Upon order of the King County Sheriff, Jeremy Griffin was supposed to be out of his home by Tuesday at midnight. Instead, starting late last night, he has played host to members of Standing Against Foreclosure & Eviction, a group that grew out of the Occupy movement. They set up a large tent in his carefully tended garden, where a few people spent the night. By morning, several dozen people had gathered in front of his three-bedroom, which had been draped with protest banners, including a huge one reading “Foreclosure Free Zone.”

Minnesota via We Are Oregon (Facebook)

Rose Mcgee has won a settlement from Fannie Mae that will keep her in her home with affordable payments! The settlement comes after a year long campaign that inspired thousands around the county and was the impetus for the homeowner bill of rights which has just days left to be heard this session. Join us at the capitol tomorrow at 11am to celebrate Rose’s victory and demand that legislators pass strong legislation to protect thousands of other Minnesotans in danger of losing their homes!

Estate administrator sues big banks for wrongful death, elder abuse, breach of contract and other charges.
(AlternNet)

An elderly man “succumbed to the pressure” of losing his home to Wells Fargo and died at a court hearing fighting the bank’s wrongful foreclosure, his estate claims in court…

Delassus died at 62 of heart disease after Wells Fargo mistakenly held him liable for his neighbor’s property taxes, doubled his mortgage payments, declared his loan in default and sold his Hermosa Beach condominium, according to the complaint.

A BATTLE WON (Los Angeles Anti-Eviction Campaign)

… but the war continues. Today Ms. Hughes gave Strategic Acquisitions a taste of their own medicine when their ex-parte motion was denied for hearing today. Ms. Hughes eviction of the people who tried to steal her home has so far been upheld by the courts. The look on the commissioner’s face as she took the spot of the plantiff was priceless.

Tell the Bankers that the People are Too Big To Fail (Occupy Wall Street)

Join Occupy Homes, dozens of underwater homeowners, and hundreds of allies from across the country as we take action and risk arrest at the Department of Justice.

Bring Justice to Justice Rally: May 20th @ 1pm Gather: Freedom Plaza, 14th Street and Pennsylvania Ave NW – March to Department of Justice @ 1:30pm…

Home defenders, as well as faith and community leaders will rally to Bring Justice to Justice – demanding an end to the “too big to jail” policy, and relief for families and communities devastated by the financial crisis and foreclosure epidemic.

Wasted Wealth: The devastating cost of the foreclosure crisis. (Los Angeles Anti-Eviction Campaign)

Sometimes a simple picture dialogue is worth a million words…this is telling to the discrimination and predatory lending effects on our communities…it will not change if we choose to stay silent…

A California man successfully halted a foreclosure sale on his property using… the Homeowner Bill of Rights to obtain a court injunction against… Bank of America… the injunction alone may cost BofA/Recontrust upwards of $60,000 when calculating in attorneys fees and expenses…

The new case in question – Singh v. Bank of America – was filed by a borrower who accused BofA… of violating HBOR’s ban on dual-tracking.

And the foreclosure follies march on (Daily Kos)

I think the bigger story is that a landmark case against the nation’s banks for being as crooked as f–k, as careless as f–k, as incompetent as f–k and not incidentally as unrepentant as f–k was deemed a problem solved when the banks agreed to give the sum of three or four thousand dollars to each American family the banks had wrongfully evicted from their own goddamn homes. That’s not a settlement – it wasn’t at the time, and still isn’t. In certain Wall Street-backed neighborhoods you might find higher dollar figures on the “REWARD–LOST DOG” signs. Four thousand dollars for being booted from her own home by a crooked bank?

Foreclosure defense movement stalls evictions (Workers World)

Coldwater, Mich., a town of 10,000 in the western half of the state, is no place one would expect to see a protest demonstration. These days, however, foreclosure defense activists go where they are needed. They have come May 3 to Coldwater from around the state to keep Matthew Murray and Beverley Murray and their two daughters in their home.

Spanish region at odds with EU over efforts to alleviate evictions crisis (The Irish Times)

In April, the Socialist-led government of Andalusia, one of the regions worst hit by the recession with a jobless rate of 37 per cent, issued a decree that sought to ease the pressure on those struggling to make payments. The decree allows certain homes in the region to be expropriated from banks for three years, to protect poor families from eviction. It also establishes fines for banks that fail to put empty homes on the rental market…

In response, the European Commission has warned the Spanish government that such measures are not compatible with the country’s commitments related to EU funding.

