‘This is the problem, folks. There was no downside for these banks when they gave out these loans during the real estate boom. If the borrower pays the loan, the bank collects interest on a performing note. If the borrower doesn’t pay, then the U.S. government pays back the bank, in full (to include default interest at 18% and all of the other bogus charges the banks build into a foreclosure judgment). The system is so perverse, with such obvious incentives to foreclose, is it that surprising to see the banks do what they do?’

Ergo, why should the banks give a damn about the conditions of the property or the neighborhood?

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/push-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac-issue-principal-reductions-underwater-homeowners/qtS3crg7

“Senator Demands Answers from Freddie Mac’s Regulator” ( Acting Director Edward DeMarco)
http://www.propublica.org/article/senator-demands-answers-from-freddie-macs-regulator

ProPublica and NPR reported on Monday [1] that Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-owned mortgage-insurance company, placed multibillion-dollar bets that pay off if homeowners stay trapped in expensive mortgages with interest rates well above current rates.

Questions the senator put to the regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, include why Freddie made the deals in the first place, when the FHFA learned of the trades, what role, if any, the FHFA played in them, and what the FHFA plans to do about the billions of dollars worth of deals Freddie still has on its books.

This was a combination of things and no doubt in my mind about the speculators. However on the local level it seems all are complicent. In investagating my own history and chain of title to my house I found “property flipping schemes, and what the FBI calls, “Shotgunning,” ( that is when someone takes out multible loans on one property) according to my credit report that is what was done to us. In addition the previous owner took out a 24k mortgage on the property he sold us only the year before, can’t find any satisfaction of that either. I thought title insurance was for just that! I also saw that another scheme they use is “Working the gap”, that is excessive lien stacking knowingly executed on a specific property, serial recordings of notes submitted to the recorders office and when they finially show up in the data it leaves each lender believing their respective deed of trust to be senior in position. My own sig. was forged on closing papers and noterized and I know I didn’t sign, my husband quit claimed the property to me and himself later on down the road, that is recorded , on the advise of our clsing atty. who was also recommended by mtg. broker. (now Iam really scared that this advice was intended to hurt us in some way). So this is not just “robo-signing” or simple paperwork errors, these were crimes, carefully planned to to defraud. Who in the hell would dig that deep to find these things? Me, thats who. I have called every agency tring to report these things and have given up on that. So here we sit , on our zombie mtg, maintaining our property and still helping our seniors in the neighborhood with things they cannot do. My nieghbor across from the “distressed’ property wants me to talk to her friend who works for the local newspaper and explain “the MERS thing”. She tried to convince me that she would help and her friend was really interested in uncovering these things but I don’t know exactly what her agenda is and if I can trust her. Any advice?