Mortgage Modifications

For several years now, the home sales market in Greater Lowell has been sluggish, at best.  One big reason for that is the number of existing homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages.  Most in that position continue to make their monthly payments in the hopes of riding out the price trough and eventually regaining lost equity.  Others have no recourse but to endure foreclosure of the home.  But there's a third group and that's underwater homeowners who succeed in reaching a mortgage modification agreement with their lenders.  Quite a few such agreements get recorded here so I thought I'd scrutinize one and share some of the details.

First, the context: The property in question is a single family residence in a Greater Lowell community that was purchased by a married couple in 1999 for $169,000.  They financed that purchase with a mortgage of $135,200.  Like so many other American homeowners at the beginning of the 21st century, however, they began extracting cash from the rising value of their residence, refinancing four times: in 2001 for $200,000; in 2003 for $247,800; in 2004 for $352,750; and in 2005 for $409,500.  That last loan had an adjustable rate that began with 6.65% but which was permitted to rise in 2008.

That last loan was apparently too much for the home owners and they fell behind on their mortgage payments.  Unlike so many others, they were able to reach a Loan Modification Agreement with their lender earlier this month.  The agreement bundles all amounts owed (excluding late charges which are waived) into a new principal balance of $430,000.  That balance is divided into a "interest bearing principal balance" and a "deferred principal balance."  In our example, the "interest bearing principal balance" is $240,000 which is to be paid in monthly installments with interest at 5% until 2035 (thirty years from the initial loan).  The "deferred principal balance" was set at $190,000.  This amount is due on the maturity date of the loan or when the property is sold, whichever comes first. 

This certainly seems like a reasonable method of keeping underwater borrowers in their homes, but whatever the value of the house now, it seems unlikely that the value will claw back to something that exceeds the total amount owed any time soon.  That means the homeowner is effectively tied to the house for the foreseeable future.  Magnify this situation by everyone else in a like situation and you can better understand why the real estate market remains so sluggish.

Awaiting "Eaton v FNMA"

Over the past few months, several attorneys have mentioned how they're anxiously awaiting the Supreme Judicial Court's decision in the Eaton case.  An article by Ed Bloom, the immediate past president of the Real Estate Bar Association of Massachusetts in the March 2012 edition of REBA News does a good job of explaining why the Eaton decision is so anxiously awaited.  In Eaton, a Superior Court judge invalidated a foreclosure on the grounds that the entity that conducted the foreclosure did not also have possession of the promissory note secured by the mortgage.  This is not to be confused with the issue in Ibanez where the entity conducting the foreclosure did not own the mortgage that was being foreclosed.  In Eaton, the foreclosing entity did own the mortgage, just not the note.

According to Attorney Bloom, if the SJC upholds the Superior Court decision in Eaton and applies it retroactively, "every real estate title in Massachusetts that has a foreclosure in its back title will become unmarketable, because there is no way for anyone examining record title to determine if a foreclosing mortgagee possessed the note at the time of foreclosure."

Because promissory notes have never been recorded, there is no way to tell who owns the note at any given time just by looking at the records at the registry of deeds.  Consequently, I believe Attorney Bloom's concerns are well-founded.  As soon as the SJC issues its decision in Eaton, we'll write about it here.

Statistics for First Quarter 2012

Now that March has drawn to a close, we can compare recording statistics for the first quarter of 2012 with the same period for 2011.  For January thru March 2012, there were 1198 deeds recorded in the Middlesex North District, an 11% increase from the 1076 recorded during the first three months of 2011.  During the same period in 2012, there were 3378 mortgages recorded, a 19% increase from the 2832 recorded in 2011.  During the first quarter of 2012, there were 109 foreclosure deeds recorded, a 38% increase from the 79 recorded in 2011.  Finally, during the first quarter of 2012, there were 201 orders of notice recorded, a 41% increase from the 143 from the first quarter of 2011.

Record Book Reorg Project

About four years ago we removed all of our paper records book out of public circulation and replaced them with digital images. Several registry employees moved the books to the basement. Some of these books were boxed up and others were stored in plastic bags for protection. Since the initial move we have continued to improve the organization and safe keeping of the books.

Below are pictures of a new, record book reorganization project that we are finishing up. The large books are stored on rolling shelves in plastic bags. We stored the smaller plastic covered record books in cardboard boxes. Each box is labeled with its contents and color coded for ease of retrieval.

1940 Census now online

The National Archives launched a website containing the detailed interview sheets from the 1940 census.  While statistical compilations are always released within a few years of the completion of the every-ten-years national census, these detailed sheets which contain a wealth of family information are kept confidential for 72 years after they've been collected.  That particular waiting time - 72 years - is the life expectancy of someone born in that year. 

The 1940 census website is still a bit tricky to navigate.  Users may narrow searches by state, county, city/town and street but not by name (at least not yet, someone is apparently working on that).  Experimenting with the site last night trying to find relatives whose 1940 address I knew for sure, I was able to find both I sought after paging through a dozen or two pages.  My point is that if you are even moderately persistent, you should find what you're looking for.

The following information is available:

• Whether the family owns or rents the property.  If owns, the value.  If renting, the monthly rent.
• The names, ages, gender, race, education level and place of birth of all living in the household
• Whether the person had a job in March 1940 and if not was the person using government programs such as the WPA and the CCC for support
• For each person who was employed, their occupation, industry worked in, number of hours worked per week in March 1940, the duration of their employment, number of weeks worked in 1939, income in 1939, whether the person had income greater than $850 in 1939 from sources other than salary

So check out the 1940 census website and learn more about your ancestors and others that lived in your neighborhood long before you.

March recording statistics

While the recording statistics for March were not fantastic, there was more good news than bad.  When compared to the same month a year ago, we see the following:

• The number of deeds recorded in March 2012 was up 17% from the number recorded in March 2011 (471 v 404)
• The number of mortgages recorded in March 2012 was up 45% from the number recorded in March 2011 (1270 v 873)
• The number of foreclosure deeds recorded in March 2012 was up 42% from the number recorded in March 2011 (47 v 33)
• The number of orders of notice recorded in March 2012 was up 22% from the number recorded in March 2011 (77 v 63)
• The total number of documents recorded in March 2012 was up 14% from the number recorded in March 2011 (5742 v 5030)

Looking at Lowell by itself, we see the following:

• The number of deeds recorded in March 2012 was up 28% from the number recorded in March 2011 (137 v 107)
• The number of mortgages recorded in March 2012 was up 26% from the number recorded in March 2011 (240 v 191)
• The number of foreclosure deeds recorded in March 2012 was up 42% from the number recorded in March 2011 (27 v 19)
• The number of orders of notice recorded in March 2012 was up 50% from the number recorded in March 2011 (33 v 22)
• The total number of documents recorded in March 2012 was up 16% from the number recorded in March 2011 (1283 v 1104)

Judge Chernoff retirement ceremony

The Greater Lowell Bar Association held a retirement celebration for the Honorable Paul Chernoff yesterday at the Lowell Superior Court. Judge Chernoff, who has sat at the Lowell courthouse more than perhaps any other Superior Court judge over the past decade, had officially retired several years ago upon reaching age 70 but had been recalled to duty due to a heavy caseload and personnel shortages. Judge Chernoff was presented with proclamations by retired Supreme Judicial Court justice Judith Cowin on behalf of Congresswoman Niki Tsongas and by Superior Court Chief Justice Barbara Rouse on behalf of State Senator Eileen Donoghue. State Representative Kevin Murphy and Lowell City Councilor Kevin Broderick, both practicing attorneys, were present with citations from their respective bodies.