Mortgage Catch Pushes Widows Into Foreclosure (New York Times)

Geraldine Bates lost her husband to kidney failure last year. Now, she has fallen behind on her mortgage payments and is terrified that she will lose her home in Jacksonville, Fla.

Ms. Bates, 70, is caught in a foreclosure trap that is ensnaring widows across America: she cannot get help lowering her payments until her name is added to the mortgage note, but the lender says she must be current on payments before that can happen.

US Bank walks away from foreclosure on Aurora woman (Denver Post)

US Bank on Friday backed down from its efforts to foreclose on an Aurora woman whose federal court battle against it has taken on the constitutionality of Colorado’s foreclosure laws…

Brumfiel tried to challenge that US Bank didn’t prove it had the right to foreclose on her house because it had not shown how it acquired the rights to her loan and or that it had been assigned the deed of trust to the loan. Brumfiel eventually waived her right to the hearing and signed a stipulation that she was likely to lose, mostly because Colorado law allows foreclosure lawyers to sign a statement saying – without having to prove – that their client, typically a bank or other lender, properly has the note and deed of trust. It is that law Brumfiel is challenging in federal court, saying it violates her 14th Amendment right to due process.

“If you are a homeowner facing foreclosure, time is your greatest enemy,” Schneiderman said at a news conference in Manhattan. “Every day wasted waiting for a bank to respond, or for your chance to resubmit documents, is a day homeowners fall further behind, accumulate more fees and more interest. These delays often make the difference between a family staying in their home or being displaced.”

Housing Is For Everyone (HousingIsForEveryone)

HIFE launched on May Day 2013 as a network of individuals and organizations committed to carrying out the work of Housing Justice in Portland Oregon.

Basic principles:

1) Everyone has a right to shelter that is safe and livable – Housing is a Human Right

2) Keep people in their homes – stopping foreclosure, unjust evictions

3) No more empty homes – there are more than enough houses and apartments for everyone but living spaces are left empty while people go without shelter.

We are here to make the above agreements a reality in our city. We will unite with other organizations and individuals to accomplish this work collectively. We call on all supporters and allies of housing justice to join with us to take action until Housing Is For Everyone!

N.Y. to sue BofA, Wells over compliance (San Francisco Chronicle)

Last week, a federal judge for the Eastern District of California granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting Bank of America from carrying out a foreclosure sale in West Sacramento because the borrower, Kevin Singh, was in the process of seeking a modification. The judge, Morrison England, found the sale would have violated the provision in the bill of rights prohibiting dual tracking.

“This is the first written opinion I am aware of” in a case brought under the bill of rights, said Kent Qian, an attorney with the National Housing Law Project.

Occupy Protesters Shut Down Wells Fargo Over ‘Fraudulent Foreclosures’ (City Watch LA)

Upset with Wells Fargo’s foreclosure practices, protesters held a demonstration Wednesday that briefly shut down one of the bank’s branches in downtown Los Angeles.

The action was organized by Occupy Fights Foreclosures, an Occupy Los Angeles subcommittee that has been assisting homeowners fight what they consider are fraudulent foreclosures.

About 80 activists, which included foreclosed homeowners, stood in front of the bank’s entrance for a half hour before joining the nearby May Day demonstration held by the Southern California Immigration Coalition.

“Too many families are being thrown out into the streets,” said Carlos Marroquin, an organizer for Occupy Fights Foreclosures. “Wells Fargo has already paid over a billion dollars in settlements because of their predatory lending practices. It goes to show you that they are not ashamed of what they do.”

Is There A “Zombie House” In Concord Near You? (Concord Patch)

It’s not exactly “Night of the Living Dead,” but there are apparently nearly 2,000 so-called “zombie houses” in the East Bay right now.

The family was evicted, but their home is not empty. A force of armed private security guards from McRoberts Security was immediately installed in Debbie Austin’s home. The guards have been on 24-hour duty in the home ever since… Since the Austins’ January eviction, Fannie Mae has spent nearly $50,000 of essentially public money to keep one home empty.

