Archive for the 'Foreclosure Help' Category

Three bills were signed by Governor Jodi Rell to help distressed homeowners in Connecticut save their properties from bank owned homes sale. In a statement, Rell said that a growing number of families in Connecticut are struggling to pay their bills and mortgages.

She pointed out that many of these troubled homeowners are hard-working people who were unfortunate to lose their jobs and their source of income as the economic downturn continues to wreak havoc on the state.

She explained that the goal of the three bills is to help distressed homeowners and lenders who are making efforts to contain the growing number of bank owned homes sale. She added that in completed foreclosures, there are no winners. Homeowners lose their properties, lenders their interest-earning loans and neighborhoods suffer due to falling property values.

The Senate Bill 948 or An Act Concerning Implementation of the S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act allows the expansion of the state’s voluntary foreclosure mediation initiative. According to Rell, the program was able to initiate a quarter of repossession mediations, with almost 70 percent of the cases ending up successful by allowing homeowners to save their properties from bank owned homes sale.

The bill also authorizes the implementation of the 2008 Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act. This establishes licensing regulations for mortgage professionals, including testing and education requirements.

The Act Concerning the Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program extends the eligibility for two mortgage assistance programs aimed at helping struggling borrowers remain in their homes. Those who are eligible for assistance under the law are homeowners who lost 25 percent of their income, who experience increases in housing expenses and mortgage payments.

Furthermore, the law allows troubled borrowers to apply for Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program if they are delinquent for two months or more and even if they have not yet received a foreclosure notice.

It also extended the eligibility for the CT FAMILIES mortgage assistance program, covering this time all types of mortgages and not just homeowners who have adjustable-rate mortgages.

The third law signed by Rell is the Senate Bill 949 which is an Act Concerning Mortgage Practices. This law makes all fraudulent bank owned homes sale prevention scheme a crime.

Help is on its way to Appleton neighborhoods blighted by bank owned homes foreclosures. Four agencies in Fox Valley are planning to purchase and rehabilitate several foreclosure properties using the affordable housing grant amounting to $1.2 million.

The federal grant is part of Wisconsin’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program designed to help neighborhoods hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis.

The affordable housing program is designed to meet the needs of the economically diverse population of the city. Each of the four participating agencies that are planning to buy and redevelop bank owned homes foreclosures in Appleton has its own plan.

The Appleton Housing Authority hopes to create two duplex buildings with handicap accessibility. The Habitat for Humanity-Greater Fox Cities Area chapter will target foreclosure properties for demolition and building of new housing.

On the other hand, ESTHER of the Fox Valley is planning to rehabilitate two bank owned homes foreclosures and sell them to working families. Additionally, the Housing Partnership of the Fox Cities has partnered with the Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley to purchase and redevelop two duplexes. The renovated duplexes will then be leased to homeless families transitioning to permanent houses.

Appleton Housing Authority vice chairwoman and ESTHER Workforce Housing Task Force member Kathy Groat said that organizers are working double time on the initiative. She said that the housing projects are critical, noting that home prices are way too high for individuals and families who work in Appleton.

ESTHER is set to receive about $255,000 for its projects. It has a turnaround of nine months for its projects and has set sessions for potential qualified buyers. ESTHER organizers expect to recover $75,000 from each renovated foreclosed property which they plan to use to fund two more housing projects using private financing.

Meanwhile, Housing Partnership will receive the largest share of the fund which is $511,000 to be used to rehabilitate five duplexes. On its part, Habitat for Humanity will be awarded about $105,000 for its nine housing projects. The money is less than the $650,000 sought by the organization because its goal does not jibe with the state’s program to purchase bank owned homes foreclosures.

The Appleton Housing Authority is set to receive $316,500 and has partnered with the school district to save labor costs.

Bank owned homes sales are everywhere in Florida, pulling down home values and becoming blights to neighborhoods. In Collier County, the number of foreclosure properties is steadily increasing with no sign of letting up. And so are efforts to help distressed homeowners save their properties from bank owned homes sales.

A workshop is scheduled to be held at the campus of Edison State College Collier. The workshop will offer services to troubled homeowners to either prevent foreclosures or ease the process.

The July 25 workshop will feature representatives from the Collier County Foreclosure Task Force and the Florida Department of Financial Services. Furthermore, the Foreclosure Task Force is also scheduled to hold a workshop on September 19 at the Collier County Legal Aid.

Experts at the Edison State workshop will help troubled homeowners obtain resources and information about loan modifications and mortgage foreclosures. They will also discuss with visitors how to identify and avoid fraudulent foreclosure prevention schemes.

Additionally, the workshop will serve as venue for lenders and troubled homeowners to discuss the requirements for loan modification, what borrowers can do to avoid putting their properties on bank owned homes sales and the best way to remove homeowners from troubled home loans with minimal loss of finances.

Pro bono services will be provided by the Collier County Housing Development Corporation and the Collier County Foreclosure Task Force. Also around to assist troubled homeowners are agents from the Department of Financial Services and representatives from lenders.

Meanwhile, interested participants of the workshop can get assistance regarding skill retraining opportunities and career development through the Edison State College. In addition, the Mental Health Association of Southwest Florida will provide information to workshop participants about its newly-established support group, called “Transitional times, coping with foreclosures”.

Collier is one of the counties that experienced the brunt of the foreclosure crisis. In 2007, foreclosure filings surged to 3,267 from 733 in 2006 and the figures increased twice to 7,872 in 2008. In the first half of 2009, foreclosures reached 4,308, an increase from the 3,726 foreclosures filed with the Clerk of Courts in the first half of 2008.

And more bank owned homes sales are expected in the offing, driven by increasing interest rates, resetting of some loans taken out in 2005 and banks’ delaying of foreclosure on some delinquent properties because of the oversupply of foreclosed homes in the market.

A new strategy will be adopted by officials of the city of Richmond in California as part of their proactive stance in preventing bank owned foreclosures from becoming blights in neighborhoods.

Volusia County and several cities, including Palm Coast, Daytona Beach and Deltona are given 18 months to spend the funds they received in March to purchase Bank Foreclosure Properties.

Distressed homeowners in Washington who are facing the possibility of losing their homes to foreclosures may now have more access to lawyers who can help them protect their properties from bank foreclosure list for free.

Fifth Third Bank and Kevin Azzouz, developer of the Veranda Park building located in Orlando, Florida, was ordered by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Karen Jenneman to find solutions to save the 55-unit property from bank forclosure listings.

Preliminary results of a market study showed that a growing number of troubled homeowners have saved their properties from bank foreclosure listings through short sale.

A meeting to address the effects of bank owned foreclosures were attended by distressed homeowners and renters in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Foreclosure Response meeting provided information on the foreclosure mediation law and its benefits to renters and homeowners who are fighting foreclosures.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin has criticized President Barack Obama and his administration for failing to contain the flood of Bank Foreclosure Properties. He expressed his skepticism that the voluntary approach to loan modification would be able to save the country from the foreclosure crisis.