In his farewell remarks, Judge Chernoff spoke eloquently and affectionately about Lowell. He said that with his seniority he could have opted out of sitting in Lowell for at least the last two decades but that he always chose to come here because of the lure of the staff and attorneys who populate the Lowell Superior Courthouse. He always felt like part of a family when he was in Lowell. He called the late Brian Dunigan, Michael Brennan and Joe Mahoney (all of the clerk’s office here) his three Irish brothers and went on to compliment judicial secretary Bonnie Dineen.

Judge Chernoff said that the court staff and the lawyers make Lowell different than anywhere else. He’s not sure why; perhaps people in Lowell “have a better understanding of the human condition.” He also said there is a “higher level of civility here than elsewhere” which was something he learned “at the knee of Elliot Cowdrey, Cornelius Kiernan and David Williams in the Lowell District Court” (where Chernoff frequently sat from his appointment to the District Court in 1976 to his elevation to the Superior Court in 1984).
As his final day of service neared, Judge Chernoff said the court officers frequently said he couldn’t leave because there were still too many cases to be disposed of. To that sentiment, Judge Chernoff turned to Robert Frost for a response, reading the first few lines of Frost’s poem, “After apple picking”:

My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.

As for his decision to leave now, Judge Chernoff said he had concluded he should leave before he started feeling burned out and before other people thought he was becoming burned out. He closed with a portion of another Frost poem which he said should be in the mind of all judges. The poem was “Fear of God”:

If you should rise from Nowhere up to Somewhere,
From being No one up to being Someone,
Be sure to keep repeating to yourself
You owe it to an arbitrary god
Whose mercy to you rather than to others
Won’t bear to critical examination.

The Robot Revolution

When I was a kid my father used to say...someday machines will do the work that humans do now and there will be no jobs for any of us. It will be the end of civilization as we know it Anthony (he and my mother always called me Anthony).

Well, with all due respect to my father, society hasn't fallen apart yet...but it seems each day there is a new story about a machine or more specifically a computer-driven robot doing a job once done by a human.

Fortunately, computers weren't around during my father's days or he would have predicted the Milky Way was doomed, not just society. Trust me this guy could have written the scripts to the Terminator movies.

A company called Kiva Systems (no, not Skynet) is a leader in robot development. Kiva recently sold Amazon a machine, excuse me a computer-driven robot, that can maneuver around a warehouse and stock shelves.

Yikes! I can hear my father's voice now...I told you Anthony, it is only a matter of time before we're all jobless, living in caves, eating chickweed because of these things.

First, Roomba (built by iRobot) came along scurrying around, cleaning floors and eating lamp wires. And now professionals utilize robots to assist in medical procedures, dismantle bombs, assembly automobiles and more, more , more.

Where will the robotic revolution end...or will it. Is this really the beginning of the end of civilization as my father predicted?

Not according to Lawrence Summers...

Lawrence H. Summers, the economist, former Treasury secretary and former Harvard president, explained that society has been down this road many times before. The rise of the industrial revolution gave way to fears of extensive job loss, as did the automation of agriculture. But, he said, although these “adjustments were in some cases painful,” people always find new work (New York Times).

See Dad, no need to worry...and besides I like chickweed.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac & Tax Stamps

Today's email brought a press release from my Essex South colleague John O'Brien in which he asks the Massachusetts Department of Revenue to immediately file suit against mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to collect unassessed deeds excise taxes on property formerly owned by the two entities. 

Massachusetts imposes an excise tax on the sale of real estate.  The tax is assessed at the rate of $2.28 per $500 in sales price.  Payment of the tax is the responsibility of the person signing the deed (i.e., the seller).  However, property owned or purchased by a governmental entity is exempt from this tax.  A 1991 Department of Revenue ruling (DOR ruling 91-2) held in relevant part:

Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Ginnie Mae are not "agencies" of the United States government, and, thus, do not come within the express exemption from the Deeds Excise as provided by G.L. c. 64D, § 1. Nevertheless, the transfer of realty by written instrument by all three federally sponsored corporations as part of their statutory obligations as secondary market facilities are exempt from the Deeds Excise because of the exemption from state and local taxation provided to each by federal statute. Moreover, the Deeds Excise cannot be imposed on the grantee where the grantor is one of the three federally sponsored corporations mentioned above.

Today's request by Register O'Brien is based on a recent holding in a case from the US District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan (Oakland County v Fannie Mae, et al - Case #11-12666) in which a county in Michigan sued the two federally created mortgage entities on the grounds that they were liable for payment of the deed excise tax.  The Federal Court in Michigan held that even though the federal legislation creating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac specifically exempted them from "all state and local taxes", such language does not apply to transfer taxes like the deeds excise tax and that Fannie and Freddie were indeed liable.

O'Brien estimates that since the 1991 DOR ruling, Fannie and Freddie have avoided the payment in $4.2 million in deeds excise tax to the Commonwealth.  

Need A Recommendation? I Recommend Jybe

Every so often I come across a cool new smartphone App. This morning I found a brand new one called Jybe...how new? Jybe was launched yesterday that's how new.

Jybe gives the user suggestions from other "local" Jybe users on various topics of interest.

OK since Jybe is so new and me being me...I signed up this morning to check it out.

Once I completed the registration process Jybe presented me with three "topics of interest", Dining, Movies and Books. I tapped "Books" just to see what would happened. Twenty eight book categories appeared and I was asked to indicate which of these I liked. I checked off...Biographies, Computers, Cooking and Dining, History, Home and Garden and Literature.

After entering the types of books I liked I clicked "Recommend" and got the following recommendations: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson recommended by Bill Jones and 7 other (Bill Jones is a fake name), Good Omens by Neil Gaiman recommended by Mary Jones (fake name again), Bossypants by Tina Fey recommended by Tom Jones (no not the singer, its a fake name too) and six other others.

I love Tina Fey. Her book Bossypants has intrigued me for a while, so after I read it I'll write a Jybe recommendation. Then when you sign up for Jybe and look for book recommendations you'll see Bossypants recommended by Tony Accardi (yes, this is my real name).

I like the Jybe concept. Yes, it reminds me of Yelp (real name) which also offers recommendations... but here is the big difference between Jybe and Yelp. Jybe uses a set of personalized criteria (likes and dislikes) that customize the recommendations for the you the user.

