Archive for the ‘Foreclosures’ Category

Foreclosures are no longer confined to the urban and metropolitan centres of USA but are spilling over to the rural countryside. Foreclosures are spelling more work for the villages.

The code enforcement officers in Oswego and Montgomery are busy trimming lawns in vacant houses. It is straining their working power this summer. Till 31st July there were 49 bank repossessions in Oswego (zip code 60543) and 104 in Montgomery (zip code 60538) including the sub division of Boulder Hill. Most of these houses are lying vacant and neglected dotting the rural countryside.

Oswego village administrator, Gary Adams says that the village has been utilizing its own staff or appointing private landscapers to trim the grass of about 15 houses in the village during the past three months. The number of yards that need trimming has increased over the past few years. He adds that the number is not about a hundred requiring attention per day, but there are quite a few units that are falling apart with the wild taking it over. The administration has tried its level best to locate the lenders but when that fails they have to take on the task themselves. After all it is their neighbourhood that is at stake. The village has placed liens on abandoned properties that need urgent maintenance works. Adams added that in the end the village will get paid back when the deal goes through because the village liens will also have to be cleared before any sale is effected.

The community development director of Montgomery, Jane Tompkins, told the board of the village on 22nd July that about 80 houses in the village are in foreclosures. She said “As these properties become vacant, some lawn aren’t getting mowed; houses just aren’t being maintained.” Randy Caho is the code enforcement officer of the village. He has been spending a lot of time trying to locate he lenders, usually the banks and mortgage companies, regarding this maintenance issue. He is not always successful. Meanwhile a landscaping company has been given the job to mow lawns where the grass is overgrown beyond permissible limits. It is taking up a lot of time, energy and funds. The neighbours are a worried lot concerned about the vacant properties inviting all kinds of trouble. Primarily the values of the adjacent houses are going down. Then there is the law and order problem apart from spread of disease from unkempt property.

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Anderson County is right in the jaws of foreclosures. About two decades ago there were only 8 foreclosures in a month. Today the norm has become 80 to 100 foreclosures per month. The situation is undoubtedly critical commented Carolyn Lecque of South Carolina Foreclosure Task Force. It seems that apart from the formally listed ones there are hundreds of others waiting in the line that are just about to enter the dreaded foreclosure zone. As regards foreclosure increases South Carolina stood 35th. The Greenville metropolitan statistical area ranked 88 among the top 100 MSA’s chosen by RealtyTrac. Columbia and Charleston were placed 77th and 93rd respectively. Sale of houses had dropped by 28.5% In Anderson County from April 2007 to April 2008.

RealtyTrac reported that across USA the number of foreclosures have jumped by 121% during the second quarter of this year in comparison to the same period in 2007. The problem is infecting the Upstate region also. It seems that the increase in foreclosures is because of ‘creative financing’ that has been putting brakes on the economy.

The National Public Radio interviewed Elaine Worzala of Clemson University during the time lenders were aggressively peddling their loans At that time she had asked the people to opt for renting houses but hardly anyone listened against the backdrop of a near hysterical propaganda about owning houses to realize a great American dream. At that point the people just did not want to listen to anything else.

Experts say that apart from loose lending practices the high price of fuel and food is telling on the people’s pocket. Added to this are the usual crosses of unemployment, illness and death. All these factors have combined to force people to stumble on their mortgage payments and end up with foreclosure.

The story of housekeeper Joyce Lusk is one of many sad tales When business slowed down in Oconee Memorial Hospital she lost her job. Migraines haunted this 59 year old, preventing her from getting suitable occupation Soon she found herself five months behind on her mortgage loan. She made futile appeals to her lender to consider her position, reduce her monthly commitment and give her time until she got a regular job. Today foreclosure is knocking at her door. She bemoans, “I don’t understand why they don’t want to work with me. Why do they want to take the house when the house is going to sit there for God knows how long?”

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The US Senate had introduced a Bill to back borrower-initiated plan to save foreclosure from taking hold of the property and it was binding on the lenders as well. The Bill had been introduced in the House (H.R.3609) and the Senate (S. 26360) was prepared to provide workouts that would be initiated by the suffering house-owners and mandatory on the lenders. It would allow bankruptcy judges to reframe the loan contracts by either lowering the interest rate or by reducing the principal amount of the mortgage loan. The policy intended to make loan repayments more affordable to borrowers.
According to legal experts, the bankruptcy law of 1993 prohibits modification of mortgage contracts of primary residences by bankruptcy judges and so the law needed an amendment to enforce the plan modified by the bankruptcy judges. Besides, the greatest advantage of the plan was that there would be no extra burden on tax-payers.

Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research had proposed another plan for house owners in trouble. The plan termed as ‘own-to-rent’ required house owners facing foreclosure to live in their houses as tenants and pay rent at the existing market rate and not pay the mortgage amount as owners, which was higher than the rentals they would have to pay. Borrowers qualified under the plan would be identified at the median house price in a metropolitan area and was unlikely to benefit house owners belonging to the high-income group. The plan would not burden taxpayers either. A bill to the same effect was recently put up at the House (H.R.6116).

