Even though California’s foreclosures have improved somewhat, Florida’s foreclosure rate continues to increase and Arizona and Nevada continue to be plagued by the specter of foreclosure. The first four months of 2010 found more homeowners in deep financial trouble than last year, and the inability for many to negotiate with their lenders is compounding the problem. As more people are discovering, modifying a loan can affect their credit, as will a home entering foreclosure, and the temptation to stop making payments for a home that is worth less than what is owed is growing nationwide. As more borrowers find themselves in financial trouble, lenders continue to become better at navigating the government foreclosure regulations and programs and are shortening the length of time to take back mortgaged homes for nonpayment, as lenders.

Modification loans by the U.S. government are revealed for being only moderately successful to more than half of those who apply for them; the number of failed attempts are about as many as the successful ones. Currently there are more than 6 million homeowners in the U.S. at risk of foreclosure, although only about 1.2 million borrowers have signed up for a trial or test loan modification. Taxpayer-funds are used to prevent foreclosures by shelling out government subsidies up to $10,000 per mortgage to both lenders and borrowers to reduce, and thereby modify, a loan. But some restructured loans are arranged as partial payments and that in turn can damage or diminish a borrower’s credit rating, so it is wise to have a knowledgeable attorney representing the borrower (not the lender’s attorney) review all documents in advance of signing them, just as they should have done before buying the house.

Busted: Foreclosure-relief scams selling services claiming a 90% success rate for reducing interest rates, monthly payments, and principal balances. Schemes were discovered and arrests made after some 1,500 homeowners nationwide lost at least $2.3 million. Other schemes for loan modifications exist, so people are warned for their protection to have an attorney represent them before agreeing to or signing documents. People need to be sure that they take the step of at least having their own attorney review documents to protect their interests, and not be swayed by some other party’s attorney. Crooks are preying on unsuspecting borrowers looking for a solution to their problems, and homeowners with no equity or negative equity in their home now make up about one in five mortgages in the U.S.

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Even though some areas in California have seen some signs of fewer foreclosures in the first quarter than in the last quarter of 2009 with a 40 % drop in notices of defaults (NODs), over 216,000 properties are affected in California which accounts for 23% of the foreclosure activity in the U.S. California homeowners average five months of delinquent payments when the lenders filed the NODs, and home equity loans in default average over $3,800 on a median $64,000 credit line. An estimated 6 million people continue to live in their homes up to 18 months after making their last payment due to the massive glut of foreclosures that has overwhelmed the legal and financial systems of many states.

U.S. home foreclosures in 2010 are on a course to exceed the $2.8 million initiated in 2009 through the Treasury’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), with more than 932,000 filings during the first three months, as an estimated 40% of borrowers helped by the programs continue to default on the modified mortgages. The median savings to 1.1 million homeowners helped by the HAMP loan modifications is $500 per month, saving a total of $3 billion in lower monthly mortgage payments, but the weak economy and lack of higher paying jobs continues to dampen the efforts of the government to keep homeowners in their homes.

The foreclosure situation is becoming so desperate that counties in Indiana are paying lenders $150 per four foreclosures to reach out to distressed homeowners to modify their home mortgages, if the settlement conference reaches an agreement that delays a foreclosure filing at least six months. Less than 2 percent of eligible borrowers had exercised their right to a settlement conference by the end of 2009, even though state law requires mediation before a foreclosure. Many homeowners facing foreclosure didn’t were unaware they had a right to a settlement conference because the required notification letter was stapled into the rear of about 20 other documents the homeowner receives, which tends to overwhelm the homeowner. The program is expected to spread statewide soon.

In some areas of the U.S. home buyers are getting unheard of deals. In Orlando, Fla. some homes near Walt Disney World that once sold for $300,000 are now selling for around $90,000, and nationally sales are up 18 percent from their low in early 2009, but are still down 26 percent from their autumn 2005 peak. But critics say that the administration’s foreclosure prevention efforts have had little effect, and the government is subsidizing those who would have purchased without the incentives: an $8,000 credit for first-time buyers and $6,500 for current homeowners who buy and move into another property. However, many analysts predict a flood of low-priced foreclosures will hit the market and push down prices in the second half of 2010.