I'd call Jybe a good find...see if you agree.

Give Jybe a try

Stats thru Week 3 of March

We still have another week in March but I thought it might be useful to look at the stats through three weeks of the month and compare them to the same time last year.  I looked at the period from March 1 through March 23 for both 2011 and 2012.  Here is what I found:

Deeds - in 2011 there were 257; in 2012 there were 346; an increase of 35%

Mortgages - in 2011 there were 636; in 2012 there were 903; an increase of 44%

Foreclosure Deeds - in 2011 there were 23; in 2012 there were 38; an increase of 65%

Orders of Notice - in 2011 there were 53; in 2012 there were 70; an increase of 32%.

as for the orders of notice, here's there breakdown by community:

Billerica - 5
Chelmsford - 3
Dracut - 9
Tewksbury - 7
Tyngsborough - 2
Westford - 3
Wilmington - 7
Lowell - 35

An Act to increase transparency in Massachusetts Land Records

House Bill 3934 , titled "An act to increase transparency in the Massachusetts land record systems to protect the property rights of homeowners and businesses" now resides in the Joint Committee on the Judiciary where a public hearing was held back on February 28, 2012.

The purpose of the bill which was filed by Representative Michael D. Brady of Brockton, will make it a legal requirement for a lender to record an assignment of mortgage within 30 days of the assignment being executed.  Although most assume all real estate document must be recorded, that's not the case.  Our recording system is a voluntary one and if someone with an interest in property chooses not to take advantage of the protections of the recording system, that's their right.  But as a practical matter, almost all documents are recorded relatively promptly. 

The main objective of this bill, it appears, is to curtail the operation of MERS in Massachusetts.  MERS (which stands for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc) was created in the late 1990s as a central holding facility of mortgages for its member banks.  It was in response to problems that arose during the real estate collapse of the early 1990s when easily negotiated promissory notes often left behind the mortgage of real estate.  MERS was designed to hold the mortgage as a trustee for whichever lender or investor ended up with the note.  The system seemed to work quite well as long as the real estate market was healthy, but in the aftermath of the bubble bursting of 2007-08, many have latched onto MERS as part of the problem.  This bill seeks to remedy that perceived problem.  I'll try to keep track of the measure and report on its progress as it works its way through the legislature.

Mass Memories Road Show visits Lowell on Saturday

The Mass Memories Road Show is a statewide community history project sponsored by UMass Boston.  A group of archivists from the university assisted by local volunteers, is in the process of visiting every city and town in the Commonwealth to allow residents to share historic photographs with the project.  Photos are immediately scanned with the original never leaving the custody of its owner who is also asked to complete a photograph information worksheet listing things such as the names of those shown in the picture, its location and the date it was taken.  All of this information and the digital images of the photos will then be made available to all on the Mass Memories website.

This coming Saturday, March 24, from 10 am to 3 pm, the Road Show will be in Lowell at the Tsongas Industrial History Center which is located within the Boott Cotton Mill Museum at 115 John Street.  Those wishing to participate should bring no more than three photos that depict you, your family, your home, your neighborhood - anything about Lowell or its people that you would like to share.  The event is free and open to the public, so even if you don't have any photographs you should stop by and mingle with others interested in the history of this city.   

Public access to government records

There's a great story in today's Globe about Jay and DeLene Holbrook, a seventy-something couple from Oxford, Massachusetts who have spent the last 30 year collecting, organizing and microfilming the vital records of every city and town in the Commonwealth.  Mr. Holbrook was a historical demographer who began the project as part of an academic assignment and then continued it as a business with his spouse's assistance.  They would persuade town clerks, one-by-one, to allow them to borrow their books and then take the books to a commercial microfilming service where the records would be photographed.  In return for the loan of the books, the Holbrook's would provide each town with a free copy of that town's microfilm.  Recently, the Holbrooks sold their collection to Ancestry.com which has converted the records from microfilm to digital images and has integrated them into the Ancestry database. 

While it's true that the original version of these records are (or are supposed to be) freely available to the public for review and research at each town hall, having them indexed and available online as digital images adds tremendously to their value. 

Four types of Notarial Acts

A customer came to the registry on Friday wanting to make "a notarized copy of [his] driver's license."  He explained that he was applying for a mortgage and the lender required this.

The most common act by a Notary Public is to take an acknowledgement - that is, after identifying the person and witnessing his signature, then ascertaining whether the signature was a voluntary act.  There are three other acts that can be accomplished by a Notary.  Besides the Acknowledgement, there's the Jurat.  With the Jurat, the person signing the document also swears or affirms that the contents of the document are true and accurate.  The third notarial act is Signature Witnessing.  In this case, the Notary affirms that the person who purports to have signed the document was in fact the person who signed it.  The fourth Notarial Act is Copy Certification.  Here, the Notary makes a copy of a document and then certifies that it is a "true, exact, complete, and unaltered copy" of the original.

For more details about these Notarial Acts and for examples of the verbiage used when affixing them to documents, see THIS pamphlet produced by the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Mid-month statistics

With March half over, it's time to look at recording statistics for the first two weeks of the month.  Deeds were up 14% when compared to the first two weeks of March 2011, going from 177 to 202.  Mortgages were up nearly twice that, rising from 423 to 539, a 27% jump.   There was no change in foreclosure deeds with 22 in both time periods, but orders of notice, the document that initiates a new foreclosure, doubled, jumping from 27 to 54.

The early March 2012 orders of notice were distributed as follows:

• Billerica - 3
• Chelmsford - 3
• Dracut - 7
• Lowell - 23
• Tewksbury - 6
• Tyngsborough - 2
• Westford - 3
• Wilmington - 6

Defective Acknowledgements - Missing Notary Stamp

For several years I've been writing about defective acknowledgements caused by the omission from the acknowledgement clause of the printed name of the person whose signature was being acknowledged.  Several bankruptcy courts have held that such an omission invalidates the acknowledgement which in turn voids the document that was purportedly acknowledged.  In the Bankruptcy Court context, this usually involves a mortgage being voided, leaving the lender as an unsecured creditor.  No Massachusetts state appellate court has decided this issue as of yet so it seems that these bankruptcy decisions serve as precedent.

The March 12, 2012 issue of Mass Lawyers Weekly, however, reports (not available online) that a Superior Court judge recently ruled that the omission of the printed name of the notary public and of the notary's seal did not invalidate the acknowledgement, notwithstanding that such admissions violate Executive Order 455 which controls the performance of notaries in Massachusetts.  Unlike the bankruptcy court decisions which seem a bit extreme (who else's signature would it be that was being acknowledged other than the person whose signature came immediately before the acknowledgement clause?), this decision seems to me to be the appropriate one.  We'll watch for any indication that this decision is being appealed.

