protests, the courts have been paranoid," he said. "Taking our phones, making us wait in lines, it's bullshit."

Christy Romero Sworn In Inspector General Of SIGTARP

As

Special

Auction set for bankrupt Newport megamansion A hilltop palace once valued as high as $87 million is set to go on the auction block this month for considerably less after a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of the Newport Coast property. Owners of the estate once known as Villa del Lago filed for bankruptcy after the projects lender cut off funding.

The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) today announced that, this morning, Christy L. Romero was officially sworn in as Special Inspector General of SIGTARP. Ms. Romero was nominated for the position by President Barack Obama on February 1, 2012, and she was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 29, 2012.

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