Photo of house with security guard.

Paltry settlement checks insulting to foreclosed homeowners (Occupy Homes MN)

Frank and Kristina were hoping for some reparation after losing their dream home, going bankrupt, and damaging their credit, but were met with disappointment when they received a check for $300…

Colleen McKee Espinosa went into foreclosure after Citibank refused to accept her payment on the due date after falling two months behind on her payments. She received a settlement check for $300. Citibank’s error cost her over $18,000 in fees..

May Day 2013, Shut Down Wells Fargo! (Occupy Fights Foreclosures )

Occupy Fights Foreclosures would like to invite you to a major Wells Fargo action happening on May 1st!

Wells Fargo is a foreclosure king against the workers, undocumented communities, low-income communities, the elderly, and the disabled.

Harolyn Rhue is a homeowner whose home we are currently defending against Wells Fargo. She is a disabled woman, whose home was fraudulently foreclosed on and sold even though she had over $175,000 of equity on it and was always faithful with her mortgage payments.

New Yorkers Speak Out Against Bank of America, Wells Fargo (NEDAPNYC Youtube )

A series of short videos with a title beginning “New Yorks Speak Out Against…”

New York to Sue Wells Fargo and Bank of America Over Settlement Violations (New York Times)

New York’s top prosecutor plans to sue Bank of America and Wells Fargo over claims that they violated terms of a $26 billion mortgage settlement, his office said on Monday…

Since October 2012, Mr. Schneiderman’s office has documented 210 separate violations involving Wells Fargo and 129 involving Bank of America.

Despite recent settlements with state and federal regulators and a new California law that tightens rules for the mortgage industry, banks and their subsidiaries continue to file invalid documents and foreclose on properties to which they appear to have no legal right, an analysis of thousands of pages of property records and wrongful foreclosure lawsuits shows…

During the past five years, 184,000 Bay Area properties went into default; last year, the value of these loans exceeded $11.6 billion…

Despite the new state law requiring Bank of America to provide Rodriguez with a single contact to answer questions about his loan, the documents show he has been assigned seven different contacts since January.

Bank “Zombie Title” Rises, Hurting Communities and Borrowers, as OCC and Fed Sit Pat (Naked Capitalism)

…this abuse has skyrocketed since 2010, when the GAO estimated that abandoned homes ranged between 14,500 and 35,600. They ((zombie foreclosures)) are now pegged at 35% of the one million homes in foreclosure.

While Wronged Homeowners Got $300 Apiece in Foreclosure Settlement, Consultants Who Helped Protect Banks Got $2 Billion (Rolling Stone)

The upshot of this story is that in advance of that notorious settlement, the government ordered banks to hire “independent” consultants to examine their loan files to see just exactly how corrupt they were.

Now it comes out that not only were these consultants not so independent, not only did they very likely skew the numbers seriously in favor of the banks, and not only were these few consultants paid over $2 billion (over 20 percent of the entire settlement amount) while the average homeowner only received $300 in the deal – in addition to all of that, it appears that federal regulators will not turn over the evidence of impropriety they discovered during these reviews to homeowners who may want to sue the banks…

All of this just confirms what we already suspected about the foreclosure settlement. This whole enterprise was conceived by the government solely as a means of dealing with the explosive problem of containing the private liability of these “systemically important” companies. Not only are we not prosecuting these firms anymore, we’re also actively in the business of protecting them from litigation.

In Spain they are all indignados nowadays (The Guardian)

…the powerful use the language of shame to keep us impotent: unemployment and debt are the fault of the individual alone, they say, and social sadness a private affair. This is no doubt why María Dolores de Cospedal, general secretary of the ruling Partido Popular (PP), recently boasted that its supporters “would go hungry” rather than fail to pay their mortgage…

Cospedal was targeting the Mortgage Victims’ Platform, which, through its campaigning, is transforming the isolating stigma of eviction into a groundswell of popular outrage that is fuelling practical action.

SPAIN: DURING THE MONTH OF JUNE! DELAY OF YOUR MORTGAGE PAYMENT! 10 DAYS UP TO 90 DAYS! (Hazte Valer)

Introducing the action # HazteValer and not pay: 10 DAYS IN JUNE delayed PAYMENT OF ALL MORTGAGES. Delaying the payment of the mortgage is the strength we have as debtors.