An Act clearing titles to foreclosed properties

This week's issue of Banker & Tradesman has a front page story about Senate Bill 830, "An Act clearing titles to foreclosed properties."  This bill, filed by State Senator Michael Moore of Worcester, addresses the Ibanez problem.  In Ibanez, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that an entity conducting a foreclosure must have the subject mortgage assigned to it prior to the commencement of the foreclosure proceeding; any foreclosure conducted pre-assignment would be void.  Since this holding was contrary to a fairly widespread practice in the conveyancing business, there are many previously-foreclosed properties out there with defective titles.  This bill would retroactively ratify those defective foreclosures but only if the property owner fails to file an action in court disputing the foreclosure within 90 days of the recording of the foreclosure deed or the effective date of the law, whichever is later.

The full text of the bill, which seems to be working its way successfully through the legislative process, is as follows: 

SECTION 1. Section 15 of Chapter 244 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following second paragraph:

Such affidavit shall be conclusive evidence in favor of a good faith purchaser for value at or subsequent to the foreclosure sale that the foreclosing party identified or referred to in such affidavit or the foreclosure deed to which it relates as the holder of the foreclosed mortgage is the holder of the mortgage for purposes of such foreclosure unless the holder of the equity of redemption under the mortgage files an action in Superior Court, Land Court or Housing Court to invalidate the sale for lack of title in the foreclosing party within 90 days from the date of recording of such affidavit and records a memorandum of lis pendens pursuant to chapter 184, section 15, within 30 days of the commencement of such action.

SECTION 2. The provisions of this act shall apply to such affidavits recorded before, on or after the effective date of this act, provided, however, that, as to such affidavits recorded before the effective date of this act, the holder of the equity of redemption shall have a period of 90 days from said effective date to commence such action.

SECTION 3. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the division of banks shall adopt regulations to provide the holder of equity of redemption with notice of any rights granted pursuant to Section 1 of this Act. 

WiTriCity

The other day I was heading out for an all day appointment, so I checked my iPhone's charge...oh no, only 20% left. I know, I know I should have checked it the night before, but I didn't think of it (hey, you can't remember everything).

Have you ever faced a similar experience? (I'll bet you have)
Well, relief might be right around the corner.

A Massachusetts based company named WiTricity has developed a "wireless charger".
What?

Here is how it works... You plug WiTricity's remote charger into a 110 AC outlet somewhere in your house, the living room, kitchen etc. Then while you're sleeping your smartphone wirelessly connects and recharges itself. I'm not kidding.

Wow, this is the best thing I've heard of since easy spread butter.

Why am I so excited? because WiTricity's remote charger just doesn't charge phones...no, it can charge other "appropriately equipped" devices also.

"Appropriately equipped"?

Yes, I said appropriately equipped. This means devices that have installed magnetic coils compatible with WiTricity's charger. OK, the science on how this thing works is over my head, but I'll try...its something about one magnetic field connecting to another oppositely charged magnetic field and inducing (how do you like that scientific term) an electric current. So the WiTricity charger has one of these fields and the device being charged has the opposite field...and when they meet your phone gets charged. I told you, way too complicated for me (my head hurts).

Imagine the possibilities here...just think of the household devices that could be recharged like this making life much easier for us...how about fire/smoke detectors that recharge themselves, TV remote controls that do, flashlights, laptops, iPods, home tools, etc...and how about this one (you're going to think I'm crazy), but how about an electric car that wirelessly charges itself while sitting in your driveway.

Watch for this...I think its going to be big.

Homes of Jack Kerouac

Today is Lowell native and author Jack Kerouac's 90 birthday. Kerouac was born on March 12,1922. I must admit I never really "got" Kerouac until recently, but it was passages like the one below from On the Road that ensured that when I got Kerouac, I got him good.

"the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”

Below are several homes owned or inhabited by Kerouac in his life time.

This is 9 Lupine Rd in Lowell, the house Kerouac was born in.

When Jack was four years old his family moved this home located at 34 Beaulieu St in Lowell.









In 1957 Jack Kerouac moved to 1418 Clouser Ave in Orlando Florida.









Jack's second house in Florida is pictured below, located at 5155 10th Ave North in St Petersburg, Florida.

Merrimack Valley Housing Report

The Merrimack Valley Housing Report (MVHR) is a monthly electronic newsletter co-written by UMass Lowell and the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds that began publishing in 2008.  The MVHR regularly reports on residential and housing trends, statistics and real estate news in the Merrimack Valley.  To receive this free electronic publication, send an email to David Turcotte at David_Turcotte@uml.edu.

The March issue was just emailed to subscribers yesterday and eventually will be available on the web as is the January 2012 edition and all previous issues.

I Can't Resist! The New iPad

Last night as I considered today's blog topic, I made up my mind that I would not do the obvious...I would not write about the new iPad. No! No way! Not going to do it!

But...if you follow this blog on a regular basis you know I am a little bit (shall I say) enchanted with Apple products and the company's culture...so, I am salivating to write about the iPad, but I won't...Honest, instead I'll just post the official Apple (New)iPad Trailer.

Year to date deed statistics

I calculated the number of deeds recorded for each town in the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds district for January and February 2011 and 2012 and show the numbers below along with the percentage change.  The first number is Jan+Feb 2011, the second is Jan+Feb 2012:

Billerica - 77 - 73 - down 5%
Carlisle - 11 - 20 - up 80%
Chelmsford - 80 - 91 - up 14%
Dracut - 86 - 89 - up 4%
Dunstable - 4 - 6 - up 50%
Lowell - 195 - 204 - up 5%
Tewksbury - 66 - 82 - up 24%
Tyngsborough - 28 - 28 - no change
Westford - 63 - 62 - no change
Wilmington - 63 - 69 - up 10%

HeyTell

Over the weekend I discovered a really cool new smartphone app called HeyTell. HeyTell allows a user to record a message and send it to another HeyTell user. It is kind of like "voice texting" (hey, is that an oxymoron?). I downloaded HeyTell but realized I didn't know anyone else that was a HeyTell user, so I downloaded it to my wife's iPhone to try it out.

Me: I just put HeyTell on your phone
Her: What is HeyTell?
Me: Its a voice texting service
Her: Isn't that an oxymoron?
Me: Lets try it...I'm going into the living room and then I'll send you a HeyTell message
Her: OK
Me: (Holding my iPhone with the HeyTell app open, I say) "Testing, testing HeyTell".
Her: (Shouting to me from the kitchen) I heard it beep, but how do I get the message off this thing?
Me: (Shouting back) Press the small yellow banner across the top of the phone with my name in it.
Her: (Shouting) I don't see a yellow banner.
Me: (Shouting) Try opening the HeyTell app to see the yellow banner.
Her: (Shouting) OK ,I see it. I'll press it (I can hear my voice) "Test, testing HeyTell". Now what?
Me: Say something back.
Her: (Shouting) "Something back".
Me: Very funny. (A few moments later from the living room) I've got your message. I'll send you another one. (Speaking into HeyTell) "Hello, this is your Supreme Leader Bill Parcells. I am calling from the hydro-graphic planet Albacore in the galaxy known as Bumble Bee. (I wait) Did you get it? Did you get my message on HeyTell?

