Home Foreclosure List of Properties

Posted by Refinance House Bad Credit | Posted on 12-05-2011

Category : Foreclosure

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Home Foreclosure List of Properties

Just about everyone – even teenagers who are the most self-centered creatures on earth – realizes that the real estate market is volatile right now. The housing boom of several years ago has undergone a metamorphosis and we are now in a buyer’s market, a slow market, a foreclosure boom, or simply uncertain real estate conditions.

As such, you may be hesitant to invest in real estate or purchase a home instead of renting. That can be understandable; it is frightening to look around and see friends, business associates, neighbors, and even strangers all facing the difficulty of home foreclosure.

However, there is one basic principle that is true no matter what you are investing in. You are supposed to buy low and sell high. The current real estate market conditions are favorable for that. Even houses that have not gone into foreclosure are definitely less expensive than they would have been say…five years ago.

Homes that have been foreclosed on may actually be a real steal if you want to invest or need a place to live. If you have a stable income and want to purchase your first home or just a different home, you may want to seek out a home foreclosure list – a listing of properties that have become Real Estate Owned (REO) properties.

REO real estate is a classification given to property that has gone through foreclosure and now belongs to the lender. Some people may think that banks and other financial institutions take great pleasure in taking back a home they lent money on, but that is really not the case. Lenders would much prefer to arrange a loan modification or make some other arrangements with consumers so that they can keep their home, but sometimes it just isn’t possible.

That is when a home goes through foreclosure and ownership transfers to the lending institution. Now, ask yourself this question: What does a bank need with a house? The answer is: It has no need for a house. In fact, lenders typically want to sell off REO property as quickly as possible and with as little headache as possible.

That is where you, as someone who wants or needs a home, come in. A home foreclosure list of properties can be a valuable asset to you in your search for an affordable home.

Home foreclosure lists are available online, through specialized companies that handle only foreclosed-upon real estate, from government bodies, and through realtors. Some realtors prefer to avoid the little bit of additional work involved in selling a house that has been foreclosed on, but many others are more than happy to do so, especially in this market where realtors are feeling the pinch just like the rest of us.

If you are considering purchasing a home, the current conditions practically demand that you consider buying a home that was “returned” to the lender via foreclosure, so you would be wise to find a home foreclosure list of properties in the area you desire.

Home Foreclosure: There are Options

Posted by Refinance House Bad Credit | Posted on 10-05-2011

Category : Foreclosure

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Home Foreclosure: There are Options

If you are facing the tight economy head-on like a bulldog and continue to do well financially, you can consider yourself blessed that you are not facing home foreclosure.

If you are struggling with the shaky real estate market conditions, have become unemployed, or are facing some other financial setback, you may be facing a potentially scary and stressful home foreclosure.

If you do find yourself struggling to make your mortgage payments every month, the first thing you should realize is that you are not alone in your struggle. There are thousands of Americans facing the same or similar circumstances as the housing boom has transformed into the home foreclosure boom.

The second thing you should realize is that there are options available to you. It may seem like the most horrendous thing in the world to be looking at a home foreclosure possibility, and indeed, it is definitely serious. At the same time, a home foreclosure does not have to mean the end of life as you have always known it.

The third thing you should realize is that the bank does not want your house. Banks and other financial institutions are not in the real estate market. They are in the banking and finance industry, and foreclosures are expensive and time-consuming to them.

This being the case, many lenders are willing to help you avoid a home foreclosure if at all possible. If you are embarrassed to admit your financial woes, get over it and start helping yourself as soon as possible. Keeping your home is the best thing for you and your bank.

If you have missed only one mortgage payment, you will probably receive a notice from your bank. Do not ignore it. Burying your head in the sand will not work. If you totally ignore your financial institution’s correspondence, they are likely to believe that there is no way they will ever get payment from you and will be less likely to work with you to avoid home foreclosure if you wait too long.

If you are behind on your mortgage payments or expect that you will be due to some personal circumstance, it is time to dig out your loan agreement. Many mortgages haves clauses that actually provide alternatives to foreclosure if certain procedures are followed. Very few people know all the details of their loans, so get out your paperwork and know what is going on with your loan.

