Chase Home Finance Sucks
Chase Home Finance LLC Sucks

Jul 29, 2010 (Datamonitor via COMTEX) –

Chase, the US consumer and commercial banking business of JPMorgan Chase & Company, has announced that it will open new full-service bank branches in 22 Albertsons stores in southern and central California by 2010, and also add about 200 employees for the new branches.

Chase is planning to hire new employees to provide personal banking, loans and financial advice to customers in Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Kern counties.

The first branches are opened in Kern, San Diego, Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles Counties as Chase expands to more than 800 branches in the state by end of 2010. Branch bankers will offer customers a full range of services from checking and savings accounts to mortgages, business loans and investments.

Pablo Sanchez, region executive for Chase, said: “These new locations reaffirm our commitment to make Chase even more convenient for our customers, especially when they can get their shopping and banking done in one stop. It’s exciting to partner with Albertsons, which have earned the business of so many consumers.”

Foreclosures rose in 3 of every four large U.S. metro areas in this year’s first half, likely ruling out sustained home price gains until 2013, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Unemployment was the main culprit driving foreclosure actions on more than 1.6 million properties, the company said.

“We’re not going to see meaningful, sustainable home price appreciation while we’re seeing 75 percent of the markets have increases in foreclosures,” RealtyTrac senior vice president Rick Sharga said in an interview.

Foreclosure actions — which include notice of default, scheduled auction and repossession — in the first half rose in 154 of the 206 metro areas with populations 200,000 or more.

“We’re not going to see real price appreciation probably until 2013,” said Sharga. “We don’t see a double dip in housing but we think it’s going to be a long painful recovery for the next three years.”

Nine of the 10 areas slammed hardest by the foreclosure tidal wave improved from the first half of 2009, suggesting a peak at rates that are still up to five times the national average, RealtyTrac said in its midyear 2010 metropolitan foreclosure report.

Cities with the 20 highest foreclosure rates were all in Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona.

As long as unemployment hovers near 10% and unrelenting foreclosures hang over the market, prices cannot stage a lasting comeback. Home prices are about 29% lower, on average, than peaks set four years ago.

“If unemployment remains persistently high and foreclosure prevention efforts only delay the inevitable, then we could continue to see increased foreclosure activity and a corresponding weakness in home prices in many metro areas,” RealtyTrac chief executive James J. Saccacio said in a statement.

Home prices rose in May for the second month, still propped up by the crush of demand for homebuyer tax credits that ended April 30, according to Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller indexes.

But that momentum will not last, economists agree.

Unemployment and wage cuts are chipping away at confidence and could slice average prices as much as 10% before a gradual climb resumes, many housing experts predict.

Sharga said the recent nominal price increases suggest that lenders so far have managed the distressed property flow well and buyers are bidding for those houses when they do get listed for sale.

Banks will take over at least a record 1 million mortgages this year, RealtyTrac estimated earlier this month, noting that more than 5 million loans are seriously delinquent and face foreclosure.

More than 3 million households are seen getting at least one foreclosure notice this year, and this record will be surpassed slightly at the peak of next year, RealtryTrac expects.

Las Vegas had the country’s highest metro foreclosure rate in the first half of the year, with 6.6 percent of its housing units, or one in 15, getting a filing. The number of properties getting a notice, however, fell 9 percent from the same period last year.

The real estate market has yet to rebound from its historic crash—here’s why.

Four years after the housing bubble popped, the American real estate market has yet to launch a sustainable recovery. Although U.S. home prices have improved modestly since the spring of 2009-and certain regional markets have performed even better-sales and values will face renewed downward pressure later this year in the wake of the expiration of the federal home buyer tax credit. Indeed, some analysts expect the bloated inventory and sputtering demand to trigger a “double dip” housing recession, with prices possibly even slipping back below their April 2009 lows.

This disconcerting outlook has materialized despite some optimistic developments within the market. The 30-percent drop in prices has helped restore affordability to a once wildly-overvalued market, putting additional consumers in position to become homeowners. Meanwhile, mortgage financing has grown downright cheap-with rates falling to 50-year lows. “So what’s the problem then?” asks Timothy Dwyer, the chief executive officer of Entitle Direct. “What’s causing this stagnation in the housing recovery?” Here are six reasons why the housing market hasn’t recovered:

1. Labor market: The labor market holds the key to a recovery in housing. “We need more job growth in this country for a housing recovery to take hold,” Dwyer says. That’s because a steady income stream is the first step to home ownership. And with the national unemployment rate sitting at an uncomfortably high 9.5 percent, a great deal of potential buyers are either out of work or worried about losing their jobs. And until jobs and confidence return, the market won’t have enough demand to support a sustainable recovery, says Mike Larson of Weiss Research. “This is truly a jobless recovery to end all jobless recoveries,” Larson says. “And that’s why I think the housing market is still struggling.”

