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I have prepared a map of foreclosure starts for North Carolina.  This map includes REOs and decisions for foreclosure from loans in the portfolio held by Wells Fargo as trustee.  More than 600 lenders originated loans within this portfolio, and more than 60 servicers represented in this set.

Some initial conclusions are that our urban areas are witnessing the most foreclosure events.  While that is not surprising, it also remains true that rural areas do have a substantial number of properties going into foreclosure, too.  Places like Elizabeth City, in the upper Northeastern section of the state, are showing a lot of activity.  So too are some of the rural areas in the Southeastern part of the state.  Many of these areas are home to high number of military families.  This area includes Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune, Seymour Johnson AFB, Cherry Point, and Pope Air AFB.

It is important to recognize that this does not cover all properties that are going into foreclosure – it is only the subset hold by Wells Fargo as trustee.  Thus, the value here is to show distribution of foreclosures in a dynamic manner.

Foreclosure in North Carolina by Zip Code, August 2009

Rep. Cleaver….”I”…raises his hands…”I am having a really weird time in Congress….I am having a lot of weird experiences that I didn’t expect…”

More time passes.

“It seems to me like we are  not supposed to ingore indisputable facts.”

More time passes. He then makes a point.  He says that the law states, in its exact language, that the law is supposed to support sound lending.  He says he will yield to anyone on the planet who can say it differently.

A man in a gray suit gets up.  He appears to have something to say.  Frank does not want to recognize him.  Cleaver is (more…)

Taylor is back.  A passing comment can’t be ignored – it is so opaque – but also significant.  He comments, “in my neighborhood, Roxbury, where I grew up…”

That’s a telling comment because Roxbury is in Barney Frank’s district.  Taylor represents NCRC in DC, but he actually lives in Boston, in Frank’s district.

Rep. Marchant wants to talk about extending CRA to new institutions.  This is a hot subject.  Credit unions and insurance companies may get a CRA obligation.  It seems very likely that if CRA Modernization passes, that it would extend coverage to independent mortgage companies.

Rep. Marchant (R-Tx): “Is it your opinion that even if the CRA was properly enforced under current law, would it bring enough money to neighborhoods?”

Taylor: it is not well enforced.

The Mass. Commissioner of Banks points out that while no state-chartered institutions are currently not meeting their requirements under the Mass. state law, some did not always reach that level.  And, he says, credit unions have not (more…)

Rep. Hensarling is up to examine the testifiers next.  He is having fun with words:

• If banks are not required to make unsustainable loans, are they required to make sustainable loans?
• If the CRA is simple, then why is it, in the view of small banks, expensive?  (Earlier, he mentioned how banks spend between $20,000 and $90,000 reporting on CRA.)

Taylor asks him why he is mixing up lending based on race with lending based upon income.  It’s a pretty good response.

Other questions:

• Why is Josh Silver looking off to the right? What is over there?
• Where are the rest of the Congressmen?  The first three rows of seats are largely empty.

White is back, courtesy of a question for Rep. Neugebauer.  He wants to do it through funding from taxpayers.  He thinks (more…)

John Taylor of NCRC testifies next, after Lawrence White.

Taylor argues that people need access to the free market.  He says that the current dependency of all financial institutions only extends the logic for an affirmative obligation.  Taylor hits a few policy points:

• we need to extend CRA to independent mortgage brokers.  “If you want to talk about the real cause, then talk about those guys.”
• We need to extend assessment areas.  Many banks are not examined for the entirety of where they loan, particularly when they make loans through brokers.
• We need better data, particularly better data on small business lending.  We need to be able to track where women are getting financing, in particular.
• We need to add race to the law.

Taylor finishes with a zinger:  Rep. Hensarling, he says (paraphrase), in your district, 68 percent of African-American (more…)