By Idaho Business Review staff

Three properties in McCall, Idaho, on Payette Lake near the Oregon border were put up for auction on July 18, however there were no bids on any of the properties.

The properties are held by the and the agency could not say why there was no interest in them at last week’s auction.

Land for the properties is held in trust by IDL for the benefit of State Hospital South, and, thus far, 161 cottage-site properties have been sold at auction at Payette Lake, the agency stated in a release. Thirteen sites remain, and all have houses on them. Though the land belongs to the trust, cabins and other improvements made to the land are owned by leaseholders as their personal property.

Bids were started at the reserve or “lot only” price of each lot with the property at 1903 Warren Wagon Road in McCall appraised at $451,000; the property at 2060 Warren Wagon Road at $495,000; and the property at 3800 Warren Wagon Road at $3.25 million.

“While IDL has confidence in the appraised value of the properties for auction (July 18), each property is unique in location and design, and there is no way to determine why there was no interest at this particular time,” a statement from the agency read.

Public auctions for the sale of state endowment trust lands are required by the Idaho Constitution and IDL cannot accept less than the appraised value of each property.

Along with the properties at Payette Lake, there are 337 lots at Priest Lake, 312 of which have been leased, and the total of the properties brought in at public auction is $277.1 million.

“Upon the transactions closing, the funds from the land sales will be deposited in the ‘Land Bank’ and may be used to purchase new endowment land in Idaho or may go into a Permanent Fund to continue earning returns for the endowment beneficiaries,” a release stated. “In May 2016, the Land Board approved the Strategic Reinvestment Plan and will consider strategic land acquisitions with the proceeds from the sale of cottage sites and commercial properties.”

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By SARA CLINE
Associated Press/Report for America

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A measure that would reinstate and extend Oregon’s moratorium on foreclosures until Sept. 1 during the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday passed the state’s House of Representatives.

Unlike the bill that was passed by lawmakers last June, the new legislation would not protect commercial property owners — those who own more than five properties or properties with more than four housing units. The moratorium would be retroactive back to Dec. 3 and could be extended until the end of 2021 by the governor.

The latest bill, which passed in the House 38-21, moves to the state Senate.

“I assure you that Oregonians need this sort of protection. Without it, I fear that we face even more economic distress,” said Rep. Paul Holvey, a Democrat representing Eugene. “More Oregonians will become homeless if this bill does not pass.”

In March, more than 6 percent — or more than 65,000 Oregon homeowners — said they were not caught up on their mortgage payments, based on the United States Census Bureau’s most recent Household Pulse Survey.

Financial hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic have only exacerbated the state’s ongoing housing crisis and as a result has been a top priority for lawmakers, even prior to this legislative session.

In December, during a special legislative session, lawmakers extended Oregon’s eviction moratorium through June 30, 2021, and established a $200 million in relief for landlords and tenants. However, the foreclosure moratorium was not extended — leaving some homeowners concerned about how they would make their payments.

However, many homeowners are currently protected from foreclosures by federal moratoriums and the CARES Act provide for protections for homeowners with a federally backed loan.

But a report from the National Housing Law Project states that about 30 precent of single-family mortgages, or roughly 14.5 million loans nationwide, are not backed or owned by a federal agency and not covered by the federal moratorium.

“The Legislature has taken incredibly important actions in the last year to designate rental assistance for tenants and landlords, as well as to impose an eviction moratorium that will keep Oregonians in their homes during the worst public health crisis of their lifetimes,” said Rep. Julie Fahey, a Democrat representing West Eugene and Junction City. “While thousands of Oregonians are being vaccinated every day we are still very much at risk of a fourth wave of this virus and our unemployment rate remains high.”

Opponents of the foreclosure moratorium bill argue that it could cause serious problems for Oregon’s housing market by chilling the ability of lenders. Foreclosures are also an already lengthy process and, if passed, the bill could cause some lenders to possibly wait upwards of two years for payments, officials say.

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The Portland housing market is bubbling with activity.

