The Oregon Legislature slammed the door in the faces of all the Oregonians fighting for their lives against the banksters.  From the Oregonian's story by Brent Hunsberger:

Although the Oregon Legislature wrestled with a number of issues this session, consumer protection was not one of them. Nowhere was lawmakers' collective apathy more evident than in the way Washington and Oregon addressed the growing foreclosure crisis.

Washington enacted the Foreclosure Fairness Act, allowing homeowners to demand a mediation face to face with their lenders before a foreclosure sale. Attorney General Rob McKenna got power to punish lenders who don't follow it.  . . . .

Sure, Oregon lawmakers had a lot of hefty issues to tackle, some of which they punted. They passed some needed health reform measures that might, in a few years, save consumers and small businesses money. They improved protections for consumers purchasing long-term health care insurance, mobile homes and free-trial offers that actually end up costing money.

But other states faced the same problems. The failure of Oregon lawmakers to tackle the state's foreclosure crisis, which grew in severity even as lawmakers huddled with lobbyists, certainly raises serious questions about the balance of power in Salem.

In fact, lawmakers actually allowed one key consumer protection -- the right to meet with a lender to modify a mortgage -- to expire at year's end. A committee in the House, where most consumer protection legislation met its death, briefly entertained an end-run by the mortgage industry to retroactively exempt lenders from Oregon recording law. This gut-and-stuff of an affordable housing bill finally ended after a public outcry sent lawmakers scurrying for cover.

"It's very disappointing," said Suzanne Bonamici, D-Cedar Hills, who championed several consumer measures. "I don't know what else I could've done."

Let's set the scene lawmakers ignored. Homeowners have been up in arms with how loan servicers have bungled mortgage modifications promised by the government more than two years ago.

Attorneys general in 50 states are investigating the practices of the nation's largest lenders.

In Oregon, meanwhile, a number of judges have blocked foreclosures, at least once after the fact. They've found lenders in violation of state law for not recording each time a mortgage loan is resold, a securitization system that generated yacht-loads of profits for Wall Street.

The status of foreclosures in the state now hang in serious limbo while a case finds its way to the Oregon Supreme Court. That could take months.

If lenders actually sat down face to face with borrowers and worked out solutions, Oregon's housing market might actually see more life. Instead, big banks are putting off having to record those loan losses on their books. Troubled homeowners are told repeatedly to resend the same information, discover their lender is foreclosing on them at the same time their loan is being modified. . . . .

Audit of Massachusetts foreclosures finds massive bank fraud
     Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds, Salem MA - Yesterday at the Annual Conference of The International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers , Register John O'Brien revealed the results of an independent audit of his registry.  The audit, which is released as a legal affidavit was performed by McDonnell Property Analytics, examined assignments of mortgage recorded in the Essex Southern District Registry of Deeds issued to and from JPMorgan Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, and Bank of America during 2010.  In total, 565 assignments related to 473 unique mortgages were analyzed.  McDonnell's Report includes the following key findings:

     - Only 16% of assignments of mortgage are valid

     - 75% of assignments of mortgage are invalid.

     - 9% of assignments of mortgage are questionable

     - 27% of the invalid assignments are fraudulent, 35% are "robo-signed" and 10% violate the Massachusetts Mortgage Fraud Statute.

     - The identity of financial institutions that are current owners of the mortgages could only be determined for 287 out of 473 (60%)

     - There are 683 missing assignments for the 287 traced mortgages, representing approximately $180,000 in lost recording fees per 1,000 mortgages whose current ownership can be traced.

     Marie McDonnell told O'Brien, "I have been auditing residential mortgage loans for the past twenty years on a one-by-one basis.  In the process, I have been cataloging the ramp up in predatory lending and mortgage fraud for all of those years, but I was not prepared for the shocking results of my audit.  What this means is that the degradation in standards of commerce by which the banks originated, sold and securitized these mortgages are so fatally flawed that the institutions, including many pension funds, that purchased these mortgages don't actually own them because the assignments of mortgage were never prepared, executed and delivered to them in the normal course of business at the time of the transaction.  In a blatant attempt to engineer a 'fix' to the problem, the banks set up in-house document execution teams, or outsourced the preparation of their assignments to third parties who manufactured them out of thin air without researching who really owns the mortgage."

