The Housing Bubble

The Associated Press reports on California. “A divorce led Daniel Peart to refinance his four-bedroom home with a subprime loan. Like many borrowers with spotty credit, the self-employed handyman said he agreed to a relatively high interest rate in exchange for two years of low, fixed payments.”

“In less than a year, however, the payments jumped beyond his budget, forcing him to seek bankruptcy protection while trying to sell the home he bought 19 years ago, he said.”

“‘I put the majority of the blame on the broker, for not being upfront, telling me what the charges were all going to be, and rapid-signing all the paperwork,’ said Peart, whose home is located in the San Diego suburb of Poway.”

“Antonio and Celina Lopez recently began the bankruptcy process. They fell behind on payments just eight months after buying a home in Escondido in San Diego County.”

“Daisy Ramirez and Jose Mendoza, both 21, said they asked an agent to find their extended family a home but stressed that they couldn’t afford a payment of more than $3,200 a month. The agent found them a three-bedroom house for $570,000. After signing a blank loan application, the couple was approved for a piggyback mortgage, two loans requiring monthly payments of $3,200 and $1,200, Ramirez said.”

“She said they told the agent that was too expensive but closed escrow in January 2006 after being advised they could refinance in a year with enough equity to slash their monthly payment and even take a vacation. The house is now in foreclosure.”

“We were told the opposite of what was going to happen,” Ramirez said.”

The Ventura County Star. “A consumer group urged a state Senate panel investigating problems with subprime mortgages Monday to adopt regulations that will force lenders ‘to return back to the days of fundamental, sound lending practices.’”

“Sen. Bob Margett asked industry representatives what could be done to prevent borrowers from losing their homes. ‘How do we unfry the egg?’ he asked. ‘I think we’ve got to start looking at helping these guys who, starry-eyed, bought their homes.’”

“Sen. Dave Cox cautioned that lawmakers should not go too far in trying to protect consumers who made bad decisions. ‘I hope we don’t move in the direction of calling people who default on their loans ‘victims.’”

“Sen. Mike Machado, chairman of the Senate Banking, Finance and Insurance Committee, is developing a bill that would apply recent federal lending guidelines to state-regulated lenders. He also wants state agencies to more aggressively restrict practices such as low introductory interest rates and variable monthly payment options.”

“‘You’ve seen the market kind of diverge to escape the (federal) guidelines,’ Machado said after Monday’s hearing. ‘There’s probably a role for the state to come in and apply those. And there’s a question, I think, of whether the federal guidelines are in themselves sufficient, or should we go beyond them?’”

“Sen. Dave Cox said potential home buyers also need to take responsibility for their own actions and not assume a mortgage they may not be able to afford. ‘Subprime has given people the opportunity to buy a home,’ he said. ‘There are sometimes, you ask yourself, can we save people from themselves?’”

Inside Bay Area. “Foreclosure filings jumped 79 percent last month in California, with some of the highest rates in local counties, according to RealtyTrac. Solano, San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties were among 10 California counties with the highest levels of foreclosure activity in February.”

“While San Joaquin County is indeed seeing more foreclosures, the real spike has been in short sales, said Dave Konesky, a Realtor in Tracy. Konesky estimated the number of short sales last month were 10 times the number in February 2006.”

“‘That’s what I see happening, way more short sales than foreclosures,’ he said. ‘A lot of owners out there say, ‘Bring us an offer, I’m just on the cusp of foreclosure.’”

“In Alameda County, 591 homes were in foreclosure in February, up from 254 a year ago. San Mateo County had 118 homes in foreclosure, compared with 77 a year ago.”

The Press Enterprise. “With property values no longer rising to bail homeowners out of trouble, last month in Riverside County foreclosure activity was more than double what it was a year earlier.”

“Also, the number of foreclosure-related filings in San Bernardino County last month was almost triple that of February 2006, according to Realty Trac. Riverside County had 2,169 foreclosure-related filings in February, while San Bernardino County had 1,673 filings.”

“John Marcell, immediate past president of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers, said 2007 will be a ’shakeout year’ for failing mortgages. He said he expects lenders will repossess properties in default or to allow distressed borrowers to sell their homes for less than they owe rather than fall into foreclosure. In combination, he said, this will depress surrounding home prices.”