For a about a minute I heard nothing...just silence. What's going on, I thought...then all of a sudden my phone rang. It was my wife.

Me: (Surprised) Hello?
Her: I've got an idea.
Me: What?
Her: Rather than wasting all this time sending HeyTell messages back and forth, I thought I would just call you, so you could tell me what life is like on Albacore, "Bill" or should I hang up so you can phone me? "Bill".
Me: But...
Her: You do have my telephone number don't you, "Bill", or do people on Albacore just send each other HeyTell messages?
Me: No, Albacore is an advanced civilization...they use their phones for calling too.
Her: So, Albacorians are an advanced civilization and they use their smartphones to call other Albacorians?
Me: Yes
Her: Then just call me, "supreme leader".

Lowell Tweet-Up Tomorrow

Are you interested in learning more about Twitter, the social networking site that allows you to "Tweet" updates 140 characters in length?  If yes, there's a Tweet-Up tomorrow, Saturday March 3, 2012 from 10 am to noon at Lowell Telecommunications Corporation (LTC), the public access cable TV and technology organization in the city of Lowell.  The event is at LTC headquarters at 246 Market Street, right next to the Lowell National Park Visitor Center. 

Whether you want to sign up for Twitter but are having difficulty doing it for yourself or you are an experienced Twitter user looking for a chance to brainstorm with like-users, tomorrow's Tweet Up will have something for you.  It's free, open to the public and there's no preregistration required.  Just drop in and mingle and chat.  If you pick up some Twitter tricks, great.  If not, you'll at least get to spend some time with some interesting folks who like discussing social media and its multitude of uses. 

February recording statistics

Mixed news from February's recording statistics: deeds and mortgages are up compared to a year ago, but so are new foreclosures.  The number of deeds recorded in February 2012 rose 34% from February 2011 (288 in 2011 to 385 in 2012).  Mortgages were up even more, rising 38% (774 in Feb 2011 to 1069 in Feb 2012).  Foreclosure deeds stayed about the same (23 in 2011 vs 24 in 2012) but orders of notice rose 47%, climbing from 53 in 2011 to 78 in 2012. 

The positive news continues, more or less, when February 2012 is compared with January 2012.  Deeds rose 13% (342 in January to 385 in February), mortgages rose 3% (1039 in Jan vs 1069 in Feb), and foreclosure deeds dropped 37% (38 in Jan down to 24 in Feb).  Only orders of notice were troublesome.  They rose 41%, from 46 in January to 78 in February.

Foreclosures up in February

Tomorrow (March 1) I'll post the complete comparative statistics for February 2012, but because of early indications that foreclosures were on the rise, I decided to take an early look at Orders of Notice recorded this month.  There were 76 of them which is a 43% increase from the 53 recorded in February 2011 and a 65% increase from the 46 recorded last month (January 2012).  The percentage of the Orders of Notice for properties in Lowell is also up slightly, rising from 36% of the total in February 2011 to 47% of the total this February.  The breakdown by community is as follows, with the number in that community from Feb 2011 shown in parenthesis following this February's number:

Billerica - 4 - (13)
Chelmsford - 10 - (3)
Dracut - 11 - (9)
Dunstable - 1 - (0)
Lowell - 36 - (19)
Tewksbury - 8 - (6)
Tyngsborough - 2 - (2)
Wilmington - 4 - (1)

I'm not sure what's causing the rise in Order of Notice.  I'll try to dig into the particulars of each one as time permits to look for any patterns.  For now, please check back tomorrow to see the end of month stats for February.

Real Estate Sales Up

Things are looking better for the Massachusetts Real Estate market according the Warren Group as reported by boston.com this morning. Home sales increased by over 3% in January the highest tally since 2007. On the flip side of this good news is the fact that prices decreased while the number of sales increased. Median prices of single family homes dropped to $260,000 and median condo prices dropped to $247,500. This represents the fifth month in a row that prices have dropped. Obviously, these lower prices are driving the sales numbers up.

I firmly believe that much of the fate of the real estate market is predicated on consumer confidence as do others:

We’re pleased to see that January was another positive month for home sales in Massachusetts,” Trisha McCarthy, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, said in a statement. “With each month of improved economic news, buyer confidence continues to build. It is this confidence combined with the ongoing low interest rates and home affordability that will lead to a real estate market recovery (boston.com)

SJC decides homestead case

Last week the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued an opinion in a case (Boyle v Weiss, SJC-10933) that came to it via the certification of a question by the Bankruptcy Court.  The question was whether the owner of a beneficial interest in a trust who lives in the trust property acquire an estate of homestead in the property?  Based on the law prior to the March 16, 2011 amendment (which was the law governing the homestead in question), the SJC held that the beneficiary could not acquire a homestead under those circumstances.

The relevant homestead statute (since amended) allowed (1) an owner or (2) one who occupies "by lease or otherwise" to acquire a homestead.  The court noted that the same statute defined "owner" as "a sole owner, a joint tenant, a tenant by the entirety, or a tenant in common."  The plaintiff here fell into none of these categories.  The second status - "by lease or otherwise" - was last interpreted in a case decided during the Civil War (Thurston v Maddocks) which held that a homestead could not be acquired by one holds owns only an equitable interest in the property.  The SJC today relied on that holding to reject the "by lease or otherwise" language as a type of "catch-all" for new homesteads. 

In a series of footnotes, the SJC made it clear that while the March 16, 2011 amendment does specifically allow homesteads to be acquired by owners of a life estate and trustees, the homestead in question would still not be valid because it was executed by the beneficiary and not by the trustee as is required by the new law.  The court also stated that since the homestead was invalid when it was first recorded, it could not be revived by the 2011 amendment which said old homesteads continue in full force under the terms of the new law.

Defective Acknowledgements revisited

A few minutes ago an attorney called to ask my opinion on the validity of a certain mortgage.  Pulling up the signature page, I immediately said "it's invalid."  My reasoning?  The acknowledgement clause was invalid.  Here's what it said:

On this 6th day of April 2007, before me personally appeared                  to me known to be the person (or persons) described in and who executed the foregoing instrument, and acknowledged that he/she/they executed the same as his/her/their free act and deed.

The problem is that big blank space following the word "appeared."  I immediately recalled a blog post I wrote back in the summer of 2009 after the bankruptcy court issued a decision called In re Giroux.  In that case, the Bankruptcy Court held that the absence of the name of the person whose signature was being acknowledged in the acknowledgement clause invalidated the acknowledgement.  With no acknowledgement, the mortgage should not have been recorded by the registry of deeds.  The bankruptcy trustee, therefore, was allowed to set aside the mortgage making the lender just another unsecured creditor of the debtor.