With 13.8 percent unemployment and 80 percent of homeowners “under water” on their mortgage about half of which have at least 25% or more negative equity, Las Vegas Nevada leads the foreclosure rate in the U.S. While earlier foreclosures were entry-level homes caught in the subprime mortgage meltdown, the trend is now higher-priced homes and not necessarily from a subprime borrower. Apparently the economic damage has been done, and fewer jobs are being lost (a business must have some people to do the work!). But real wages and secure jobs are still leaving the workforce in America shaking and trying to regain its balance, while also trying to remain in their homes. Many believe that the government’s assistance will postpone rather than cure the foreclosure problem at a cost to the taxpayers who will never see that tax revenue used as originally intended, robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The sea of loan modifications is difficult to navigate. The government has certain guidelines to meet but borrowers who owe far more than their homes are worth are finding it difficult to modify their loans. Often, no matter what is tried to modify the terms of the loan, the borrower still cannot make the payments. Some distressed California homeowners have stopped making payments that they believe are unreasonably high since their mortgage payments are higher than the entire home value of the house next door. And banks are reluctant to quickly place homes up for sale or auction because that adds further to the glut of foreclosed homes and further reduces the value of homes on the market. So the banks are trying to restructure loans to keep people in their homes and making payments. Even so, in Glendale alone, 15% more homes received foreclosure notices, the largest increase in the state.

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Today’s first foreclosure story is on the rapper Jay Z. It seems that Mr. Z, who’s real name is Shawn Carter. Back in the year 2008 he and a partner began a project to be known as the J Hotel in New York City and today a scant two years later the project is sitting in financial ruin with lawsuits pending and no one getting anywhere on it. The project is stalled and not getting built and the lender is looking for repayment and foreclosing to get that satisfaction. The net ending is that the lender settled on a deed in lieu of payment but Jay Z ended up carrying a lot of the costs, which multiplied well into the high six-figure mark and possibly into seven figures before it is all said and done. Jay Z is claiming that these costs were enlarged due to the company dragging things out and e is none to happy about it. There should be more lawsuits coming.

Sacramento California is one of many cities in the state of California that is in severe trouble when it comes to the foreclosure market. IF it is up to councilman Ray Tretheway he is going to do his best to attack that issue. He is going to make the jobless rate and the foreclosures a paramount plan of action this year to do what he can to help alleviate the stress and problems that are being faced by the members of his portion of the state. Obviously the interest has been sparked by the fact that he is running for re-election in June of this year so it will be interesting to see if after the election he is as gung ho o continue on with the plans and promises.

If you thought that the presidential plan for loan modification has made things all nice and easy to get your payments reduced, then perhaps you need to read this article about a family in Charlotte North Carolina who have been fighting with the Bank of America for over a year to get the loan they have modified to something that they an afford. It is a very enlightening article that shows the trials and tribulations that a family can go through in the quest to get payments lowered. They actually considered several pay up front firms to try and get the job done. But they then found out that those pay first things are illegal in the state of North Carolina so they are doing what they can to do things by the books. They were not overly financially stretched out but circumstances worsened. They tried to sell and could not and now they are over the one-year mark.

As more and more people opt to file for a foreclosure or choose to let the underwater property they are buying fall into the pit of foreclosure in lieu of making the payments and living up to the obligations that they had set forth upon, many of them forget to think about the long reaching effects that a foreclosure will have on the credit worthiness and ability to get things done in the future once the economy recovers from the issue that it has been going through over the past several years. While by law the foreclosure is removed from your credit report as being out of date information, it is something that you might have to have manually removed after that time by contacting the three major credit-reporting agencies. And during those seven years everything from obtaining any kind of credit to finding a better job could well be in jeopardy for you. For this reason it is best to avoid this avenue if at all possible.

This is an article that everyone would benefit from reviewing. It tells you how to save on your mortgage payment and how to shave money off what you have to pay. It is all about getting foreclosure counseling and what you can expect to get from it in the end. The government actually stared a federally sponsored program back in 2007 when the crisis was becoming a fast reality and yet to this day not many people know about it or how to take advantage of the things that it offers. One piece of information that should get you interested enough to review the story is that the only legitimate cost that you can be charged by anyone who is offering to help you with a foreclosure problem, is the $40 fee to pull your credit report.