The Union Tribune. “RealtyTrac said yesterday that there were 1,065 default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions in San Diego County in February. That number was up 20.9 percent from February 2006.”

“The county figures, which are not seasonally adjusted, generally paralleled trends reported earlier by San Diego-based DataQuick Information Systems, which placed San Diego’s default notice count at 1,268 for both January and February and 480 for February last year.”

The Bakersfield Californian. “While some local real estate professionals voice skepticism at predictions of tough times for the Bakersfield market, many see a reckoning ahead. ‘I think our market is in for a correction,’ said local appraiser Gary Crabtree. ‘It was just a matter of time. We went up so rapidly in such a short period of time that the salaries of homebuyers could not keep up.’”

“Kern County had 634 properties enter some stage of foreclosure in February, up from 185 in February 2006, according to RealtyTrac. Crabtree said that recently about one of every three notices of default have led to foreclosure, up from a historical average of 10 to 15 percent.”

“‘It is a sign of weakening of the market,’ Crabtree said, blaming questionable subprime lending practices for the increase. ‘Foreclosures will increase and supply will increase, which will place downward pressure on prices,’ he said.”

The County Sun. “John Short was looking - but definitely not buying - on Monday at Shea Homes’ 24-Seven at Victoria Gardens development. ‘But…homes are about $50,000 to $60,000 too high,’ he said. ‘A place like this should be more affordable in about six months to a year.’”

“With new-home sales continuing to drop, William Carney says he’s hearing the same thing from people in the building industry. ‘Basically, it’s too costly,’ said Carney, CEO of the Riverside-based Inland Empire Economic Partnership.”

“‘The market went upscale,’ said Redlands-based economist John Husing. ‘I’m thinking in the next year (to) year and a half, you’ll see prices slowly drift downward.’”

The Sun Star. “Home prices continued to slide downward in February, markedly in Merced County, with the median sales price dropping for the eighth consecutive month, according to new data from the California Association of Realtors.”

“Merced County’s median home price was $320,000 in February, a 14.7 percent decline from the February 2006 median figure of $375,000, according to the California Association of Realtors figures.”

“The continued price plunge means Merced’s real estate market is returning to reality after a period of overinflated activity, said Merced County Association of Realtors President Scott Oliver.”

“‘Everyone thinks the sky is falling, but that’s not the case,’ Oliver said. ‘It’s finally coming down to a regular market.’”

“With builders offering discounts and other incentives to clear inventory sitting in new subdivisions, homeowners looking to sell existing houses are now lowering asking prices to stay competitive, Oliver said.”

“‘We’ve seen a drastic decline in how sellers are structuring their prices now,’ Oliver said. ‘They’re not looking for the big numbers anymore, they’re just happy if they make a profit.’”

The East Valley Tribune reports from Arizona. “The subprime mortgage market’s dramatic free fall is reverberating throughout the Valley as lenders tighten standards and would-be buyers watch in dismay as deals collapse without warning. Gilbert real estate agent Tra Bell recently felt the ripple effect when his office had five deals unexpectedly fall apart.”

“‘The lenders are saying, ‘We can’t do it anymore in this type of a market,’ he said. ‘It’s not going to work. We’re losing our shirts.’”

“The stricter standards come as a rising number of subprime borrowers fall into foreclosure. The default rates on these loans are higher than Wall Street investors, who buy them from lenders, are willing to tolerate, said Chris Mozilo, president of the Arizona Mortgage Lenders Association.”

“Investors are forcing mortgage companies to buy back hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of loans. Lenders are also selling at deep discounts and taking huge losses, Mozilo said. ‘Some of them are on the verge of bankruptcy,’ he said.”

“The fallout has left thousands of loan officers jobless and knocked many aspiring first-time home buyers out of the market. Now, lenders are taking away options and that ‘makes a tough market even tougher,’ he said.”

“And it’s not just subprime borrowers who are feeling the crunch. If a first-time buyer loses his loan, then the seller can’t move-up to another house, said Yalda Alawi, an agent in Chandler.”

“It filters all the way up, said Alawi, who had two deals involving subprime loans fall through last week alone. Industry observers worry that the overall housing market could suffer with inventories increasing and prospective buyers being shut out.”

