From an article by William Alden –

August saw more Americans lose their homes to foreclosure than any other month on record, RealtyTrac reported today. Banks repossessed a total of 95,364 properties in August, a 25 percent increase from the same period in 2009 and a 2 percent increase over this May’s previous record. Foreclosure filings of all types, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions (the three major stages of the foreclosure process), increased to 338,836 in the month, a 4 percent jump from July.

Can there be any better evidence of robo – signing (the practice of mortgage companies simply have attorneys sign off on mortgages as if they had examined the paperwork for accuracy and legality [like whether or not the bank actually owned the property]) than these enormous numbers of foreclosures?

Foreclosing on people’s homes without doing the most minimal required legal work is “highly unethical.” (I don’t really want to use that phrase, but children might be reading my blog.)

Robo signing is profitable. You can see from the numbers just how streamlined the process can be if you avoid following the law.

But isn’t that the current philosophy in the “real” world? Isn’t the money the only thing that matters? And who are these homeowners anyway, just a bunch of dead beats. Why should they have any rights? They signed the note, didn’t they?

Yeah, do you know what note they signed? The actual amount of what they owed? Whether or not the home was actually the property of the foreclosing bank? Whether or not they were even in default?

I guess I’m just a strange person. I think you shouldn’t take people’s home casually. I think it is a very serious matter. Perhaps I don’t live in the real world. Maybe I’m one of those utopian thinkers who have expectations all out of accord with reality.

Or maybe, just maybe, justice is still important in this nation.

James Pilant