The Salem News published an article that originally ran in the Los Angeles Times where they strongly suggest that President Obama should totally stop home foreclosures. For those of you that already know the numbers, bear with us here. The rest of should know that since the start of the governments Home Affordable Modification Program also known as HAMP. At least 31,000 homeowners have been able to get their mortgages modified to something that is more affordable for them. On the other hand there are literally millions out there that are still struggling and swimming the red tape to try and make that a reality for them. The story invokes some rather straight forward and to the point criticisms of the way the government and the Obama camp is failing miserably at fulfilling the campaign promises that it made to cure the problems and turn the economic crisis around.

How would you like it if you were well off enough to pay cash for a home and pay it off in full back in the year 2005? Probably would have felt pretty good and today you would be happier than most because you would know that you were sitting a piece of paid off real estate while the rest of the country was sweating about making those mortgage payments on the underwater property that they own. Well that is exactly the case for a Florida family except that this dreamlike situation turned into a nightmare recently when the Bank of America foreclosed on the home that they owned free and clear recently. They bought the home as a place to retire in the future and when the Bank Of America foreclosed, the bank went in and removed all of the property from within the home; they changed the locks on the doors. The sad part is that the address was wrong and the house that was supposed to be in the foreclosure process was across the street and ten houses down the block. The couple had to drive from Massachusetts all the way to Florida to fight for a home that they owned free and clear.

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There is a new rule out there that is affecting homeowners in a foreclosure avoidance program. It seems that the Obama camp has done a fairly major overhaul of the way that the foreclosure avoidance program works. The way it used to work was that when you, as a borrower, applied for the plan to lower your payments, it went into effect almost immediately and then over the three month trial portion of the lowered payments, you were to gather pay stubs and other information for the lender in an attempt to make those reductions permanent. This was not being done so they redesign has a standard packet of documents that every borrower has to fill out in order to be approved and that information has to be submitted at time of application. The hope is that this will weed out the dead beats that are clogging the system and get the help to more people that actually need it and will use it properly.

The California area of Visalia-Porterville has become famous in a not so good way. It is ranked number 23rd in the nation in the numbers with regards to foreclosure. Last year they had a total of 6,350 homes fall to the foreclosure crisis. That is up 43 percent over the previous year and is a staggering amount for any area. That puts the Visalia-Porterville area higher in numbers than the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which is at 32 and the general San Francisco area where the foreclosure numbers are at 37. What may have happened is that the lower than average home prices in the area from about 2002 through 2005 may have lured a lot of people into the area and then they managed to get in too far above their means and when the bottom fell out they began losing in a big way.

This one comes from the New York Daily News. It seems that the city of New York is putting people into homes and moving them from shelters. This somewhat sounds like a great type of story that should make you at least feel good about things. The problem is that the city is putting people into homes, buildings and apartments that are in foreclosure so, as one of the examples in the article, a family was in a shelter for eight months and then got moved into a home in Queens. Not long after they found out that the home was in foreclosure, they were evicted and they are once again completely homeless. This is a part of the cities Work Advantage program. One that is spotted at best in the history that it has and the success rate or lack thereof. It is supposed to pay to put families into houses for a period of about two years. It is a story that everyone should read, especially those in New York.

The city of Milwaukee is famous for beer. Folks there might need to drink more of the local beverage but can no doubt afford to purchase it since there is a record number of job issues in the city and county. This article for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says that a second wave of foreclosures is hitting the city mostly due to the record job loss and lack of employed people in the area. This is not only going to have a long reaching effect on the individuals but also on the economy of the city as people fail to pay taxes on property and the foreclosures become a responsibility of the city. Last year homes here were selling for forty or more percent off value and averaged about $42,000. Today those same homes are being sold at $0,000 to $15,000. It appears that the lenders want to unload the property at whatever price they can just to be rid of the responsibility.

Courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel we get this fairly interesting article. It seems that the Florida court system, especially in and around Orange county, have gotten so inundated with foreclosures that the system is literally becoming clogged and choked to the point of utter stagnation. As a result the county has decided to join Miami Dade and Palm Beach Counties in offering the foreclosures at auction on the Internet. Another possibility being considered is to have the state totally bypass the normal foreclosure methods and adopt a law that will allow non-judicial foreclosures which would help to alleviate some of the back log by eliminating some of the red tape involved in the traditional foreclosure system. To put this in perspective, the Orange County area in Florida currently has 32,065 cases pending in the courts at this moment. When you figure that on an average each of these foreclosures require a clerk to do about five hours of work that equates to 160,325 hours of labor just for what is currently on the books even if nothing was added to that workload. That is over 18 years of labor just to get caught up.