“Some 2,949 sales were recorded last month, down 24.5 percent from the same period in 2006, the latest Phoenix Housing Market Letter from analyst RL Brown shows.”

“Developers also took out fewer building permits for new homes with 3,630 last month, compared with 3,737 in February 2006. Builders are also finding success with efforts to rid themselves of speculative homes by offering incentives and slashing prices.”

From Inside Tucson in Arizona. “Mortgage fraud in Arizona has jumped according to the Mortgage Asset Research Institute’s annual survey, which showed the state went from 23rd to No. 7.”

“The biggest increases in fraud between 2005 and 2006 came from cash-back deals in which loans are taken out for more than what property was worth and keeping the difference.”

The Review Journal from Nevada. “Home Builders Research on Wednesday reported 1,411 new home sales in February, less than half the number sold in the same month a year ago. It was the same story for existing homes. There were 2,332 recorded resales during the month, down 27.2 percent from a year ago.”

“‘The Las Vegas housing market is still slugging it out for cautious consumers who are looking for steals and deals,’ housing analyst Dennis Smith said.”

“Las Vegas-based SalesTraq reported dips in both new and existing home closings. New-home sales fell 49.5 percent to 1,441 and existing home sales fell 17.2 percent to 2,594. Despite the sales slump, median new home prices rose 3 percent in February to $321,555 and resale median prices increased 1.4 percent to $284,000.”

“‘This defies both the laws of gravity and economics,’ SalesTraq President Larry Murphy said.”

“Builders pulled 1,005 new home permits in February, down 60.6 percent from a year ago, and that follows a 53.9 percent drop in January, SalesTraq reported. Mid-rise and high-rise closings were lower in February than January, as were condominium conversion sales, Murphy said.”

“Prices haven’t dropped because sellers haven’t adjusted to the marketplace yet, said Gena Lofton, CEO of a Los Angeles-based real estate consulting company.”

“‘I believe they will go down,’ she said. ‘You’ve got so many subprime loans that are going to be resetting. If those owners aren’t able to refinance, prices will begin to weaken. It just takes time to work through the system. The market has been overvalued for quite some time.’”

“Traffic through model homes has been stable since February, but net sales have declined 37.6 percent for the first two months of the year, Smith said. The cancellation rate has declined to 24 percent from 26 percent a year ago.”

“SalesTraq showed 21,220 homes on the MLS in February, nearly a 50 percent increase from a year ago and a supply of 12.2 months at current sales levels.”

The Las Vegas Business Press. “While Southern Nevada loan officers believe the local housing market will improve in the coming months, no one is sure what’s going to happen to the sub-prime lending industry.”

“‘For us, B paper (subprime loans) are more than 50 percent,’ said Jose Sanchez, a loan officer with American Nationwide Mortgage.”

“Bill Ochs (is the) owner of Las Vegas-based Nevada Mortgage, which has been in operation for nearly 30 years. ‘These companies that are in trouble will probably become absorbed by larger entities but there will be changes down the road,’ said Ochs, who believes greed and escalating real estate values have contributed to the problem.”

“‘As houses went up in value, there were a lot of deals made with no money down,’ he continued. ‘There were speculators who said, ‘I’m going to occupy the house’ — wink, wink — and the plan was to flip the house, and make a profit and move on. It’s fine until the market flattens and the investor can’t make the payment.’”

“Those who are hurt are the honest subprime customers. ‘Money is tight right now,’ Sanchez said. ‘I have a couple who have saved 5 percent to buy a $200,000 house and their FICO (credit) score is 600. I don’t know if they’re going to qualify. They want to hear assurances and all we can tell them is, ‘We are going to try.’ Do you know how long it took this family to save 10 grand?’”

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. “Lennar Corp., the largest U.S. homebuilder by revenue, said earnings plummeted 73 percent during the fiscal first-quarter as the worst housing slump in more than a decade crushed demand. Lennar CEO Stuart Miller said the spring selling season, when homebuilders usually get the bulk of their orders, failed to materialize, just two months after telling investors this year would be as good or better than 2006.”

“‘Market conditions are very difficult across the Country,’ Miller said. ‘The industry is continuing to be challenged to adjust home prices and land values as well. It is unclear today where there is another shoe to drop.’”

“Gross profit margins on home sales fell to 15.6 percent in the quarter from 24.9 percent a year earlier because of higher sales incentives to lure potential customers.”

