Philadelphia starts from scratch to fix
foreclosures

post from HousingWire on 11 May 2012 01:35:50 PM. © HousingWire

One of the most understaffed and congested foreclosure systems in the country is about to get an overhaul. But for now, the Philadelphia sheriff office and its deflated foreclosure system remains under construction.

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May 18, 2012 Early Learning Coalition Fundraiser

post from REAL Magazine on 11 May 2012 01:21:45 PM. © REAL Magazine

Early Learning Coalition Roasts 1-800-Ask-Gary.Join the Early Learning Coalition of Manatee County for a casual evening of laughter and camaraderie as ?frenemies? and close friends take the stage to roast the one and only: Dr. Gary Kompothecras.Roasters[...]

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Fitch: REOs represent one third of CMBS
delinquencies

post from HousingWire on 11 May 2012 01:01:57 PM. © HousingWire

Fitch highlighted industrial and multifamily CMBS loans as areas of notable improvement, while CMBS loans on office space remained a major concern. Multifamily delinquencies led the way with a delinquency rate of 11.64%, compared to 12.61% in March.

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Mortgage loan delinquencies drop to lowest rate
since 2009

post from Real Estate Consumer News on 11 May 2012 12:36:09 PM. © Real Estate Consumer News

More good news on the housing market! The national mortgage delinquency rate (borrowers that are 60 or more days past due) declined for the first 3 months of 2012, coming in at 5.78 percent according to a report issued by TransUnion. This is after increases in the delinquency rate in the prior 2 quarters and is the lowest rate since the 1st quarter of 2009. [...]Related posts:

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Shadow banking emerging from the shadows

post from HousingWire on 11 May 2012 11:13:46 AM. © HousingWire

Investors interested in money market funds, government-sponsored enterprises and asset securitizations are seeing signs of shadow banking emerging from the shadows, but more work has to be done to create transparency and oversight of the segment, Standard & Poor's said in a new report.

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Consumer sentiment marks post-recession high

post from HousingWire on 11 May 2012 10:47:27 AM. © HousingWire

A preliminary reading of May consumer sentiment hit its highest level since the recession, suggesting a more positive public outlook of the U.S. economy.

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Government Intrusion Forces The National
Association of Home Builders To React

post from The Real Estate Bloggers on 11 May 2012 10:30:02 AM. © The Real Estate Bloggers

One of the most subservient organizations to the federal government has had enough of government regulations and is fighting back. The National Association of Home Builders has gone along with the myriad of government programs that lined the pockets of the connected and delayed the recovery of the housing industry for the past 5 years. [...]

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Government Intrusion Forces The National Association of Home Builders To React

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Settlement Entered in Civil Lawsuit Concerning
HUD Violations

post from Mortgage Fraud Blog - Perp Walk on 11 May 2012 09:32:41 AM. © Mortgage Fraud Blog - Perp Walk

Deutsche Bank AG, DB Structured Products, Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. (collectively "Deutsche Bank") and MortgageIt, Inc. have entered into an agreement settling a lawsuit filed by the United States, which alleged HUD misreprsentations.

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Conditions improve in commercial real estate, but
confidence is fleeting

Conditions in the commercial real estate sector improved in the first quarter, but investors and executives are worried about some of the commercial mortgages set to mature in the coming year and the market's general lack of interest in sub-A real estate assets, real estate executives said.

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What the City of Miami didn't want you to know
about those gaming machines...

The whole mess regarding the gaming machines, aka maquinitas, that brought the City of Miami to its knees finally culminating in the firing of the city's police chief all comes down to whether or not the machines in question were games who's outcome was determined by the players skill or simply games who's outcomes were determined by the computers that operated the machines. Seems like a stupid question right? As far as I can tell, whether the outcome is controlled by the player or by the computer, as long as money goes into to the machines and some sort of payout comes out, who cares who controls it, in my book that's a damn slot machine! As dumb as that whole premise may sound, City of Hialeah police chief Mark Overton even went on the record saying...

?If it?s a game of skill or has some element of skill in it then it isn?t illegal,? Overton explained. ?And that basically is what the statute says.?

What in the FCUK does that mean? From the very same interview, Jim Defede goes on to ask Chief Overton...

But where is the skill to hitting a button marked ?credits? and then hitting a button marked ?play?? ?I don?t know, that?s part of the issue,? Overton said.

HUH?! If the Chief Overton doesn't know, then why comment about something you have no clue about? What are we left to think, that there's some sort of black magic that controls these damn machines?

So how the hell are you to figure out just what's behind these machines? Say for example you're an embattled police chief who crusaded against these machines who then found himself embroiled in a lawsuit filed by the owners of the 500 or so of these machines that you had confiscated, what would you do to prove that these machines were indeed nothing but illegal slot machines? A smart chief would go ahead and hire an expert witness to go ahead and analyze these machines scientifically and prove that indeed they're nothing but slot machines designed to bilk people out of their money. Said chief would then go ahead and submit this report to the court at which point any defense the machine owner would have would promptly get blown out of the water. Makes sense right?
Here's the problem, when the maquinita owners filed their lawsuits to get their machines back, it was police chief Miguel Exposito that was spearheading the campaign against the machines and their owners. Chief Exposito and his crew went ahead and hired the expert, not just any expert but the foremost figure in the field of electronic gaming and gambling machines, D. Robert Sertell. The City of Miami retained Mr. Sertell to do a forensic analysis of the maquinitas that were in the city's custody, from what I understand, he spent a week going over the machines. But just a few months later, City of Miami Mayor, Tomas Regalado successfully ousted police chief Exposito, and just like that the campaign against the illegal gambling machines was over, but where does that leave those lawsuits the maquinita owners filed to get there machines back? You'd think that the maquinita owners were shit out of luck, what with the results of the forensic analysis of their machines and all, right?
WRONG! A funny thing happened after Chief Exposito and his crew were fired, it seems like the City of Miami didn't want to pay the expert witness for his work. While the city did retain and pay Mr. Sertell for the week he examined the machines, somehow the city didn't see fit to pay him for his report! Think about it for a moment, no report from the expert witness results in an instant win for the maquinita owners! And what better way to make sure that the report doesn't make it to court? Easy, DON'T PAY THE MAN WHO WROTE THE REPORT! Brilliant!
So there you have it, another day in the City of Miami. The powers that be decided to protect their friends and campaign contributors that owned the maquinitas by directing the city not to pay the expert witness whose report would have destroyed any chance they had of getting their gaming machines back. Fucking brilliant.
It would have been a perfect plan if it wasn't for a private citizen who couldn't sit by and watch this bullshit, a private citizen who pulled several thousands of dollars out of his own pocket and paid for the report himself and was then kind enough to forward us a copy of the report...