Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

Two Faces: Demystifying The Mortgage Electronic Registration System's Land Title Theory, Christopher L. Peterson

William & Mary Law Review

In the mid-1990s, mortgage bankers created Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) to escape the costs associated with recording mortgage transfers. To accomplish this, lenders permanently list MERS as the mortgagee of record instead of themselves to avoid the expense of recording any subsequent transfers. MERS’s claim that it is both an agent of the lender and the mortgagee, and the huge gaps left in the public record, give rise to a range of legal issues. This Article addresses whether security agreements naming MERS as a mortgagee meet traditional conveyance requirements and discusses the rights of counties to recover unpaid …

The Silver Lining In The Red Giant: China’S Residential Mortgage Laws Promote Temperance Among The Surging Middle Class, Clayton D. Laforge

Law Student Publications

This comment examines the rise of China‘s middle class and proactive governance to protect its economy from a housing bubble during the global downturn. An analysis of recently enacted Chinese labor and corporate laws demonstrates how the government facilitated the rise of the middle class. The comment dis-cusses the ramifications of strict domestic residential mortgage regulations and how China‘s tempered investment structure secured its domestic housing market. Part II of this comment examines China‘s investment and consumption patterns compared to domestic growth. Part III discusses how the surging middle class grew to seek investment opportunities in the real estate market …

The Properties Of Instability: Markets, Predation, Racialized Geography, And Property Law, Audrey Mcfarlane

All Faculty Scholarship

A central, symbolic image supporting property ownership is the image of stability. This symbol motivates most because it allows for settled expectations, promotes investment, and fulfills a psychological need for predictability. Despite the symbolic image, property is home to principles that promote instability, albeit a stable instability. This Article considers an overlooked but fundamental issue: the recurring instability experienced by minority property owners in ownership of their homes. This is not an instability one might attribute solely to insufficient financial resources to retain ownership, but instead reflects an ongoing pattern, exemplified throughout the twentieth century, of purposeful involuntary divestment of …

Towards A Convention For The International Sale Of Real Property: Challenges, Commonalities, And Possibilities, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

In a world that is increasingly global in scope, society has come to view the ever-growing body of international commercial laws as being exceptionally important. This is evidenced through the adoption of several high profile pieces of legislation over the past several decades: International Interest in Mobile Equipment - Study LXXI, the EU’s Draft Common Frame of Reference, the EU Directives on Consumer Protection, and, most noteworthy of all, the Convention for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

As raised by Professors Sprankling, Coletta, and Mirow, what has been conspicuously absent from this growing body of laws is an international …

The Newly-Enacted Cplr 3408 For Easing The Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis: Very Good Steps, But Not Legislatively Perfect, Mark C. Dillon

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

No Tax For "Phantom Income": How Congress Failed To Encourage Responsible Housing Consumption With Its Recent Tax Legislation, Rue Toland

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In the midst of the recent housing crisis, Congress passed two key pieces of federal tax legislation in an attempt to stem the tide of foreclosures and prevent further economic collapse. These two bills, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act in 2007 and the Housing and Economic Recovery Act in 2008, both sought competing goals: lessening the harm to existing homeowners, and encouraging purchases by new homebuyers. However, neither bill adequately addressed one of the root causes of the housing crisis, namely homeowners obtaining mortgages that, for whatever reason, they could not afford. Indeed, the tax incentives these bills created …

Real Property, Mortgages, And The Economy: A Call For Ethics And Reforms, Shelby D. Green

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Superfund Solution For An Economic Love Canal, Mehmet K. Konar-Steenberg

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Smoke And Mirrors: Predatory Lending And The Subprime Mortgage Loan Securitization Pyramid Scheme, Navid Vazire

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mortgage Market Reform And The Fallacy Of Self-Correcting Markets, Robin Paul Malloy

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unsafe Loans In A Deregulated U.S. Mortgage Market, Vincent Di Lorenzo

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can't Live Without Air: Title Insurance And The Bursting Of The Real Estate Bubble, Marvin N. Bagwell

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

State Subprime Lending Litigation And Federal Preemption: Toward A National Standard, Alan H. Scheiner

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Deceptive Practice Enforcement In Financial Institution Regulation, Prentiss Cox

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Glance At The Impact Of The Subprime Mortgage Crisis On The Title Insurance Industry, Suzanne M. Garcia

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Foreclosure Crisis And The Anti-Fragmentation Principle In State Property Law, David A. Dana

Faculty Working Papers

Secured credit in homes has been divided and over-divided and spun into so many separate interests that economically rational, socially beneficial modifications of loans are impossible. The mortgage story is a new one but the excessive fragmentation of property and the creation of waste and inefficiency is not new. And our legal tradition of state property law has an answer, in the form of an anti-fragmentation principle. Consistent with this principle, federal government trustees should be authorized to review mortgages and, where modification would yield greater total return than foreclosure, modify the loans. Blind trustee review, moreover, can be achieved …

The Subprime Crisis And The Link Between Consumer Financial Protection And Systemic Risk, Erik F. Gerding