“‘The typically stronger spring selling season has not yet materialized,’ said Stuart Miller, Lennar’s president and chief executive. ‘These soft market conditions have been exacerbated by the well-publicized problems in the subprime lending market.’”

“New home orders were down 27 percent year-over-year, to 7,132. Lennar said its cancellation rate was 29 percent.”

“‘Our sense is that the tougher lending environment would have only started at the end of the quarter so that the impact will be more significant next quarter,’ analyst Daniel Oppenheim said.”

From MarketWatch. “The U.S. Commerce Department reported Monday that sales of new one-family houses in February were at the lowest level since June 2000. Inventories of unsold homes rose to a 16-year high.”

“William Wheaton, an economics professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the numbers ‘are actually where they should be,’ given that home sales over the past four to five years have been ‘unusually high.’”

“‘We simply don’t need 1.2 million new homes sold a year,’ he said. ‘The real puzzle is how did we build so many homes for all those years without having the market tumble.’”

“U.S. home prices continued to fall in January, with prices in 10 major cities now down 0.7% year-over-year, according to Standard & Poor’s and MacroMarkets LLC.”

“The 10-city index is down 0.7% in the past year, the first year-over-year negative reading since 1996. The 20-city index is down 0.2% year-over-year. A year ago, prices were rising 15%.”

From Reuters. “More than three in 10 U.S. homeowners have no idea what type of loan they own, according to a poll released by Bankrate.com, that suggested how confusion may be contributing to problems in the subprime mortgage sector.”

“Another troubling finding in the Bankrate.com survey was that 34 percent of homeowners who hold adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM) do not know what they will do when their loan resets to higher interest rates.”

“‘Clearly, many homeowners are uninformed about their mortgages,’ said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. ‘Given that homeowners could be looking at an increase of several hundred dollars each month, this is a staggering statistic.’”

“The Federal Reserve is concerned that borrowers of subprime mortgage loans may face ‘more difficulty’ in the next one to two years, a Fed official said Tuesday.”

“In particular, those borrowers with recently originated adjustable-rate mortgages are likely to experience more delinquencies and foreclosures, said Sandra Braunstein, the director of the Fed’s division of consumer and community affairs.”

“‘To be sure, there needs to be a return to more realistic underwriting standards, and the guidance should have that positive effect,’ said Emory Rushton, senior deputy comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. ‘But we cannot ignore the likelihood that tighter underwriting will mean fewer–and smaller–loans,’ he said.”

From Bloomberg. “Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair urged Congress to pass legislation setting a national mortgage loan standard to protect borrowers from predatory lenders.”

“A law should require loan underwriting based on the borrower’s ability to repay the true cost of the loan and not just the ‘artificially low’ introductory rate, Bair said in prepared testimony before a House Financial Services subcommittee in Washington today.”

“John Reich, the director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, disagreed with Bair, saying in his prepared remarks ‘we do not see a need for legislation at this time.’”

“He urged states to adopt federal mortgage guidelines for state-regulated mortgage brokers and lenders outside the reach of federal bank regulators.”

From CNN Money. “Sen. Christopher Dodd told CNNMoney.com that he did not believe new, restrictive regulation was necessary, but rather there was ‘enough on the books’ already.”

“Dodd admitted that he did not know what sort of bailouts were realistic for as many as 2.2 million subprime borrowers at risk of default, but said that ‘we need answers very quickly.’ To that end, he said he planned to meet soon with Wall Street banks that buy the loans from mortgage lenders and repackage them into securities, as well as others, in order to come up with some solutions.”

National Mortgage News. “On Thursday, members of the Senate Banking Committee lashed out at the Federal Reserve, and former chairman Alan Greenspan, for fueling the growth of alternative mortgage products and blaming the central bank for the rise in subprime-related delinquencies by not doing anything about deteriorating lending standards.”

“In 2003, Mr. Andrea Mitchell touted AMPs, in particular ARMs, to consumers but a few weeks later clarified his statements.”

“Of course, if senators on the committee knew anything about the mortgage industry they would realize that many of the biggest players in AMPs/subprime are non-depositories that are beyond the reach of the Fed and FDIC. The Senate panel might want to investigate Wall Street’s role in the crisis but that might cast many of their largest donors in a bad light.”

