Sand States- Nevada, Florida, Arizona

As of the end of April, LPS reports that the average loan in foreclosure was 567 days past due, which is the longest period on record. Thirty-three percent of loans in foreclosure have not made a payment in more than two years.

Banks Hit Foreclosure Hurdle

California, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts and others have raised questions about whether banks properly demonstrated ownership.

http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576357462376821094.html?mod=WSJ_business_whatsNews&mg=reno-secaucus-wsj#printMode

In some cases, borrowers are showing courts that banks failed to properly assign ownership of mortgages after they were pooled into mortgage-backed securities. In other cases, borrowers say that lenders backdated or fabricated documents to fix those errors.


Attorneys for borrowers reject the view that they are using arcane legal rules to secure free houses for clients who aren't paying their bills

DC Adopts Emergency Implementing Regulations for Foreclosure Mediation Law

The District of Columbia adopted the attached "emergency" regulations applicable to the foreclosure mediation rights and procedures established for the exercise of power of sale of a residential mortgage in the District, pursuant to the "Saving D.C. Homes from Foreclosure Amendment Act of 2010" (discussed in our prior updates, below).


The regulations require the completion of forms for certain activities covered by the Act, which requirements shall be satisfied solely through the use of forms provided with the  regulations.

Among other things, the emergency regulations provide that a Notice of Intention to Foreclose a Residential Mortgage shall be null and void with respect to a foreclosure of a residential mortgage unless a Notice of Default on Residential Mortgage (Form FM-1) is mailed to each borrower, and the lender receives and records a Mediation Certificate provided pursuant to the regulations.

The emergency regulations set forth the procedures for filing an Affidavit of Non-Residential Mortgage Foreclosure in order to issue and record a Notice of Foreclosure for the foreclosure of a mortgage other than a residential mortgage for which a Mediation Certificate is not required to be recorded. The emergency regulations exclude foreclosure by a condominium association against an owner, or housing cooperative association against a member, when the foreclosure is brought for a reason other than a default on a residential mortgage.

This emergency rulemaking became effective on May 25, 2011. The regulations will remain in effect for up to one hundred and twenty (120) days after the date of adoption (May 25, 2011), unless earlier superseded by a notice of final rulemaking.

SOOO Wrong

Banks and other lenders are now extending credit to a surprising group of customers: former homeowners who defaulted on their mortgages, borrowers who have defaulted on their mortgages -- but are current on all other loans -- are among the attractive candidates for new loans.
http://www.smartmoney.com/borrow/home-loans/for-mortgage-defaulters-more-loans-for-the-taking-1306875641051/#printMode

ADVOCATES AND BANKERS JOIN TO FIGHT LOAN RULES

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/business/02mortgage.html

Half of mortgage borrowers could never afford 20% down payment: NFCC

http://www.housingwire.com/2011/06/01/half-of-mortgage-borrowers-could-never-afford-20-downpayment-nfcc/print/

State Bankruptcy

Steven Schwarcz, law professor at Duke, has an article forthcoming in the May 2012 issue of the UCLA Law Review discussing the issue of state "bankruptcy." 

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1807944

BK Trustees want more power from Feds

Judges and debtors who force mortgage companies to produce a physical note before foreclosing on a home.


http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2011/05/feds-look-to-give-trustees-more-power.html

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/bankruptcyprof_blog/2011/05/feds-look-to-give-trustees-more-power.html

Gay Rights Victory in Californa

http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?FBLike=http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/bankruptcyprof_blog/2011/06/major-victory.html


The Honorable Michael S. McManus denied the U.S. Trustee's Motion to Dismiss a legally married same-sex couple's Chapter 7 case. The UST moved to dismiss alleging that the Debtors' joint petition was improper and unauthorized because the term "spouse" as defined by the Defense of Marriage Act's (DOMA) is limited to a person of the opposite sex.

Two more disability-bias suits attack the LSAT

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202495832350

Home Rental Outpaces Homeownership In 500+ Cities

According to USA Today, 25 major cities - including Baltimore; Minneapolis; Salt Lake City; and Sacramento, Calif. - recorded a majority of homeowners in 2000 but had a majority of renters by 2010. Among the major cities experiencing a significant shift in the number of rented homes was Irvine, Calif., which swung from approximately 40% of rented homes in 2000 to 49.8% last year; Philadelphia, from 40.7% to 45.9%; Birmingham, Ala., from 46.3% to 50.7%; and Reading, Pa., from 49% to 57.6%.


USA Today also reports that Florida, California and Arizona had the most cities where the percentage of renter-occupied housing increased by at least five percentage points. On a national basis, 34.9% of occupied homes were rented last year, compared to 33.8% in 2000.

Marilyn Monroe Photographer’s Archive in Bankruptcy

http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2011/06/01/marilyn-monroe-photographer%E2%80%99s-archive-in-bankruptcy/tab/print/

The bankruptcy filing by Shaw Family Archives Ltd. Wednesday is just another chapter in the Shaw family’s history, a plot filled with equal parts glamour and contention. Edith Marcus, the organization’s president and Sam Shaw’s daughter, blamed the filing on “a series of lawsuits involving the photographs and other issues.”