There are professional organizations and attorneys to help you, as well. If you think that you can’t afford to hire professional help, it still pays to look into the idea. Professionals who specialize in avoiding home foreclosure know that financial difficulties are what bring clients to them. They probably have a way to help you manage both the foreclosure stop and their fees.

Probably one of the easiest and most common ways to avoid home foreclosure is to modify the terms of your loan. A real estate attorney of home foreclosure expert can likely help you to re-negotiate your mortgage with terms you are able to meet and save both you and the bank all the trouble of a home foreclosure.

Most financial institutions are more than willing to come to a mutual, agreeable meeting of the minds in order to stay out of the house-selling market and do what they do best – banking.

US homes lost to foreclosure up 25 pct on year

Posted by Refinance House Bad Credit | Posted on 07-05-2011

Category : Foreclosure

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US homes lost to foreclosure up 25 pct on year

LOS ANGELES – Lenders took back more homes in August than in any month since the start of the U.S. mortgage crisis.

The increase in home repossessions came even as the number of properties entering the foreclosure process slowed for the seventh month in a row, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

In all, banks repossessed 95,364 properties last month, up 3 percent from July and an increase of 25 percent from August 2009, RealtyTrac said.

August makes the ninth month in a row that the pace of homes lost to foreclosure has increased on an annual basis. The previous high was in May.

Banks have been stepping up repossessions to clear out their backlog of bad loans with an eye on eventually placing the foreclosed properties on the market, but they can’t afford to simply dump the properties on the market.

Concerns are growing that the housing market recovery could stumble amid stubbornly high unemployment, a sluggish economy and faltering consumer confidence. U.S. home sales have collapsed since federal homebuyer tax credits expired in April.

That’s one reason fewer than one-third of homes repossessed by lenders are on the market, said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

“These (properties) are going to come to market, but very slowly because nobody wants to overwhelm a soft buyer’s market with too much distressed inventory for fear of what it would do for house prices,” he said.

As a result, lenders are putting off initiating the foreclosure process on homeowners who have missed payments, letting borrowers stay in their homes longer.

The number of properties receiving an initial default notice – the first step in the foreclosure process – slipped 1 percent last month from July, but was down 30 percent versus August last year, RealtyTrac said.

Initial defaults have fallen on an annual basis the past seven months. They peaked in April 2009.

Still, the number of homes scheduled to be sold at auction for the first time increased 9 percent from July and rose 2 percent from August last year. If they don’t sell at auction, these homes typically end up going back to the lender.

More than 2.3 million homes have been repossessed by lenders since the recession began in December 2007, according to RealtyTrac. The firm estimates more than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year.

In all, 338,836 properties received a foreclosure-related warning in August, up 4 percent from July, but down 5 percent from the same month last year, RealtyTrac said. That translates to one in 381 U.S. homes.

The firm tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions – warnings that can lead up to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.

Among states, Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate last month, with one in every 84 households receiving a foreclosure notice. That’s 4.5 times the national average.

Rounding out the top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rate in August were: Florida, Arizona, California, Idaho, Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois and Hawaii.

Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, are now the main catalysts for foreclosures.

Lenders are offering a variety of programs to help homeowners modify their loans, but their success rates vary. Hundreds of thousands of homeowners can’t qualify or fall back into default.

The Obama administration has rolled out numerous attempts to tackle the foreclosure crisis but has made only a small dent in the problem. Nearly half of the 1.3 million homeowners who enrolled in the Obama administration’s flagship mortgage-relief program have fallen out.

The program, known as Making Home Affordable, has provided permanent help to about 390,000 homeowners since March 2009.

Regardless, many troubled borrowers have seen their efforts to get a loan modification stymied.

Larry Book of Winter Garden, Fla., was one packet away from a permanent loan modification from Chase under the Obama administration’s foreclosure prevention plan after more than a year of back and forth and one failed attempt.

But his modification never went through. Instead, his loan was transferred from Chase to IBM Lender Business Process Servicers in July and he was told he owed $9,562.62 and must bring his mortgage current by Sept. 15 or foreclosure proceedings will begin.