“This just in: HSBC Mortgage Services of Ft. Mill, N.C., is exiting the subprime correspondent channel.”

The Central Penn Business Journal. “Fulton Financial Corp. said it would take a $5.5 million pre-tax charge to first-quarter earnings because one of its subsidiaries is being forced to buy back subprime mortgage loans that went awry.”

“The loans did not require income verification and covered up to 100 percent of a home’s value for borrowers with a minimum credit score of 620.”

From Fitch Ratings. “Fitch Ratings has placed NovaStar Mortgage, Inc.’s residential primary servicer rating for subprime product on Rating Watch Negative. NovaStar is a subsidiary of NovaStar Financial Inc.”

“The rating watch reflects the challenging operating environment in the subprime mortgage market and uncertainties regarding NFI’s profitability. As a result of the company’s recent challenges, NFI’s ability to fund its ongoing servicing operation and maintain servicing quality could come under pressure.”

“Corporate recruiters fear home ownership may now prevent workers from accepting a new job, because selling a house may mean losing money. David Barlow said employers are now scrambling to upgrade their relocation policies to help workers sell their homes in a weak market. More of his clients are now offering to cover the costs of workers who lose money on a home sale.”

“‘It’s an absolute nonstarter for a company to expect an employee to eat a fairly significant amount of money on a home sale,’ Barlow said.”

“John Challenger, head of employment outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said that while America’s near-record 69 percent home ownership rate has been lauded by politicians, few considered the impact a less-flexible workforce could have on the economy.”

“‘When you’re renting you’re more fluid, but we’ve been moving more and more people into home ownership — it’s been a national goal. But there are problems with it,’ Challenger said. ‘The economy doesn’t operate as efficiently, and that’s what we’re now beginning to see.’”

“Challenger said laid-off workers face a double whammy. ‘People get stuck with homes now worth less than they were when they bought them, and they can’t get out of them,’ Challenger said.”

“‘Some can’t even make the payments if they’ve lost their job, and they certainly can’t take a $50,000 hit selling the house for less,’ he said.”

Newsday reports from New York. “The number of houses on the market on Long Island and in Queens increased last month, the MLS of Long Island said yesterday. According to the MLSLI, 30,313 houses were available on the Island and in Queens in February, about 5,000 more than in January. Real estate experts said they are seeing a significant number of potential buyers, but that the buyers are holding off on purchases to see if prices drop.”

“Pearl Kamer, economist for the Long Island Association, said more homes on the market could spell trouble for the region, particularly if, as anticipated, there are more foreclosures among subprime borrowers.”

“‘If we have significant foreclosures on the subprimes, those are going to be added to the inventory,’ Kamer said. ‘That’s a potential danger.’”

“Edmarie Fletcher, a sales associate in Westbury, said that although plenty of people have stopped in to look, ‘there are very few offers coming in because people want to wait to see if prices drop.’”

“Bay Shore resident Thomas Vitti is getting over the threshold just under the wire: If he and his wife don’t close on their new home in Islip Terrace by the end of the month, they won’t be able to buy it at all.”

“That’s because the crisis in the market for subprime mortgages is changing products and standards so rapidly that the mortgage he’s been offered won’t be available in April. ‘Once we were close to getting our mortgage, a few weeks ago, the market took a dive and I was like, ‘This isn’t good for the mortgage rates’ - and I was right,’ Vitti said.”

“Realtors and mortgage brokers across the Island are reporting that 100 percent financing is a thing of the past. ‘It’s absolutely true that deals are falling apart,’ said Ed Munteanu, whose Islandia-based New World Capital does 60 percent of its lending to people with poor credit histories.”

“He said that in the past six weeks, 30 to 35 percent of the subprime loans he has handled have fallen through as lenders and investors have tightened their guidelines.”

“‘Those prices they were seeing in late 2005, they’re gone, they’re history and they’re not coming back. At least not any time soon,’ said Bethany Marten, president of Home Buyers Resource Center and Mortgage 1,2,3 in Baldwin.”

The New York Journal News. “To see what happens when a slowing housing market meets a high-risk mortgage market, just stop by the lobby of the Westchester County Courthouse nearly any day of the week.”

