Learning Center » Avoid Foreclosure

The Story of How El Paso Evaded Recession Revealed

Kevin Simpson — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:06:48 +0000

The recession, which started in December 2007, and whose grave effects were felt the following year, lead to an abrupt escalation in the number of foreclosure cases worldwide. The financial crisis has caused companies to lay off a huge number of their employees, or worse, to stop their operations.

This is the reason why foreclosure activities have been out of control. Though the entire world was suffering during those times, one place has been unaffected by the financial depression. El Paso, a city in West Texas, has experienced an economic breakthrough during these troubled times.

El Paso used to have a sluggish economy, and a high unemployment rate, but after Fort Bliss started operating, what used to be a deprived city has become one of the fastest growing cities in the United States.

Fort Bliss is an American military base, the size of which is comparable to Rhode Island. It is one of America’s biggest military installations, created in 2005 when an expansion of the existing base was acted upon as per the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC).

The soldiers and military personnel have since moved to the city, along with their families. According to the Directorate of Environment, the number of soldiers expected was close to 20,000; the soldiers’ families, the military personnel plus their dependents were estimated to be 113,000. The increase in population has caused a housing shortage within the community and has created demand for additional units. With this demand, real estate companies have planned and constructed housing projects in strategic parts of El Paso. Place Properties, one of these companies, has 4,000 housing unit projects distributed across the country.

The housing demand is forecasted to continue since overseas military base closures, such as in Germany, will move these soldiers to El Paso. Military life is fleeting, so most units are occupied through rent and not by house purchase.

Aside from the economy improvement derived from housing, the overall growth of the city has progressed. Jobs were created; salaries grew. Education has also been a major part of the city’s economy. Business outsourcing programs have entered the scene in the form of call centers. Fourteen call centers built in the city have employed 10,000 people.

El Paso is fortunate to have its unique geographic features. Because of its similarity to the Middle East battlefield, the biggest training area, Fort Bliss, was established in the region; allowing the soldiers to practice drills in the city’s desert and mountainous territory.

As with the other countries that have recently encountered recession, there is still hope for recovery for other cities. A responsible government to look over the country’s day-to-day activities and responsible citizens are the key components. They can determine the best features of any location and enhance them. Once their city is stable, investors will be attracted and will start to establish the businesses that could provide more jobs and boost the community’s economy. It wouldn’t take long before they can taste the bliss that Fort Bliss has brought to El Paso.

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Process and Hints to Avoid Foreclosures

Kevin Simpson — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:31:04 +0000

Everyday, life is full of uncertainties and upheavals. Adversities, such as losing your job or exorbitant medical expenses, can occur in one’s life. Foreclosure, in the same way, is an unfavorable situation in which the unpaid accumulation on a loan leads to the passing of the ownership of one’s house to the lender.

The debtors must treat foreclosures wisely and more sensibly. There are several processes that can delay the deadline by which you have to pay your loan and save your house by going through a changeover of owners.

Conversely, lenders usually keep lower interests on the foreclosure of a house to make room for you to settle financial stresses.

Once you can assure that you are on track and will be paying off the debt, then you can successfully avoid a foreclosure. However, a debtor must know that avoiding such situations and ignoring lenders may worsen the crisis.

Reinstatement

This is possible if you pay an accumulated sum along with the previous dues within an agreed date. The payment of this accrued amount along with the other dues makes the payment more current and is preferably taken by homeowners enduring a temporary financial difficulty.

Forbearance

This is a useful process taken by debtors and is often a joint method that goes along with the reinstatement process. Forbearance allows owners to delay the payment of the loan for a short period of time, while other processes are undertaken in order to make the loan more current afterwards.

This process helps in the owner to overcome stress and settle the debt with time. However, this time period is only for the short-term accumulation of a loan and must be talked over with the lender.

A Settlement Plan

This is yet another useful method taken by a considerable amount of homeowners in order to avoid the undesirable foreclosure of their houses. This easy step-by-step process allows effortless repayment of the accumulated loan and relieves stress from the owner. The settlement plan allows the debtor to pay the accumulated debt in certain monthly installments until the sum reaches the current amount of the loan. However, a settlement must be reached by the lenders in order to work on the process and the owners must assure the lenders that they can pay off the loan.

Mortgage Modification

This process is taken up in order to repay a house loan on a long-term basis. The lenders allow the debtor pay off the accumulated debt through a series of payments overtime, while at the same time the current loan is paid on a regular basis. This method allows the easy repayment of the accumulated debt without adding additional stress to the owner over a long period of time.