((in Spanish; Google Translate seems to work well enough))

OOFDG stuff starts about 5:40 into the video.

The Radical Resistance Tour (radicalresistancetour.tumblr.com) is an autonomous project by a group of Occupy Wall Street organizers. We’re touring the United States and interviewing activists, people participating in direct actions, and people working to create a dual power model. We want to show people who aren’t on the ground how people are being directly affected by decisions being made by corporations and governments that put profits over people and the environment. We want to inspire more people to fight back by featuring people who are already fighting back, and hopefully gain some shared wisdom by listening to how others are resisting.

Homeless Rights Act Says Homeless Can Sleep Outdoors Without Arrest (LA Weekly)

A new bill by California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano would codify new rules for how authorities can deal with people on the street. He calls it the “Homeless Bill of Rights Act.” …

According to the latest language in the proposal:

The bill would provide that every person has the right to access public property, possess personal property, access public restrooms, clean water, educational supplies, as specified, emergency and nonemergency health care, confidentiality of medical records, assistance of legal counsel in specified proceedings, and restitution, under specified circumstances. The bill would provide immunity from employer retaliation, to a public employee who provides assistance to a homeless person.

Home Defense Picture in Minnesota (We Are Oregon)

Jaymie’s redemption period ends today, but if JPMorgan Chase thinks she, Sergio, and Paula are going anywhere, they’ve got another think coming. This is an Eviction Free Zone. We shall not be moved.

Anti-eviction advocates open foreclosed home for owner (LA Activist)

Another set of locks has been broken on a foreclosed home, this time for South Los Angeles resident Cathelene Hughes.

On Sunday, April 21, members of the Los Angeles Anti-Eviction Campaign broke the locks on Hughes’ home located on the 9800 block on South Wall Street.

“This feels great,” said Hughes, 72, who had been living with her aunt since the eviction. “When you don’t have your own place you feel like you’re displaced; you’re not comfortable. It’s just stressful.”

“It’s feeling good to come home,” she added.

House Passes Negotiation Before Foreclosure Bill (GoLocal Prov)

The ((Rhode Island)) House of Representatives passed legislation last week, sponsored by Rep. Raymond E. Gallison Jr. to require banks and lenders to make a good-faith attempt to negotiate with homeowners before foreclosing on homes in Rhode Island.

“It’s in everyone’s best interest to prevent foreclosure… Lenders are better off if they can continue receiving steady payments, even if they are a little lower, from the homeowner. Communities and our state obviously are hurt when houses are left empty and unattended. And of course, foreclosure is a huge loss for a family, who is then at risk for homelessness and has lost whatever investment they’ve made in their home. We need to ensure that lenders are doing their best to avoid foreclosing.”

An estimated 350,000 Spanish families (and possibly more) have been evicted from their homes, and the average house price has fallen by more than one-third…

The law allows banks to begin repossessing a house after just one missed mortgage payment and to seek full loan repayment even after repossession. Furthermore, neither bankruptcy nor death can erase mortgage debt…

…activists may be helped by a ruling from the European Court in March that found that Spain’s mortgage law violates European Union law.

The Fed’s Foreclosure-Relief Fail (The American Prospect)

Like far too many Americans, Debbie Marler of South Point, Ohio has her own foreclosure horror story. It involves one house, seven fraudulent mortgage assignments, three foreclosures, as many states, and five years. It ruined her career prospects, threatened her retirement security, and turned her life into what she calls “a living nightmare.”

This week, Debbie walked to her mailbox and found what the federal government considers appropriate compensation for this odyssey of suffering at the hands of JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank.

A check for $800…

Adquately compensating homeowners was never a goal of the foreclosure reviews. For context, banks paid the third-party consultants who performed the reviews (and according to whistleblowers, helped deliberately minimize evidence of borrower harm) roughly $20,000 a pop, a windfall of $2 billion.

