Iminent domain to be used to seize underwater mortgages? wtf?

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Chris always brags about the housing market humming along just fine. Wonder what he will think of this abuse of govt power to strip private investors of their interest and giving it to someone else.

This reeks of what Obama did with GM's stock holders.
 
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A trio of of local governments – San Bernardino County, Fontana and Ontario – have created a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) in an effort to help “underwater” homeowners that may result in the use of seizure powers to buy mortgage-backed securities.

Placing securitized mortgages in the hands of local governments, as opposed to far-flung private investors could give homeowners a better chance of negotiating favorable loan modifications, said Cornell University professor Robert Hockett.

Hockett is a consultant for San Francisco-based Mortgage Resolution Partners, which is pushing the eminent domain plan in San Bernardino County and to officials in seven other states.

The eminent domain idea, however, has also captured the attention of nearly 20 organizations representing local Realtors as well as the banking and financial services industries.

And they don’t like it.

Writing that using eminent domain to seize mortgage loans raises “very serious legal and constitutional issues,” the trade groups contend the plan could be “immensely destructive to U.S. mortgage markets by undermining the sanctity of the contractual relationship between a borrower and creditor.”

http://www.loansafe.org/business-groups-resist-san-bernardino-county-eminent-domain-proposal
 
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I understand that they are trying to help people but this is an awful idea. Setting the govt up as an all powerful entity. This kind of crap can not be allowed to go unchallenged.
 
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The really stupid thought process for this in California is insane. The state is on the verge of bankruptcy and the process of doing this involves lowering the property values of these homes. Thus creating an even bigger hole in their budget.
 
Jesus...:(

The speed at which our nation is disappearing before our eyes and losing everything we were built on is getting epidemic.
 
the guts of the plan;


Cities Consider Seizing Mortgages

snip-

The eminent-domain gambit is the brainchild of San Francisco-based venture-capital firm Mortgage Resolution Partners, which has hired investment banks Evercore Partners and Westwood Capital to raise funds from private investors. The company's chief executive, Graham Williams, is a mortgage-industry veteran who helped pioneer lending programs for low-income borrowers at Bank of America Corp. BAC -1.74% in the early 1990s. Its chairman, Steven Gluckstern, is an entrepreneur who once owned the New York Islanders hockey franchise. Evercore's founder and co-chairman, Roger Altman, served in the Clinton administration and is raising funds for President Barack Obama's re-election effort.

For a home with an existing $300,000 mortgage that now has a market value of $150,000, Mortgage Resolution Partners might argue the loan is worth only $120,000. If a judge agreed, the program's private financiers would fund the city's seizure of the loan, paying the current loan investors that reduced amount. Then, they could offer to help the homeowner refinance into a new $145,000 30-year mortgage backed by the Federal Housing Administration, which has a program allowing borrowers to have as little as 2.25% in equity. That would leave $25,000 in profit, minus the origination costs, to be divided between the city, Mortgage Resolution Partners and its investors.

more at-
Cities in California Consider Seizing Mortgages - WSJ.com

this sounds like a gross abuse of eminent domain imho. And notice my emphasis , the bolded portion, in other words, we are on the hook.
 
Sorry I posted on the same subject 10 minutes behind you - My wrinkle was that the "problem" was caused by run away speculation , buying houses not to live in but as speculation. Thus causing the "bubble" that like all bubbles eventually burst.
 
I dont like the idea much either.

the banks should be forced to rewrit the loans.

It was their fraud that caused this mess in the first place.

why should they get their mortgages paid for by anyone
 
I dont like the idea much either.

the banks should be forced to rewrit the loans.

It was their fraud that caused this mess in the first place.

why should they get their mortgages paid for by anyone

Wish they would do what you suggest on all the cars I have bought
 
I dont like the idea much either.

the banks should be forced to rewrit the loans.

It was their fraud that caused this mess in the first place.

why should they get their mortgages paid for by anyone

what about fannie and freddie, should 'they' absorb the losses to?


:lol: go ahead, say yes......
 
this is one grim chart let me tell you...over half in the Phoenix area and almost half in SB county underwater? damn.....


20120705_underwater_0.png
 
Usin' eminent domain to re-write mortgages...
:cool:
California Cities Eye Plan to Seize Mortgages, Rewrite Them
July 16, 2012 — In the foreclosure-battered inland stretches of California, local government officials desperate for change are weighing a controversial but inventive way to fix troubled mortgages: Condemn them.
Officials from San Bernardino County and two of its cities have formed a local agency to consider the plan. But investors who stand to lose money on their mortgage investments have been quick to register their displeasure. Discussion of the idea is taking place in one of the epicenters of the housing crisis, a working-class region east of Los Angeles where housing prices have plummeted. Last week brought another sharp reminder of the crisis when the 210,000-strong city of San Bernardino, struggling after shrunken home prices walloped local tax revenues, announced it would seek bankruptcy protection.

Now — and amid skepticism on many fronts — officials from the surrounding county of San Bernardino and cities of Fontana and Ontario have created a joint powers authority to consider what role local governments could take to stem the crisis. The goal is to keep homeowners saddled by large mortgage payments from losing their homes — which are now valued at a fraction of what they were once worth. "We just have too much pain and misery in this county to call off a public discussion like this," said David Wert, a county spokesman.

The idea was broached by a group of West Coast financiers who suggest using the power of eminent domain, which lets the government seize private property for public use. In this case, they would condemn troubled mortgages so they could seize them from the investors who own them. Then the mortgages would be rewritten so the borrowers would have significantly lower monthly payments. Steven Gluckstern, chairman of the newly formed San Francisco-based Mortgage Resolution Partners, says his main concern is to help the economy, which is being held back by the mortgage crisis. "This is not a bunch of Wall Street guys sitting around saying, 'How do we make money?'" he said. "This was a bunch of Wall Street guys sitting around saying, 'How do you solve this problem?'"

Typically, eminent domain has been used to clear property for infrastructure projects like highways, schools and sewage plants. But supporters say that giving help to struggling borrowers is also a legitimate use of eminent domain, because it's in the public interest. Under the proposal, a city or county would sign on as a client of Mortgage Resolution Partners, then condemn certain mortgages. The mortgages are typically owned by private investors like hedge funds and pension funds. Under eminent domain, the city or county would be required to pay those investors "fair value" for the seized mortgages. So Mortgage Resolution Partners would find private investors to fund that.

MORE
 
My son is one of those in danger of losing his home. We're waiting for a new assessment to see what the value is to nudge it above water.

The criteria is that the mortgage payments must be current. No one who is behind is in danger of having their home seized. The story being pedalled is that the mortgage will be sold, the original lender get pennies, the homeowner gets nothing, then the homeowner has to trust that he will be able to get the new loan. The homeowner will be competing with anyone else who wants to qualify for that loan exactly as he was when he got the loan in the first place.

The state is watching this very carefully in anticipation of taking it state wide. It will come as a shock to those in multi million dollar mansions to find out that the 5 million dollar home they got is only worth 4 million and the state is taking it while the mortgage holders are comfortably making the payments.
 

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