The attorney general in the state of Ohio is suing the United Law Group, LTD in the state of California for conning consumers in its state. An Attorney, named Sean Alan Rutledge who has bilked peole out of millions of dollars, put the firm together. The attorney’s firm apparently took upfront fees from people and then never delivered on stopping the foreclosure of the property. The law firm is not licenses to work in the state of Ohio and has never filed any legal motions on behalf of the people that they allegedly represent. The attorney general is seeking disbarment for the attorney in this case. The company asked for upfront fees ranging between $1,500 and $4,000 for the service and also asked for access to the clients banking information and then withdrew money from those accounts.

According to the Chicago Tribune Business Section, the foreclosure numbers there are soaring in the fourth quarter of the year. They claim that in the final quarter of the year more people defaulted on a mortgage than at any other quarter of time since the year 2006. The article states information from a report from the Woodstock Institute also seem to lead to the conclusion that there is little or no signs that this trend is going to slow down, much less reverse, in the foreseeable future. The information from the institute outlines what caused the buildup to the breakdown and gives the figures that lead to that decline which has us in the position where we are today. The story is not confined to Chicago and the metro area but can also be brought to bear into most any other area of country as far as cause and effect.

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Usually when we as Americans, think about a foreclosure we tend to think of a family or individual person who is facing the trouble. Occasionally and more frequently as of late we find business properties creeping into that number. We also usually think of college as sororities that give you clout and add to your social skills. What do the two have to do with each other you ask? Well according to the Chicago Tribune, they actually have quite a bit to do with one another. The sororities keep a “hardship Fund” which, according to this article actually came in handy for at least one member whom was having foreclosure issues and was rescued by the sisterhood with some financial aid. The whole point for the average consumer here is that you might have areas of untapped resources to help you through the trying time. All you have to do is dig a little deeper than the surface to make that happen.

For those of you out there looking to become homebuyers for the very first time, things have changed considerably since just a few years ago. The lending institutions and banks that are in control of whether or not you get a loan have put more measures in place to help assure that they are protected and in many instances this can make getting a home for the first time somewhat of a challenge. Now granted, it is still difficult for the established homeowner. But if you are a first time buyer things are hard. You will have a lot of rules and regulations and things that you will need to produce to make that happen. Instead of making an offer and closing and moving in a month or two or even less like it used to be. That time line can stretch into several months or more as things get examined and verified.

Here’s a little bit more of cheery news in the otherwise dismal foreclosure arena. This comes once again from the Chicago Tribune and shows that there are indeed still some folks out there that have a heart and care about their fellow man and are willing to take steps to do so even in tougher times like we are seeing as of late. Somewhere around a year ago a Chicago man lost his house and nearly all of his families person belongings in a fire, became unemployed and then lost his wife. All within the time span of about eight months. When the initial story ran in the Chicago Tribune help started pouring in. Food, clothing and gift certificates all were arriving at his door from people he didn’t even know. The paper set up a help fund and raised $55,000, which he used to purchase a home in the suburbs for $50,000 that was valued at $230,000. The story is both sad and shows us a ray of hope and is worth a read.

The Hampton area in New York on the eastern end of Long Island has long been associated with the elite and well to do folks. The people with lots of money like Susan Lucci the star or the ABC Soap All My Children. Most actors and actresses and sports figures, politicians and pretty much everybody that was anybody owned a mansion or at least a summer home there. Well the times they are a changing to paraphrase singer Bob Dylan. That area of the country is now feeling the crunch of the foreclosure crisis that has plagued the country for a few years now. In fact the figures state that the number of people facing foreclosure there is up 230 percent in the last quarter of 2009. When you look at dollar values, the numbers are staggering. The priciest one at the moment is values at $8.5 million dollars. However the article points out that some of the highest priced real estate sales are sill happening there.

California is a long way from out of the woods. That is a statement that most experts agree also is applicable to the rest of the country. But is looked like things had begun to turn around in California after the Obama tax Credit was announced and home sales spiked almost immediately. However, according to the Sacramento California Business Journal the home sales numbers fell 22 percent in the month of December 2009. That is down one percent from November and a full 22 percent lower than December 2008. No matter how you look at it that is not a good number. The plus side is that the average price of homes rose from $198,000 in November 2009 to $206,000 in December of 2009. That means that the number of homes being sold is dropping but the price of those homes are increasing. It should be interesting to see how things shake out in the first quarter of 2010.