In today's conversation, I quickly revised my opinion to "if the Bankruptcy Court is used as precedent, then the mortgage is invalid" because neither the Massachusetts Appeals Court nor the SJC have ruled on this issue.  Even so, based on the bankruptcy court decision back in 2009, I had advised the staff here at the registry to reject any document on which they noticed a name missing from the acknowledgement clause.  I'm not sure how many documents they have rejected on that grounds, but that's our rule here.

The reason the lawyer called me today was that he had been retained to write an opinion letter on the validity of the mortgage bearing the acknowledgement reproduced above.  His research disclosed that other bankruptcy court decisions have ratified the holding of Giroux and one even reached a US District Court which confirmed the "missing name equals invalid acknowledgement" rule, but he knew of no Massachusetts case law on the topic.  He did say that he has found many documents already on record that lack the name of the party whose acknowledgment is purportedly being taken, so if that is fatal to the validity of the document, there are many problem documents lurking out there. 

Lowell Superior Courthouse Elevator

Last year the elevator at the Superior Courthouse in Lowell was completed and opened for operation, but one exterior component remained to be finished...the installation of the "decorative windows" on the brick elevator shaft. I use the term decorative because obviously, these are not real windows. They are replicas that look identical to the real deal. I'm not sure what material was used on the "windows" but I'll try to find out. Installation began yesterday and the job is nearly complete. I'm guessing all will be in place by the end of next week.

The Miracle on Ice - February 22, 1980

You'll excuse me for departing from registry-related material for today's blog post.  This is the 32nd anniversary of "The Miracle on Ice" in which the USA defeated the Soviet Union in men's hockey in the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York.  The Americans went on to defeat Finland to win the gold medal while the Soviets got the silver.  Besides being a fantastic display of hockey, this game had enormous symbolism to the nation.  Just three months before, the US Embassy in Iran had been seized by radical students and the embassy staff continued to be held hostage (a situation that would persist until January 1981).  Two months earlier, the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan and the US could do nothing but weakly protest.  In early 1980, it seemed that the Soviets were in the ascent, at least in foreign affairs, while the US was in a period of post-Vietnam decline.  This one hockey game seemed to alter the mood of the nation and signal the beginning of an American resurgence.  Ten years later, Communism collapsed and the Soviet Union ceased to exist.  The video below shows the final minute of the US v Soviet game, with Al Michaels' iconic play-by-play.

Single Atom Transistors

When I was a kid my mother and father bought me a transistor radio for my birthday so could listen to Arnie Ginsburg on WMEX. It measured about 4"X6", about 2" thick and ran on a 9 volt battery. Earlier radios needed to be plugged into a 110 electrical outlet and were big, about as big as a loaf of bread . As I recall my new radio had 16 transistors. It was a real power house and a marvel for its time.

Radios have come a long way since then and so have transistors. First invented in 1954 transistors now power computers. And simply put (because I don't really understand why) the more transistors there are the more powerful the computer.

Physicists at Purdue University and the University of New South Wales have made a startling break through. They have built a transistor from a single atom.

So, what does this mean? It means in the near future, computers and other electronic devices will be more powerful and much faster.

How did they build it? Are you kidding? You're asking me? I have no clue...but here is a video from some people much smarter than I am explaining it.

MassLandRecords training

This morning I spent a couple of hours at the Northeast Association of Realtors office in Westford speaking to a group of about 50 real estate professionals about the relatively new MassLandRecords website.  The event was sponsored by the law firm of Perkins & Anctil which is co-located with NEAR at 6 Lyberty Way in Westford.  Using the large classroom at the site, I was able to access the website and project it onto a large screen so that everyone could follow along.  Rather than do a set presentation, I walked my way through the site, showing how to do name and property searches and how the registered land part of the website is arranged.

The issue that generated the most questions was printing.  Many people have trouble printing a document in the proper size.  Many find the document images print in a greatly magnified way so that only a small portion of a document will appear in giant print on a piece of paper.  For the most part, that's an issue between the user's computer, printer and operating systems.  The most likely culprit is a setting of some type for the printer and occurs with some frequency on the computers of those in the real estate business.  None of our printers here at the registry offer the problematic setting but it's something like "scale for PDF".  If you're having problem printing documents from MassLandRecords and that shows up in your printer dialog box when you go to print, de-select it and your document should print in the proper scale.

I encouraged everyone to begin using the "basket" feature instead of the "print document" command.  The basket allows you to set aside documents for downloading and then download them all at once.  When you download in this manner, they come to you as PDF files which I believe are more stable and predictable on your computer than the standard TIFF format that we use for images.  To use this feature, just click "add to basket" and then click the "basket" which is just to the right of the FAQ link on the front page. 

The attendees also showed great enthusiasm for the web features that give full access to our older indexes and documents.  I demonstrated this by searching for Benjamin Butler in the decade before the Civil War.  While current real estate business might not require records of that age, many in attendance seemed interested in history which would account for their enthusiasm.

This morning's event was very useful for me, providing an opportunity to receive feedback from regular website users.  Hopefully, those who attended also found some value in it.  If you would like me come to your office to speak with your staff or your organization about making the most of the new MassLandRecords, I'm happy to do so.  Just send me an email at lowelldeeds@comcast.net to set something up.

Realty Trac Says...Foreclosures on the Rise, Again

I heard a news report this morning quoting some negative statistics from Realty Trac.

On a country-wide basis, foreclosures are on the rise, again.
How much?... A three percent increase from last month.

Last year, in a large portion of the country, foreclosures were down dramatically...but it seems this was more a result of processing delays than an improvement in the market. This months increase is probably the result of the ending of these "processing delays".

According to Realty Trac "one in every 624 households in the US received a foreclosure filing in January, 2012.

Realty Trac is also reporting that Massachusetts experienced a huge 75% increase in foreclosures when comparing year over year.

Even considering this massive spike in Massachusetts, Nevada still remains the state with the highest foreclosure rate in the country... One in every 198 households in Nevada have received a filing.

Mid-month recording statistics

The first two weeks in February brought some good news on the document recording front.  The number of deeds and mortgages recorded in the first two weeks of February 2012 were both 29% than the first two weeks of February 2011.  Deeds went from 125 to 161 while mortgages jumped from 391 to 504.  February is always are slowest month for recordings whether real estate is booming or in a slump so this increase is good news.  Hopefully the final two weeks of the month show a similar increase.

The one down note comes with Orders of Notice.  They are up 50% compared to the same time last year.  For the first two weeks of February 2012, there were 33 orders of notice recorded while for the same two weeks in 2011 there were only 22.  (The number of foreclosure deeds didn't really change with 10 in 2011 and 11 this year).  Percentage-wise the frequency of Order of Notice filings for the towns in the district have increased when compared to the percentage for the city of Lowell.  Of the 22 in the first two weeks of last February, 36% were from Lowell and 64% were from the towns.  This February, 55%  are from Lowell and just 45% are from the towns.