2. Household formation: The weak labor market is undercutting a housing recovery in another way as well. As jobs become scarce, unemployed workers tend to move in with friends or family members, says Patrick Newport, a US economist for IHS Global Insight. This development works to constrict the creation of new households, which typically serve as a key driver of real estate demand. Only 398,000 new households were formed between March of 2008 and March of 2009, compared to roughly 1.2 million in a normal year, according to Newport. “That was the second smallest increase since 1947,” he says. Although figures for the most recent year have not yet been released, Newport expects they will show another period of sluggish household formation. “That is the key reason why the housing market is still down…and the reason that household formation is down is because the economy is so weak,” Newport says. “Job growth is what will get people moving back out on their own.” Newport expects the economy to add jobs going forward, but only at a modest pace. He forecasts roughly 800,000 additional jobs added this year, 2.7 million in 2011, and 3.5 million in 2012.

3. Foreclosures: Despite a sharp pullback in new home construction, the housing market remains significantly oversupplied. The market had an 8.3-month supply of unsold existing homes in May; that’s above the 6-month supply associated with a balanced market. At the same time, a mountain of distressed properties will ensure that additional inventory continues hitting the market in the form of foreclosures. Foreclosure filings were reported on nearly 1.7 million homes in the first six months of the year, an increase of eight percent over the same period a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac. “The midyear numbers put us on pace to exceed 3 million properties with foreclosure filings by the end of the year, and more than 1 million bank repossessions,” James Saccacio, the chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in a statement. And with large numbers of Americans still struggling to pay their mortgage bills, even more foreclosures are on the way. Ten percent of all mortgage loans were delinquent at the end of the first quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. It could take two years or longer for the market to work through this excess inventory, experts say. And it will be difficult for home prices to rise appreciably until balance is restored.

4. Tight credit: Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages fell to 4.57 percent for the week ending July 15-that’s the lowest level since the 1950s. Not everyone, however, will be able to take advantage of these attractive terms. That’s because banks-who incurred huge losses on bad loans made during the housing boom-have increased their lending standards significantly. “If you don’t have good credit it’s going to be difficult [to get a mortgage],” says John Bancroft, the executive editor of Inside Mortgage Finance. “If you don’t have money for a down payment and you are in a market that is still considered deteriorating, it’s going to be difficult [to get a mortgage].” To get the best rates, today’s borrowers will need a FICO score of 720 or higher, a down payment of around 10 percent, and fully documented income and assets, says Keith Gumbinger of HSH.com. Buyers that can’t meet these requirements could still be eligible for government-backed loans through the Federal Housing Administration. Attractive rates are also available on larger, so-called Jumbo home loans, but the credit bar will be even higher. Today’s Jumbo borrowers generally need a FICO score of at least 740 and should expect to put down anywhere from 20 to 40 percent, Gumbinger says.

5. Falling home prices: With home prices having fallen so dramatically from their 2006 peaks, the real estate market’s weakness has become an obstacle to recovery in and of itself. Although home prices have stabilized recently, they are expected to decline in coming months. Meanwhile, the years-long period of home price deflation has blinded many Americans to the potential benefits of buying a home, Gumbinger says. “The message which has been repeated over and over again in anything from 40-point headlines on down is: ‘People are getting screwed by homeownership.’” As a result, many would-be home buyers are still scared off by concerns that their investment may lose value after they’ve gone to closing. “No one wants to catch the hot falling potato,” Gumbinger says.

6. Selling your other home: While today’s housing market has created some serious deals, not all buyers are in position to take advantage of them. For example, any current homeowner interested changing addresses will first need to sell their home. And with roughly one in four homeowners in negative equity-meaning they owe more on the mortgage than their property is worth-that can be tricky. Homeowners with negative equity may take a loss on their investment if they sell their property. “That’s something that [homeowners] don’t do readily,” says Brad Hunter, the chief economist at Metrostudy. As a result, the 11 million homeowners who have negative equity are less likely help advance a real estate recovery.

Outlook: When considering the trajectory of the real estate recovery, it’s important to bear in mind the magnitude of the boom and bust, Larson says. “We had the biggest housing bubble the country has ever seen,” Larson says. “The reality is that when you get these types of situations that carry so far to the upside, the recovery period takes quite some time.” Newport expects median existing home prices to fall another 8 percent or so before bottoming out in the first quarter of next year. From there, he expects prices to begin a slow and fitful climb.

By BOB WILLIS
BLOOMBERG NEWS

Published: Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 4:03 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 4:03 a.m.

WASHINGTON — Americans in the second quarter tapped the smallest amount of home equity in a decade, showing households are focused on repairing tattered finances.

Owners took out $8.3 billion while refinancing prime home loans as borrowing costs dropped from April through June, down from $8.4 billion in the previous three months and the least in 10 years, according to a report Wednesday by McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac.

Twenty-two percent chose to reduce loan principal, matching the third-highest rate since records began in 1985.

Instead of extracting cash to binge on everything from cars to vacations as in previous recoveries, owners are refinancing to improve terms and reduce mortgage payments. The mending of household balance sheets means consumers will be in a better position to join the recovery once employment picks up.

“It’ll put consumers on firmer ground going forward,” said Michael Bratus, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pa. “It’ll give consumers more confidence.”

