Archive for the 'States' Category

Georgia has established a program that aims to reduce the number of bank owned homes sale in the state. The Georgia Dream Purchase Program offers a second mortgage of up to $14,000 to any qualified buyer of foreclosed homes in some counties in the state.

This loan program requires homebuyers to acquire repossessed homes with the property titles transferred to any eligible agency or mortgage lien holder. This means that homebuyers who avail of the loan program must make the purchase from banks, government entities or eligible nonprofits.

However, this loan program does not require potential buyer to be first-time homebuyers, giving opportunity to rental property owners to qualify for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) which aims to reduce the number of bank owned homes sale.

Georgia’s foreclosure filings for the first quarter of this year increased by 11 percent to 28,608 compared with the last quarter the previous year and less than 50 percent higher than the numbers in the first three months in 2008.

In March, Georgia reported foreclosure filings in 13,366, a 31 percent jump from February and 21 percent higher from March 2008 total. Data showed that one out of 138 homeowners received a filing of foreclosure in the first quarter of this year, making Georgia the seventh highest state in terms of foreclosure rates.

Because of the these ever-increasing foreclosure rates, the state’s NSP program has a specific goal which is to boost bank owned homes sale to pave the way for the recovery of the housing market in the state.

Meanwhile, the loan program also requires buyers to acquire bank owned properties in a county severely affected by the foreclosure crisis. The list of counties in the state identified to be areas of greatest need was compiled based on the number of foreclosure properties and includes counties in metro Atlanta.

Additionally, a homebuyer should have a household income of not more 120 percent of the median income in the area to be eligible for the program. For example, a family of four members who want to qualify for the NSP program needs to have a household income of not more than $85, 450.

The Georgia NSP second mortgage program is designed not to exceed $14,000 or up to 10 percent of the purchase price of bank owned homes sale.

New York courts were able to settle a meager number of Bank Foreclosure Properties cases since last year. According to data released by Senator Jeff Klein and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, 96 percent of almost 2,756 foreclosure court conferences have yet to be settled.

However, the 2,756 foreclosure court conferences covered various time periods for New York City and Long Island municipalities. For example, court conferences data in Suffolk included only the month of April, not enough time for foreclosure court conference settlement.

Aside from the lack of time, many court conferences get postponed for one reason or the other. According to the report released by both Klein and Jeffries, Suffolk, which just started its program of foreclosure court conference, had scheduled 21 settlement meetings in April.

Klein’s office explained that since Suffolk just started its program in April, only a month’s data was available.

The data showed that from January to April of this year, Nassau scheduled 1,032 foreclosure court conferences in which 30 cases were settled, representing 2.9 percent of the total cases.

In Queens, there were 1,032 scheduled foreclosure court conferences from October 2008 to April of this year. Out of these 1,032 cases, only 16 were settled or 3.8 percent.

The state had passed a law mandating court conferences to help distressed homeowners avoid foreclosures and protect them from predatory lending and fraudulent foreclosure prevention schemes.

Meanwhile, both Jeffries and Klein have proposed a law that would establish a foreclosure diversion program. The proposed program would require distressed homeowners to call first the New York banking department to request for counseling sessions with certified counselors. Both the distressed homeowners and counselors would file financial plan 10 days prior to the foreclosure court settlement.

In the event that lenders accept the financial plan, a certificate of understanding will be filed with the courts. Homeowners who requested for a settlement conference are not required to attend the meetings.

However, if lenders reject the financial plan, both parties will be required to appear before the court to work out a temporary payment schedule for a maximum of nine months or until a permanent solution have been reached.

Klein said that the current foreclosure prevention efforts in the state have failed to meet their goals. He believed that the proposed bill would help more distressed homeowners avoid Bank Foreclosure Properties.

The 36 percent increase in bank owned homes foreclosure filings in Florida in the first quarter of this year compared with figures for the same period last year ranked the state number 4 in terms of foreclosure rate.

About 119,220 homeowners received foreclosure filings in the state in the first three months of this year, reflecting a 12 percent decline from the last quarter of 2008 but a 36 percent rise compared with 2008’s first quarter figures.

And as foreclosure properties continue to flood the housing market in Florida, more and more people are finding themselves without any roof on their heads. In Pinellas County alone, an alarming 20 percent rise in homelessness was reported, compared with figures the previous year.

A survey conducted by the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless Inc. showed that there were 6,235 people who were without homes last year, a dramatic increase from the 5,195 total homeless population in 2007.

Another survey result that caused an alarm to the coalition is the 108 percent rise in the number of sheltered and unsheltered children below the age of 18. Furthermore, the number of unsheltered homeless families and individuals rose by 82.7 percent in 2008.

St. Petersburg accounted for 45.8 percent increase in homeless population while Clearwater reported a 10.3 percent rise in the number of people who do not own homes.

Additionally, a 5.5 percent rise in homelessness was also noted at the Pinellas Park-Lealman area, 5.4 percent in Largo and over 1 percent increase in both Treasure Island and St. Peter Beach.

The coalition survey identified some mitigating circumstances that may cause families or individuals to lose their homes. About 86.3 percent of homeless people loss their income or jobs. Additionally, 22.6 percent lost their homes because of drug and alcohol use, 18.6 because of foreclosure or eviction, 21.8 percent because of family problems and 30 percent due to imprisonment, domestic violence and emotional problems.

Coalition president Lisa Jackson said that the poor economy is a major factor driving the number of homeless people to an unprecedented rate. The coalition said that over 31 percent of homeless people have been staying on the streets for almost a year, compared with 10.7 percent in 2007.

Experts believed that if the unemployment rate will not improve, bank owned homes foreclosure will continue to rise and so is the number of homeless population in Florida.

A lot of investors can now get back in the housing market with the good news that Fannie Mae has increased their four-financed property limit to ten. The said limit has been lifted last March, from when it was first imposed in September last year. With this, investors can now start buying or refinancing properties including those in bank foreclosure home listings.

The continuous increase in the number of properties in repo home listing in Oregon is pressuring down home prices. The unabated foreclosure in the state may cause anxiety to thousands of homeowners but the resulting drop in home prices may mean bargains for price-conscious homebuyers and investors.

Both apartment vacancies and rents across Colorado, particularly outside the Denver metro area, increased in the first quarter compared to last year’s first quarter, according to a study from the Colorado Housing Division. The increase occurred despite a decline in foreclosed homes sale lists compared to last year’s first quarter lists.

Families living in manufactured-home parks in Columbus, Ohio are upset they were not notified that the parks they have called their home for many years are in the process of becoming forclosures for sale.

Distressed South Carolinian homeowners have been given another lifeline. Their state Supreme Court has just issued a ruling ordering judges to temporarily suspend foreclosure approvals on mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or any of the mortgage lenders that have signed to participate in the government home foreclosures program.

Arizona residents who could not afford to buy homes a year ago now have the chance to buy foreclosure houses from listings following the state’s implementation of its new housing programs funded by $121 million from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Rural homes, usually immune to the problems of urban and suburban homes, are now following their city counterparts to foreclosure listings.