An Interesting Post from NPR Marketplace

Helping Institutions and Ordinary People Invest Better by Focusing on Risk Control

Posted on 18 April 200721 April 2007 by David Merkel

We haven’t had foreclosure on a wide scale since securitization became common. Some municipalities are trying to figure out who truly owns a house in foreclosure if the loan was securitized. I would think that the trustees were the legal owners on behalf of the junior certificate holders, with the servicer acting in behalf of the trustee.

The radio show NPR Marketplace had an interesting piece on this phenomenon. When a city is dealing with a mass of abandoned buildings, they want to know who owns them, so that they can be protected, and blight avoided.
In this era of securitization, finding the owner after foreclosure is not simple. Listen to the piece, and consider the effects on our markets and society.

One thought on “An Interesting Post from NPR Marketplace”

amccabe says:

20 April 2007 at 5:38 pm

I heard that report on the radio on the way home from work. What a bad situation. When the municipal taxpayers are paying for maintaining the neglected properties while the servicers are delaying filing the deeds to avoid paying taxes… eminent domain seems almost palatable even though I’m generally opposed to it.

Too bad there isn’t a centralized online registry for homes like WhoIs for websites.

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