Housing Law Commons^™

The Value(S) Of Foreclosure Law Reform, Melissa B. Jacoby

Pepperdine Law Review

This symposium contribution examines the starkly different values reflected in traditional legal literature on foreclosure law reform in the U.S. as compared to some more recent entries in the wake of the rise of subprime lending and high rates of residential mortgage default. I highlight economist Dean Baker’s “right to rent” proposal, which would give former homeowners leasehold rights at market rates, to illustrate a more progressive set of housing policy considerations and to challenge the assumption that ownership is essential or optimal to promoting various housing objectives.

Bringing Manufactured Housing Into The Real Estate Finance System, Ann M. Burkhart

Pepperdine Law Review

Eight percent of the United States population - more than 23 million people - live in manufactured homes (also called mobile homes). In some years, more than 30% of the new homes sold have been manufactured. Moreover, manufactured housing is the most important form of unsubsidized affordable housing in this country. Up to two-thirds of the new affordable homes built each year have been manufactured. However, the manufactured housing industry currently is struggling to survive a meltdown in its sales and finance markets. A tremendous obstacle to the industry’s recovery is that most manufactured homes are characterized as personal property, …

Exile Without Process: The New York City Housing Authority's Unconstitutional Trespass Notice Program, Lauren J. Zimmerman

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Notice Is Not Enough: Why Tila Requires More Than A Letter Of Intent, Levi Smith

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

The federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA) provides borrowers with protections and remedies against certain actions by lenders. TILA allows, in some circumstances, a borrower to rescind a loan from a lender within a three-year period from when the loan is made. However, a circuit split has developed regarding how the right to rescind must be exercised. Of the circuits that have considered this question, some require a lawsuit to be filed within the three-year period to rescind the loan. Other circuits have held that providing notice of the intent to rescind the loan within the three-year period is sufficient …

Misbehavior And Mistake In Bankruptcy Mortgage Claims: Some Caveats Regarding The Porter Study, Gregory S. Crespi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article reviews the comprehensive empirical study of the bankruptcy mortgage foreclosure process conducted by Professor Katherine Porter and subsequently published in 2008 in the Texas Law Review. The results of her study, which analyzed 1,768 proof of claim submissions filed in a sample of 1,733 Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings, strongly suggest that there is a pervasive failure on the part of mortgage creditors to meet all of the formal documentation requirements for filing such bankruptcy claims. This documentation failure arguably impedes many mortgage debtors or bankruptcy trustees from reviewing these claims for their accuracy.

Porter's conclusion that the itemization …

Message In Mortgage: What Dodd-Frank's 'Qualified Mortgage' Tells Us About Ourselves, David Reiss

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Mortgage Modification And Strategic Behavior: A Contrarian Interpretation Of The Countrywide Financial Corporation Settlement, Gregory S. Crespi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Christopher Mayer, Edward Morrison, Thomas Piskorski and Arpit Gupta of Columbia University have recently published in the Law and Finance eJournal a comprehensive study demonstrating the significant impacts on strategic default rates of the widely publicized Countrywide Financial Corporation settlement of 2008. While their study is comprehensive and carefully done, their implicit assumption that strategic defaults are something to be discouraged rather than encouraged, a position that I have criticized in my earlier work, undercuts the usefulness of their work for policy guidance. From their perspective the Countrywide settlement provides a cautionary tale about difficult trade-offs to be faced in …

Armed And Dangerous: The Crime Of Mortgage Fraud And What Congress Must Do To Stop It, Gabriel Zitrin

Legislation and Policy Brief

Instead, it will simply argue that while the relevant monetary policymakers continue far too slowly in the pursuit of mortgage securities reform, lawmakers whose purview includes the housing sector should use this opportunity to pursue a two-part strategy of aggressively combating fraud in the terms and sales of individual mortgages and taking bold measures to ensure that not simply embattled mortgage-holders but the victims of fraudulent lending behavior can achieve financial sustainability, even as they keep ownership of their homes.

