To add insult to injury during his tour ofNevada, Mitt Romney said that the idea was not good to “try to sop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom”.

Recently Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) came forward with a string of deductions and tax credits to those who were first nest builders and also for buyers who had experienced foreclosures. He thinks this would be an effective way to give a fillip to the housing market.

Newt Gingrich said if he won he would repeal the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of Dodd-Frank. Gingrich was confident that “overnight it will be easier to get a housing loan”.

Recently President Obama has suggested a plan to help those with negative equity. It would enable them to become current on their mortgages that would lead to savings of $3,000 per year on an average. The plan would be financed with bank tax that the House, led by the Republicans has little interest in supporting. In a speech Obama admitted, “I’ll be honest, the programmes that we put forward haven’t worked at the scale that we hoped. Not as many people have taken advantage of it as we wanted”.

Experts think that the Republicans have hardly spoken on the housing crisis inNevadafor political expediency. Professor David Damore ofUniversityofNevadaatLas Vegassaid, “They’re not going to want to propose something that would involve more government intervention. But it’s kind of hard not to have the government involved in a situation likeNevada”.

Southern Nevada’s Legal Aid Center has been holding talks in a class room of the law school of the university to acquaint the troubled homeowners with the in and out of the mortgage issue. The Center claims that three fourths of those who have attended these talks have been able to continue to stay in their houses, at least for some time.

The latest problem is that those who had got their loans modified in 2009 were re-defaulting.

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Last November Riverside National Bank won the court case claiming $151,461 against Ericksen who was a handyman surviving from one job to another. He now camps in a small trailer in Ocean Tide Park for mobile homes in Riviera Beach.

In the “deficiency judgment”  the bank has claimed that 59 years Ericksen continues to owe on the loan because the sale proceeds from the house did not cover the entire due amount. It took Erickson by surprise that the bank was still out to squeeze money out of him. But he quipped, “Good luck with that on. I’m pretty much out”.

Banks are given five years time in Florida to file for this deficiency judgment; they are allowed two decades to collect the same. But the numbers of deficiency claims have gone down to negligible numbers since the onslaught of the foreclosure crisis. Since the busting of the bubble Palm Beach County has been flooded with over 100,000 foreclosure cases.

Palm Beach Post made a review of the court records and found out of thousands only 133 deficiency claims had been filed during the period stretching from 2006 April till 2010 November on foreclosed homes. These were initiated by 88 servicers/lenders. Out of these, 68 have been granted the right to follow up the deficiency. Most of the lenders who have been awarded these judgments are small local banks.

According to defense attorneys representing foreclosed homeowner as well as experts in mortgage matters, this deficiency judgment is not an empty threat. Right now the banks are up to their necks managing foreclosure to give attention to this side of the issue and chase the amount that was short. For the house owners who thought that it was curtains with the seizing of their homes the days ahead could be worse if banks shift gears and focus on deficiency. This possibility in the coming years cannot be dismissed.

Lawyer Melva Rozier  of Palm Beach said, “In two or three years the banks are going to get caught up and they will want to get that money back on their books”.

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Family Christian Center under pastors Rich and Lindy Oliver decided that more space was required for their growing congregation. The church took a loan of $4.2 million. But when the crisis hit in 2006 many of faithful shifted to other places while those that remained reduced their contributions drastically. Meanwhile the value of the property tumbled down in 2008 from $8.5 million to a mere $2.5 million.

The pastors had no alternative but to cease from paying mortgage dues. Oliver said, “I just told the bank to take it. If you’re a church with a piece of property upside down and no one will refinance the loan or lend you more money, there’s not really another choice but to walk away”.

Understandably banks are hesitant to “foreclose on God” and try to seek alternatives but no far no such deal has materialized in the case of the Olivers. The church, newly named The Family Church, is doing what others are in the rest of the country – “cutting back and simplifying”. Last November the pastors were able to raise $700,000 but it was not sufficient to bail out the previous Family Christian Church. The money came from personal loans and donations from the members of the church.

Generally the lenders thought the churches to be safe as borrowers because of the regular flow of cash coming from tithing and the moral feelings of the majority of the pastors to be particular about repaying debts.

Similar to other churches Oliver made use of bond-financing and not direct mortgage to fund the constructions. Traditionally those churches that wanted to construct turned to the governing bodies or to niche lenders from where they got long term loans. But during the housing boom the local and community banks tempted the churches with low interests and short-term loans.

Simultaneously the underwriters of the bonds started to offer churches more money upfront if churches issued compound-interest-bonds (so called). It meant until maturity the churches had to pay nothing; at that time of reckoning they would have to pay both principal and accumulated interest that often became double the original amount; in coming few years these bonds will mature – resulting in more trouble for churches.