The Best Google Doodles

Google celebrates special occasions, famous anniversaries and holidays with a unique interesting "doodle"... the world knows these as "google doodles". Today, Valentine Day is no exception...and Google did not disappoint its royal audience. But motivated by today's video The Christian Science Monitor has listed several of the best ever google doodles. Here are four...

Watch

First, here is today's google doodle celebrating Valentine's Day.




This one celebrates Charlie Chaplin's 122th birthday.




Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday "google doodle" is perhaps one of the most impressive of all.




John Lennon's 70th birthday was one of my favorite google doodles

The Age of Big Data

Last night I finally watched the movie Moneyball which I thought was terrific and succeeded in capturing the spirit of the 2003 book by the same name written by Michael Lewis.  Both describe the efforts of the 2002 Oakland Athletics baseball team to select players not by the traditional methods of old-time scouts ("he looks like a ballplayer") but through detailed analysis of statistics.  To me, the message of the book transcended baseball, saying that you can count and measure anything and that decisions should be made on the basis of quantitative evidence not gut instincts.  The secondary message of the book and the movie was that when you try to adopt such methods which happen to be counter to the established ways of doing things, you get tremendous push-back from those used to doing things the traditional way.  As the character playing Red Sox owner John Henry put it in the movie, "that makes these folks bat-s*** crazy because they see it as a threat to them."  How true.

A major story in the Opinion section of yesterday's New York Times picked up this theme and gave us a sort of "state of data analysis" piece ten years post Moneyball.  The profusion of data available today from the internet, social networks, sensors in vehicles and attached to packages and from an almost infinite variety of places would have been beyond the ability of someone ten years ago to comprehend.  All of this data now gives us 'a new approach to understanding the world and making decisions."  It also provides pretty good job opportunities.  The story estimates that nearly 200,000 employees with serious data-analysis skills will soon be needed and that there will be demand for another 1.5 million "data-literate managers."

The article also shares the view held by many that all of this data poses a substantial threat to our privacy.  I guess that's true, assuming the data is misused.  But there are great opportunities to become more efficient in our work and everyday lives and that's not necessarily a bad thing. 

Steve Jobs Hero or Villain?

Yesterday an FBI report was released detailing a background check from 1991 on the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Some of the findings are well, shall I say, not very flattering. Now, if you are a regular reader of the lowelldeeds.com blog you know I am a bit schizophrenia when it comes to Steve Jobs. I think he was a real game-changer who revolutionized the way we live and communicate. I also think his product paranoia created a proprietary company that stifled outside innovation.

Below are some quotes from boston.com summarizing the FBI report on Jobs. But there are two sides to every story...last summer I read the recent Steve Jobs biography written by Walter Isaacson and I think some of these quotes are unfair.

FBI background interviews of some people who knew Apple co-founder Steve Jobs reveal a man driven by power and alienating some of the people who worked with him.

One person told FBI agents the Apple co-founder’s enormous power caused him to lose sight of honesty and integrity, leading him to distort the truth.

Another interview subject described Jobs to the FBI as a deceptive person — someone who was not totally forthright and honest and as having a tendency to distort reality in order to achieve his goals.

Two people associated with Jobs at Apple told the FBI that Jobs possessed integrity as long as he got his way.

OK, OK, wait a minute here...First Isaacson states that Jobs had a remarkable knack of convincing people to do things his way and often used a technique called reality shaping to persuade people. To me this is totally different than having a problem with the truth or a lack of integrity as these quotes indicate. It is this businessman's strategy, like it or not. I'll agree, Jobs was a manipulator, but not a liar. And for a man with his ability to see the future manipulation was an asset.

Another interview subject told an agent that Jobs used illegal drugs, including marijuana and LSD, while in college.

Yes, Jobs used LSD and smoked marijuana...when he was very young. Jobs admits to experimenting with drugs as a way of exploring self-awareness. He also experimented with Buddhism for the same reason.

One person told the FBI that Jobs had a child out of wedlock and basically abandoned the mother and their daughter.

And yes again, Jobs did have a daughter (Lisa) with his girlfriend (Chrisann Brennan) whom he never married. In fact when Jobs found out Brennan was pregnant he left her and even denied he was the father of the child. But in later years, Jobs admitted his actions were wrong and called it the biggest mistake in his life. Eventually Jobs and his daughter reconciled. Lisa even came to live with him during her teen years.




I want to keep this report in perspective...Steve Jobs was an amazing man with many faults, but they were far outweighed by his many virtues.

$26 billion mortgage industry settlement

State Attorneys General from across the US, including Martha Coakley of Massachusetts, have reached a $26 billion settlement with five of the country's largest lenders (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Ally Financial and Wells Fargo).  Not surprisingly the deal is incredibly complex but according to this article in USA Today, the largest chunk of money, $17 billion, will go to 1 million underwater borrowers who now face foreclosure.  The rationale behind this portion of the settlement is that if these homeowners are able to avoid foreclosure, there will be fewer low-value homes on the market which will boost the entire housing sector. 

Skeptics point to the fact that $17 billion is a small amount compared to the total amount owed in underwater loans.  It is estimated that Americans collectively owe $700 billion more than their houses are worth.  If you are underwater but have been keeping up with your payments, you probably won't qualify for any of this assistance.

As mentioned above, it also appears that Massachusetts will participate in this settlement.  According to this story on boston.com, Attorney General Coakley finally agreed to this deal once she received assurances that she can continue to pursue her existing claim, filed last December, against MERS and against these five lenders for conducting foreclosures without first owning the mortgage being foreclosed. 

Great Real Estate Apps

In the last few years technology has become a major tool of real estate agents, buyers and sellers. And of all the devices the cell phone has become the most frequently used portable connector to the Internet in the real estate area. When we talk cell phones and computer tablet5s we are talking about Apps. There are numerous real estate centered Apps available for both Andriod and iPhone operating systems. Inman News recently put together a list of the 100 most popular real estate Apps. I have selected five of these below:

Zillow Real Estate: Zillow is the number one downloaded real estate App for both iPhone and Android. Zillow has been around for a several years now. I remember writing about it several years ago on this blog when Zillow first was released for computer use. Its popularity comes through its easy of use and content. Zillow provides appraised value and data about most homes in the country.




LoopNet Commercial Real Estate Search: LoopNet is specifically designed to help the real estate investor find "commercial" properties for sale. It searches commercial properties for sale, for lease, sales comps and even market trends.






Property Evaluator: This App does exactly what its name indicates, values property, and like LoopNet it values investment properties. Simply add the some specific criteria of the property and this App will analyze the property value as an investment and project income from it.




Redfin Real Estate: Redfin is "the best MLS powered real estate app", well that's what they say about it. It provides details and pictures of homes for sale. When Redfin first came on the market it was viewed as a Zillow competitor and for a time I even think its popularity was bigger than Zillow.





Mortgage Calculator: This simple to use app allows the user to enter the amount, term and interest rate of a mortgage then in seconds calculates the monthly cost.