“It just becomes too exhausting,” Book said about the modification process. “That’s why some people walk away. But I’ve invested too much and given up too much to just let it go.”

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Real Estate Writer. J.W. Elphinstone in New York contributed to this report.

States to probe mortgage foreclosures

Posted by Refinance House Bad Credit | Posted on 05-05-2011

Category : Foreclosure

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States to probe mortgage foreclosures

BANGALORE (Reuters) – As many as 40 state attorneys general in the United States are expected to announce an investigation into the mortgage servicing industry on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal said.

The investigation may help pressure financial institutions to rewrite large numbers of troubled loans, according to the report.

It comes amid recent allegations that mortgage servicers submitted fraudulent documents in thousands of foreclosure proceedings nationwide.

Companies are scrambling to defend, and where needed, improve their foreclosure procedures in the face of anger among homeowners and regulators.

The issue came to the forefront last month when GMAC Mortgage revealed that officials had signed thousands of affidavits supporting such proceedings without knowing their contents.

Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe

Regulators looking into foreclosure mess

Posted by Refinance House Bad Credit | Posted on 03-05-2011

Category : Foreclosure

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Regulators looking into foreclosure mess

WASHINGTON – Federal banking regulators are examining whether mortgage companies cut corners on their own procedures when they moved to foreclose on people’s homes, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday.

Preliminary results of the in-depth review into the practices of the nation’s largest mortgage companies are expected to be released next month, Bernanke said in remarks to a housing-finance conference in Arlington, Va.

“We are looking intensively at the firms’ policies, procedures and internal controls related to foreclosures and seeking to determine whether systematic weaknesses are leading to improper foreclosures,” Bernanke said. “We take violation of proper procedures very seriously,” he added.

The central bank’s decision adds weight to federal and state investigations into whether banks used flawed documents to foreclosure on homeowners.

Attorneys general in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia are jointly investigating whether paperwork and legal procedures were handled properly.

At the federal level, the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last month asked seven big banks to examine their foreclosure practices. The OCC and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are also working with the Fed on its examination.

In addition to probing the banks handling of foreclosure documents, Fed staffers and other federal agencies are evaluating the potential effects of the foreclosure debacle on the real-estate market and on financial institutions, Bernanke said.

The Federal Reserve oversees bank holding companies – typically Wall Street’s biggest banks – including Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Wells Fargo.

The inquiries come as Bank of America and Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage have resumed processing foreclosures, after halting them temporarily to review documents.

Both lender face allegations that employees signed but didn’t read foreclosure documents that may have contained errors. Other companies, including PNC Financial Services Inc. and JPMorgan, have halted tens of thousands of foreclosures after similar practices became public.

The federal agencies have a range of options at their disposal. They include issuing a “cease and desist” order requiring a company to stop engaging in a specific practice. They can impose fines on the companies. Agencies also can take less drastic actions, such as crafting a plan with the company to fix any problems.

Bernanke didn’t provide details in his speech.

According to people familiar with the examination, the banking agencies are looking into whether companies had controls in place when foreclosure documents were signed, what procedures were in place to proper handle documents, and whether employees involved in the foreclosure process were adequately trained.

Dubious mortgage practices and lax lending standards were blamed for contributing to a housing bubble that eventually burst and thrust the economy from 2007-2009 into the worst recession since the 1930s. Many Americans took out home loans that they didn’t understand and bought homes that they couldn’t afford.

As a result, foreclosures have soared to record highs. It’s one of the negative forces restraining the economy’s ability to get back on sounder footing.

Now more than 20 percent of borrowers owe more than their home is worth, and an additional 33 percent have equity cushions of 10 percent or less, putting them at risk should house prices decline much further, Bernanke said.

“With housing markets still weak, high levels of mortgage distress may well persist for some time to come,” Bernanke warned.

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer

Homes lost to foreclosure on track for 1M in 2010

Posted by Refinance House Bad Credit | Posted on 30-04-2011

Category : Foreclosure

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Homes lost to foreclosure on track for 1M in 2010

LOS ANGELES – More than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans.

Nearly 528,000 homes were taken over by lenders in the first six months of the year, a rate that is on track to eclipse the more than 900,000 homes repossessed in 2009, according to data released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure listing service.