Summing up the situation however pastor Johnny Zapara said, “A building does not make a church. We will find a way to continue”.

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Analysts say that the economic crunch that the world is experiencing would still be felt in the next one to two years. In the United States alone, recovery is far from being felt as the housing sector becomes more vulnerable as the years pass. Even with Federal support to GSEs like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, foreclosures still hit rock bottom at the end of 2010. For Fannie Mae alone, statistics about foreclosure homes in this institution shows that they owned around a hundred thousand homes before end of March.

According to Year End 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, there are at least 3 million foreclosure filings across the country. It is higher of 2% from 2009 and a huge leap of 23% from 2008 This shows that even experts say that the global economy is slowly recovering from the aftermath of the recession, housing markets’ recovery still needs a lot more reform to boost the sector.

The ongoing controversy surrounding foreclosure documentations and procedures led to many lenders to have second thoughts in proceeding with foreclosures. It has been the reason of increased foreclosures in the last quarter of 2010 and if this issue couldn’t be resolved, the numbers will rise. The government needs to handle this immediately in order to avoid obstacles in an already slow recovery. The Obama administration has yet to announce as to the amendments on the existing housing policy and if one exists, it needs to be more robust to support the issues surrounding the high foreclosure rates.

On the brighter side of things, GSEs are giving a lot of materials to homebuyers to educate them on how to avoid Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae foreclosures. Fannie Mae, for example, gives information through a website and an active hotline in case a homeowner needs help. For homeowners who want to avoid foreclosure, a short sale option is always available. Short sale is beneficial for the homeowner because the control of the sale is in the homeowner himself, not the bank. This option is ideal for property holders who don’t want foreclosures to appear in public records which affect future loan applications and even job applications.

The most important thing before entering any alternative for foreclosure is to study the options well and weigh both the advantages and disadvantages. Although the effects of the economic crunch are far from over, the best defense to battle foreclosure is to increase knowledge and awareness.

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The panelists of UNLV launched their plan of “Ending Crisis in Nevada”. The group included Barbara Buckely (former speaker of Assembly. She said that the housing situation of the state is improving but there are still many miles to go before one can say that troubles are over.

According to SalesTraq of Las Vegas the number of foreclosures in the valley will be more than 20,000. For the third running year the state ranks first as regards rate of foreclosures. Buckely of Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada (executive director) said, “We are still in the midst of this, and there’s no relief in sight. Ending the foreclosure crisis is going to be easier said than done”.

Nasser Daneshvary of Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at UNLV (director) said that it is good news that foreclosure number transactions have been going down since 2009 July and that short sale figures are increasing. In a short sale the house is sold by the defaulting house owner, with the permission of the lender, for an amount that is less than the loan due amount. In recent years the sale of foreclosed units formed the bulk of transactions in the real estate market but the percentage had dropped to 40%. Short sales are now taking up 30% of the sales. Daneshvary said, “We should see more short sales and fewer foreclosures during 2011. At least for now, the increase in short sales relative to foreclosure are particularly encouraging”.

Daneshvary is the co-author of a study highlighting the menace of foreclosure concentrations being poisonous for the localities as prices tumble and vacant houses pose danger to the area. The suggestion is that the government should provide encouragement to short sales. Alternatively the option is giving encouragement for reducing the principal and making the monthly payment affordable. The people will then be able to stay in their houses.

In the quarter starting from July 2010 there were 4,690 loans modified in Nevada but only 87 calculating to 1.85% saw reductions of principal informed Daneshvary.

She said that in 2011 the Legislature will take further steps to give protection to the house owners so that they can short sale their properties.

Find more foreclosure listings in Nevada:

• Las Vegas, NV
• Sparks, NV
• Carson City, NV
• Fallon, NV

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Fifty year old Jones, a resident of Seattle worked for three decades going up in the financial service sector of the industry. From bank teller she became an executive in the mortgage world. In 2007 spring she purchased the house of her dream in Kirkland by contracting a fixed rate mortgage covering thirty years.

While Jones was enjoying a New Year’s holiday in Mexico, thunder struck. She lost her job with the closing of her division. She used up her savings for a year while attempting loan modification but it was to no avail; the bank filed for foreclosure. This is the typical story of lenders preying on irresponsible buyers leading to wild lending.
But the picture presented by the Seattle Times Pro-Publication tempers that picture. The majority foreclosed upon were young was the impression given. It is wrong. Similar to Jones half of the borrowers were over 40 years of age.

