WASHINGTON – Aug. 16, 2010 – Fannie Mae launched a new website to help consumers understand their options when facing foreclosure and the possible loss of their home. Called KnowYourOptions.com, it outlines the choices available to homeowners struggling to make mortgage payments, and provides guidance on how they can contact and work with their mortgage company to find a back-up plan.
KnowYourOptions.com provides information in both English and Spanish. Features include:
• Interactive Options Finder helps homeowners identify options.
• Calculators help borrowers understand how many of the options would work in their situation, including calculations about refinance, repayment, forbearance, and modification.
• Videos feature real homeowners discussing how they received help; others feature housing counselors giving advice.
• Forms – including a financial checklist and contact log – to help borrowers prepare for a meeting with their mortgage company or housing counselor.
• Information on refinancing, repayment plans, forbearance, modifications and Deed-for-Lease.
• Out-of-the-box alternatives, including short sales and deeds-in-lieu for homeowners who recognize that they can no longer afford their mortgages, but want to avoid a foreclosure on their credit history
More info: www.KnowYourOptions.com.
WASHINGTON – July 13, 2010 – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a new initiative for state governments, local governments and nonprofit organizations participating in HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). Going forward, the groups will be given preference to acquire homes from the Department’s inventory of foreclosed properties, commonly known as “HUD homes.” Continue reading ‘NSP grantees get first chance to buy HUD Homes at 10 percent discount’
Foreclosure sales are sales of properties ordered sold pursuant to final judgments in foreclosure actions. The properties are offered for sale to the highest bidder in order to satisfy the judgment. The Clerk’s Office conducts the sale or public auction in accordance with Florida Statutes. The information below offers a general overview of the foreclosure process, however these proceedings are governed by Florida Statutes and appellate case law interpreting these statutes. Anyone participating in these auctions should research not only the properties involved but foreclosure court case and all the law governing the process. Continue reading ‘Foreclosure Sales’
SARASOTA, Fla. – Feb. 1, 2010 – After five months of seeking a mortgage loan modification, Jeffery Feig’s approval package arrived in March. His payment was cut in half.
But two months later, Bank of America called with bad news: The lender changed its mind and wanted him to start paying the larger amount again. Continue reading ‘Modified loans tricky to land’
The U.S. housing market is being flooded with foreclosed homes held by trusts managing pools of securitized mortgages.
The trusts sold six times as many properties as banks during the six months ending March 31. The average property sold for 69 percent of the original loan amount, according to data compiled primarily in the Atlanta area by Data Intelligence Corp., a real-estate analytics firm.
The dump isn’t over yet with thousands of properties still awaiting sale.
“While the banks are trying frantically to get loans off their books, they face the problem of large shadow inventories of housing being dumped on the market, which would depress prices further,” says Anthony Sanders, real-estate finance professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
Karen Weaver, global head of securitization research at Deutsche Bank AG, says the steepest losses involve subprime mortgages in which lenders generally are recovering just 26 percent of the original loan amount.
From a home shopper’s standpoint, there are bargains galore in many areas. Tim Hamill, an associate with RE/MAX Greater Atlanta, who is handling sales for an asset-management firm on behalf of a trust, says his mandate is to do what it takes to sell in 30 days.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Carrick Mollenkamp (07/09/09)
Rising unemployment and falling home prices is a treacherous combination that is dragging people with excellent credit into the foreclosure morass.
The jobless rate of 4.4 percent in April of people with bachelor’s degrees isn’t high compared with the overall unemployment rate, but it is more than double what it was a year ago.
Foreclosures are unlikely to peak until 2011, says David Crowe, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders. He says foreclosures typically hit a high after unemployment does, and he believes the employment situation won’t turn around until late this year. Then rising employment will drive up interest rates, he fears, causing more resets of adjustable rate mortgages, leading to more foreclosures.
Credit Suisse echoes Crowe’s concerns, predicting that scheduled resets will hit a high in 2010 and rates will stay high until 2012.
Source: Business Week, Peter Coy (06/15/2009)
What is the fundamental issue?S. 896, the “Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009” included some provisions to protect tenants from eviction as a consequence of a foreclosure affecting the property being rented. Many examples were seen of families living in rental housing throughout the United States who were evicted without any prior notice when the home where they had lived was foreclosed upon. Much of the time, the rental family had no idea the home was in delinquency or subject to foreclosure until their eviction. Continue reading ‘Tenant/Renter Protection During Foreclosure’
Daily Real Estate News | May 14, 2009 |
Foreclosures Set Blistering Pace in April
Foreclosures continued to accelerate with April, exceeding even the record pace in March. More than 342,000 homes received foreclosure notices—that’s one of every 374 U.S. homes, marking the highest monthly rate since online foreclosure marketer RealtyTrac began counting four years ago.
Compared with April 2008, foreclosures were up 32 percent. “April was a shocker,” says Rick Sharga, a spokesman for RealtyTrac. “I would have bet on a dip because March foreclosures were so high.”
Sharga predicts that the numbers will continue to climb because legislative and industry moratoriums have ended and lenders and servicers are kicking into high gear.
Ten states accounted for 75 percent of all foreclosure activity in April. Those states with the highest rates of foreclosure are:
Nevada
Florida
California
Arizona
Idaho
Utah
Georgia
Illinois
Colorado
Ohio
NEW YORK (AP) – March 6, 2009 – Foreclosures are spreading by epidemic proportions, expanding beyond a handful of problem states and now affecting almost 1 in every 8 American homeowners.
It’s an economic role-reversal: The economy, driven down by the collapse of the housing bubble, is causing the housing crisis to spread.
Figures released Thursday show that nearly 12 percent of all Americans with a mortgage – a record 5.4 million homeowners – were at least one month late or in foreclosure at the end of last year. Continue reading ‘Mortgage Woes Break Records Again in 4Q’
Home owners with mortgages as large as $729,750 in any area, not just high-cost areas, could see their interest rate temporarily cut to as low as 2 percent under the Obama administration’s $75 billion foreclosure prevention plan.
The administration unveiled details of its plan, called the Housing Affordability and Stability Plan, this week, and analysts say there are a few positive surprises.
The $729,750 mortgage limit that would apply to homes in all markets, not just in high-cost areas, is an unexpected and helpful move, says John Courson, CEO of the Mortgage bankers Association.
“It will allow us to help more borrowers,” he says.
Other details flesh out the main aspects of the plan:
- Eligibility for refinancing incentives is limited to home owners who are underwater by no more than 5 percent.
- Financial incentives apply only to home owners whose mortgage is a conforming loan backed either by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
- Lenders participate voluntarily and can receive financial incentives for lowering borrowers’ mortgage burden to no more than 31 percent of their household income. Borrowers can get a financial incentive to participate as well.
- Borrowers who are current can participate, but they must show approaching hardship that could derail their ability to meet payments in the future.
Editor’s note: The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS ® has a detailed breakdown of the provisions in the plan at REALTOR.org.
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