Publications

This Article will appear in a May 2009 symposium issue of the Florida International University Law Review on the global financial crisis. This Article argues that the current global financial crisis, which was first called the “subprime crisis,” demonstrates the need to revisit the division between financial regulations designed to protect consumers from excessively risky loans and safety-and-soundness regulations intended to protect financial markets from the collapse of financial institutions. Consumer financial protection can, and must, serve a role not only in protecting individuals from excessive risk, but also in protecting markets from systemic risk. Economic studies indicate it is …

Get Sick, Get Out: The Medical Causes Of Home Mortgage Foreclosures, Christopher Robertson, Richard Egelhof, Michael Hoke

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, there has been national alarm about the rising rate of home foreclosures, which now strike one in every 92 households in America and which contribute to even broader macroeconomic effects. The "standard account" of home foreclosure attributes this spike to loose lending practices, irresponsible borrowers, a flat real estate market, and rising interest rates. Based on our study of homeowners going through foreclosures in four states, we find that the standard account fails to represent the facts and thus makes a poor guide for policy. In contrast, we find that half of all foreclosures have medical causes, …

Still Crazy After All These Years: The Absolute Assignment Of Rents In Mortgage Loan Transactions, Julia Patterson Forrester Rogers

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article explores the problems caused by the absolute assignment of rents in mortgage loan transactions, which have continued for more than a century, and discusses possible solutions. Rents are a significant part of the security for loans secured by income-producing properties such as office buildings, shopping centers, and apartments. Under present law in many states, the absolute assignment of rents is the only means by which lenders can create an effective security interest in the rents of mortgaged property. An absolute assignment of rents purports to transfer title to rents to the mortgage lender, although in substance it creates …

Still Mortgaging The American Dream: Predatory Lending, Preemption, And Federally Supported Lenders, Julia Patterson Forrester Rogers

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article discusses the continuing problem of predatory lending abuses in the subprime home mortgage lending market and federal and state attempts to address the problem. Over the protests of consumer advocates, federal agencies have recently issued regulations preempting state predatory lending statutes as applied to national banks and thrifts. In addition, Congress is considering legislation that would preempt state predatory lending laws for all lenders. The Article considers the preemption debate, particularly in the context of federally supported lenders-banks, thrifts, and the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Banks and thrifts receive support through the federal safety …

Yes, West Virginia, There Is A Special Priority For The Purchase Money Mortgage: The Recognition Of Purchase Money Mortgage Priority In West Virginia, Abraham M. Ashton

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Private Lands Conservation In The Republic Of The Marshall Islands, Gregg De Bie, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

59 p. ; 28 cm

Private Lands Conservation In Jamaica, Katharine Stone, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

1, 35 leaves ; 28 cm

Property Law: 2001 Survey Of Florida Law, Ronald B. Brown, Joseph M. Grohman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Survey Of Florida Law: Real Property, Ronald B. Brown

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Facing The Facts: An Empirical Study Of The Fairness And Efficiency Of Foreclosures And A Proposal For Reform, Debra Pogrund Stark

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Lenders view real estate foreclosures as too expensive and time consuming a process which needlessly increases the costs of making loans. Others complain that the foreclosure process fails to adequately protect the borrower's equity (the value of the property in excess of the debt secured by the property) in the mortgaged property.

This article tests these views by gathering new data on the fairness and efficiency of the foreclosure process. Based on the data collected (which confirms some assumptions but disproves others), the author proposes a reform of the foreclosure process to promote the interest of both lenders and borrowers. …

Moving From Colonias To Comunidades: A Proposal For New Mexico To Revisit The Installment Land Contract Debate, Elizabeth M. Provencio

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Communities of Mexican Americans in the Southwest, known as colonias, have provided many low-income buyers with affordable opportunities. Affordability, however, comes at a high price for the colonias residents. Most of the buyers live in colonias pursuant to installment land contracts, devices which allow buyers to spread the purchase price of property over a number of years but leave them without legal title or equity under New Mexico law. The buyers sacrifice their legal rights to "own" small, unimproved lots of land in developments that are often without electricity, gas, a sewage system, and indoor plumbing. The author argues …

Property Law: 1996 Survey Of Florida Law, Ronald B. Brown, Joseph M. Grohma

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Curtailing The Economic Distortions Of The Mortgage Interest Deduction, William T. Mathias

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Many Americans consider the mortgage interest deduction a necessary fixture of the American tax system. In this Article, Mathias examines the economic underpinnings of the deduction and finds that it cannot be justified on purely economic grounds. He then evaluates the major policy arguments for the mortgage interest deduction and concludes that it is inefficient, inequitable, and too costly in its present form to be justified on policy grounds. Finally, the author advocates for the elimination or substantial reduction in the size and scope of the mortgage interest deduction.

Constructing A New Theoretical Framework For Home Improvement Financing, Julia Patterson Forrester Rogers

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In this Article, I advocate modification of the law governing home improvement financing. In section I, I discuss the prevalence of home improvement scams, the dual system of home improvement financing available to affluent and poor homeowners, and the social cost of home improvement scams. Despite attempts by lawmakers to protect homeowners from unscrupulous home improvement contractors and lenders, home improvement scams remain a significant consumer problem. Most victims of such scams are poor, minority, and elderly homeowners. These homeowners obtain home improvements and home improvement financing through a system with tremendous potential for abuse. In this system, contractors and …