“That would be unprecedented,” said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

By comparison, lenders have historically taken over about 100,000 homes a year, Sharga said.

The surge in home repossessions reflects the dynamic of a foreclosure crisis that has shown signs of leveling off in recent months, but remains a crippling drag on the housing market.

The pace at which new homes falling behind in payments and entering the foreclosure process has slowed as banks continue to let delinquent borrowers stay longer in their homes rather than adding to the glut of foreclosed properties on the market.

At the same time, lenders have stepped up repossessions in an effort to clear out the backlog of distressed inventory on their books.

The number of households facing foreclosure in the first half of the year climbed 8 percent versus the same period last year, but dropped 5 percent from the last six months of 2009, according to RealtyTrac, which tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions.

In all, about 1.7 million homeowners received a foreclosure-related warning between January and June. That translates to one in 78 U.S. homes.

Foreclosure notices posted monthly declines in April, May and June, but Sharga said one shouldn’t read too much into that.

“The banks are really sort of controlling or managing the dial on how fast these things get processed so they can ultimately manage the inventory of distressed assets on the market,” he said.

On average, it takes about 15 months for a home loan to go from being 30 days late to the property being foreclosed and sold, according to Lender Processing Services Inc., which tracks mortgages.

Assuming the U.S. economy doesn’t worsen, aggravating the foreclosure crisis, Sharga projects it will take lenders through 2013 to resolve the backlog of distressed properties that have on their books right now.

And a new wave of foreclosures could be coming in the second half of the year, especially if the unemployment rate remains high, mortgage-assistance programs fail, and the economy doesn’t improve fast enough to lift home sales.

The prospect of lenders taking over more than a million homes this year is likely to push housing values down, experts say.

Foreclosed homes are typically sold at steep discounts, lowering the value of surrounding properties.

“The downward pressure from foreclosures will persist and prices will be very weak well into 2012,” said Celia Chen, senior director of Moody’s Economy.com.

She projects home prices will fall as much as 6 percent over the next 12 months from where they were in the first-quarter.

Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, continue to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, lax lending standards were the culprit. Now, homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest growing group of foreclosures.

There are more than 7.3 million home loans in some stage of delinquency, according to Lender Processing Services.

Lenders are offering to help some homeowners modify their loans. But many borrowers can’t qualify or they are falling back into default. The Obama administration’s $75 billion foreclosure prevention effort has made only a small dent in the problem.

More than a third of the 1.2 million borrowers who have enrolled in the mortgage modification program have dropped out. That compares with about 27 percent who have received permanent loan modifications and are making payments on time.

Among states, Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate in the first half of the year. One in every 17 households there received a foreclosure notice. However, foreclosures there are down 6 percent from a year earlier.

Arizona, Florida, California and Utah were next among states with the highest foreclosure rates. Rounding out the top 10 were Georgia, Michigan, Idaho, Illinois and Colorado.

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Real Estate Writer. Alan Zibel in Washington contributed to this report.

Foreclosures up in 75 percent of top U.S. metro areas

Posted by Refinance House Bad Credit | Posted on 26-04-2011

Category : Foreclosure

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Foreclosures up in 75 percent of top U.S. metro areas

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Foreclosures rose in 3 of every four large U.S. metro areas in this year’s first half, likely ruling out sustained home price gains until 2013, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Unemployment was the main culprit driving foreclosure actions on more than 1.6 million properties, the company said.

“We’re not going to see meaningful, sustainable home price appreciation while we’re seeing 75 percent of the markets have increases in foreclosures,” RealtyTrac senior vice president Rick Sharga said in an interview.

Foreclosure actions – which include notice of default, scheduled auction and repossession – in the first half rose in 154 of the 206 metro areas with populations 200,000 or more.

“We’re not going to see real price appreciation probably until 2013,” said Sharga. “We don’t see a double dip in housing but we think it’s going to be a long painful recovery for the next three years.”

Nine of the 10 areas slammed hardest by the foreclosure tidal wave improved from the first half of 2009, suggesting a peak at rates that are still up to five times the national average, RealtyTrac said in its midyear 2010 metropolitan foreclosure report.