A report Tuesday from the Conference Board in New York showed confidence dropped in July to a five-month low on concern about jobs and wages. Americans may eventually become less pessimistic as they repair balance sheets and their financial situation improves.

So-called cash-out loans, in which borrowers increase their loan amounts by at least 5 percent, accounted for 27 percent of all refinanced loans in the three months to June, capping the lowest three-quarter share on record. Cash-out refinances peaked at 88 percent in mid 2006.
“This is a rate-and-term refinance boom as opposed to a cash-out boom,” said Michael Larson, a housing analyst at Weiss Research in Jupiter, Fla. “Five years ago you had people liquidating equity to finance debt-fueled consumption. Now, refinancing gives them breathing room.”

Figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association signal the drive to take advantage of record-low mortgage rates has accelerated this month. The group’s refinancing gauge for the week ended July 16 reached the highest level in a year. Refinance applications accounted for 79.4 percent of all mortgage requests, the most since April 2009.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to a 4.56 percent in the week ended July 22, the lowest since Freddie Mac, the second-biggest buyer of U.S. mortgages after Fannie Mae, began keeping records in 1971. At that rate, monthly payments for each $100,000 of a loan would be about $510, down about $40 from a year ago when the rate was 5.2 percent.

The median homeowner cut their mortgage rate by 0.9 percentage point in the second quarter, according to Freddie Mac. On a $200,000 loan, that would lead to a savings of $1,300 in the first year.

The money will contribute to a pickup in growth over the next two years, according to a forecast by economists at Moody’s Economy.com. They project consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, will grow 3 percent in 2011 and 4.5 percent the following year. Purchases are likely to climb 2.1 percent this year.

Chase Home Finance Attorneys Under Investigation
Chase Home Finance, LLC v. Judith Koren, filed in Circuit Court in Palm Beach County. On September 9, 2008, the banks lawyer, Ashley Politano, submitted a notice of filing the original note with the court, with a promissory note attached. On Jun 20, 2009, in the same case, another lawyer for the same bank, Tamara M. Walters, submitted another notice of filing the original note with the court, with a promissory note attached. The two so-called original notes are not the same. Not even close. The signatures look different. The handwritten dates on the signature page look different. The loan number is typed on different parts of the signature page. Only one version of this original has an endorsement. Its possible that the original œoriginal is really the original note. Its also possible that both of them are fakes. It is absolutely certain that one of them is a fraudulent promissory note, and that the lawyer who submitted it committed a fraud upon the court. Once again, the lenders lawyers work for Florida Default Law Group, an outfit that’s now under investigation by the Attorney General. If you have been sued for foreclosure and Florida Default Law Group represents the plaintiff, be on the lookout for forgery and fraud. Florida Attorney General’s Office announced that it is investigating the foreclosure law firm, Florida Default Law Group, for fraud. this firm “Appears to be fabricating and/or presenting false and misleading documents in foreclosure cases. These documents have been presented in court before judges as actual assignments of mortgages and have later been shown to be legally inadequate and/or insufficient. Presenting faulty bank paperwork due to the mortgage crisis and thousands of foreclosures per month. This firm is one of the largest foreclosure firms in the State. This firm appears to be one of Docx, LLC a/k/a Lender Processing Services’ clients, who this office is also investigating.”.

OAKLAND, CA (KGO) — A tense confrontation erupted outside JP Morgan Chase Bank in Oakland when housing activists demanded to deliver a message to Chase executives. Emotions were still high from Friday when Chase unexpectantly cancelled a scheduled meeting to discuss ways to stem the foreclosure crisis.

“We’re here and we’re not moving until change is made,” Pastor Mario Howell from Antioch Church Family said.

That was the message about two dozen protestors wanted to give to JP Morgan Chase on Wednesday.

Demonstrators from the Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Organization or CCISCO converged on Chase’s home ownership center in Oakland.

“We are not asking for a free hand out. All we’re asking for is what’s fair,” CCISCO leader Jose Vega said.

Members of People Acting in Community Together and The California Reinvestment Coalition joined CCISCO to call on chase to renegotiate more mortgages by reducing the principle of the loan.

“That is the only way to ensure that loan modifications are affordable and sustainable,” Gina Gage from PACT said.

“Principle reduction is one of the alternatives. We have many we can look at. Once we sit down at the table and look at individual cases,” Eileen Leveckis from JP Morgan Chase said.

The latest figures from the Treasury Department show the bank has granted 54,000 permanent loan modifications — that’s 21 percent of all trial modifications offered by Chase.

The demonstrators called that unacceptable and began marching into the home ownership center. A guard initially stopped them, but eventually let them in.

The protestors said they would not leave until someone agreed to fax their letter demanding a meeting with chase CEO of mortgages.

The letter was eventually delivered.

“We have today agreed to receive in writing CCISCO’s and Mr. Vega’s recommendations so that we do not interfere with our ability to work with customers,” Leveckis said.

“I think one of our strategies might be to even begin community and nationwide divestment of our resources in Chase bank,” Pastor Alvin Bernestin from Bethlehem Baptist Church.