Thinking About Standing-s

Both the S&L crisis of some 20 years ago and the banking crisis now have their roots in building booms done in an environment of deregulation run amok.

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Foreclosure is a time consuming and costly process in the best of times. In optimal conditions you are looking at a minimum 90 to 180 days before you get title/possession to even have a chance to put the property up in a decent sale’s market. This is predicated on your having a “perfected” lien with all “I”s dotted and all “T”s crossed showing you have proper “standing” before the judge in the foreclosure proceedings. It is also predicated on that the delinquent occupant will vacate “premises” without requiring eviction. Here we are now seeing that people are increasingly unwilling to move out voluntarily or quickly. We have also seen (in three different court jurisdictions in three different states) where judges threw out the cases because the plaintiff/investors (in the mortgage derivatives) could not prove they had standing to foreclose, showing a lien to the actual properties in foreclosure. When the mortgages were packaged/sold to investors, necessary lien transfer work was not done!

Foreclosure stats are now the worst in Nevada, Florida, and California. Illinois is #17. Ogle County (where I live) has some of the fewest (31) in our State. My hometown of Creston presently has 1 and nearby Rochelle has 7. DeKalb County just East currently has 710 with 217 in the City of DeKalb, 135 in Sycamore, and 14 in Malta. Winnebago County to the North has 2,438 with 729 in Rockford. Stephenson County to the Northwest has 47 with 33 in Freeport. While these numbers are bad and will grow, they pale in comparison to the rank standings of those on the East coast, the West Coast, and the South.

I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Copyright 2008 Questions, Inc. All rights reserved. Fred Cederholm is a CPA/CFE, a forensic accountant, and writer. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois (B.A., M.A. and M.A.S.). He can be reached at asklet@rochelle.net.

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This story was published on March 31, 2008.

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