Archive for the 'Foreclosure Crisis' Category

City commissioners of Fort Lauderdale in South Florida will vote on a law to require owners of bank foreclosure property to maintain it to reasonable standards.

If the economy will not improve soon, the number of homes on bank foreclosure list will increase three times its current level by the end of this year. This is the dire forecast that the Mortgage Loan Delinquency Rate report provided.

Regulators have ordered Colonial BancGroup Inc., a lending company based in Montgomery, Alabama, to stop the operation of its banking unit until such time that it has increased its capital and reduced problem and non-performing assets. Colonial blamed the increasing bank owned foreclosures on its portfolio on the financial woes that its banking unit is currently experiencing.

Businessman Peter Dvorak disclosed that the planned conversion of former Robert Hotel in Muncie, Indiana to luxury apartments has been delayed. He cited the increasing number of properties on Bank Foreclosure Listings and tough lending practices as reason for the delay in the opening of luxury apartments which is scheduled on August 15, 2009.

Another lawsuit has been filed against Wells Fargo for its role in subprime lending and bank owned foreclosures crisis. The city of Baltimore, Maryland has filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo for instigating the subprime mortgage lending in the black community which led to thousands of homeowners facing bank owned foreclosures.

With the foreclosure crisis still considered to be a major housing problem, tenants have become more and more vulnerable to the horrors of foreclosure as their landlords default on their mortgages and the rental homes end up in listings of bank owned homes.

Bank forclosure homes have already wreaked havoc to the lives of thousands of homeowners and communities. Now, the foreclosure crisis has added health issues as among its effects.

Before 2010 ends, 940 small and medium-sized banks across the country would have lost $100 billion from foreclosed bank owned commercial properties if the economic downturn worsens further, according to a Wall Street Journal study.

As the economic and foreclosure crisis continues to sweep across the country, the U.S. federal government finds itself the owner of over 50,000 forclosed homes for sale. The number of foreclosed properties on the government's inventory is said to be enough to populate the city similar in area size of Riverside, California or Miami, Florida.

U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman, Representative Edolphus Towns and Representative Tom Perriello met with several distressed homeowners in Virginia to discuss the rapidly increasing number of bank forclosed homes, particularly in the 5th Congressional District which covers the Charlottesville area to Danville and Martinsville.

A rising number of commercial buildings nationwide are now following the fate of foreclosed condos, putting into uncertainty the fate of regional banks which provided the money to build the buildings.

Home prices across the nation fell by a record rate in the first quarter this year compared to last year's first quarter as banks sold their foreclosed bank owned homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. California and Florida led the other states in home price declines.

The increase in the number of bank forclosure is looming as commercial properties registered a drastic decline in values. Real estate experts are concerned that the almost 30 percent dropped in commercial property values will leave landlords with mortgages more than the worth of their properties.

Last week, the number of new unemployment claims dropped to its lowest level in a period of 14 weeks, according to a Labor Department report released on Thursday. This is a good sign for a country reeling from the downswing effects of foreclosure listings overloaded with properties. Some are even interpreting the decline as a sign that the pace of mass layoffs has slowed down.

Despite the continued downturn and falling home values in Silicon Valley, the supply of foreclosed houses for sale during the spring selling season, including homes in foreclosed listings, has declined.