Matthew Padilla of the OC Register Blogs..... "7 lenders escape state foreclosure moratorium"
Bank of America, Citigroup and EMC Mortgage Corp. are among seven companies that have received permanent exemptions to California's 90-day foreclosure moratorium, which began last week.
More than 20 other lenders and loan servicers, including Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, have received a temporary exemption while they wait to learn if it will become permanent.
Here's what I wrote previously on the law:
The California Foreclosure Prevention Act, or Assembly Bill X2 7, which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed in February, is meant to push banks and loan servicers into lowering mortgage payments of homeowners in financial trouble. It reflects a similar federal plan.
Several companies have already applied for exemptions, said Mark Leyes, a spokesman for the state's Department of Corporations. The department must grant or refuse an exemption within 30 days, during which companies need not comply with the moratorium. The law impacts loans made from 2003 to 2007.
A lender or servicer gets an exemption by demonstrating it already has a loan modification program in place, including lowering owner payments to a target of 38 percent of their income going to housing. Methods of choice are lowering the loan's interest rate or extending its term to 40 years.
The bill, however, seems to lack teeth. The 38 percent debt-to-income ratio is merely a target.
And the bill says it does not require a servicer to violate contracts for "investor-owned loans." The most troubled loans are generally those investment banks packaged and sold, and if the servicing contract says foreclosure is preferable to a loan modification, nothing in the law stops foreclosure.
Exemptions are granted by the three agencies that regulate companies that make service or broker loans.
- See the California Department of Corporations exemptions list HERE.
- The Department of Real Estate list HERE.
- And Department of Financial Institutions list HERE. End of his entry.......
With regard to our auctions....offers ‘flying' this week.....multiple offers on the Marbleheads....Tisbury & Ludwig (expected today).... We can see the advantages of having an ‘end' date to a process backed by an aggressive marketing plan....people need to move to the ‘decisive' category if they want to ‘play' the game. Speaking of decisive, Autumn sold yesterday with a large stack of offers on hand....5 days as planned....excellent work....we received the first offer on Canyon Vista....and a listing appointment in Chino Hills from our Nordic mailer....that'll take place tomorrow.....we were assigned another ‘bank owned'.....a house in Diamond Bar that is tenant occupied....today we take possession of a ‘bank owned' house in Anaheim assigned previously....
Today is the last "auction preview" for Saturday's main event......the anticipation is building.....this is tremendously exciting......
"Notoriety and a fat bank account must come after everything is finished and done", Ray Bradbury (1920- ) American Author.
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