Super Bowl XLVI - Giants over Patriots, 21-17

As distasteful as it might be to bring up Sunday's game, I feel an obligation to the historical record to do so.  For instance, the last time the Patriots lost the Super Bowl, back on February 3, 2008 when these same Giants came from behind to defeat the then 18-0 Patriots by a score of 17-14, Tony wrote the following post under the title "Pats 18-1, Why?"

You can explain it anyway you want, but I am going to explain it this way…the Patriots stunk last night. The Giants didn’t beat them. No way, Eli Manning and these Giants couldn’t beat the New England Patriots on their best day… Rather, the Patriots beat themselves. Usually, when you say this about a sporting team you mean it made a lot of mistakes…but that is not what I mean… The New England Patriots just didn’t come to play. Sure, the Giants had an awesome pass rush, but wasn’t this the same pass rush the Pats scored 38 points against in the final regular season game? Truthfully, the Giants didn’t look that good to me, but the Pats looked that bad. It comes down to this…The Giants played exactly the way we expected. Remember, they scored only 3 points in the first three quarters of the game! but, our Patriots did not play as expected. Tom Brady and company did nothing for most of the game. Even if the New England offense played to half our expectations, they would have been up by a least 14 at half time. Heck, the Pats only scored 7 points up until 2:42 of the 4th quarter. Can you believe it? They were held to 7 points for 90% of the game! I know, I know…the Giant’s pass rush killed them…Still, was this the first time the Pats were blitzed hard all season? NO. Admit it…after the Tom Petty break everyone expected the brilliant Belichick to come out with a plan that would slow down the pass rush. He always did in the past, and he probably did last night. I love the Pats too, but let’s face it, for some reason these players didn’t execute. I’m not a sports junkie or football expert…so I’ll say it again in layman’s terms…the Pats stunk last night. There’s no other way to explain it.

We started this blog in December 2003, so we should also have posts from the February 1, 2004 victory by the Patriots over the Caroline Panthers by a score of 32-29 and from the February 6, 2005 Patriots win over the Eagles, 24-21 (I'll dig them out of the archives and post in the coming days).  The Pats' first Super Bowl victory, on February 3, 2002 over the Rams by a score of 20-17 predates this blog as do the January 26, 1986 blow-out loss to the Bears (46-10) and the lackluster January 26, 1997 loss to the Packers (35-21).

Regarding this year's game, it is said that the team that makes fewer mistakes is most likely to win and that was the case here.  Brady getting the safety and then the interception gave up the ball twice not to mention the 2 points and in a relatively low scoring ball control game, that was the difference.  After the long-bomb interception by Baltimore two weeks ago, I didn't think he'd throw it up for grabs like that again.   When it mattered most, Manningham made the catch while Welker did not.  The game made clear Gronkowski's value to the team.  If they could get one or two decent wide receivers (replacing Ochocinco and perhaps Branch) they'd be better.  Brandon Spikes is really good which I never realized since he was out so much.  The running back Ridley was good this year but for his fumbles.  They are reviving the team with younger players even though Brady is aging.  This probably won't be the last blog post we do about the Patriots in the Super Bowl.  

Town foreclosures rising

While compiling the end-of-January statistics last week, I was struck by the significant increase in the number of foreclosure deeds recorded this January compared to the same month in 2011 - 38 in Jan 2012 and just 23 in Jan 2011, an increase of 65%.  This prompted me to scrutinize the individual cases.  What I found suggests that the increase in foreclosure activity is not in the city of Lowell, but in the surrounding towns.

Consider this: In January 2011, 65% of the foreclosure deeds recorded were for property in Lowell while just 35% were for property in the nine towns in the Middlesex North District (15 in Lowell; 8 in the towns).  In January 2012, however, 53% of the foreclosures were from the towns and just 47% were from the city (20 in the towns; 18 in Lowell). 

More evidence is needed before any conclusions can be drawn from this, but it is indeed something worth watching in the coming months.

For the record, here's how the foreclosures in the two months were distributed:

In January 2011: 3 in Chelmsford; 1 in Dunstable; 15 in Lowell; 1 in Tewksbury; 1 in Tyngsborough; 1 in Westford and 1 in Wilmington.

In January 2012: 7 in Billerica, 4 in Chelmsford, 4 in Dracut, 18 in Lowell, 2 in Tyngsborough, 2 in Westford, and 1 in Wilmington.

Super Bowl Half-Time Show

Sure we're all excited about watching the Patriots play the Giants in Sunday's Super Bowl. But over the years the half-time show has become almost as much a center of interest as the game itself. This year Madonna will lead the twenty minute entertainment segment. Below is a list of the past lead performer at the Super Bowl half-time show:





2011: The Black Eyed Peas
2010: The Who
2009: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
2008: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
2007: Prince
2006: The Rolling Stones
2005: Paul McCartney
2004: Janet Jackson
2003: Shania Twain, Sting
2002: U2

But of all the Super Bowl I have seen my favorite by far was Michael Jackson in 1993. You can see Jackson's performance on YouTube. Here is the description that accompanies the video.

One of Michael Jackson's most acclaimed performances came during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXVII. As the performances began, Jackson was catapulted onto the stage as fireworks went off behind him. As he landed on the canvas, he maintained a motionless "clenched fist, standing statue stance", dressed in a gold and black military outfit and sunglasses; he remained completely motionless for several minutes while the crowd cheered. He then slowly removed his sunglasses, threw them away and began to sing and dance. His routine included four songs: "Jam", "Billie Jean", "Black or White" and "Heal the World".

Healing the housing market

After watching the State of the Union speech last week I wrote a blog post about the President's remarks on the need to allow more homeowners to refinance.  Since then, I've been curious to learn details of the plan.  Yesterday, the White House issued a fact sheet titled "President Obama's Plan to Help Responsible Homeowners and Heal the Housing Market."  The plan is certainly comprehensive and seems to offer some good ideas, but I was especially interested in how it deals with homeowners who are underwater on their current mortgages.

Upon reading the fact sheet, it is clear that a portion of the proposal deals with underwater homeowners.  Here's the example it uses to illustrate the proposal:

• A borrower has a non-GSE mortgage originated in 2005 with a 6 percent rate and an initial balance of $300,000 – resulting in monthly payments of about $1,800.
•  The outstanding balance is now about $272,000 and the borrower’s home is now worth $225,000, leaving the borrower underwater (with a loan-to-value ratio of about 120%).
• Though the borrower has been paying his mortgage on time, he cannot refinance at today’s historically low rates.
• Under the President’s legislative plan, the borrower would be eligible to refinance into a 4.25% percent 30-year loan, which would reduce monthly payments by about $460 a month.

There are many other aspects to this proposal but what is described here would certainly be a big help.  That extra $460 per month would undoubtedly be spent on other things and would thereby stimulate the economy while increasing the chances that the homeowner could ride out this fiscal storm.  Of course, this part of the proposal requires Congressional action, so given the state of things on Capitol Hill, it might not advance much beyond the Fact Sheet stage for a while.