“RealtyTrac reports a continuing rise in the number of homes entering foreclosure in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties. ‘It’s a perfect storm of events,’ said Gary Brown, director of consumer protection for Westchester County.”

“‘It’s pretty bad,’ said Gerri Levy, executive director of the Rockland County Housing Action Coalition. ‘Some people I really feel for and other people I think were taken advantage of by the banks. I had a woman call me this week who makes $24,000 a year and the bank gave her a mortgage for $360,000. Honestly, I can’t see how much more predatory a loan could be.’”

“‘When banks start losing money, it will get worse,’ Levy predicted. ‘There will be less room to negotiate.’”

The Free Press from Vermont. “Foreclosures in Chittenden County jumped 37 percent from 2005 to 2006. The problem is not limited to Chittenden County. Foreclosures increased roughly 23 percent in northwestern Vermont, according to a Free Press analysis.”

“When property values were increasing more than 10 percent a year, as they have been in Chittenden County for the past six years, it provided a reserve fund homeowners could tap at will. ‘They could sell the house or they could borrow more to cure the default. Now, we have a flat or declining market, and those options aren’t available,’ attorney Joshua Lobe said.”

“Homeowners have been ‘borrowing significantly’ against their home through secondary mortgages in recent years, he said.”

“‘The biggest problems with the foreclosures today is we are dealing with out-of-state lenders,’ said attorney Ray Obuchowski of Bethel. ‘And unfortunately, the days of negotiating with your local lender has gone by way of the buggy whip.’”

The Republican from Massachusetts. “Michael J. Farrell specializes in helping people in various kinds of financial distress. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the problems were mostly due to plunging real estate values.”

“‘Now it’s the subprime lenders who have caused these problems,’ Farrell said. ‘What we’re seeing is extremely high debt-to-expense ratios, where a typical bank would never write the loan,’ Farrell said.”

“He pointed to John Quick’s case, where Quick’s girlfriend has an annual income of about $7,000 to $9,000 from her waitressing job, and the mortgage company loaned her nearly $273,600 last July to buy their house from Quick.”

“Quick, who had been out of work and was facing foreclosure, contacted a mortgage broker he had used before who found a lender to give Quick’s girlfriend a $273,600 mortgage to buy the house from him, so they could both continue to live in it.”

“They went from an 8.9 percent mortgage to 11.5 percent, and from a monthly payment of $1,700 to $2,700. Now they’re facing a foreclosure auction Tuesday morning on their Warren home.”

“‘We got bilked big-time,’ Quick said. ‘The guy I trusted’ said the monthly payment was going to be lower than the $1,700 month he had been paying.”

“Farrell added that the documents contain forgeries submitted by the broker to NovaStar Financial, the lender. Farrell said that lender NovaStar Financial has not responded to six letters regarding Quick’s case.”

“‘It’s a perfect storm of problematic circumstances,’ said Bruce Spitzer, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bankers’ Association.”

The Boston Globe. “With record numbers of Massachusetts homeowners facing foreclosures, Secretary of State William F. Galvin today will urge the Legislature to require mortgage lenders to get permission from local judges before they seize the homes of delinquent borrowers.”

“‘You have the right to dispute a parking ticket but not to dispute the taking of your home,’ Galvin said yesterday. ‘We have to move now. This demands urgent action today.’”

“‘Maybe the borrower has valid reasons’ for failing to pay, said David Volman, an attorney in Shelton, Conn., who represents homeowners facing foreclosure. In Massachusetts, ‘there’s no judge monitoring’ the process. With no oversight, he said, lenders ‘are going to do whatever they want.’”

“Volman added that it is unrealistic to expect homeowners who can’t afford mortgage payments to hire an attorney to try to stop foreclosure.”

“Not all notices filed in Land Court result in foreclosure But in a soft real estate market where home prices are falling, agents said it is impossible for many borrowers in this position to raise enough money to refinance or pay off the outstanding balance of their loans.”

“Kevin Cuff, executive director of the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association, said mortgage companies oppose Galvin’s proposal, which he said would cause an ‘unacceptable delay’ for lenders.”

“‘You’re going to have legitimate foreclosure proceedings that are going to get hung up in court, and the lender is going to be out, and the investor’ who buys those loans from mortgage writers ‘is going to be out,’ Cuff said. ‘It’s going to throw into disarray the entire process.’”

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