Foreclosures: Oh look, it was a robber baron land grab all along.

[Fire Walk With Me]

Fair Housing Advocates Bristle At Banks' Proposals For Foreclosed Homes

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/28/housing-advocates-balk-at_n_1172538.html

Banks helped create the housing crisis, and now they're seeking a new way to profit from it. As Bloomberg reported Monday, several financial and investment companies have submitted proposals to the federal government, suggesting ways that they can help manage a program to rent out 180,000 foreclosed homes.

Fair and affordable housing advocates are calling on the Obama administration to reject help from the financial sector, or at least limit its influence.

"It's really a question of whether the banks that made so much money creating this crisis are going to profit again," Jeremy Rosen, policy director at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, told The Huffington Post.

[liberal N proud]

1. Create the crisis, lose money, get bailed out, while making profit, then reap a huge profit...

on the property it stole from the people.

Double whamy!

[alfredo]

2. Disaster Capitalism.

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Exactly. Want somewhere to live? Rent from US!

Yes, this is your old home. Rent is twice your old mortgage. Welcome home!

[alfredo]

5. Banksters and Republicans have been doing crap like this all over the world,

and now they have turned their talons on us.

[liberal N proud]

4. Creating vast Pottervilles all over the United States

[RockaFowler]

11. That's what I was thinking, too

Sad but true

Here in Florida it's really bad. Look down the streets and all you see is either a FOreclosure or a For Sale Sign

[On the Road]

6. I Understand Neither the Outrage or

your reasoning that it was a "baron land grab" all along. It's strange that since the banks need special permission to do this since they own the foreclosed properties already.

[TiberiusB]

7. Reading the article might help

These particular foreclosures are owned by the government. Does the whole "robber baron" thing really need explaining? The financial sector creates a crisis by wildly inflating the real estate market through the sale of toxic derivatives and default swaps, the market collapses and the same villains profit from a preposterously enormous bailout that continues to this day. Meanwhile, business and consumer loans nearly evaporate as banks choose to sit on more than 2 trillion in free money from the Fed. Unsurprisingly, faced with plummeting housing values and rising mortgages, among other skyrocketing debt, domestic consumption contracts sharply. This contraction, along with other factors, drives a number of companies to reduce staff or freeze hiring. Millions are thrown out of work and there aren't enough new jobs for new entrants into the market. Now many financial institutions are trying to find a way to snap up many of the distressed properties put on the market by their wanton greed, all for pennies on the dollar, of course. This way they can profit either by driving minorities out of desirable neighborhoods (post Katrina New Orleans being the perfect recent example), or they can re-sell/rent the properties back to many of the same people whose lives they destroyed. So, yeah, robber baron pretty much fits.

And if anyone is wondering which way the Obama administration is likely to tilt, remember that they are already actively looking at such a plan, which may involve subsidizing the 1% who "invest" in such a program (normally the word "invest" implies the possibility of loss, but we know that won't be allowed to happen).

http://www.pe.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20110803-foreclosures-spawn-investor-subsidized-rental-push.ece

[jwirr]

16. Why are they not just putting that property into HUD? Maybe because they want to involve the

private sector again. There are housing projects that are jointly owned by private and public sector but they are administered totally by HUD rules. I am not interested in anything the banksters administer. By the way I have been homeless for years - moving from relative to relative - and I may be again if my spoiled grandson throws another temper tantrum and moves out on me. I cannot afford the place I am in so I do want a system of vouchers the will help to open these houses up.

[truedelphi]

19. Didn't know that, Tiberius.

Between the fact that our involvement in Syria seems to be a back door way into a war with Iran (And now there is the Iranian threat to close off the Straits of Homez) and also all the bad news on the Keystone XL Pipeline going through due to hidden provisions inside the "payroll tax cut, two month extension bill" and then someone emails me that there will be Agent Orange sprayed on crop lands across the USA as the new GM crops require such, it's all too much.

I think I am going to start building a rocket ship to some other planet.

From what I am hearing, Keystone could be a done deal within 60 days.

[jwirr]

13. Oh they can already rent them out but not without putting a great deal of money into renovations.

They are after another hand out.

[aggiesal]

14. I agree with Tiberius ...

Banks don't actually own the foreclosed homes.
They only administer the loan and then the paperwork
on the homes.
I pay my home loan to Chase Bank, but I found out that
the FDIC actually owns the loan (or at least some part
of it. They took it over when WAMU went bankrupt and
Chase wouldn't take the loan.), Chase Bank only administers the loan.
Same thing with a rental unit I own, Flagstar only administers
the loan, but Fannie Mae owns the loan.

There's a website where you can find this out by just entering
your address. I don't remember it, but it has to do with the
mers system.
Try www.mers.com or google, and you might find it.
If I find it, I'll post a follow up.

[unapatriciated]

21. Thanks for that info

Our loan was sold to Chase and now I know they just service the loan. Fannie Mae actually holds the paper. Now I want to know how much Chase makes for collecting my payments.
Here is the link if anyone else would like to know who actually owns their loan.
http://www.mersinc.org/homeowners/

edit to add Fannie Mae link
http://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/

[eyewall]

8. 21st Century Carpetbaggers

[leeroysphitz]

9. "calling on the Obama administration to reject help from the financial sector, or at least limit its

influence."

Fat fucking chance.

[joshguitar]

10. k n r /nt

[jwirr]

12. While I believe the government should be doing this with the empty houses as long as we have

homeless persons or persons using more than 30% of their income on housing (this is the HUD limits) I to object to the banksters making a profit off of the program. Just another way to privatize. It should be said that there are many low income housing projects that are jointly owned by HUD and the private sector.

HUD should administer it not some sleezy bankster.

[freshwest]

20. +1,000. Thanks, I didn't know those details.

[Starry Messenger]

15. k&r

[TiberiusB]

17. Some fun with math

The Fed "loaned" some 24 TRILLION dollars to the banks. None of that money has done a thing to alleviate the collapse in the housing market.

Now imagine if that money had been given to the tax payers instead. The U.S. population is approximately 310 million (a little less, actually). That means each person would get close to $77,500. That could pay a $1500 mortgage for about 51 months or more than 4 years. A family of four would receive about $310,000, which could pay off most mortgages entirely, as fewer than 10% of mortgages exceed $250,000. The housing crisis would instantly evaporate and prices stabilize. Families with money left over could pay off credit card debt and perhaps even buy a car. What would an economy with greatly reduced debt, increased mobility, and dependable housing look like? Enemy #1, if you're a bank. Remember, banks thrive on your debt.

Compare all that to what the Fed and the Obama administration did instead. Remember to include the ongoing suppression of interest rates (basically free money for the financial sector) and the ongoing efforts to protect banks from consumer lawsuits over robo-signing and outright fraud.

And now, after squandering the opportunity to literally put millions of citizens permanently in their homes and do wonders to repair the economy, they want to take these underwater properties and rent them to you. Why solve a problem for everyone when you can endlessly perpetuate it for the profit of a select few?

[bemildred]

18. Capitalists have often arranged the "buy low" part of their program themselves.

Not just the "sell high" part.