Another notion is that the predominating cause of foreclosures was predatory lending. But three fourths of the loans were sans any of three features that characterized predatory lending – ballooning payments,
penalties for pre-payments and exorbitant interest rates.

The third common idea is that the majority lost their houses to foreclosure; but their findings negates this. Over half were able to retain their property with some of them managed to even make a profit by selling them for more than their debts.

Thus the survey fills in some of the gaps because of insufficient data on residential loans. Although the regulators together with the politicians are taking action to get more information about lending operations and foreclosures, consumer advocates complain that the progress is very slow; moreover it is not clear how much will be freely available.

Carolina Reid of Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said, “For those of us who want to understand how the foreclosure crisis has affected borrowers and communities, it is frustrating to not have access to publicly available data that can really help us to understand what happened and why”.

It is difficult even to get basic numbers about those who are defaulting or being foreclosed upon observed Guy Cecala of Mortgage Finance, a trade publication.

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Ron Ward and his wife have been wrongfully foreclosed upon despite a forbearance agreement with Wells Fargo. Their house in Aptos, California was sold without their knowledge. They came to know of it only when faced with the eviction notice. Ward has filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo.

Across America questions about the legality of foreclosures initiated against millions of houses are now cropping up in courts. The new twist to the foreclosure crisis started with the disclosures in court about the robo-signings.

Ward, a licensed realtor with Main Street Realtors of Soquel is feeling frustrated. He had kept aside money each month while following the loan modification schedule so that he could repay the dues later on.

The couple had previously bought a house on Middleton Drive for $180,000 in 1997. During the booming years when the property value had been jumping he refinanced it many times and then decided to reconstruct the unit and add another floor having a patio facing the sea. The location was great for the small family of husband, wife and a toddler. The beach was only two minutes walk and the neighbourhood was congenial.

It took about a year to rebuild the unit while Ward commuted to and fro Arizona for business purposes bringing back ideas. Towards the close of 2005 the Ward took a mortgage of $837,900 from Wells Fargo at the rate of 6% interest. Monthly payment of $4,189 had to be initially made. But within three years the housing boom had turned to bust and Ward’s wife lost her job.

The couple sought the help of Wells Fargo and the bank agreed to a loan modification. But the bank said that to be eligible they would have to be late on their mortgage dues. Accordingly the Wards ceased to pay. Ward contends that he submitted information in details regarding their monetary position to the bank but Wells Fargo repeatedly claimed to have lost it. They thrice asked for tax return. Ward had to spend hours talking over the phone.

After having stopped payments for three months they received a default notice from Wells Fargo. It said that the couple owed the bank $19,136 and that the date scheduled for foreclosure sale was 27^th July 2009. From May to July Wells Fargo had thrice refused to modify the loan. In the papers submitted in court by the lender it has been stated that the borrowers did not respond to these notices.

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The Republicans did not have to pay a political price for blocking efforts from the beginning of this year. During a stretch of seven weeks last summer the issue on extending jobless coverage failed. Bad publicity on this issue had already been forecasted.

Another thorny issue is the extension of income tax cuts – a legacy of the Bush era. The Democrats are hoping that by making a compromise and allowing continuation of income tax cats for the wealthy the Republicans will be amenable to allowing an extension of jobless benefits.

Rep Mike Pence (Republican/Indiana) holding a third rank in the House among his party members, opined that the extension of unemployment coverage has to be paid now and not later if the support of fiscal conservatives is to be won over. Courtney Kolb speaking on behalf of Pence said, “The fact that we have to keep extending unemployment benefits shows that the economic policies of this administration have failed”.

Speaking to The Associated Press Hilda Solis (Labour Secretary) said the it would be a great mistake on the part of the Congress if it failed to extend the unemployment benefits. She added, “This is a bad way to to start off the new, incoming session of new politicians that said that they wanted to make government work for people in a better way”.

Carol Hardison of Crisis Assistance Ministry at Charlotte, North Carolina said that even allowing extension by the Congress would be nothing better than a temporary step. Since the onset of the Great Recession in 2007 December, 20,000 new clients have called on her. She added, “We’re going to have a new conversation with the people who are still suffering, about the potentially drastic changes they’re going to have to make to stay out of the homeless shelters”.

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Over the past month, all 50 state attorneys general have been questioning banks incessantly concerning the continuing robo-signing scandal, where foreclosure paperwork and affidavits were submitted to the courts without due process (review). There could be a kink in the works, though: elections were held last Tuesday.

A 12 member executive committee had been formed for the express purpose of questioning the banks. After the Tuesday elections, though, half of that committee are now finding themselves in their last months of service. Ohio, Florida, California, Arizona, Connecticut and New York have all elected new attorneys general who will take office in January.

