Foreclosure Victims Feel a Two Year Halt on Foreclosures Can Help Them
Foreclosures victims feel that a two-year halt on foreclosures can help them. Lawmakers echo same sentiments and are proposing a moratorium on house foreclosures.
Sandra Applleberry of Grand Blanc is 53 years and is a pastor of a church in Flint. She is one of the thousands who are threatened by impending foreclosures as they are behind in their mortgage payments. This tense situation has caused the three senators of the state to support a bill that will put a hold on mortgage as well as tax foreclosures in Michigan.
The legislation would permit foreclosure victims a respite for two years according to court orders. The time could be worked out to reduce the amount of monthly payment. During the first quarter of 2008 there were 1,734 foreclosure postings in Genesee County according to the findings of RealtyTrac. It is the same as the last quarter of 2007 and an increase of 47% from the first quarter of the previous year, 2007. Michigan as well as Genesee County has been attacked simultaneously by foreclosures and high unemployment rates. Senator John Gleason (D-Flushing) sees this problem as exasperating. “It’s not ending. It’s getting worse.”
The situation began to get problematic for Appleberry from the fall of 2007 when her mortgage monthly amount suddenly zoomed to $1,700. Just at that time she had lost the allowance she got from housing. Her husband, Leslie is disabled and received payments from social security.
The ACORN branch of Flint mediated to stop an auction of the house of the Appleberry’s some month’s ago and is now pursuing the matter with the lender to bring down the interest rate to 9.5%. Sandra is optimistic that some sort of agreement will be reached – something that they can afford. Hitherto a proposal by the lender had been well beyond their means.
The legislation will also permit the owners of houses to ask for a freeze on property tax for two years. The plan allows Michigan State Housing Development Authority to issue bonds that would ensure mortgage guarantee during the time of the freeze. The money from the bonds would be utilized to help foreclosure victims about to lose their houses.
In the past a tax postponement plans had helped many out of tax foreclosures. In six years 1,700 families have benefited. ACORN hopes to utilize a $7.8 million grant to help more families threatened with foreclosures.
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