Bank of Amercia, despite its allegations of foreclosure fraud is has resumed foreclosures in 23 states. These particular states Bank of America can foreclose without a judge involved – easier to pull of the mortgage fraud, since most of their notes were sold off as mortgage backed securities and they are actually foreclosing illegally. A Class Action Lawsuit is a powerful way to stop Bank of America and other lenders from stealing your home.
Bank of America reviewed 102,000 foreclosures in the 23 states where a court must sign off on the proceedings, and it is now restarting the process on those cases, the company said yesterday. The company said the first of the new affidavits will be submitted by Oct. 25, and that it will continue its review in 27 other states. According to a spokeswoman for the bank, no errors were found during the review, and fewer than 30,000 foreclosure sales across all 50 states will be delayed as a result of the investigation. The announcement comes one day before the bank’s third quarter earnings report, and might ease investor concerns over the scale and timeframe of the bank’s review process. “This is an even better outcome than we previously thought,” said Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets. “We thought January was a more likely time to restart the [foreclosure] process.” All told, 1.8 million loans are in foreclosure in the 23 so-called judicial states, while 1.3 mil
lion are pending elsewhere in the country, according to a Morgan Stanley analyst report.
Housing starts up .3%
Housing starts rose 0.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000 in September, up from a revised 608,000 in August, the Commerce Department said. Economists were expecting a rate of 579,000 housing starts, according to a consensus estimate from Briefing.com and analysts polled by Reuters had expected housing starts to slip to a 580,000-unit rate. Compared to September last year, housing starts were up 4.1%. The number of new homes being built in August was up 4.1% from a year ago. Permits for future construction rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 539,000 last month, down 5.6% from August. Economists were expecting 565,000 permits in September. The last time building permits fell below 550,000 was in May 2009. Year-over-year, permits were down 10.9%. Though the housing market is starting to settle down after hefty declines following the expiration of a government tax credit for home buyers, an overhang of unsold homes is stifling recovery. A survey on
Monday showed sentiment among home builders edged up this month, but remained at depressed levels. Groundbreaking last month was lifted by a 4.4% increase in single-family home construction. Starts for the volatile multi-family segment fell 9.7%.
Obamacare kills more businesses
Industry experts say more insurers will drop health care coverage or go out of business if they are forced to meet a Jan. 1 deadline that requires them to boost the money devoted to providing care. The Obama administration is awaiting the recommendation of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, meeting in Orlando this week, for how and when to implement key changes to the “Medical Loss Ratio” rule. Under health reform, beginning 2011, insurance companies will have to spend 80% to 85% of the premiums they collect on care instead of toward their own profits and overhead costs. Prior to reform, requirements varied from state to state. In some cases, insurers didn’t have to meet any minimum requirements. For example, some plans have a 40% loss ratio. That means individuals could be paying $1 for 40 cents of care. Beginning in 2012 If insurers don’t increase that loss ratio to 80 cents per dollar paid, they will have to give customers a rebate for the difference
. “The issue that some carriers will leave the market as a result of this is real,” said Deborah Chollet, senior fellow and health economist with Washington-based Mathematica Policy Research. “Some companies just won’t be able to make it,” she said.
US won’t devalue dollar
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner vowed yesterday that the United States would not devalue the dollar for export advantage, saying no country could weaken its currency to gain economic health. “It is not going to happen in this country.” Geithner told Silicon Valley business leaders of devaluing the dollar. “It is very important for people to understand that the United States of America and no country around the world can devalue its way to prosperity, to (be) competitive,” Geithner added. “It is not a viable, feasible strategy and we will not engage in it.” Geithner, normally reluctant to publicly discuss currency and market movements, has not uttered the so-called “strong dollar mantra” — a refrain he helped create at Treasury in the 1990s — since February. On Friday, the dollar index hit a 10-month low against a basket of major currencies, while the greenback has been plumbing fresh 15-year lows against Japan’s yen. Many emerging market countries are complaini
ng that Fed money creation is weakening the dollar, and causing more funds to flow into their markets, pushing up their currencies. Talk of a “currency war” has persisted as countries take action to keep from losing export competitiveness.
Olick – do foreclosure freezes help builders?
The National Association of Home Builders’ monthly sentiment index rose 3 points—two points higher than expectations—to a four month high. The builders say they are starting to see some “flickers of interest among potential buyers.” They also note that most builders have no access to capital for building homes, and therefore won’t be able to meet the pent-up demand. The release makes no mention of the foreclosure freezes put in place recently by the big banks. Foreclosures and short sales were a full 34 percent of all home sales in August, according to the National Association of Realtors. Foreclosures compete directly with new construction, as many foreclosures fall on relatively new construction. The outlook for the builders was slow-going before the foreclosure issues.
“Normalized demand may not be evident until late winter and some ratcheting up in demand may not be apparent until perhaps next Spring,” wrote Fitch Ratings analyst Robert Curran. Without knowing exactly how long the delays will be for getting foreclosed properties back on the market, it’s hard to judge the short-term benefit for builders. “I think its too early to say, but I have to believe that if the foreclosure delay and confusion continues, builders have to benefit from that just due to the desire of buyers for certainty in ownership,” notes Miller Tabak’s Peter Boockvar. Uncertainty clouding today’s mortgage market is renewing a lack of confidence in housing, which was just beginning to loosen its grip over the summer. By now, the fallout from the home buyer tax credit should have waned, and the market should have climbed back toward some semblance of normalcy. However, a survey of 54 metropolitan areas from a report by Re/Max shows September sales fell 6.4 percent
month to month and 20.6 percent from September of 2009. Take 1/3 of that market away, with the freeze on distressed property sales, and October’s numbers are going to look truly ugly.
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