Last month, fueled by rising home prices and the threat of increasing interest rates, the number of buyers flocking to the market reached its highest point in eight years. Homebuilders are taking advantage en masse by buying, demolishing and subdividing single-family lots.

Meanwhile, the specter of the housing crisis continued to haunt many homeowners as foreclosure activity increased.

In July, the number of closed home sales increased 10.2 percent from June to 2,766 – the most in a single month since 2005. Pending sales, meanwhile, dropped slightly but were still up 15.5 percent from a year ago at 2,738.

New listings, at 3,877, were up 3.4 percent from June but that still wasn’t enough to raise the inventory, which fell slightly to 2.8 months. A supply of six months is generally considered a balanced market between buyer and seller; anything less favors sellers.

That’s spurred bidding wars among buyers, which in turn is driving prices – the median has increased 13.7 percent from a year ago to $261,000, according to new data from the Regional Multiple Listings Service. That’s been a source of motivation for buyers on the fence, as have been interest rates, which began to tick up from historically low levels following Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s announcement in May that he would begin tapering his strategy of quantitative easing.

Builders have taken notice. While permits overall have not yet reached pre-recessionary levels, construction activity has equaled or surpassed those levels in some inner-city neighborhoods.

In the Belmont-Hawthorne-Division neighborhood, for example, there were 480 new dwelling units planned in 2012 compared to 244 in 2007, according to data from the Bureau of Development Services and the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. The same trend was true for the Hollywood, Sellwood-Moreland-Brooklyn, Gateway, Centennial-Glenfair-Wilkes, Northwest Portland, and Hillsdale-Multnomah-Barbur neighborhoods, among others.

In the Martin Luther King Jr.-Alberta neighborhood, there were 233 units planned in 2012 compared to 98 in 2007. Some of that activity comes from large multifamily projects along North Williams and Vancouver avenues, but a lot of it comes from smaller infill projects like one by Lisac Brothers Construction.

In June, the company purchased a 2,640-square-foot home at 106 N. Wygant St. for $550,000. It recently applied for a 12-lot subdivision, and plans to build four row-homes with three-attached residences in each. Mark Lisac, one of the company’s owners, said those units will each likely sell somewhere in the low $300,000s.

“I think (the market) is pretty good right now,” he said. “It went from about 0 to 100 (miles per hour) in just a few months.”

Across the nation, economists have high hopes that will support further economic growth. Foreclosure filings nationally have decreased 32 percent from a year ago. But in Portland, and throughout Oregon, foreclosure activity actually increased.

Last month, there were 909 notices of judicial foreclosure across the state. Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac, a national provider of foreclosure data, said that’s the highest level in a single month so far.

Last year, lenders began switching from a predominantly nonjudicial process to a judicial one following a court ruling that challenged the legality of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS), a digital filing system used almost ubiquitously by lenders. In June, the Oregon Supreme Court offered some clarity on the subject, but Blomquist said banks have since accepted the judicial process and won’t be quick to change.

“So there is this backlog of delayed foreclosures that they’re catching up with, and that’s where we see this big increase,” Blomquist said. “It’s like turning a cruise ship. Once they start down a path they get their systems in place to start foreclosing in that way, and so it may take them some time to switch back, even if they did make that decision to do so.”

Foreclosure starts in Oregon increased 137 percent in July, while the total number of homes in some process of foreclosure increased nearly 70 percent. In the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metropolitan statistical area, foreclosure activity increased approximately 55 percent from June, and 116 percent from a year ago.

One development that could slow filings is recent changes to the Oregon Foreclosure Avoidance Program. The law requires banks to meet face-to-face with borrowers to discuss alternatives before foreclosing, but previously only applied to non-judicial foreclosures.

Adam Starr, an attorney at Markowitz, Herbold, Glade & Mehlhaf PC, said that created a significant incentive for banks to avoid the non-judicial system. On Aug. 4, the law was amended to apply to the judicial process as well.

“I think the implementation of the mediation requirement for judicial foreclosures will take away some incentive to avoid the non-judicial foreclosures, which had that requirement implemented already,” Starr said. “
 The new mediation requirement will probably not change the overall number of foreclosures, but could start shifting the balance back to non-judicial eventually.”

