Supreme Court rules that thousands of home foreclosures are invalid because banks do not have promissory notes

NaturalNews) More than five million US homeowners and counting have had their homes foreclosed upon by banks since the “economic crisis” first began several years ago. But the Massachusetts Supreme Court recently ruled that the vast majority of the foreclosures that took place in the Commonwealth (and likely in most other states) within the past five years are illegitimate because the banks did not, and do not, actually hold the promissory notes for the properties.

This means that all mortgage payments made to banks for illegitimately foreclosed upon properties are fraudulent since such banks do not technically own the properties in question. It also means that anyone who purchased a foreclosed property, or who is threatened currently with potential foreclosure, does not necessarily have a legal obligation to continue paying their mortgage.

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via Supreme Court rules that thousands of home foreclosures are invalid because banks do not have promissory notes.

An Overpriced Market Meets The Global Economic Slowdown | Bob Chapman

October 19 2011: A stock market that is still overpriced, what can leverage do for bailouts, debt is endemic worldwide, injections of money and credit cant stop the global economic slowdown, no viable solutions for Europe.

It could then be that this is the top of the stock market, which is fundamentally very overpriced. The latest rallies are the result of statements by French President Sarkozy and German chancellor Mrs. Merkel that a financial solution is at hand for Europe. This announcement named the end of the month as the date for release of this information. Thus far there has been no further comment. This was the justification for a very strong rally. In the wings there are large short and put positions, which tell us that there is a body of speculators that believe the fundaments are not in place, nor was the recent rally justified. In relation to Europe we see two possibilities; countries bailing out their own financial sectors and the use of leverage to extend bailout funds into trillions of dollars to assist the six insolvent nations. Some nations currently prohibit the use of leverage. Needless to say, rules do not impede adventurous politicians in the control of elitist interests such as the banking community. We will have to wait for this new formula, but in the meantime its results have already been discounted, or military action increases in the Middle East, perhaps in connection with Iran?

Debt problems are endemic worldwide. We all know of the problems in the US, UK and Europe, but they extend all over the world. We are in a major financial crisis, which is as bad and will be as damaging as the credit crisis of three years ago. In fact we never exited that crisis. Debt is the problem and creating more debt does not solve the problem. We have written often about debt and currency problems and as yet nothing is being done to solve these problems. It is as if these powers wanted a collapse. How long can the US dollar continue to take this thrashing? Unfortunately it is not only the dollar. Over the past 1-1/2 years nine major currencies have fallen on average more than 20% vs. gold and silver. Thus many countries and their financial institutions are going to be in serious trouble. The dollar and the euro are both overvalued and even after a 15% devaluation the Swiss franc is undervalued. It is not only going to be currencies, but everything financial that is going to be affected. That includes bonds, stocks, savings accounts, CD’s; cash value life and annuity policies. The only things that will benefit will be gold and silver related assets. For all intents and purposes in the US, the FDIC has no funds and has to have them allocated in the form of debt by the government. More debt means more inflation and higher precious metal prices. The global financial community has to be terrified because their whole world is coming unraveled around them.

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via An Overpriced Marked Meets The Global Economic Slowdon | International Forecaster Weekly Bob Chapman The International Forcaster | Economy News | Investing | US Market Information | Gold | Silver | Wall Street Bailouts | Investment Trends | Money Resources | US and Worldwide Politics.

“Does Anyone Really Know What is Going on with Foreclosures?”

Patrick Pulatie at LFI Analytics has noticed a huge discrepancy in the number of reported foreclosures by varying organizations. Via Email Pulatie writes …

Much of my off time is spent in reviewing the reports of other entities regarding the foreclosure crisis, correlating data and trying to forecast what to expect in the future.

Frankly, I am at the point where I am wondering whether anyone has a true reading on what is happening.

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

At the end of the 2nd Quarter, the OCC reports:

It Monitored 32.7 million first mortgages out of 53 million total, representing 62% of all first mortgages.

4.9% or 1.57 million were more than 60 days late, or at least 1 month late while in Bankruptcy.

5.5 million are late by over 30 days, or in the foreclosure process.

1.3 million in some stage of foreclosure.

88% of mortgages were current. (This would mean that 3.944 million were not current of the 32.7 million being monitored.)

800,000 REO’s

If 1.57 million loans are more than 60 days late and 5.5 million are late by over 30 days, then 3.8 million must be between 30 days and 60 days late.

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via Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis: “Does Anyone Really Know What is Going on with Foreclosures?”.

Foreclosure backlog deepens

Foreclosure backlog deepens

Les Christie, On Wednesday October 5, 2011, 1:15 pm EDT

As the foreclosure backlog continues to build up, delinquent borrowers are spending even more time in their homes without making mortgage payments.

Once borrowers start missing payments, they spend an average of a year and nine months, or 611 days, in foreclosure before banks repossess their homes, according to LPS Mortgage Monitor. That’s more than twice as long as three years ago, when the average was 251 days. Earlier his year, the average was 523 days.

“The number of defaults in the pipeline has been huge and we had more problem loans than ever before,” said Herb Belcher, who supervises analytics for Lender Processing Services (LPS), which provides mortgage industry information and analytics to big banks.

With so many bad loans, servicers have had to prioritize which ones they can deal with and which ones to push aside.

“It’s like your boat has all these holes in it and is taking in water. You have to plug up the worst holes first,” said Belcher.

Squatter nation: five years with no mortgage payment

The bottlenecks are particularly severe in judicial states where the foreclosures are processed through the courts, he said. In non-judicial states, where trustees handle the cases, the average foreclosure is six months shorter.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which account for the majority of all mortgage lending these days, have been actively lobbying their industry partners — the servicers and attorneys who handle the foreclosure process — to either quickly get paperwork filed and push defaults through the system or put borrowers into a foreclosure prevention program, said Belcher.

The industry has gotten better at dealing with the deluge; it has hired staff and refined procedures to improve efficiency. But a return to more normal processing times will take time given the enormous backlog.

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via Foreclosure backlog deepens – Yahoo! Finance.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Shadow Inventory. Shadow inventory may be improving on a nationwide scale but not for California – Notice of defaults rise approximately 70 percent in latest month of data. Beverly Hills shadow inventory nine times the size of MLS public foreclosures.

You have an interesting dynamic unfolding in the United States. Recent data shows that the shadow inventory figure is starting to decline nationwide. However in high priced markets particularly in California there is little movement in the shadow inventory. To the contrary, notice of defaults for California raged up nearly 70 percent in the last month of data. In other words while the pipeline nationwide for shadow inventory may be declining at a slow turtle like pace, little of this is happening in high priced markets with absurd levels of hidden inventory like in Beverly Hills or Culver City for example. Adding fuel to the fire, the incredibly high mortgage limits are set to expire which will keep the faux-bourgeoisie from buying their $1 million shack in a preferred zip code simply by going into massive debt. They will now need to come to the table with some solid cash and a respectable income. Realtors are bemoaning this and trying to fight tooth and nail to keep it in place because they realize how phony some of these buyers are in terms of their actual net worth.

The surge in California shadow inventory

While the case can be made that shadow inventory on a nationwide basis is falling, here in California the pipeline might be filling up again:

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via Lies, Damned Lies, and Shadow Inventory. Shadow inventory may be improving on a nationwide scale but not for California – Notice of defaults rise approximately 70 percent in latest month of data. Beverly Hills shadow inventory nine times the size of MLS public foreclosures. » Dr. Housing Bubble Blog.

Beware The Second Real Estate Collapse – YouTube

psdsinc’s Channel – YouTube.

This is about a year old, but still timely and relevant� information.