One of the NCREI Investors sent an article to me yesterday referencing an interesting turn of events.

Court rulings may make it tougher for holders of mortgage-backed securities to take back the keys…
The problem stems from a shortcut that many players in the fast-moving securitization business have used in recent years. Normally, when a loan is sold, a simple document is prepared showing that the debt and any collateral attached to it has been transferred to the purchaser. That piece of paper is called an assignment. But in buying up thousands of mortgages at a time, Wall Street commonly skips this step, which requires separate paperwork for each loan. Instead, the industry customarily relies on a lengthy contract, known as a pooling-and-servicing agreement (PSA) to spell out arrangements for all of the loans in a pool. But, as some recent court rulings indicate, a PSA may not be good enough when it comes time to foreclose.
continue reading "Foreclosures Stopped by Courts"

The U.S. Treasury Department led by Henry Paulson, Treasury Secretary is working on a plan to temporarily freeze the interest rate resets common in many sub-prime mortgages. Los Angeles foreclosures predominantly have this type of loan. Will this plan avert a housing disaster locally or nationally?
continue reading "Will the Foreclosure Bailout Plan Save Us?"

Life is difficult. Life is nothing but a battle between dualities or dichotomies. Each side needs the other to survive, to exist. In fact, one without the other has no meaning, no reality. These days life seems to be getting grim for many good folks. Why it happens is not important because we don’t seem to learn from our mistakes anyways. Besides the past of a second ago is just as gone, just as ancient, as the Trojan War! There is nothing you can ever do to bring the past back, no matter how persuasive or pious you may be. So, you might as well live for the moment in order to experience the intensity of existence and carry it forward to the future.
continue reading "Whoever said life was easy didn’t really know or didn’t tell you the truth."

In our last meeting I spoke about four components of success and happiness.

Many people wrote or called thanking me and asked if I could write about and elaborate more on this topic. The idea was crystallized in my mind a few weeks ago prompting me to present that in our last meeting when Mr. Bruce Norris was our guest speaker. Perhaps he had something to do with all that. As usual, he was enlightening. For those who have not yet heard his presentation, I highly recommend it. Just visit our website www.ncrei.com and download his talk. It won’t be there much longer, so take advantage of it now.
continue reading "Four components of success and happiness."

This is an interesting article that discusses the changes in the lending environment. There has been a lot of talk and anecdotal discussion, but what I found interesting was the citation showing an 82% drop in nonconforming loans.
continue reading "Return of the SubPrime?"