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The national government has no money. But it does have tons of capital that made it have no money. Properties. Around 250,000  foreclosed properties. In an effort to make money while at the same time improve the housing market by getting rid of foreclosed homes that are stunting home sales, the United States government is thinking about renting out the properties. If you complain about finding a good place to stay in Portland, you might just see thousands of new Craigslist postings in the near future.

The New York Times today on President Obama’s plan to offload the country’s glut of foreclosed property. The effort that would not only help the housing market, but the construction industry as well, as the properties will in many cases need repairs.

The proposal is in the embryo stage, with due on Sept 15. Some ideas thus far include setting up rent-to-own schemes for the former owners of homes. Add your voice to the mix. As Sen. Harry Reed, D-Vt., remarked in the Times article:

This is a call for innovation and an opportunity for businesses to not only make money and create jobs, but also provide affordable rental housing for those who need it and strengthen our communities at the same time.”

Photo by via Flickr

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Since Portland resident Temma Maltz lost her job in 2009, she has tried six times to modify her home loan and avoid foreclosure. Nearly two and a half years later, Maltz has an empty savings account and more fees and interest, but no solution.

Two bills, and , making their way through the state Legislature are designed to help Maltz and others facing foreclosure. The bills would systemize the loan modification program for all lenders so that borrowers could learn of possible foreclosure plans. Also, the Department of Justice and other state agencies would gain authority to deal with lenders that string underwater borrowers along.

According to Foreclosure Radar, a national company that focuses on foreclosure data, 109,135 Oregonians are underwater on their mortgages.

“If they haven’t lost my paperwork, it’s that I’m talking to the wrong person,” Maltz said. “I keep trying and trying because I don’t want to lose my home, but everywhere I turn is a dead end.”

Through legislation passed in 2009, lenders are required to offer some sort of loan modification program for underwater borrowers. But without consistency among lenders, and no state oversight, the program hasn’t helped borrowers like it should, said Angela Martin, executive director of Economic Fairness Oregon.

Underwater homeowners are offered trial loan modifications where they either don’t have to pay, or pay a smaller amount, for a short period. But once that period ends, they must not only pay the extra amount, but interest as well. And homeowners make no progress toward escaping foreclosure risk when they participate in a program.

“Even when I was out of work I did everything I could to make the payments, because I was taught when you buy a house you always need to make the payments,” Bend resident Tim Collette told legislators at a public hearing last week. “Now I have $1,040 left to my name and I’m being foreclosed on in 18 days. I need help.”

The bills are sweeping and cover a lot of issues. SB 826 would create a duty of fair dealing for “servicers” (lenders) and establish a timeline and procedure for them to respond to borrowers’ concerns. The bill also would require payments to go to principal and interest before taxes, insurance or fees, and set a process for notifying a borrower before late fees or additional charges are added.

Oversight would be provided by the Department of Consumer and Business Services, which would be allowed to investigate complaints and access company documents. All mortgage servicers would be required to license with the state.

“Nobody has a hammer to wield when these problems first come up,” Martin said. “We need to give our agencies and the (Department of Justice) enforcement.”

SB 827 focuses more on loan modification programs. It would eliminate a sunset date for the legislation requiring a loan modification option, standardize the process and paperwork that must be used, and require a copy of the lender’s affidavit acknowledging the process is under way to be sent to the Department of Justice. It also would prohibit lenders from moving forward in the foreclosure process until the affidavit of compliance has been filed with the county recorder.

The bills have drawn opposition from several financial associations, including the Oregon Financial Services Association, the Oregon Bankers Association and the Oregon Mortgage Lenders Association. While officials at these organizations acknowledge that something must be done about the growing number of distressed mortgages, they don’t believe the issue can be tackled at the state level.

Paul Cosgrove, who represents the OFSA and the OBA, said there are many reasons why they oppose the bills, but he said he was focusing on the fiscal impact to the state.

The term “servicer” is defined loosely in the bill, Cosgrove said. More businesses could be required to register cost the state more money than expected, he said.