Cities with the 20 highest foreclosure rates were all in Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona.

As long as unemployment hovers near 10 percent and unrelenting foreclosures hang over the market, prices cannot stage a lasting comeback. Home prices are about 29 percent lower, on average, than peaks set four years ago.

“If unemployment remains persistently high and foreclosure prevention efforts only delay the inevitable, then we could continue to see increased foreclosure activity and a corresponding weakness in home prices in many metro areas,” RealtyTrac chief executive James J. Saccacio said in a statement.

Home prices rose in May for the second month, still propped up by the crush of demand for homebuyer tax credits that ended April 30, according to Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller indexes.

But that momentum will not last, economists agree.

Unemployment and wage cuts are chipping away at confidence and could slice average prices as much as 10 percent before a gradual climb resumes, many housing experts predict.

Sharga said the recent nominal price increases suggest that lenders so far have managed the distressed property flow well and buyers are bidding for those houses when they do get listed for sale.

Banks will take over at least a record 1 million mortgages this year, RealtyTrac estimated earlier this month, noting that more than 5 million loans are seriously delinquent and face foreclosure.

More than 3 million households are seen getting at least one foreclosure notice this year, and this record will be surpassed slightly at the peak of next year, RealtryTrac expects.

Las Vegas had the country’s highest metro foreclosure rate in the first half of the year, with 6.6 percent of its housing units, or one in 15, getting a filing. The number of properties getting a notice, however, fell 9 percent from the same period last year.

By Lynn Adler

Foreclosures bungle could hit US banks

Posted by Refinance House Bad Credit | Posted on 23-04-2011

Category : Foreclosure

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Foreclosures bungle could hit US banks

NEW YORK (AFP) – Already fragile US financial firms are facing a raft of law suits and potential fines after three major mortgage lenders admitted to mishandling thousands of home foreclosures.

Major mortgage lenders Bank of American, JPMorgan Chase and GMAC have in recent days announced they were suspending tens of thousands of foreclosure processes across the country due to apparent improper handling of documents.

Attorney generals in six states are already investigating claims by borrowers that lenders have committed errors in the foreclosure documentations.

Foreclosures have evolved into a massive industry since the start of the economic crunch as Americans faced massive debts, with the number of mortgage defaults soaring from an annual average of one percent before 2008 to 10 percent today.

In 2010, more than three million foreclosures were expected to take place in the United States, figures show.

Documentation problems “are in all probability” likely to exist in 80 percent of them, according to Richard Kessler, an attorney that heads a company dealing with foreclosures.

The influx of hundreds of thousands of foreclosures led lending institutions to employ people who processed the paperwork as quickly as possible in order to put the property on the market in what has become known as “robo-signing”.

“This is a case of someone being understaffed cutting corners and trying to get the work down. I didn’t see this story as a malicious attempt against borrowers,” said Michael Moskowitz, CEO of Equity Now, a Manhattan-based mortgage lender.

Most of the foreclosures are expected to remain in place once the lending institutions re-examine the myriad of cases, even though the process may take years, said Kessler.

“This is something that in all likelihood may also result in disciplinary proceedings and fines but it will not stop the foreclosures because the money is still owed.”

But still, the reviews were likely to reveal serious documentation flaws in several cases, which will place the lenders under heavy pressure and risk of big lawsuits from people whose homes have already been foreclosed.

“The likelihood is that people currently facing foreclosure have a better chance to negotiate some kind of compromise with the lender” that will prevent foreclosure, Kessler said.

“There is a potential for class action liability in the United States for billions and billions of dollars on behalf of homeowners who lost their homes in proceedings where lenders used these kinds of phony documents.”

Even without massive lawsuits, the suspension was bound to damage the already fragile financial market and housing industry, Moskowitz said.

“It is going to encourage people who are in default already to drag it out. In most of the cases it means they will have to start the process again, even though actually speaking, they defaulted,” he said.

“This isn’t healthy for the market. It is unhealthy for the real estate market because the values are artificially high because all the foreclosures are not on the market yet.

“It is bad for the finance market because the lenders can’t get their money for years. The losses for the banks will be much bigger.”

by Ron Bousso

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