New Breed of Homeowners in Miami: LENDERS!

September 30th, 2007 | Category: Miami Blog

Wells Fargo Bank Owns 119 properties in Miami,Florida Dade County and Deutsche Bank owns 148 (more are listed below)

In the Miami,Florida Herald editorial titled “Mortgage Crisis Stirs Regulators: Chance to mend, not break subprime market” the Herald said: “The subprime market is a good deal for many worthy borrowers.” I say: wrong.

They also said: “At present, only a fifth of all subprime mortgages are at risk of default.” I say: wrong again Miami,Florida Herald.

Here is why they are wrong on the first one: There was a plethora of illegal activity in Miami,Florida’s subprime that even I (a citizen) could uncover by looking at public records (see the Mortgage section in our index). People with bad credit who had no business buying a house were given 100% financing. There is too much fraud and corruption with subprimes and they actually hurt the very people the Herald thinks the subprimes help. Some people SHOULD NOT own homes. And, finally, we should not expect the government to bail out fraudulent deals and greedy people who bought multiple properties they could not afford.

On number two: As Karen Carpenter sang in the 70’s: “We’ve only just begun.” Most of the mortgages are at their low teaser rates and haven’t sky-rocketed yet. Many of the subprime people have 8% or 9% mortgages that can go up to 15%. What do you think will happen when the interest rates go up (almost double) for thousands of people (that have outrageous prepayment penalty clauses and little money invested) Miami,Florida Herald? They are going to let the property foreclose.

I would suppose the Herald is right when it says the foreclosure rates jumped 36% in August. But here is the good news…Ha, ha, ha…there is a new breed of buyers taking possession of homes: Lenders! Yes, Wells Fargo Bank, owns an 800 square foot condominium in The Palms and Deutche Bank, owns a 984 square foot condominium in Blue Lagoon (paying almost $7,000 a year in taxes). How did this happen? Why did a German Bank take possession of a one bedroom mediocre condo?

The Herald does not note that foreclosure sales are going horribly wrong. The prices are way too high and the sales are not producing

buyers so the banks/lenders are taking possession at foreclosure sales by way of: “Certificates of Title”. A very important question I have that I can’t answer: Are these transfers of title fueling the Real Estate sales numbers in Miami,Florida and inflating prices? If they are, we are really in trouble.

I did not look at each and every one of these to see if they were foreclosure transfers, I am just telling you how many properties these lenders/entities own in Miami,Florida Dade County, most by Certificates of Title (a dead giveaway):

Wells Fargo Bank owns 119 properties
HSBC owns 96 properties
Deutsche Bank owns 148 properties
Aurora Loan Services owns 27 properties
Citimortgage, Inc. owns 7 properties
Chase Home Finance LLC owns 13 properties
Fremont Investment & Loan owns 46 properties
Residential Funding Company owns 15 properties
WMC Mortgage owns 5 properties
Countrywide Home Loans owns 29 properties
Accredited Home Lenders Inc. owns 13 properties
GMAC owns 23 properties
LaSalle Bank National Association owns 44 properties
Bank of New York owns 106 properties
WM Specialty Mortgage LLC owns 5 properties
US Bank NA Trustees owns 32 properties
Aames Home Loan owns 6 properties
Peoples Choice Home Loan, Inc. owns 4 properties
Wachovia Bank NA owns 19 properties
JP Morgan Chase owns 5 properties
Argent Mortgage owns 9 properties
Bank of America owns 8 properties
Mortgage Electronic owns 6 properties
Washington Mutual owns 58 properties

(This is not a complete list of lender owned properties, Information is from: http://gisims2.miamidade.gov/myhome/propmap.asp and http://www.miami-dadeclerk.com/public-records/pubsearch1.asp The NEW property records do not reflect the foreclosure grand total, they still have recorded the last sale before foreclosure although they list the lenders as owner)

An interesting side note, If you invested in a fund with lets say Bears Stearns, you can actually see what properties you own: I found this on a property: Bank National Association (as trustee for certificate holders of Bear Stearns asset backed securities).