A handful of local officials in California who say the
housing bust is a public blight on their cities may invoke their eminent-domain powers to restructure mortgages as a
way to help some borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth.
Investors holding the current mortgages predict the move will
backfire by driving up borrowing costs and further depress property values.
"I don't see how you could find it anything other than appalling,"
said Scott Simon, a managing director at Pacific Investment Management Co., or
Pimco, a unit of Allianz SE.
Eminent domain allows a government to forcibly
acquire property that is then reused in a way considered good for the
public—new housing, roads, shopping centers and the like. Owners of the
properties are entitled to compensation, which is usually determined by a
court.
But instead of tearing down property,
California's San Bernardino County and two of its largest cities, Ontario and
Fontana, want to put eminent domain to a highly unorthodox use to keep people
in their homes.
The municipalities, about 45 minutes east of Los
Angeles, would acquire underwater mortgages from investors and cut the loan
principal to match the current property value. Then, they would resell the
reduced mortgages to new investors.
The
eminent-domain gambit is the brainchild of San Francisco-based venture-capital
firm Mortgage Resolution Partners, which has hired investment banks Evercore
Partners and Westwood Capital to raise funds from private investors. The company's
chief executive, Graham Williams, is a mortgage-industry veteran who helped
pioneer lending programs for low-income borrowers at Bank of America Corp. in the early 1990s. Its
chairman, Steven Gluckstern, is an entrepreneur who once owned the New York
Islanders hockey franchise. Evercore's founder and co-chairman, Roger Altman,
served in the Clinton administration and is raising funds for President Barack
Obama's re-election effort.
For a home with
an existing $300,000 mortgage that now has a market value of $150,000, Mortgage
Resolution Partners might argue the loan is worth only $120,000. If a judge
agreed, the program's private financiers would fund the city's seizure of the
loan, paying the current loan investors that reduced amount. Then, they could
offer to help the homeowner refinance into a new $145,000 30-year mortgage
backed by the Federal Housing Administration, which has a program allowing
borrowers to have as little as 2.25% in equity. That would leave $25,000 in
profit, minus the origination costs, to be divided between the city, Mortgage
Resolution Partners and its investors.
Proponents say this would help residents shed
debt loads that are restraining economic growth, while preventing foreclosures
that are eroding the tax base. But unlike the beneficiaries of most recent
mortgage-modification efforts, who must show hardship, these borrowers would
have to be current on their payments to participate. And the program initially would focus only on mortgage-backed securities
that aren't federally guaranteed—about 10% of all outstanding U.S. mortgages.
The move is yet another sign of the desperate
measures taken by cities still reeling from the effects of the housing bust.
Several have declared bankruptcy.
"A
number of cities, mayors, city managers have come to me and said, 'How soon can
we get in?' " said Greg Devereaux, San Bernardino County's chief
executive. He said he learned of the program last
year from a California state official. He said county officials haven't yet
made a firm decision on whether to proceed. "We think it would be
irresponsible, given the size of the problem in our county, not to at least
explore it," he said.
Unemployment in San Bernardino County, the
nation's 12th-most-populous county, is among the nation's highest and tops 30%
in some parts. More than two in five borrowers with a mortgage owed more than
their homes were worth at the end of March.
The seizure of home-mortgage liens, but not the
underlying homes, hasn't ever been conducted through eminent domain, as far as
the group's principals can tell. And while they believe they have a strong
legal case, they expect loan owners to sue.
"California legal
precedent and political posture favor the program and constitute an ideal
proving ground," Mortgage Resolution Partners said in a
presentation to investors reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The document said it would begin with a $5
billion effort in California that could grow to three million mortgages as part
of a $500 billion multistate effort.
Several states have
authorized the taking of other intangible property, such as insurance policies, shares of stock or
rights of way, according to Robert Hockett, a Cornell University professor of
law and adviser to Mortgage Resolution Partners.
In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state
of Hawaii's use of eminent domain to transfer residential tracts of land to
renters to break up a landownership oligopoly and stabilize home prices. In
2005, the court affirmed the right of a Connecticut town to use eminent domain
to transfer non-blighted homes to a private developer to spur redevelopment.
That spurred several states to pass laws restricting such powers.
The three local
California governments have created joint powers authorities that don't need
permission from their city councils or board of supervisors to move forward
unless they need public money. That means if the agencies back proposals that
are privately financed, the plans could only be stopped from moving forward in
court.
Mortgage-bond
investors—who are the property owners, for eminent-domain purposes—say the program would do nothing to deal with the
biggest problems—borrowers already in default. "Shouldn't that be the
first priority?" said Laurie Goodman, senior managing director at
broker-dealer Amherst Securities Group LP.
A letter sent last week to city leaders from 18
trade associations, led by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets
Association, warned that such a move "could actually serve to further
depress housing values" by making banks less willing to lend. The plan's
backers are unfazed. "The exact opposite is true. There's no private
market right now," said Mr. Gluckstern of Mortgage Resolution Partners.
"Until you clear out this problem [of underwater loans], private lending
will not come back."
Source: Nick Timiraos at nick.timiraos@wsj.com
The article above from the July
4, 2012 WSJ discusses a new scheme by some local governments to seize
properties by using eminent domain power to "condemn" underwater
residential mortgages. Private investors would supply the capital to the
city for the "compensation" to the mortgage owner, the government
would condemn the mortgages and transfer the mortgage rights to private
investors. These private investors would restructure the mortgages and
continue to own (including the right to sell) the mortgages.
A second article is called
"They can't do that can they? Constitutional
imitations on the seizure of Underwater Mortgages", www.jonesdaycom, and notes challenges to the
scheme. This article points out the "significant constitutional
questions" posed by this program and concludes that this scheme
"arguably violates” the Takings Clause and the Contract Clause of the U.S.
Constitution.
The continued erosion of the
"public use" standard (how did public use turn into "public
purpose”?) for eminent domain purposes and the degree to which government
officials are willing to join or create new schemes to separate Americans and
businesses from their property rights is alarming.
A free market and civil society
requires an ability to rely on the rule of law. The ability to rely on contractual
rights freely bargained for between parties is essential.
What are the consequences of
this proposed program? How will this impact the housing market, future
lending practices and loan pricing and the free market?
How does a company make a loan or invest when
it can’t rely on the government to honor its contract/property rights? How does
one assess the risk in pricing and contracting when the rules are on wheels and
subject to the capricious actions of government? This will ultimately increase the cost to all homeowners seeking
financing.
There is an inherent conflict
in this scheme. The lower the value of the
mortgage the greater the loss to the current lender (and their underlying
investors) and the greater potential for profit for the new investor. Who
determines the value of the loans? How big will the losses be to
the current loan holders and how big will the profits be to the cities and the
company proposing this scheme? How many individual investors and pension
funds have invested in these securitized mortgages? Who is protecting their rights and how much money will they need
to spend to protect their rights from this seizure of their property?
What other consequences flow
from this scheme and do these elected officials remotely understand the issues?
Or do they even care?
The article notes that three
governments have formed an “authority” made up of non-elected people that can
execute the strategy so long as no public money is required. No accountability runs to an elected official.
While this example is outrageous in scope and form, there are many
other ways the government takes our property. Look at taxes, zoning codes, city
plans, redevelopment programs, efforts to label an area “blighted”, regional
anything etc. in terms of how these efforts impact our property rights, how
they presume public use for private property and how they impose regulations on
your property (i.e., add cost to your ownership, impair or eliminate your use
and impair property value). You may look at that stream buffer, tree ordinance, walking
trail or comprehensive plan with a different perspective.
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