Real Estate Roundup and News
Foreclosure sales push Vegas prices to 15-year low Median price at $118,000.
Foreclosure filings fell last month, but it’s a fake out Don’t believe the numbers.
Housing data may have understated extent of collapse The housing problem could be greater than we realize.
Owing more than home is worth USA Today. Washoe county listed at 53.3% underwater.
Shadow inventory to push foreclosures to new heights Housing Wire
Banks still holding 70% of REO from market
If you happen to receive any correspondence that tells you that the servicing of your mortgage loan has been transferred from your regular bank to another servicer, double check with your old servicer. Some scammers in the Las Vegas area had developed a new wrinkle to identity theft.
This time, instead of stealing individual idientities, they stole the corporate identity of Bank of America. I guess this means that if you are going to steal you might as well go big.
The scam involved sending letters to homeowners falsely stating that servicing of the homeowners’ loans had been transferred from Bank of America to Great Western Business Services. The letters instruct homeowners to send their mortgage payments to Great Western Business Services instead of the true servicer, Bank of America.
The alleged scam would result in victims unknowingly missing one or more mortgage payments which could result in a potential notice of default and foreclosure, despite the fact that the homeowner had actually made their payments, albeit to the scammers instead of their true loan servicer.
So, the bottom line was that not only did B of A not receive their payments, the payor was now suddenly delinquent.
At least in this case, the perpetrators have been arrested.
But, once again, verify any communication you might receive from the bank.
Also see this story.
This is very important information for anyone that may own property in California.
By: Jeff Watson
If you currently own (or plan to own) property in California then this is super important for you to know.
Here’s what’s going on: California property owners are now facing fines
and penalties if they fail to report changes in ownership, as a result of local tax authorities trying to find new sources of revenue.Under Proposition 13, property owners in California face property tax reassessment when a transfer deed is recorded. This reassessment also takes place at the change of ownership of the legal entity holding the property, even if the entity (e.e. a corporation) remains the owner of record
of the property itself.For a long time, these legal entity transfers have been a concern for California tax authorities, since property transfers like this are not documented by a recorded deed and that is the way that tax assessors normally learn about changes in property ownership.
Now, there are strict deadlines to report these types of transfers and owners face stiff penalties if they don’t file a reporting form for a legal entity transfer, whether they result in a change of property ownership or not. This includes transfers that would normally fall under a change of ownership exception
(transfers of less than a controlling interest or where the entity changes from a corporation to a limited partnership, even if owners and percentages of ownership don’t change.)Tax authorities in California are also trying to expand the documentary transfer tax (DTT) to include legal entity transfers, something that was traditionally only collected with a transfer in property ownership.
Previously it was up to those same local authorities to track down these kinds of changes and provide the required forms. Now property owners are responsible for reporting legal entity transfers and will be severely fined for filing
late.Local tax authorities jobs have been made easier by recent statutory changes giving county recorders access to county assessor’s files. This gives the county recorders access to legal entity transfer information.
Property owners can attempt to counter attempts to claim these taxes by checking to see if the county or city has ordinances that only permit DTT when deeds or other
instruments are recorded. The owner can cite these ordinances, if they are in place.These aggressive tax-seeking moves by local California tax authorities will only continue in the current economic climate. Owners are encouraged to check as to whether a particular transfer is covered by one of the change of ownership exceptions, and should only pay tax on transfers made by a recorded document. In the meantime, ongoing efforts are being made to repeal these changes in legal entity reporting. Until then, owners should be extra vigilant with their paperwork.
Can a home buyer be the rightful owner a repossessed property if the bank that sold it didn’t have the right to foreclose on the original owner? Recent court rulings in Massachusetts have found that banks must be able to produce the original note to be able to foreclose.
In August, Long ruled that Bevilacqua wasn’t the property’s owner and didn’t have standing to inquire about claims. U.S. Bancorp, which sold Bevilacqua the property in 2006, conducted an invalid foreclosure because it didn’t properly own the mortgage at the time, Long said.
The mortgage transfer to U.S. Bancorp, which oversees the mortgage-backed trust containing the loan, happened after the foreclosure, Long said. All Bevilacqua had was a deed from an invalid foreclosure sale, the judge said.
Judge Long said that he had sympathy for the buyer, but that his claim was against the bank, not against the original owner.
Read More: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-21/faulty-foreclosure-case-in-massachusetts-high-court-may-hurt-home-buyers.html