“The fiscal impact is dramatically understated,” Cosgrove said.

SB 826 has moved through a few Senate committees and is now before the joint Subcommittee on Transportation and Economic Development. SB 827 was passed by the Senate and is awaiting a hearing with the House Rules Committee.

The issue may soon be addressed at the federal level. U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, last month introduced the Regulation of Mortgage Servicing Act, which would eliminate some of the confusing barriers to loan modification. The bill has not drawn any action yet.

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When the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation officially seized Southwest Washington-based Bank of Clark County in early 2009, local builder Lynn Wiley never thought the action would lead to foreclosure on his 45-lot subdivision.

Wiley isn’t the only one. Approximately 30 local builders and developers believe their properties are being unfairly foreclosed upon by , a national real estate investment management company that bought most of the bank’s construction loans through an FDIC auction last year.

Now, politicians are calling for the FDIC to explain why it chose to sell loans to Rialto rather than work with builders.

Wiley and business partner Warren Edgley had a short-term development loan for the proposed Hawthorne Acres subdivision in Vancouver, Wash. After parcels were laid out and public services were connected, Wiley and Edgley had worked out a deal with the bank for the loan to be split into two so that each one could build out their portion of the development. Then, a few months before their loan expired, the FDIC took over the bank.

“Up to that point our loan was completely current, but the problem was that with the recession an appraisal showed the property wasn’t worth as much as the loan when the bank was taken over,” Wiley said. “We immediately went to the FDIC and explained our agreement that we had worked out, but they weren’t willing to extend our loan.”

Wiley and Edgley realized that their loan would not be extended, so they offered the FDIC the deed in lieu of foreclosure as well as the possibility of a short sale. According to Wiley, a short sale would have netted the FDIC 65 cents on every dollar they owed, a slightly better deal than the one the FDIC worked out with Rialto.

“We tried to let them know that if they worked with us like the bank was going to, we could have not only given them as much money, but kept local people working as well,” he said. “It just seemed like they had no intentions of working with us.”

The FDIC instead bundled and auctioned most of the bank’s short-term loans to Rialto, allowing the company to keep 40 percent of the money it collects; the remaining amount goes back to the FDIC. As part of the deal, Rialto was allowed to work out new loan terms, accept loan payoffs or foreclose upon the properties.

Wiley and Edgley tried to work out a deal with Rialto, and even traveled to New York to talk to company representatives. But the property was foreclosed upon and auctioned off in early March. It was sold for $1 million, about $3 million less than what was owed on the loan.

“Basically, this is ruining me and putting me out of business,” said Wiley, who owns “We just thought that there was a better solution than this out there.”

The development partners later learned of about 30 other builders and developers who were experiencing similar issues since the closure of Bank of Clark County. The group has started meeting routinely.

Bruce Wood, principal with Portland-based development firm Foundation Real Estate Development, had an $8.1 million loan with the Bank of Clark County. Wood said he thought he had worked out a deal with the FDIC to pay it off for $5.6 million, but Rialto now is asking for $9.4 million – the original loan amount, plus interest.

“They’re foreclosing on the assets and suing everyone for the default interest,” Wood said. “It’s frustrating, to say the least.”

Wood and Wiley have been working with U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, and U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Edmonds; the politicians have asked the FDIC to answer questions concerning the closure of the Bank of Clark County.

In a letter sent to the FDIC by Herrera Beutler, she stated, “I do not know what Rialto ultimately intends to do with the large tracts of land it would hold as a result of these foreclosures, but it is clear the company purchased these loans with no intention of working with the citizens of Southwest Washington. Surely the FDIC did not close the Bank of Clark County in order to give real estate investors the opportunity to obtain land for pennies on the dollar by breaking contracts signed and honored by local builders.”

According to Casey Bowman, a spokesman for Herrera Beutler, the letter sparked a meeting between the congresswoman and the FDIC last week. The conversation was productive, he said, and the FDIC said it planned to review Rialto’s actions.

Lennar Corporation, which owns Rialto Capital Management, failed to return an inquiry by press time.