The Selling of your House

This is a last resort that homeowners can adopt before foreclosure takes place. If repayment of the accumulated debts is no longer possible then settlements can be made with the lenders in order to delay the foreclosure till the house could be sold out. Just one click on

Stimulus Plans to Prevent Foreclosures are Speckled with Injustice

Julie Parker — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:32:29 +0000

Stimulus plans to prevent foreclosures are speckled with injustice towards Hispanics and Blacks. It is they who were main targets of exotic mortgages, main sufferers of the housing crisis and now mainly neglected in the rescue plans.
Jesse Jackson claims that they have recently come to know that from the stimulus plans of President Obama the minorities are getting a significantly fewer share than others. Adriene Hill of WBEZ radio said that of the 119 contracts issued by Illinois Department of Transportation the black contractors have got only 2% as reported by Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. This sidelines a whole generation of youth who could otherwise have been the pillars of a recovering nation.

While President Obama was in Copenhagen advocating the cause of Chicago to host the next Olympics a 16 years old high school student Derrion Albert was murdered in Chicago. Only those were shocked we were not unaware of the pattern being woven depriving the Blacks and Hispanics in a systematic manner. It should not be permitted to continue.

Following this particular tragedy the President sent his attorney general and education secretary to the Chicago. But this was more in reaction to the embarrassment the murder caused at a time when he was trying to place Chicago on the Olympics map. Adolfo Carrion, the urban “czar” of the president should also accompany them not only to investigate a particular murder but to analyze the slow death of justice that is happening in cities right across USA.

The answer to this challenge requires much more than discussions. In Chicago Jackson wants the citizens to take a stand. A safe passage to school has to be guaranteed. A challenge has to be thrown to the city authorities and to the federal as well state governments forcing them to do something and not just talk.
Next in priority, feels Jackson, is the creation of jobs in Chicago. Washington seems to be recovering but in many places, especially the urban pockets, recession has now become depression. The Black unemployment rate is double that of the Whites and the youth are getting angry. A whole generation may go awry and everybody will have to pay for it.

The law has to give equal protection to all. The predatory lenders preying on minorities have to be collared. All must be given an opportunity to avail of the new green jobs. Communities previously excluded from the energy sector should now be included. All this needs a blue print, time schedules, overseeing and above all legal enforcement.

Woman Shoots Herself to Avoid Foreclosure Eviction

Julie Parker — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:00:56 +0000

A woman had to shoot herself before Fannie Mae decided to stop foreclosure proceedings.

Ninety-year-old Addie Polk has come to represent the agony of the foreclosure crisis hitting the common citizen. She was hospitalized after she shot herself twice hitting the upper part of her body on Wednesday 3rd October. Akron residents have come forward in support of Polk who is in a critical condition at Akron General Medical Center as on Friday 5th October.

Reacting to the incident Brian Faith of Fannie Mae said that foreclosure proceedings have been dropped and the property has been signed off ‘outright’ to her. He said, “We’re going to forgive whatever outstanding balance she had on the loan and give her the house. Given the circumstances, we think it’s appropriate.”

Rep Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) raised the issue of Polk on the floor of the House on Friday during talks on economic remedies. Kucinich quipped that the bill bypasses the fate of the Addie Polks of the world. It fails to tackle the problem of millions facing foreclosure. The focus of the bill is on Walls Street. As a result “the market may go up for a few days, but democracy is going downhill.”

When Polk shot herself the noise made her neighbour, Robert Dilon to use a ladder to enter the bathroom on the second storey. Some deputies nearby also heard the noise. Entering he kept calling her name but she was not responding. He found her prone on her bed just about breathing. A handgun lay by her side. Initially he thought that she kept it for self-defense. But when she turned her head and he saw the blood on her face he realized that the old lady had shot herself. Dilon rushed down to let in the deputies. Polk had left her car keys, pocketbook together with life insurance police neatly for anyone to find. It suggested her intentions were well planned.

The unfolding tragedy is that there are many like Polk – either older or younger. The foreclosure trouble was the same.

Polk had contracted a 30-year-old mortgage on her house in 2004 for $45,620 with Countrywide. On the same day she took out a line of credit for $11,380. The house was over a hundred years old. The following few years Polk began to miss out on mortgage payments on the house that her husband had purchased in 1970. In 2007 Fannie Mae took over the mortgage and initiated foreclosure proceedings.

The Law Steps In To Prevent Foreclosure

Julie Parker — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:44:01 +0000

The law had to step in to prevent Sheila Cruz from losing her American dream – her own house. It took her three years to prevent her dream house on Staten Island from becoming a nightmare. But she won against imminent foreclosure.

Her story started in 2004 when she was ready to spend $30,000 of here hard earned money as down payment for a house. But her broker friend told her to opt for a townhouse worth $400,000 without making any initial payment. At first she was reticent thinking of her modest earnings but finally she agreed when her friend told her that the monthly payment would amount to $2,000 per month. An assurance was also given that the figure would soon come down. She inked the agreement and set up her home in the house.

