Bank Foreclosures Sale Articles

Governor Jon S. Corzine has proposed a financial aid program for New Jersey that includes an assistance package for those facing foreclosure.

Corzine, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s economic spokesman, has offered home heating assistance and mortgage to homeowners affected by the economic crisis and facing foreclosure threat.

His plan is aimed to boost the economy of New Jersey and provide assistance to businesses and residents during the national economic recession.

The financial rescue plan contains proposal to direct $150 million federal funds to prevent property foreclosures and for neighborhood assistance programs. Corzine proposes to allocate $50 million funds to be used by owners who are having difficulty meeting their home mortgages to avoid foreclosure.

The proposed $50 million funds will also be used by community groups in areas severely affected by the housing crisis to help them buy vacant houses and lease them to residents who have low income.

Under the plan, Corzine proposes a 30-day implementation mediation program in seven counties with highest foreclosure rates. The rest of the counties will have a 60-day implementation period.

Furthermore, Corzine offers a supplemental fund of $9 million to New Jersey’s Legal Services, which provides bankruptcy, foreclosure and repossession counselling to poor residents.

Other proposals in the financial rescue plan are:

• Investments in clean energy, including solar and wind
• Offering businesses a $3,000 financial incentive for each full-time employment they create and retain for a year.
• Expansion of property tax breaks for older residents by increasing the $53,000 income limit to $80,000. This program will allow eligible senior citizens to save $1,000 annually.
• Investment of $500 million from New Jersey’s pension funds to encourage lending in community banks.
• Appropriating $3 million to boost food stocks.
• Fast-tracking school construction and public work projects.

Corzine plans to fund his financial rescue program, including the foreclosure mediation, by making cuts in state government budget.

With over 23,600 Florida foreclosures in Lee County alone, the local government is planning to purchase foreclosed homes up for sale to be rehabilitated and later sold to low income families. The move is also geared to help generate income for local contractors and help stabilize the rate of high crimes in these areas.

Most foreclosures in the county are concentrated in Lehigh Acres and Cape Coral, where up to 39 percent of homes are in various levels in the process of foreclosure. Incidentally, the Lehigh area also has high crime rates based on crime data from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. Vacant homes have become a haven for criminals trying to avoid detection. These homes have also become the target of thieves targeting building materials.

County officials are looking for homes in the target areas where 8 to 20 percent of housing units are foreclosure homes and have been vacant or abandoned for more than 90 days. Officials plan to buy these homes at 15 percent below their appraised value and the rehabilitation work will be posted for bidding to local contractors. Lehigh also has 480 abandoned construction sites. 272 have already been cleaned up by property owners while the local government has processed 82 and demolished two.

County officials expect to receive funds in the middle of January next year. Funds will come from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of its federal neighborhood stabilization program to address foreclosures. Expected funds would reach $16 million and will be used to buy and recondition 165 single and multi-family homes, and an additional $400,000 for demolition work on 20 units. After rehabilitation, these will be sold to lower income families.

With $1.8 million in budget for administration work on this program, county officials are committing 18 months for the project completion. Rehabilitated homes should be occupied within a four-year period.

Washington is still unsettled as to how to handle the foreclosure crisis.

Last November 11, the administration publicized the government’s $ 700 billion plan to refinance delinquent loans controlled by mortgage companies, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The already passed bill, a modification of the existing Hope Now program, expects to eventually decrease by 38 percent the monthly mortgage expenses of hundreds of thousands of homeowners who are at least 3 months behind on their payments, and are at risk of foreclosure.

The said plan to reduce foreclosures is not without its detractors however. Despite its merits, critics say that the scheme would only help a small portion of homeowners, and not the millions of borrowers whose loans aren’t managed by the two giant government-controlled companies. Moreover, they point out that the foreclosures would continue to be on the rise until housing prices become stable, and both lenders and borrowers could feel financial secure again.

Barney Frank of the House Financial Services Committee holds it unlikely that federal tax aid will support homeowners whose loans may be salvaged. These property-owners are those who have loans that should never have been made in the first place. For him, government should just use the money to persuade institutions to reduce the loans of borrowers facing foreclosure.

Meanwhile, Democrats want Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to spend the money for a bigger mortgage-rescue plan. Paulson himself is doubtful of the idea as another mortgage aid would require direct government spending.

Political tensions have also been arising between those who think that the government should leave the bulk of the problem to the private sector, and those who insist that the situation is for the government to solve.

Paulson says that the Treasury has been exploring other options to alleviate the foreclosure problem, one of which was proposed by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation head Sheila Bair. Bair’s mortgage program would require Treasury to spend at least $50 billion.

Some studies showed that areas that see an increased in foreclosure sales experienced a 1 percent drop in home market values. Most often the drop in home market prices is due to a buyer’s perception of the neighborhood, which may ultimately lead to his refusal to reside in the area.

The idea of “Cash for Keys” makes it easy for banks to take back a foreclosed home from its occupants, and in good condition nonetheless. Oftentimes, it is a problem for banks and that is why nowadays, they have made such policy an SOP.

Without Walls International Church Pastor Randy White has disclosed the financial status of the church during a service in Tampa, Florida. He told his congregation that Without Walls leaders are negotiating with its lenders to prevent foreclosure of the church’s two campuses.

It has been a year since that government started developing programs on how to remedy the mortgage problems that triggered the current financial crisis. Since then millions of homeowners face foreclosures and unemployment, rendering government programs like FHA Secure and Hope Now alliance ineffective in handling these issues. Taxpayers’ money is being used to salvage financial institutions, and people are now clamoring that it is high time for the government to act on bailing out foreclosure homes.

Just sitting around, as a foreclosed house deteriorates and attracts crime, is a no-no. You can do something to prevent foreclosure-related crimes in your neighborhood. And 10 ways to do it are as follows:

According to Minnesota Homeownership Center, there have been 66,000 homes foreclosed in Minnesota for the three previous years. Most of these foreclosures have actually resulted from equity strippers who cheated homeowners with scams or toxic mortgages. According to the findings of Minnesota Public Radio, there are only a few of these scammers who were given criminal charges. Even worse, only a small number have been labeled in civil suits.

JPMorgan Chase has stepped up its foreclosure help efforts as it announced last 31st of October its plan to address the foreclosure problem being experienced by the nation through freezing foreclosures for the coming two months and restructuring loans.