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Two months after implementing a foreclosure freeze, Bank of America will resume selling its foreclosure inventory, bank officials announced today.

Bank of America first halted processing foreclosures and selling its inventory of foreclosed properties in early October. Allegations started to emerge that Bank of America and some of the nation’s other large servicers of mortgages weren’t properly reviewing foreclosure documents. This led J.P. Morgan Chase, Ally Financial and Bank of America to halt foreclosures in 23 states, followed a week later by freezing them in all 50 states.

Several bank officials at the lending institutions admitted to not properly reviewing documents before signing them, and in some instances having the wrong person sign the documents.

All three institutions initiated the freeze voluntarily. Bank of America in late October lifted the freeze on foreclosure properties in 27 states where the foreclosure process is not a judicial matter. Oregon is not one of those states. At that same time, Ally Financial lifted the freeze in all 50 states.

But since mid-October, Bank of America has been reviewing its process and making changes accordingly, said Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America Home Loans, in a statement released this morning.

“The review shows the basis for our foreclosure decisions has been accurate,” she said. “We have identified areas of our process that can be improved, and while we make these improvements, it’s important that we move ahead with efforts to reduce the number of abandoned properties across the country.”

Some of these improvements include enhancing the pre-foreclosure referral and sale checkpoints, the introduction of new affidavit forms where required and a new code of conduct and improvements in management review of foreclosures.

The company will take a phased approach to dealing with foreclosures, Desoer said in the statement, starting with cases involving former homeowners who’ve already vacated foreclosed properties. Bank of America has given foreclosure attorneys approval to proceed with 16,000 foreclosure cases before Dec. 20, at which time the company will take a two-week holiday suspension of foreclosure sales and evictions on loans and properties.

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A new Oregon foreclosure-prevention program will start taking applications for mortgage assistance on Friday.

The program, a part of the , is state-run using federal funds allocated to states worst affected by the housing crisis. Program participants will receive help paying their mortgages for up to one year with a maximum amount capped at $20,000. Applications will be accepted starting Dec 10.

About 5,000 residents can participate in the program, with applicants being selected at random to participate. Mortgage holders who meet the requirements to qualify for the program have until Jan. 10, 2011 to apply. In order to be eligible, a mortgage holder must have a household income of less than 120 percent the state medium income – less than $59,280 for a family of two in Oregon. The mortgage holder must also be unemployed or have a verifiable loss in income of more than 25 percent, own a mortgage that predates Jan. 1, 2009, and have not been convicted of most felonies within the past ten years.

Oregon is one of 17 states to receive federal funding for foreclosure prevention activities. To date, the state has received nearly $100 million.

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Real estate professionals say one of the Portland-metro area’s gloomiest markets, residential, is finally poised to rebound.

When the federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers expired this past spring, home prices slumped. But sales numbers for the past several months have brokers like Jeff Wiren convinced that the Portland housing market has hit bottom and can only go up.

“The most encouraging thing for me is that the inventory, which is currently sitting at around a 10-month supply, has remained stable over the last several months,” said Wiren, a principal broker at RE/MAX equity group and the president of the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors. “And a sustained stabilization in inventory translates into a stabilization of prices.”

A stable housing market usually is six or seven months, he said. But the consistent 10-month number is encouraging because it means that product is moving, he added.

Bank-owned real estate is at a four-month supply, and has started to stabilize, according to Richard Caplan, principal broker with Windermere Cronin & Caplan Realty Group. Both Caplan and Wiren believe bankers and real estate brokers are becoming more familiar with processing defaults and foreclosures.

“We are really starting to see some positive trends in the time it takes to close a short sale,” Wiren said. “What used to be an eight- to 10-month process is now taking only three to four months.”

Home sale prices have continued to drop, falling 4.7 percent from the end of October 2009 to the end of last month, according to data from the Regional Multiple Listing Service. The median home sale price was $233,500 last month.

But as Caplan pointed out, that is reflective of the homes being sold.

