Foreclosure Listings Articles

The innumerable abandoned foreclosed houses are attracting criminal activities. The administration has had to clamp down curfew to keep gangs off the streets. It is part of the strategy adopted by the city to stop the houses from being burnt down during the three Halloween nights otherwise known as Angels Night.
The police are determined to keep off the streets the young aged below 18 after 10 p.m. But a more strict emergency measure will take off from 6 p.m. All the steps are targeted to see that the young stay within the safe confines of their residences. Halloween curfew takes off from 10 p.m.

The office of the Mayor Dave Bing sent out a release stating that if any minor was seen on “any public street, sidewalk, alley, park, playground, vacant lot or any other unsupervised outdoor public place, or in any arcade, billiard or pool hall, bowling alley, restaurant, theatre, or place of amusement or entertainment” would be detained and fined by the police.
In previous years the law breakers were kept back by the police until they were collected by the guardians. Gary Brown, former Deputy Police Chief commented “We spend too many resources baby-sitting kids, and if we can limit that, then the police officers can be out doing other things. I thought that was just a waste of valuable resource.”

Eighteen candidates for Detroit City Council including Brown conferred with Bing on Wednesday 28th October to step up anti-arson efforts. The meeting is an annual event. There are five sitting councilors and 13 challengers who are campaigning for 9 open-seats in the general elections to be held the following week.

Bing is being challenged by Tom Barrow. He asked the candidates to put aside all political wrangling and join the volunteers to patrol the neighbourhoods of Detroit on the nights of Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Bing was hopeful of gathering together volunteers numbering 50,000. He said, “We’re asking our angels to come out this weekend to help us prevent anything negative as it relates to fires in our city”

Traditionally 30th October is observed as Devil’s Night – it being marked by fun and pranks laced with mischief. But from the 80’s it has taken an ugly turn with the Halloween revelers using this pretext to set fire to empty houses and properties all through Detroit. In 1984 there were 800 fire outbreaks. Volunteer patrolling has been able to bring down the numbers.

There is the possibility that a controversial practice of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could nip loan applications in the bud. Very few know about it.
Suppose one has a credit score of 800 and good equity on the property that he or she wants to refinance taking advantage of the prevailing low interest rates. Apparently it seems that it should be smooth sailing all the way. But the bank apologizes as the automated underwriting system of Fannie Mae will not accept because there is a disputed account otherwise known as ‘tradeline.’

The applicant then goes on to explain that the dispute related to say a medical bill or charge of credit card was valid and that subsequently the account was closed. At that time the creditor had given the assurance that the dispute mark would be removed but in reality did not do so. But such explanations will not melt the loan officer and the application becomes invalid.
The crux of the issue is that unless loans start flowing foreclosures will not stop.

The consumers are guaranteed under the Fair Credit Reporting Act the right to dispute wrong information on any of their accounts in the credit files. When a consumer challenges the information a note has to be made on this file. So long as this note remains most credit scoring methods will not be affected by this dispute. But by raising an objection Fannie Mae, functioning under the observation of the federal government, denies granting loans only because the consumers had enforced legal rights.

Amy Bonitatibus of Fannie Mae agreed that the computerized underwriting system was being used by nearly all the lenders who are having business dealings with Fannie Mae. Consequently those applications with disputed marking were turned back. She reiterated that her firm does “not prohibit delivery of a loan … where the borrower has disputed information” on the credit report. By manual underwriting she explained, “Our policy requires the lender to determine and document whether or not the disputed information is accurate and underwrite the borrower’s credit accordingly.”

According to some the banks refuse the loans and use a flimsy excuse to pass on the blame to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

One individual brought to notice that applications for purchasing a condo was turned down by a national lender despite the bank acknowledging “all of the accounts have a zero balance, are in good standing, and show no other derogatory information.” But hours spent on the phone talking to creditors and credit agencies proved to be totally futile.

The historical collapse of the biggest bank in USA, Washington Mutual, highlighted the drama of the foreclosure crisis.
After the federal takeover of Washington Mutual in September 2008 the previous staff continued to arrive for work for many days – drifting around and twiddling their fingers till the close of January 2009 when they were finally [...]

Continue reading: The Washington Mutual Collapse Highlighted the Foreclosure Crisis

Yomalis Hilario and Johnny Montero are two of the many borrowers at risk from foreclosure searching for mortgage relief. They bought a house in Paramus in 2006 for $468,000. But soon they found it difficult to continue paying $3,700 per month on two mortgages carrying heavy interest.
Hilario contacted the servicer asking for a more reasonable [...]

Continue reading: Borrowers Facing Foreclosure Risk are Searching for Mortgage Relief

There is a very interesting story posted on the Business Week website this week. It asks a rather simple question that I think a lot people would be interested in knowing the answer and general consensus to. Should Wall Street Give Their Bonuses to the Homeless? Most people directly blame Wall [...]

Continue reading: Foreclosure Recap – Week #44

Investors from outside the state have been snapping up foreclosed properties right across Columbus. But from now on they will be facing stepped up scrutiny. The prosecutors of the city said that the purchasers would be legally penalized if they fail to maintain their properties. Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. the City Attorney said, “You have [...]

Continue reading: Absentee Landlords Being Targeted by Columbus City Officials

Florida and other places in America wrecked by foreclosures are facing the problem of treating abandoned pools left behind in vacant foreclosed houses. The pools have become stagnant choked with algae. It is resulting in breeding of mosquitoes and other disease spreading insects.
The code enforcement officials in Wellington were one of the first to experiment [...]

Continue reading: Catfish Dive in to Save Communities from Foul Fetid Foreclosed Pools

The staggering number of foreclosures has led to a virtual paralysis of the judicial system. Florida is one of the worst affected areas and the courts here are choked with foreclosure cases. This prompted Miami University’s Michael Froomkin to craft The Foreclosure Defense Program. It helps to engage young attorneys with the backlog of foreclosure [...]

Continue reading: The Foreclosure Defense Program