A highly visual attorney general in the group is Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray. He had filed suit recently against Ally Financial (GMAC Mortgage) claiming that the bank’s employees had filed falsified foreclosure paperwork and affidavits. Richard Cordray lost his reelection bid to Mike DeWine, Republican. DeWine, though, hasn’t decided if he will further pursue the issue.

Peter Swire, former special assistant of economic policy at the White House and an Ohio State law professor, indicated that both Cordray and Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller were the most evident players in resolving this issue. Miller has the utmost confidence that, despite the losses of some of the attorneys general in the election, the investigation will continue. Miller continues by saying that the changes will not affect the work that is being done at the leadership and staff levels.

In a statement, Miller indicated that the attorneys’ general investigation is a bipartisan and unified effort with a mission to halt improper mortgage practices. It is imperative that the investigation be conducted quickly and methodically. The problem, though, is that it is not clear how much the committee can accomplish within the next two months, before the new attorneys general take office.

Cordray is confident, though, that the new group will continue with the investigation. He indicates that maybe the players will change but that it would be very surprising if there were any material changes. All of the current 50 states attorneys general are on board and all of them have indicated that this is a very important issue that needs to be solved as quickly as possible.

“AGs come and go all the time,” James Tierney, director of the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia University, said. It happens all across the board when it comes to politics. Tierney indicates the matter as a non-issue; things will not change.

Iowa AG Tom Miller’s job may end up being more difficult now, though. There is a consensus that he will be a major decision maker. Miller will still hold his office and he is currently at the center of attention. He has already begun having meetings with various lenders about the issue.

Miller has indicated that the committee is very focused on the robo-signing issue, that’s what made the committee necessary in the first place. The committee, according to Miller, also wants to direct some of their focus on different, more comprehensive, solutions to this problem.

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When Wells Fargo announced its plan last week to submit new foreclosure affidavits they actually used the words: “out of an abundance of caution.” Wells Fargo has decided, out of this abundance of caution, to submit supplemental foreclosure affidavits pending before 23 judicial foreclosure states’ courts, approximately 55,000 of them.

Supplemental affidavits are clearly insufficient in Cordray’s mind.

The Ohio Attorney General’s office, and even Cordray himself, has asked both Ally Financial (GMAC Mortgage) and Wells Fargo to withdraw any motion where an improper affidavit was submitted that resulted in a judgment. It was also asked that both banks not proceed to evict any homeowner or proceed to foreclose on any property in any instance where fraudulent evidence was submitted to the court.

Cordray is of the opinion that a person has no way to defend against a foreclosure notice that was received through fraudulent evidence.

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray was the first to go after Ally Financial (formerly GMAC) early last month. Cordray brought lawsuits, alleging misconduct with mortgage financing, against the 3 largest credit rating agencies. Because of Cordray’s efforts, he was profiled in the March 2010 issue of HousingWire.

Cordray indicated that there might need to be more lawsuits needed in the HousingWire profile. Since he has, other state attorneys general are also investigating the matter.

Along with Ally Financial (GMAC Mortgage), several major lenders, which include JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, are being bombarded with allegations for admitting employees signed foreclosure affidavits with out due process (review). Attorneys General of 50 states announced, two weeks ago, that a coalition will investigate lenders who filed erroneous foreclosure affidavits. Ohio AG Richard Cordray declined to discuss or comment about the 50-state investigation or even about the conversations he had with other AG’s about the matter.

A spokesman for Ally Financial, James Olecki, responded to the accusations given by the Ohio AG lawsuit, by replying “There was nothing fraudulent or deceitful about GMAC Mortgage’s practices.” Olecki further says that GMAC immediately remedied any procedural mistakes made in the completion of various legal documents.

The Ohio AG lawsuit alleges that Ally Financial (GMAC Mortgage) and its employees violated the state’s consumer protection laws because they filed, in Ohio alone, hundreds of fraudulent foreclosure affidavits.

A Wells Fargo spokeswoman has indicated that the company will cooperate with Cordray’s inquires but they are of the opinion that none of these instances actually led to any unlawful foreclosures. Bank of America declined to respond to Cordray’s allegations.

Even though the banks in question wish it, this problem will not go away on its own. Their “band-aid” won’t help, either, because of the simple fact that the problem will still fester.

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ForeclosureListings.com has a comprehensive, searchable database of foreclosures in areas like Columbus, Bronx, Derry, Missoula and in the whole country. Try to search foreclosures by state today! Ohio Attorney General is Up in Arms About Wells Fargo’s Robo-Signing Announcement