     O'Brien asked McDonnell what this means for his constituents.  "It is vitally important for your constituents to know that if they are in foreclosure now or if their homes have been foreclosed upon, they can stop the foreclosure from proceeding, or institute a court action to vacate a completed foreclosure. . . .  I can tell you that every single assignment of mortgage that was recorded for the purpose of foreclosing the homeowner is invalid, overtly fraudulent, or criminally fraudulent.  My findings also show that your constituents who are not in foreclosure, and have never been delinquent in their payments also have clouds on title due to the recording of defective and invalid discharges and assignments of mortgage."

From the great folks doing important work at Economic Fairness Oregon:
A Homecoming Without a Home

EFO launched a website today dedicated to helping Oregon resident Tim Collette and the countless homeowners like him.  Homecoming Without a Home highlights Tim’s case - he’s slated to lose his home to Chase Bank on the courthouse steps in 10 days. Tim's son Aaron is due to return home on leave from Iraq just eight weeks after Tim's foreclosure sale date.

The website includes a countdown clock to Tim's foreclosure sale, details on how Tim did everything right in trying to save his home and also features videos and daily updates on Tim's fight with Chase. Of course, we all know Tim is just one of thousands of other Oregonians facing foreclosure in our state, and we’re dedicated to changing the rules so that every homeowner has a fighting chance against the big banks – that’s why the site also includes viable solutions to the foreclosure crisis at both the federal and state levels - including Oregon bills SB 826 and 827.

Tim has two strong advocates working on his case – U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Oregon Attorney General John Kroger. Both of their offices have contacted Chase directly. Merkley also took to the U.S. Senate floor just about an hour ago to speak about mortgage servicing reform – and shared Tim's story with his fellow lawmakers.

But this isn’t just about Tim. Both Senator Jeff Merkley and Attorney General John Kroger have been champions for real foreclosure reform. There are other leaders too, such as Senator Suzanne Bonamici - the chief sponsor of SB 826 and SB 827. But they cannot do this alone. Please stand strong with these leaders, with Tim and with the tens of thousands of Oregon families facing foreclosure.

Please visit Homecoming Without a Home for the latest progress and news on Tim and mortgage servicing reform.

Economic Fairness Oregon is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to consumer protection and fair lending laws. Our goal is to restore a financial system built to work for the people, not against them.

    Should you walk away from your mortgage?  Declare bankruptcy?  Try for a short sale?  Tap retirement savings and hang on?   Seek a modification?

    Frankly, I have no idea what you should do.

    What I can tell you is why consulting a lawyer as soon as you think there might be mortage trouble makes sense.

     What a lawyer can do for you is tell you how, under the law, each of those alternatives (and others) will affect you (your credit score, tax situation, . . . ) so you you can decide your best course of action.

     But there are a lot of people are getting to know the ins and outs of all this.  Why hire a lawyer?

    What you get when you hire an attorney is a professional with an ethical duty to put your interests first, ahead of everyone else's.  If you talk to someone in the real estate industry (your banker, broker, agent, homebuilder, a refi salesperson, or a "foreclosure rescue outfit"), they have zero duty to consider your interests at all, much less to put your concerns ahead of theirs.  And, typically, their interest is in having you pour as much money into your mortgage as you can, regardless of whether you ultimately lose the house or not.

    Of course I'm delighted if you make an appointment and consult with me about your situation.  But even if I never see you, I hope you will call an Oregon attorney for advice before you find yourself with your options foreclosed along with your house.  You can request referrals from the Oregon State Bar Lawyer Referral Service by calling 800-452-7636 and telling them you want a referral to an attorney who can counsel you about your options for dealing with your mortgage.  Don't wait until the foreclosure process starts --- you have the greatest number of options if you take control of your situation while you are still current on your mortgage.