Six months later Sheila began to get worried. After going through the fine print of the document she discovered that there was a clause saying that the interest would shoot up after five years. It showed that so far she had been paying only the interest and not any part of the capital. Suddenly she realized that her houseboat was leaking. It was tough for her to meet the current rate of payment but if it increased further she would default and run into foreclosure without fail.

Like hundreds of many others in this foreclosure age, Sheila had become a victim of predatory lending. The majority succumbs to foreclosure and gets evicted from their hearth and home. But some like Sheila are plucky and lucky enough to force a turn around.

Legalists opine that there are many ways of keeping the foreclosure wolf at bay. A legal aid society or non-profit house-counseling group can be contacted to find out who is the owner of the mortgage. HUD has a list on its website of these counseling groups. In most cases the banks have sold the mortgages and this makes it difficult to trace the current owners of the agreement. Banks may be contacted but usually that step does not come to much use. The banks might make things even worse than before. If the bank is hostile then it is best to hire a lawyer. The legal expert will be able to pin the flaws in the mortgage agreement and put the lender in an awkward position for predatory lending. The law has the power to close in on the offending lender and halt foreclosure proceedings.

Free Workshops For Cornered Foreclosure Victims

Julie Parker — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:06:08 +0000

The spiraling foreclosures has taken on such jumbo proportions that the whole nation is on the alert. It cannot be dismissed as an isolated incident confined to only borrowers and lenders. The foreclosure crisis is due to predatory lending and irresponsible borrowing in the sub-prime mortgage market. They have begun to organize themselves to tackle the menace.

Two free workshops are being hosted the Minnesota Home Ownership Center in conjunction with Minneapolis-Saint Paul Regional Foreclosure Prevention Funders Council to inform and guide house owners in distress regarding their mortgages. The scheduled dates for the workshops are 9th October and 10th October 2007. The first one will he held at the Urban League, 2100 Plymouth Avenue North, Minneapolis and second one at the Wilder Recreation Center, 958 Jessie Street in Saint Paul. The workshops will be open to the public from 4.30 pm to 8 p.m.

Quite a number of mortgage companies and other community organizations will be attending the workshops to proved advice and answer queries. It will be done confidentially. Many would like to know about the details of the foreclosure operation and the legal rights of the borrowers. The focus will be on possible solutions for being able to own a house without the pitfalls. In this connection the public would be interested in long-term stable terms. At the venue borrowers will be able to set a date for dialogue with lenders or with foreclosure prevention specialists (non-profit) after the conclusion of the workshops to get individual attention. Some mortgage houses are so keen about the show that they are offering financial incentives to house owners who attend it.

The participants are requested to confirm their joining by 5th October over the phone so that the organizers are prepared well ahead to meet the situation. The participants can get more detailed information over two websites on the Internet.

If due to unforeseen circumstances the borrowers are unable to join the workshops on those two specified dates and yet are keen about its objectives then they should contact Minnesota Home Ownership Center. The Center acts in conjunction with a team of community based organizations, which offer advice as regard foreclosure prevention without charging any fees.

The two workshops are basically for house owners. Renters who have questions and are interested are free to call over the phone Saint Paul residents and Minneapolis Residents.

Arm Yourself Against Foreclosures By Reading The Book

Julie Parker — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:27:28 +0000

Lloyd Segal, a mortgage broker, in a timely move has authored a book full of punch to motivate borrowers into action against foreclosures. For those caught in the net the situation is not only agonizing but also insulting and traumatizing apart from being a economic catastrophe.

With foreclosures marching on with the highest peak in ten years Wall Street has started to quake and shiver.

The ‘How-To’ book is about how to keep your roof intact, negotiate with the lender and refinance, how to interpret the law to your favour and take recourse to other means like bankruptcy to fend off the wolf from the door. However Segal warns that sometimes nothing delivers and owners have to face up to the harsh reality of being unable to keep the unit. It is at this point that the book is of invaluable help giving advice focusing not on the foreclosure so much as getting rid of the financial burden. The approach is to squeeze out the maximum financial benefit and prevent damage to credit ratings. Nothing affects credit history more than a foreclosure past.

The book is full of hope and tells you to keep your chin up even when the dreaded foreclosure notice arrives. The first thing is to stay calm and fearless. Be determined not to surrender without a fight. It takes few months for foreclosures to become effective and Segal shows how to make the best use of this bonus.

He begins by putting the question – is the property worth keeping? The answer will involve taking into account equity of the unit and credit ratings together with future budget planning of the victim.

Next he says that, more often than not the lender is not an ogre and is willing to negotiate. Foreclosure process is expensive for them and moreover lenders do not want to sit on idle bricks and mortar.

If the first step fails then the other options are refinancing or filing for bankruptcy. Military persons may avail of special protection clause if still in service.

The tone of the book is impressed with the firm belief of the author that it is possible and very much so for the ordinary house owner to take the bull by the horns and subdue it. As a second line of action he suggest consultation with legal and financial experts.