Line of Credit. Line of Lies. (Daily Kos)

I got a telemarketing call this morning from Wells Fargo… I asked her if she was with the money-laundering department… I asked her if she knew that Wells Fargo has foreclosed on dozens of homes that didn’t even have a mortgage… I asked her who in her bank fabricates the documents…

Occupy Activists Kicked Out of Fulton Government Building (Atlanta Progressive News)

Fulton County staff and a police officer escorted two activists with Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, an affiliate of the Occupy Movement, from the Fulton County Government Services Building on Industrial Boulevard, after the activists simply tried to attend a meeting involving a foreclosure case they have been working on…

Franzen told Atlanta Progressive News that Baskin had told them, “You are with Occupy and Occupy can’t be in this meeting.”

Beyond Procedural Justice: Finding Our Foundations in the Worst Case Scenario (Rochester Red and Black)

… The direct action work of defending against a foreclosure is a political statement, where the collective strength of the community has the ability to preserve someone’s material needs. Here the community both supports someone in retaining one of the most important parts of their life, and in doing so we see that we must violate both the laws and the assumption of capitalism just to meet someone’s basic human needs for shelter…

Zombie foreclosure statistics scary (Chicago Tribune)

There are about 302,000 “zombies,” according to RealtyTrac…

Q: Why haven’t the banks followed through with the foreclosures?

A: There are a couple of reasons. It’s a side effect of the increasingly lengthy foreclosure process. It just takes longer for banks to foreclose these days, in general. Secondly, there are situations where the banks intentionally decide it’s not in their financial interest to follow through with the foreclosure, even after they’ve started the process, because of the holding costs. That’s a big factor…

People in Portland, Oregon, have been protecting families from eviction with active community defense since December 2011. More than 100 people are involved in the day to day work of housing justice, including one critical piece, house sitting.

“I don’t want to do this… But we have to!”

“Always a shift that needs to be filled.”

Call for Action: Occupy NACA on April 11th (Occupy Fights Foreclosures)

Many homeowners whom Occupy Fights Foreclosures is currently helping have been turned away by NACA, which has made us conclude that this event is only a PR campaign by the banks (whom NACA works hand in hand with) to make the public believe they are doing the best they can to ease the foreclosure crisis that is destroying the lives of millions of Americans.

Hardship continues for some Sandy homeowners (CBS News)

Naheed Akhter and her husband Manzoor have spent $75,000 to repair their home. Insurance only covered a third. They borrowed the rest from friends and family.

But it may be for nothing. The family got a letter from their mortgage lender in January.

“Your mortgage is in default and your property will be referred to foreclosure,” said Naheed Akhter, reading the letter.

The Akhters have missed five mortgage payments to Bank of America. They have no income because Sandy destroyed the Pakistani restaurant where they worked.

“I don’t have a job,” said Akhter. “Utility bills, my credit card bills, everything — I cannot pay everything.”

Occupy Foreclosures: Occupy Harolyn’s Home (Facebook)

Occupy Fights Foreclosures will occupy and defend the home of Ms. Harolyn Rhue from eviction. Harolyn is a disabled woman who survived a traffic accident when a drunk driver ran a red light.
After the tragic event, Harolyn managed to pick herself up, went to school, and got a masters degree. After many sacrifices Harolyn bought a home, worked for a bank, and designed clothing for disabled people. Unfortunately, she was taken advantage of her disabilities and was given a predatory loan. Wells Fargo has refused to work with her after her payments kept rising.

Ms. Rhue was always responsible and paid her mortgage on time. When the payments got higher, she notified Wells Fargo and asked over 10 times for a loan modification.

In august of last year, while awaiting for a review of her loan modification, Wells Fargo sold her home behind her back to an investor and now she is facing eviction.

See also here.

Foreclosure Review Hearings Show It’s Time to Burn Down the OCC (Naked Capitalism)

… it painst a picture of an agency that is hopelessly bad at its job, which raises the question of why it should continue to exist…

Sen. Warren: And without a random sample, can you then generalize to the accurate number, even an estimate, of how many banks broke the law?

Mr. Stipano, OCC: Um, not – in my, my understanding is not in a statistically valid way…

Sen. Warren: All right. I just wanted to make sure, because it appears that the people who broke the law are the same people now who have determined who will be compensated from that lawbreaking. I just find this one amazing.