Transparency In Lending In The United States And The United Kingdom: Which Business Model Does It Best, Mara Hart

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The recent downturn of the global economy, spurred in large part by an unparalleled housing crisis and credit crunch in the United States and abroad, cannot be practicably understood or explained by an examination of isolated factors. Although the impact of the economic downturn has been felt globally, many blame the meltdown of the U.S. subprime mortgage market for their individual country's woes. Therefore, the mortgage regulatory scheme in the United States, in terms of lending practices and housing policies, is an important place to begin an inquiry into the origins of the global crisis. In order to better understand …

First Principles For An Effective Federal Housing Policy, David J. Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Federal housing policy is heavily funded and made up of a morass of programs. This article provides a taxonomy of goals for housing policy. The article first asks what the aim of housing policy is. In other words, what can a well-designed and executed housing policy achieve? The answer to this question is not at all clear-cut. Some argue that the aim of housing policy is to allow all Americans to live in safe, well-maintained and affordable housing. Others argue for a more modest aim – achieving an income transfer to low- and moderate-income families that mandates that the income …

Looking Back And Looking Ahead As The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Turns Thirty-Five: The Role Of Public Disclosure Of Lending Data In A Time Of Financial Crisis, Richard D. Marsico

Articles & Chapters

This article examines the history of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and makes proposals for improving it to help prevent another economic crisis. Passed in 1975, HMDA requires most lenders to disclose information about their home mortgage loans, including the number of home mortgage applications it received; the purpose of each application; the type of loan; the decision on the application; the race, gender, and income of the loan applicant/borrower; the location of the loan and the median income and racial composition of the neighborhood; and the interest rate on the loan. HMDA was originally conceived of as a …

Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac: Creatures Of Regulatory Privilege, David J. Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This book chapter addresses the appropriate role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-chartered, privately owned mortgage finance companies, in the United States housing finance sector. The federal government recently placed Fannie and Freddie in conservatorship. These two massive companies are profit-driven, but as government-sponsored enterprises they also have a government-mandated mission to provide liquidity and stability to the United States mortgage market and to achieve certain affordable housing goals. How the two companies should exit their conservatorship has implications that reach throughout the global financial markets and are of key importance to the future of American housing finance …

Home Foreclosures: Will Voluntary Mortgage Modification Help Families Save Their Homes? Part Ii? : Hearing Before The H. Comm. On The Judiciary Subcomm. On Commercial And Administrative Law, 111th Cong., Dec. 11, 2009 (Statement Of Associate Professor Adam J. Levitin, Geo. U. L. Center), Adam J. Levitin

Testimony Before Congress

The results to date from MHAP are deeply disappointing. Even the most optimistic view of HAMP and HARP’s potential would now project the programs as having only a minor impact on the foreclosure crisis. Until and unless the problems of unemployment; negative equity, and servicer capacity, incentives, and contract restrictions are addressed, we are unlikely to see noticeably different results. These issues cannot be addressed within the current structure of HAMP.

Unfortunately, none of the solutions for foreclosures due to unemployment are particularly satisfying, and without addressing unemployment, foreclosures will remain at elevated levels. Bankruptcy presents possible solutions to negative …

A Round Peg For A Square Hole: The Mismatch Between Subprime Borrowers And Federal Mortgage Remedies, Arielle L. Katzman

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Development Of Ukrainian Real Property And Mortgage Law: The American Perspective, Zhanna Bulkina

San Diego International Law Journal

Modern Ukrainian commercial law started to develop following the break-up of the Soviet Union in August 1991 and the reemergence of Ukraine as an independent democratic state. As a result of the break-up, in 1991 the new state of Ukraine inherited the jurisprudence, institutions and government of the former Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. While Ukraine quickly shed its Soviet past by changing the communist names of streets and institutions, the transition was not as easy when it came to substantive changes in Ukrainian jurisprudence and legal thinking. Ukraine needed to develop its own system of law to establish an open …

