John Mayer's Newsletter Sept., 28, 2011 (archived)

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Hello Everyone!

Here is the latest Real Estate news from Florida and around the Nation. As always, please feel free to call or email me any time, even if it's just to keep in touch.

Remember, Real Estate is a sound investment at any stage of your life and having the right professional to help you along in the process is imperative.

(pronounced PIE-THA)

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Spring buying boosts U.S. home prices

S&P/Case-Shiller: Major cities' home prices rose for fourth straight month in July, the peak buying season nationally. Read more.

Home prices rising in Florida

Realtor.com created a list of 15 cities with year-over-year listing price increases - and 9 of the top 10 are in Fla. Read more.

WASHINGTON – Sept. 27, 2011 – A review of about 4.5 million foreclosures from 2009 and 2010 from the nation’s banks could take “another year and more,” said a top fed official.

John Walsh, acting head of the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said 14 major banks will be reaching out to borrowers who may have been wrongly foreclosed upon and are fixing their foreclosure protocols over the next year.

Last spring, regulators ordered banks to overhaul their foreclosure practices after several problems were uncovered in processing and filing errors. Since then, banks have been working with independent consultants to identify borrowers who may have been wrongly foreclosed upon.

Banks are setting up a single process for consumers who would like to request a review of their case from 2009 and 2010. An outreach campaign, expected to launch in the coming weeks, will include a toll-free number, a joint Web site, and an advertising campaign in an attempt to reach out to affected homeowners.

“We have pursued this matter aggressively because correcting improper practices in foreclosure processing and mortgage servicing is of the utmost importance for the safely and soundness of the banks, for the financial health of home owners, and for recovery in the U.S. housing sector,” Walsh said. “The reputation of the entire industry has suffered.”

Source: “Fixing Foreclosure Woes Could Take a Year,” Dow Jones Newswires (Sept. 23, 2011)

WASHINGTON – Sept. 27, 2011 – Government regulators may have cost taxpayers billions of dollars by settling mortgage-related claims with Bank of America before addressing questions about the methods used to evaluate the loans involved, according to a government report due out Tuesday.

Senior managers at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the independent agency that oversees government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, failed to act in a timely way to “significant concerns” about the process Freddie Mac employed to determine which faulty loans it wanted Bank of America to buy back, the agency’s inspector general found.

By not expanding its inquiry to include loans that ran into problems three to five years after they were originated, “Freddie Mac did not review over 300,000 loans for possible repurchase claims,” the report states. That led a senior FHFA examiner to conclude that the company could be passing up “billions of dollars” that would have benefited taxpayers.

In January, the FHFA announced separate settlements with Bank of America in which the bank agreed to repurchase mortgages from Fannie and Freddie that did not meet the underwriting standards that had been represented to investors. The mortgages involved had been sold to Fannie and Freddie by the troubled mortgage company Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America bought in 2008. The settlements totaled $2.87 billion, including a $1.35 billion settlement for Freddie Mac.

The following month, several members of Congress began to question the adequacy of the deal and sought more information, and the FHFA began looking into the settlements in greater detail.

Although the inspector general did not independently examine Freddie Mac’s loan review process, the report states that had managers taken time to review the firm’s practices, FHFA “may have been in a better position to evaluate” the merits of the Bank of America settlement.

In response to the inspector general’s findings, FHFA officials said in a letter dated Sept. 19 that the agency “has not changed its view that the settlement reached in December was appropriate and reasonable.” Still, the agency has suspended approval of future repurchase agreements pending further review, and officials said the FHFA is working to improve ways “to raise and resolve” concerns brought forth by examiners.

“After reading the IG’s report, I am concerned that FHFA is not exercising independent judgment,” Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Financial Services oversight subcommittee, said in a statement Monday. “Deferring to [Fannie and Freddie] in this case may well have cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars. The American taxpayers deserve better than business as usual, especially when they have already spent $160 billion to keep Freddie and Fannie afloat.”

Copyright © 2011 washingtonpost.com, Brady Dennis

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Newsletter Archive

7/4/2011
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