Sherrye Calhoun wins back her home! (Youtube)

After being evicted in early August of 2012 Sherrye Calhoun moved back in with help from community members. She had been the victim of con artists and predatory lending, and was evicted after losing a court battle. After moving back in a warrant was issued for her arrest on criminal trespassing charges. Through community action neighbors pressured the bank to withdraw the warrant it had called for and eventually give Sherrye her home back. This sets a precedent in Atlanta for people taking their homes back and winning!

More information. Occupy Our Homes Atlanta major player.

]]> http://foreclosuredefensegroup.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/foreclosure-note-41213-41713/feed/ 0 jpmassar http://foreclosuredefensegroup.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/foreclosure-notes-4813-41113/ http://foreclosuredefensegroup.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/foreclosure-notes-4813-41113/#comments Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:32:19 +0000 jpmassar http://foreclosuredefensegroup.wordpress.com/?p=865 Continue reading →]]> VICTORY!! Atlanta woman wins home back after wrongful eviction (Occupy Our Homes)

Atlanta homeowner Sherrye Calhoun has won a major victory this week from Chase Bank! After Sherrye was wrongfully evicted from her home of 30 years last summer, neighbors and supporters helped her move her belongings back in and pledged to defend her from further actions by the sherriff or the bank. After organizing support and putting pressure on the bank to investigate their wrongdoing, Chase finally decided to sell the home back to Sherrye for $1!…

Sherrye Calhoun’s story is rare and perhaps precedent setting victory in the South.

Occupy Sacramento still making noise (News Review)

Last Thursday, March 28, two women chained themselves to an old stagecoach in the lobby of the Wells Fargo building on Capitol Mall, while a couple dozen fellow Occupy Sacramento and Occupy Stockton activists protested what they viewed to be the bank’s unethical foreclosure practices in California…

An Occupy Sacramento staple who goes by the name “Faygo” told SN&R last month that the group continues to hold its weekly general-assembly meeting on Sunday afternoons outside of City Hall, with about a dozen people usually showing up.

Judge stops eviction of homeowner with disabilities (Worker’s World)

Detroit – S. Baxter Jones appeared before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Walter Shapero on April 4 in a desperate attempt to stop his eviction from his home. Shapero, in a move that stunned many attorneys, gave Jones a 30-day adjournment, thus keeping the homeowner with disabilities from becoming another victim of Wells Fargo Bank and the federal government’s Fannie Mae agency…

udge Shapero overruled the objections of the attorney for Fannie Mae, who listed all the “proper” legal steps taken by her client to put Jones out of his home. The judge agreed that the law was clear, but stated that “the law isn’t everything.” He ordered the 30-day adjournment until the court could appoint an attorney to assist Jones on a pro bono basis.

Elizabeth Warren Gets Fed & OCC To Admit They Protect Banks (Daily Kos)

Warren – So you’ve made decision to protect the banks, but not the families that have been foreclosed against?

Ashton – Yes.

Fed/OCC: $3.6B in Checks from Foreclosure Pact Start Apr 12 (MNI)

The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Tuesday announced that those 4.2 million people eligible to share in a $3.6 billion settlement regarding foreclosure issues reached earlier this year with some major banks should start seeing their checks from $300 to $125,000 arriving after April 12…

The agreement, which was reached earlier this year, provides $3.6 billion in cash payments to borrowers whose homes were in any stage of the foreclosure process in 2009 or 2010 and whose mortgages were serviced by one of the following companies, their affiliates, or subsidiaries: Aurora, Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, MetLife Bank, Morgan Stanley, PNC, Sovereign, SunTrust, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo…

In most cases, borrowers will receive a letter with an enclosed check sent by the Paying Agent-Rust Consulting, Inc…

Foreclosure Review Finds Potentially Widespread Errors (Huffington Post)

Nearly a third of all foreclosed borrowers who faced proceedings brought by the biggest U.S. mortgage companies during the height of the housing crisis came to the brink of losing their homes due to potential bank errors or under now-banned practices, regulators have revealed.

Close to 1.2 million borrowers, or about 30 percent of the more than 3.9 million households whose properties were foreclosed on by 11 leading financial institutions in 2009 and 2010, had to battle potentially wrongful efforts to seize their homes despite not having defaulted on their loans, being protected under a host of federal laws, or having been in good standing under bank-approved plans to either restructure their mortgages or temporarily delay required payments.