The present foreclosure crisis had taken a back seat in political circles that had decidedly little to comment on foreclosure crisis and anti-foreclosure policies, although it was evident that the foreclosure crisis would intensify in the months to follow. Consequently more house owners would join the bandwagon and demand for more suitable policies to address their problem. The house-owner initiated policies were preferred over the lender-initiated policies in that they gave maximum protection to the house owners against foreclosure. It was desired however that both the options be available to all, especially to low- and moderate-income borrowers.

The bill had the support of AFL-CIO, SEIU, NAACP, ACORN, the Center for Responsible Lending and other consumer protection groups.

The only snag in the bill was that the borrower would have to declare bankruptcy and the Mortgage Bankers Association was vehemently opposing the bill from coming into force.

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Condominium owners were fast losing out their units to foreclosure that was in a rampage throughout the country for the past two years. The condominium associations were now feeling the heat of the foreclosure crisis and the crunch in their pockets. Real estate investors and owners of houses always depended on these associations who were responsible for the overall maintenance of their buildings. They took charge of property insurance, regular maintenance of utilities, landscaping, and upkeep of other shared amenities.
The Community Associations Institute, based in Alexandria, Va., was a non-profit making organization of homeowners associations, which declares the problem to be a significant one. In the United Nations, some 300,800 homeowner associations manage approximately 24 million housing units and therefore the problem is a gigantic one for them when the majority of the house owners obliged to pay their dues to the association fail to do so for a number of reasons.
The main reason for the default in dues was attributed to the foreclosure crisis. House owners having received a foreclosure filing had lagged behind in mortgage payments, sometimes sought to put off their dues to the associations as an aftermath of the foreclosure crisis. For the associations that have formed recently, and had yet to build up their reserves were the worst hit. Shortfalls were more common as it was expected that they were exposed to owners suffering under the recent housing mortgage and sub-prime lending morass that was rocking the country.
According to David Swedelson, a partner at Swedelson & Gottlieb, a law firm in South California a law firm that represented community associations observed that the older associations that had not set aside reserves for rainy days, budgeted for bad debts and regular maintenance of common-area, were also in for trouble. Associations were bound by State laws and could not abandon their obligations.
The misconception among associations, as pointed out by Muller was that the association had ownership rights of an individual unit after a Foreclosure. In fact it takes title to the property subject to the first mortgage. Associations were loath to foreclosure a unit that offered less value than the borrower’s mortgage, but it was thought to be a necessary step in re-negotiating a deal with the association that might avoid a bank foreclosure where the owner stops paying the mortgage and the lender willing to accept a deed to the property from the association. The buyer was also liable to pay the backlog of the prior owner’s dues.

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Numbers, statistics and analysis! But foreclosure numbers cannot measure the human pain and agony of being evicted from houses that have been their homes.

Marvin Davis and his wife drive past their old house and sigh to see weeds overtaking their once well maintained lawn. This was the house where they had raised their children. Five years ago they had surrendered to foreclosure but the pain continues to burn in their hearts.

Each foreclosure has a personal individual story to tell. For 64-year-old Davis the predominating factor was his ill health. He had bought the house twenty years ago when the weather was fine. He had a job and earned $26 per hour. Counting overtime he could pocket $80,000 per year. But things changed drastically from 1999 when Davis suffered a heart attack. Within one year he was compelled to retire. His wages were cut by half. While his income changed, the mortgage on his house remained the same. Medical bills began to pile up and he with his family had to leave the house before the foreclosure proceedings could complete its full run. They left. They could not pay. His company, General Motors nipped at the employee’s benefits like pension and medical help. He bemoans the fact that General Motors has forgotten about who built the company from grass root levels to Olympian heights. He warns that with the slump in the automobile industry today the country is doomed to fall tomorrow. When the funds were exhausted Davis lost the will power to put up a fight. Today he squarely blames the foreclosures, outsourcing of jobs and greedy business interests for his downfall. He did not spare the government either for doubling and even trebling property tax.Today the Davis family roughs it out in a mobile home just a few blocks away from their old address. The couple is dependent on the income of their children.

In May there were 1,055 houses in foreclosure or about to enter the dreaded zone in Madison County. In Indiana there were 4,909 foreclosure postings that calculates to a rate of 1:561. According to reports released by RealtyTrac on 10th July, foreclosures increased by 53% in June 2008 from June 2007. Across the country there were 252,363 foreclosure filings in June this year. It presents a grim national foreclosure rate of 1:501. Experts opine that lax lending practices coupling with adjustable rate mortgages against the background of an economic slump have contributed to this foreclosure crisis.

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One man’s poison has turned out to be another’s meat. Foreclosures have turned into a boon for clean up firms who are on their toes busy with work. The evicted victims leave behind a lot of junk that need to be sorted and sifted by companies engaged by the banks to do the dirty work.

Trash and junk is now turning into cash. Junk haulers and clean up companies are thriving in the Inland Empire clearing up the debris from foreclosed houses. In fact the pickings are so good that competition is becoming hot with parties vying with each other to win the bank contracts.