The Great American Housing Bubble: Re-Examining Cause And Effect, Robert M. Hardaway

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The current quest to identify scapegoats upon whom to cast blame for the housing bubble collapse are fundamentally misdirected inasmuch as all bubbles, like all Ponzi schemes, inevitably collapse-the only question being one of timing. Focus should instead be placed on the causes of the bubble itself, for only by doing so can sound economic policies be devised in a manner that will prevent future bubbles. Primary causes of the creation of the housing bubble are extravagant house subsidies lavished disproportionately on the top tiers of income earners; restriction of the supply of housing through local exclusionary policies; social policies …

The Fair Housing Act At Forty: Predatory Lending And The City As Plaintiff, Ngai Pindell

Scholarly Works

The availability of credit, to individual borrowers and to communities, is an integral factor shaping the geography of housing opportunity. Cities are shaped by the housing and borrowing choices of their residents and the attendant mobility -- or lack of mobility -- of families. When lenders deny credit to neighborhoods or borrowers because of race, communities suffer. And when lenders flood these same neighborhoods with subprime or predatory loan products, the communities suffer once again. The economic gains of individuals and of communities in cities over the last several decades are threatened by massive property devaluations, loss of equity, and …

Racial Disparities In Subprime Home Mortgage Lending In New York City: Meaning And Implications, Richard D. Marsico, Jane Yoo

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Great Bailout Of 2008-09, Frederick Tung

Faculty Scholarship

My task today is to talk about the financial crisis. I only have a short time to talk, so rather than try to give you a comprehensive analysis of events, I'm going to offer some of my own idiosyncratic takes on what has been happening. In addition, I will introduce my own small reform proposal for regulating bank risk taking. So, I'll give you a little bit of news, a little bit of weather, a little bit of everything.

Where are we now? Let us begin with a statement Henry Paulson made six months ago while Bear Steams was getting …

Unprofitable Lending: Modern Credit Regulation And The Lost Theory Of Usury, Brian M. Mccall

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Responding To Foreclosures In Cuyahoga County: A Pilot Initiative, Interim Report, Alan C. Weinstein, Kathryn W. Hexter, Molly Schnoke

Law Faculty Reports and Comments

The Center for Civic Education and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law released their report, on May 12, 2008. The report, prepared for the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners, is an assessment of the County's comprehensive approach to addressing foreclosures on two levels: 1) Making foreclosure proceedings faster and fairer and 2) Creating an early intervention program to help residents prevent foreclosure.

Disaster Mediation: Lessons In Conflict Coordination And Collaboration, Mel Rubin

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

All of us have been affected by disasters, either directly or indirectly. Although natural and manmade disasters have occurred throughout history, the size and scale of future disasters will surely reach regional, national and international proportions. Indeed, there is now and forevermore a disaster industry, in which Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) professionals will certainly play an important role.

A Troubled House Of Cards: Examining How The Housing And Economic Recovery Act Of 2008 Fails To Resolve The Foreclosure Crisis, Chad Emerson

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Cra: A Welcome Anomaly In The Foreclosure Crisis, Warren W. Traiger

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Today's Predatory Lending Tactics Require New Strategies - And New Laws: How A Case From Chicago Helped Change Illinois Law, Daniel P. Lindsey, Lea A. Weems

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Urban Development And Unequal Access To Housing Finance Services, Gregory D. Squires

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Implementation And Impact Of The 2004–2005 Amendments To The Community Reinvestment Act Regulations: Th E Continuing Importance Of The Cra Examination Process, Josh Silver, Richard Marsico

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Critical Mass: Restricting Advocates’ Rights Under The Community Reinvestment Act, Ruth S. Uselton

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

First Hudson Capital, Llc V. Seaborn, Kristopher Ferranti

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cohen V. Jpmorgan Chase & Co., Erin M. Byrnes

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.