… The estimates, disclosed Tuesday, far exceed projections made over the past few years…

Foreclosures returning to pre-housing bust levels (CNN Money)

Last month, banks repossessed just under 44,000 homes, within striking distance of the pre-housing bust monthly average. At the height of the housing meltdown, in September 2010, repossessions topped 100,000 a month…

For the past couple of years, foreclosures have been on the decline as homeowners seek alternatives like short sales, in which they sell their home for less than what they owe and the bank agrees to forgive the difference. The deals are preferred by the banks over foreclosures and have less of a negative impact on consumers’ credit scores.

But now even the need to turn to short sales is waning. These deals accounted for 10% of sales in February versus 14% a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors.

]]> http://foreclosuredefensegroup.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/foreclosure-notes-4813-41113/feed/ 0 jpmassar http://foreclosuredefensegroup.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/foreclosure-notes-4413-4813/ http://foreclosuredefensegroup.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/foreclosure-notes-4413-4813/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:29:26 +0000 jpmassar http://foreclosuredefensegroup.wordpress.com/?p=862 Continue reading →]]> Only 151 homes for sale in Oakland, down from 797 a year ago (SF Business Times)

Oakland had the biggest drop in inventory of any city… But the flip side of the scarcity — the total inventory of homes for sale across the country fell 21 percent — is that prices have been pushed up.

Critics question investment fund’s Sacramento rental venture (Sacramento Bee)

Blackstone arrived in Sacramento in August and began sweeping up properties through an entity it named THR California. It wasn’t long before local investors started grousing about the Wall Street behemoth outbidding them in foreclosure auctions on the courthouse steps, one of several methods Blackstone uses to acquire homes.

The firm went on a buying spree in the past eight months, acquiring more than 1,200 houses across the Sacramento region for an estimated $200 million.

The Eviction Free Zone (Youtube Video: Occupy Homes MN)

In South Minneapolis, eight families have declared their community an Eviction Free Zone…

“We hereby declare our community a Foreclosure and Eviction Free Zone. We will not leave our homes until the following demands are met…”

Knock-knock: Anti-eviction rallies come to Spain MPs’ doorsteps (RT.com)

Spanish protesters, seeking to stop a wave of evictions, are now knocking on politicians’ doors. They’re standing up against the harshness of the mortgage law in the recession-hit country.

Protesters gather at the porches of lawmakers or at their workplaces, dressed appropriately to convey their message and holding signs with their demands…

Also

Inspired by Latin American human rights campaigns from the 1990s, the “escraches” – Argentine slang for denunciation – have involved protesters posting flyers and shouting slogans on the doorsteps of a number of politicians over the past fortnight.

GAO Report on Independent Foreclosure Reviews Exposes OCC, Fed’ Plan to Deliberately Minimize Evidence of Borrower Harm (Naked Capitalism)

…the regulators were definitely part of the story here, and once you get through the government audit-ese, you can begin to see the picture of how they conspired to ensure the reviews would offer little to no value, and indeed attempt to exonerate the banks. The ensuing calamity only shows how the scheme worked too well, burying any evidence of borrower harm among an avalanche of deliberately cracked design….

Banks are not complying with mortgage settlement, survey finds (LA Times)

Banks aren’t living up to pledges they made in last year’s landmark government settlement of mortgage servicing and foreclosure abuses, according to an advocacy group’s survey of California housing counselors and lawyers.

The California Reinvestment Coalition, which lobbies for low-income Californians, said banks continue to pursue foreclosures against borrowers seeking loan modifications – a practice they had sworn off – and have been ineffective at providing well-informed employees to help troubled borrowers one-on-one.

Monica, 70 years old and sick with Alzheimer’s, will be evicted without a single euro (Acampadasol)

Global Revolution @GlobalRevLive 5h
BREAKING: #Madrid #MonicaSequeda eviction BLOCKED by citizens
after multiple arrests of defenders… http://fb.me/ObKrzGfq

((google translated from Spanish…))

Monica is a separated woman of 70 who suffers from Alzheimer’s and lives with a non-contributory pension of 365 euros. Since 1974 he lives in a rented flat in the Paseo de la Castellana, having paid any and all receipts until today. How can a sick woman is evicted after forty years without having a single euro?

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