“The product that’s selling most is the cheaper stuff, so it’s going to drive down average prices,” he said. “I like to look at inventory and volume and compare those to different points in time.”

According to Caplan, June is the key month because that was when tax credits stopped driving the market.

“October closed sales were down from the same point last year, but if you look at the months since May, we have been steady and even seeing the number rise.”

Nick Rulli, managing principal broker with The Hasson Company, doesn’t know whether the market has hit the bottom, but he knows it’s close.

“I’ve noticed that a lot of investors have been sniffing around the market, and when they come back in you know it’s at the bottom because they are looking for the best deals,” Rulli said. “After the first of the year I think you are going to see these people start moving some product.”

Potential homebuyers also are looking for good deals, according to Greg Downey, a senior mortgage planner with Town & Country Home Loans. He is optimistic about the number of people taking the first steps to buy, he said.

“There are a ton of people out there that are prequalified for a mortgage or are starting the process to become prequalified, but haven’t made a purchase yet,” Downey said. “From my end you are seeing the interest in purchasing a home increase, but we have yet to see that necessarily transfer to a huge jump in sales.”

Of course, he is more optimistic about 2011 now than he was earlier this year.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next year; no one does,” Downey said. “While we still have a long way to go, it’s nice to see us start chipping away at that pipeline of inventory.”

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There’s been no shortage of coverage over the past week about the great foreclosure freeze – several of the nation’s largest servicers of mortgages putting a halt on most, if not all, foreclosure sales amidst accusations that their officials mishandled foreclosure documents.

Arguments for and against the freeze have ensued. Consumer advocacy groups and politicians are arguing that banks aren’t using foreclosure as the last possible option. Real estate professionals, meanwhile, argue the freeze is delaying imminent foreclosures and worsening the real estate woes.

Regardless of your stance on the issue, there’s been very little coverage on how exactly these lenders mishandled the foreclosure documents.

Well, I’m going to try and take a stab at explaining the two issues that got us to the great foreclosure freeze, or foreclosure-gate, or as others are calling it, the biggest fraud in the history of capital markets.

The first is quite simple. As foreclosures began to add up, and multiplied upon themselves, high ups in these lending institutions started robo-signing – signing off on foreclosure documents without properly reviewing them, or in some cases, not reading them at all.

An official for GMAC Mortgage – one of three lenders to halt foreclosure sales in the 23 states where judges handle foreclosures – admitted late last year in a deposition that his . A Bank of America employee – the first lender to halt foreclosure sales in all 50 states – confessed during a bankruptcy case earlier this year that she , usually not looking over them because of the sheer volume.

But this robo-signing issue, while obviously wrong, is only part of the problem. And honestly, doesn’t hold that much weight in court for the 27 states that don’t require a foreclosure to go through the judicial system.

The other problem, which some distressed homeowners are finding a way to win court cases with, has to do with ownerships of these mortgages that eventually end up in foreclosures.

One company in particular that’s got caught up in the middle of all this is that created an electronic system by the same name.  The company’s board of directors is made up of representatives from some of the major players in the mortgage business, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and GMAC (owned by Ally Financial, the first company to be accused of the mishandlings).

The system was designed to make things easier. It’s an electronic registry and database that simplifies and documents the way mortgage ownership and servicing rights are originated, sold and tracked. According to its website, the registry tracks more than 60 million mortgages.

But considering mortgages are often repackaged, bundled and resold, they don’t always have one outright owner. When a home is going to be foreclosed upon and falls into one of these instances, an agent of MERS will step in and conduct the foreclosure on behalf of the lender. According to its website, it has a legal right to do this as the mortgagee of record.

Well, a few recent court rulings, , have sides with the homeowners saying that the company doesn’t have this right, only the actual owner of the mortgage does (the case in Oregon is halted until the true owner of the mortgage takes foreclosure action). , class action lawsuits against MERS are currently pending in California, Nevada and Arizona. State Supreme Courts in Maine, Arkansas and Kansas have previously sided against MERS right to file.

While this is going to have to play out in several different court settings for an overall precedent to be set, the wheels against MERS have, at least somewhat, already been set in motion.

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