Chris Lovett continues his exploration of the shark-infested triple-decker/condo market in Dorchester:

... A review of more than 200 conversions over the last two years in Boston - mostly in Dorchester and Roxbury - shows more than 100 foreclosure filings against owners who bought more than one unit, sometimes in the same building. Names that appear as unit buyers with mortgage trouble sometimes turn up later as investors converting more units, or as people with power of attorney to represent other buyers.

Earlier:
Triple-decker condo flipping still going on in Dorchester.

Councilor Mike Ross reports the council passed a home-rule petition yesterday:

... When a foreclosure occurs on a rental property, this bill gives the renter the right to stay in their home, so long as they continue to pay the rent they were paying prior to foreclosure, and assuming they remain a tenant in good standing. This situation remains until one of two things happen:

1. The lender sells the foreclosed property to a new landlord or owner, who has the right to select their own tenants if they so choose; or

2. The lender still owns the property upon arrival of the law's sunset clause, which is two years from passage (with the possibility of a third year extension if approved by the council and mayor).

The lender is required to notify the tenants of the foreclosure, so the tenant doesn't continue to pay rent to the old owner - something which we have seen happen quite frequently. ...

The proposal needs approval of the state Legislature and the governor to become law. Ross says some 2,000 apartments in Boston have been affected by foreclosure over the past year and that he expects that number to rise, with Roxbury, Mattapan, Dorchester and Hyde Park being hit hardest.

Stephen Rosenberg discusses lawsuits against State Street Corp. by pension funds that say the company improperly invested their money in risky real-estate funds - which could leave the company vulnerable to hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of damages if it loses:

... [I]t may well be that the administrators' fiduciary duties under those circumstances require them to then try to remedy their initial mistakes by suing to recover the losses, rather than compounding their own fiduciary breaches by simply absorbing the loss; that latter course of action would likely just make the administrators themselves targets for breach of fiduciary duty lawsuits based on their own mistakes in investing in the State Street funds. ...

Mass. foreclosures up 38% in the first quarter of this year, compared to last year.

Nothing like a little public outcry.

Boston Business Journal: The fourth quarter of 2007 saw the highest number of foreclosures in state history ...

"I want to shame them," Grossack said of attorneys Mark Harmon and Jason Greenberg. "They're not doing anything illegal. But it's not halachically correct, and it's not helping the Jewish community."

Looks like all the sharks in the mortgage racket are now being joined by sharks in the foreclosure resale market:

In one instance, three friends made the winning bid of $130,000 on a house in Lee. The mortgage company delayed the closing, then sent a letter in February offering to return the deposit. Before the friends responded, the company put the house back on the market for $179,000, then quickly agreed to sell it to someone else.

Milan Kohut had been charged with peddling without a license when police objected to him standing outside a Financial District branch of the Bank of America with a pile of nooses and a sign reading "Nooses on sale."

On Friday, a Boston Municipal Court judge dismissed the charges, the Dig reports. Kohut had argued he was making a political comment about the mortgage crisis, not actually trying to sell downtown workers a way to hang themselves. He's now asking for his nooses back.