Close on the heels of the clean up squads come the real estate agents to overhaul and spruce up the units before putting them on the real estate shop shelves for sale or on auction market.

Frances Valdez deals in such cleaning up operations. She commented that there is plenty of work in Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga and also in Colton. She recalls coming upon a house full of shoes, clothes, dishes, beds and other odd pieces of furniture. Within few months business is piling up centred round these discarded stuff. Valdez is the owner of Dynamic Hauling and REO Services based in Riverside. For cleaning each house her charges range from $200 to $1,300. All the stuff of the previous owner is cleared out and the property is given a cosmetic change. Work is grueling. She has taken on three full time employees to keep pace with her growing business.

She gives a graphic description of her tragic findings. In one of the houses she saw the remains of a hurriedly left behind meal. Obviously the Sheriff knocked asking them to leave when the family had just sat down to a meal. It is heartrending but foreclosures have made it unavoidable.

The foreclosure clean up squads are nicknamed trash-outs but the work is keeping many like Lisa Carvalho and her husband gainfully employed. She and her husband have set up their own concern – Casablanca Associates Inc. It is a real estate mortgage company having its own clean up crew. Their business is steady. She notices more advertisements coming up asking for clean up services. The demand is rising with more foreclosures rushing on to the centre stage.

According to ReatlyTrac the San Bernardino-Ontario-Riverside area ranked second in the national foreclosure race.

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As foreclosure numbers increase so do instances of abandonment of pets. The four-legged friends of Man are the latest casualties in this foreclosure crisis.

Nobody knows this better than Shih Tzus of Associated Humane Societies branch in Newark. He said that in the last six months he has had to give shelter to dozens of dogs and cats that were surrendered by owners who had no homes of their own at that point of time; neither did they have the means to feed extra mouths. The owners giving up their pets come in crying and upset.

Across the state all the shelters are reporting a rise of minimum 10% to a maximum of 25% in the number of animals seeking protection. The director of Public Policy at the American Humane Association apprehends that as many 1 million pets could be affected nationally. This is inferred from the fact that foreclosures will hit as many as 4 million families.

The regional director of the Humane Society of the United States, Nina Austenberg analyzed that when the economy is bad everything suffers. A pet then becomes just another mouth to feed. The old animals need medical attention. Previously the owners did not count the expenses. But now the reality is different – people are without jobs and at threat from foreclosures.

One of the acute problems being faced by pet owners displaced by foreclosures is that many apartment complexes have adopted a no-pets policy. Apart from that under the duress of foreclosures, the pets are no longer uppermost on the minds of the family members. It has been calculated by The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that the average cost of caring for a dog is anything between $580 to $875 per annum. Cats cost around $670 annually. Many people do not fully realize that they have to give up a pet until the talk out details of the budget with the housing counselor. At the last minute there is very little time to hunt out a proper shelter or arrange for a friend or relative to take charge of the pet. Caught in the pincers many just abandon the animal to fend for itself and vanish. The pets are left confined within the four walls of the foreclosed abandoned jail. The police in Newark, Irvington and South Orange are flooded with reports of pets left cruelly deserted in confined environment. It is a trend that is causing alarm for all animal lovers.

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The nationwide foreclosures have literally shoved the American people into a debt abyss. Irrespective of the reasons and circumstances, the financial crunch that has gripped the country has not spared the native or the immigrant, young or old, poor or the affluent. America\’s money lenders and brokers have acted the Pied Piper in leading millions of American public into the debt trap, who identify themselves with the miners of old, steeped in debt to the store and unable to repay. Each passing day witnesses several additions to the number.

Harrowing tales of distressed borrowers are splashed across the nation through the media and to the world. Diane McLeod was a valuable customer to her lenders. She was able to secure two mortgages at a time, with varying interest rates. With the fluctuating housing market trends and interest rates mounting to spark off the high rates of foreclosure, Ms McLeod began to stagger. She had a car loan to repay and a high cost credit card. Like any other American she was used to high living and spend more than she earned. She lived with her 20-year-old son in a small two bed-roomed ranch house in suburban Philadelphia and drove her car to work. She was separated from her husband and handled two jobs to fulfill her dreams, which she was doing until rates began to soar and medical emergencies left her drained. She defaulted on her mortgage payments and her credit card bills mounted. She was terminated from her job and left to ruin with her house in foreclosure and her reputation at stake. She was bombarded with calls from the house mortgage agencies, almost 20 times a day, trying to slap a foreclosure notice which she in utter frustration, refused to respond to.

Ms.McLeod represents the average American today. However her lifestyle was not totally to blame. The financial giants Citigroup, Capital One and GE Capital had begun to collect interest payments that accounted for more than 40% of her total income, adding thousands more to it as fees. These financial companies with their non-transparent loan policies that land borrowers in knee-deep trouble when things go awry, are also to blame.

In recent years, the practices that had boosted the American economy and acquired record profits for many banks for decades, have floundered and jolted the nation’s economic system in its entirety, spiraling defaults, losses and foreclosures, crippling the nation.

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