NY Attorney General Sues Banks Over MERS

Following on the heals of the Silverberg decision by the Appellate Division, which basically denied lenders the standing to sue when MERS was utilized to record a mortgage, the NY AG has sued the banks for their use of MERS. If you remember Ed Romaines lawsuit with MERS, this has been a long time coming. The lawsuit alleges deceptive and fradulent practices on homeowners and the Courts as a result of MERS involvement in mortgages. Basically MERS involvement skews the ability of the Courts and Defendants in a foreclosure action to determine if the Plaintiff in the lawsuit actually has the right to sue. To learn more about the lawsuit, click here.

Making Home Affordable Program Extended Another Year

This week the administration announced that its program that provides the framework for mortgage services to provide modifications to distressed homeowners will be extended for an additional year and will now be available through December 31, 2013.

Additionally, the administration will modify the framework of the Making Home Affordable program to offer assistance to an increased target population of homeowners. To accomplish this goal, the Home Affordability Modification Program (HAMP) will shift its sole focus on front-end debt-to-income ratio, or the comparison of income to a homeowner's mortgages, taxes and insurance, to also evaluating back-end debt-to-income ratios, or the comparison of income to a homeowner's total debt, including non-real estate related debt. Its interesting that it took the administration so long to shift to this focus because back-end debt-to-income has traditionally been the primary focus of lenders when making a loan. Still further, the program will be extended to income-producing properties, with tenants, as well as vacant properties instead of being limited to owner occupied properties as it currently exists. Lastly, the administration has expanded its incentive offerings to services who offer principal reduction to underwater homeowners.

To read the administration's explanation of its new policies with respect to the Making Home Affordable Program, click here.

New York State Bar Association - Annual Meeting - Real Property

Hi all,

I just got back from the Real Property Meetings in New York City and wanted to report on the great experience had by all. We discussed why New York Real Estate is different, Current real estate development issues, Rebuilding the World Trade Center, Current real estate financing issues, Current real estate leasing issues, Residential mortgages, Real estate issues facing not-for-profits, and NYC skyscrapers. The meeting was very positive and their was an air that the market is improving in NY. Also, I learned that the foreclosure woes are estimated to be 1/2 done in NY where they are only 1/3 through the crisis in the rest of the Country.

Personally, the discussion about the stages of building up the World Trade Center's buildings to achieve market rentals as opposed to building them all at the same time when they would compete for tenants and the discussion about the German influence on NYC's skyline were the most interesting aspects of the meetings.

Yet, I would say that Suffolk County's real estate issues were not addressed and the focus was on NYC. Therefore, I wrote the Chair of the Committee asking how we can get more localized into the future. Hopefully, we can learn from other counties and share with them the lessons we learn from having the best residential community in the State, the Hamptons / North Fork.