Archive for the 'Foreclosure Help' Category

The increasing number of bank foreclosure cases is clogging the courtrooms in several areas in the country. The pileup of foreclosure cases is partly due to the shortage of lawyers who are experienced enough to take the cudgels for the thousands of distressed homeowners who need help to save their properties from foreclosures.

To address the growing shortage of legal aid services, advocates have appealed for reforms at the state and federal level to allow expanded legal services to homeowners who cannot afford to hire lawyers of their own.

And it seems that the proposal is gaining some support in Maryland. Already, Governor Martin O’Malley has introduced a legislation that makes mediation mandatory. This means that all mortgage lenders will be required to participate in negotiations that would result to affordable loan terms for distressed homeowners and make foreclosure the last resort.

Aside from making it mandatory for all bank foreclosure cases to go through mediation first, O’Malley also wants mortgage lenders to pay for all the costs related to the case. For the first nine months of this year, the number of households in Anne Arundel County that received at least one foreclosure filing reached an all time high compared with same period last year.

Market data showed that in September, there were 276 repossession cases, a slight drop from the previous month’s 298 but far higher from the total figures for September of 2008 and 2007. On a year-to-year basis, the total number of foreclosure filings in the county is about 2,300. And industry experts are predicting that the number of foreclosure cases will hit over 3,000 by the end of this year.

Experts said that majority of homeowners who are in some stage of foreclosure proceedings in the county does not have court representation. They added that the trend is logical because if troubled homeowners could not afford to pay their monthly mortgages, it follows that they could not also afford to hire a lawyer to help them.

The Maryland Legal Aid Bureau staff members said that the nonprofit law firm is seeing a 64 percent rise in the number of foreclosure cases that it handled for several months now. Staff members pointed out that there is a growing need for legal services from homeowners facing the threat of bank foreclosure. However, they said that the law firm could only help homeowners who meet certain requirements.

It seems that the year 2009 will end worst for the commercial real estate market as more and more hotels are struggling to avoid being placed on bank foreclosure listings. Commercial properties across the country are following the path treaded by many foreclosed residential properties.

Hotels continued to struggle as travelers reduce their discretionary spending, resulting to sharp decline in hotel revenues. And to make matters worse, hotel values dropped so drastically that a growing number of properties are at risk of foreclosure as owners failed to meet their mortgage payments.

In San Diego, California, the number of hotels facing foreclosure threat increased almost four times in the first eight months of this year. And industry analysts are predicting that more hotels will face the bank foreclosure listings before the year ends.

The current trend is benefiting bargain-hunting travelers who will encounter many room rate discounts as a way for hotels to entice more customers in order to survive the current market battered by the economic downturn and high unemployment.

Some local hoteliers are concerned that with many hotel owners walking away from their properties, they will be left competing with hotels owned by lenders who will sold the properties way below the market value.

Industry experts are expecting a very stiff competition among people who want to buy cheap hotels and then operate them at cutthroat rates. This will greatly affect hotel owners who are charging at full price. However, they believe that the market is nearing its bottom and will see some strong improvement in terms of demand by third quarter next year.

Recent market data showed a drastic increase in the number of delinquent hotels, from 6 in January to 26 last month. Meanwhile, hotels that went into foreclosures jumped two times from 2 to 4. These foreclosed hotels include the El Camino Motel, Harbor House, Pacific Coast Inn and Suites and Mount Woodson Golf Resort.

Some of the delinquent hotel properties included the Extended Stay America, Mission Plaza Hotel and Suites and Homestead Studio Suites.

Industry experts predicted that more hotels will go into foreclosures which would result in spiraling prices and more bargains for consumers.

So far, statewide data showed that 260 hotel owners were in default while 47 were on bank foreclosure listings.

The city council of Cranston in Rhode Island has approved ordinances that would have prevented further spread of bank foreclosed home in the area. When it approved the foreclosure ordinances, the council was expecting some legal challenges. But they never expected that the city mayor would be the one to oppose the measures.

Mayor Allan W. Fung rejected the foreclosure ordinances that would have reduced the number of foreclosure properties in the city. He said that he appreciated the initiative to help distressed homeowners remain in their houses but he could not support any measure which he claimed contradicts the state law.

He explained that it was deputy city solicitor Evan Kirshenbaum who told him that the foreclosure ordinances contradict the state law, which led him to make the decision to veto the measures.

The foreclosure prevention measures would have required banks and lenders to have third-party mediations with troubled homeowners before they go through with foreclosures. The measures also required banks and lenders to issue written notifications to renters before they start the foreclosure proceedings.

Before approving the measures, council members said that despite the legal challenges, the ordinances may help distressed homeowners remain in their houses and prevent the number of bank foreclosed home from increasing.

According to industry experts, the nine members of the city council plan to seek to override Fung’s veto. The override would require at least six affirmative votes.

Council President John E. Lanni Jr. said that he favors for an override, adding that so many people have been losing their homes to foreclosures.

Last year, there were 3,479 homeowners in Rhode Island who lost their properties to foreclosures. As of end of September, there were already 2,443 documented cases of foreclosures.

The foreclosure ordinances in Cranston were patterned after two measures in Providence which took effect on September 1. The Providence measures were able to help seven distressed homeowners remain in their houses and have not met any legal challenge since.

Kirshenbaum explain that the foreclosure ordinances would have created problems because they contradict Rhode Island laws that cover loan agreements and foreclosure recordings.

Meanwhile, the General Assembly has passed a bill that would require banks and mortgage lenders to send 45-day notices to distressed borrowers before starting proceedings that may result to more bank foreclosed home.

Furthermore, the bill also requires banks and lenders to notify homeowners at risk of foreclosures about the availability of free mortgage counseling.

Orlando, Florida Mayor Buddy Dyer, Secretary of HUD Shaun Donovan and Congressman Alan Grayson toured a city neighborhood to highlight the success of two federal programs designed to reduce the number of bank and government foreclosures homes.
Donovan described Orlando as the ground zero of the foreclosure crisis. He also defended the Obama Administration’s $75 billion [...]

The city of High Point in North Carolina is providing federal funds to buy foreclosed homes for sale. The city has received about $2.625 million under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).

U.S. Senator Jack Reed has proposed a law that aims to curb the growing number of properties on bank foreclosure list. The bill is proposed in an effort to abate the rapid spread of foreclosures across the country and at the same time help stabilize the housing markets.

The federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program has been helping people in Delaware in buying bank foreclosures. The program has provided federal housing funding amounting to $19.6 million to help first-time homebuyers. Under the program, about 120 families will have the chance to buy and rehabilitate vacant, foreclosure houses until next year.

The collapse of the mortgage industry turned out to be the savior for Merrill Lynch and its subsidiaries. Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick dismissed the securities fraud lawsuit filed against Merrill Lynch and its subsidiaries.

About 17 Democratic lawmakers have issued an urgent call for measures to stave off the number of bank foreclosed homes in the country. Congresswoman Doris O. Matsui called on the Obama Administration to act quickly to address the growing housing crisis in the country today.

Last year and in the past months, taxpayer money was used to bail out the country’s largest financial institutions. Now, the question of using taxpayer money to bail out the commercial real estate sector is again floating around.