According to the Virginia Business information. Foreclosure numbers in the Charlottesville area are holding relatively steady at this point in time. This is due largely to two things that are present in the city that are not in a lot of towns. One is a large college presence, which helps the economics of the city and the second is the growing number of people coming into the area because of the increase in the number of jobs in the military intelligence industry there. Since the war on terror has come to the fore front there has been a marked increase in the numbers and types of jobs that have been created to help to counteract that threat and that has had the effect of bolstering the local real estate market here. To make that more visible for you, when the rest of the country has a commercial vacancy rate in the double digits. Charlottesville is sitting at five.

No one and nothing is safe from foreclosure. The Whistler resort, which is home to many of the 2010 Olympic winter game activities is scheduled to go into foreclosure proceedings as the games are underway and the medals and other accolades are being handed out. The sale will begin on the 19thday of February, only a week after the start of the Olympiad activities. Another hardship as a result of this is that the city of Vancouver has to now take over the financial portion of handling the more than 1,100 units that make up the Olympic Village where the athletes stay. What this really shows anyone that is paying attention is just how bad the financial and economic situations actually are. This is especially true in area like these big resorts where tourism is the main source of getting income into the area.

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Not only is living in California a problem for folks that are trying to keep their heads above water and keep the family homes intact. Now it appears that for those of us that might be enticed to head there for vacation or other reasons, finding a place to lay your head is now getting more difficult as the foreclosure crisis comes down hard on the hotel industry there. According to the Orange County register, foreclosures on hotels and motels in the state have more than quadrupled making it a huge concern. The lack of selling rooms means less tourism dollars’ which is likely to affect the whole state and not just the relaxation industry.

The flipside of the above story comes from just up the coast from California in the state of Oregon. According to the Daily Journal of Commerce, the sales of larger properties there increased in the forth quarter of 2009 and that is expected to carry over into 2010. Granted these sales are actually being had for mere pennies on the dollar where buildings that originally sold for $66 million was just recently sold for a small $27 million. Not a bad deal for the buyer but still a large sum of money for most of us to fathom. This trend will help to boost the numbers in the state but the housing industry and sales of single family dwelling is still going to be sluggish even though the dollar value figures may not reflect this accurately.

Part of the issue in home pricing these days, according to the New York state Buffalo News is that the homes are appraising far below what is being asked for them. That is a shame and hurting sales and killing a lot of deals because in reality, no one in their right minds would pay tens of thousands of dollars more for a home than it is actually worth and start out in negative equity from day one. It is not what one would consider a sound investment strategy. The story is pretty good and shows valid point on both sides of the appraisal issue. For anyone that is looking to buy or sell, it is a piece worth reading.

Alabama has been in trouble just like the rest of the country. According to this article though it is due largely, at least here in this portion of the country, to some things that many people don’t often acknowledge as issues. According to this story it has a lot to do with the lifestyles that the people are living and the attitudes that they have on debt and management of that debt. This is a result of studies by two professors who studied the reasons that people get into trouble. This is the result of a year long study. What is interesting is that two similar subdivisions on miles apart, where folks had similar mortgage values and incomes had drastically different results with one have a high foreclosure rate.

This information comes from ABC news. Nothing earth shattering or unexpected here. It is just a restatement of the facts that tell us why the sun-belt area of the country is having such a tough time. We all knew that California, Nevada and Arizona were in precarious positions at best since the start of the foreclosure crisis. This story goes more into detail about the how and why of the reasons and does a fairly good job of explaining in straightforward English the facts that we all need to understand. Knowledge is power so the more we know and understand how and why this happened, the better prepared we are to stop it from happening to us.

It’s not something that we like to consider or even think about as being a possibility. But the truth is that most of the people in this country are not far from foreclosure. A car accident, a lay off at work or a medical emergency could well be all it would take to push you and your family into a state of foreclosure. There are options available to avoid this happening or even in softening the issue if it happens. The Bank Rate web site gives us some information on these options and explains them in simple and not terribly technical terms. It is worth taking a few moments out and reviewing the information. It never hurts to stay current so you know what the options are should the unforeseen happen to you and your family.

I won’t bore you with the details of which states happen to be the hardest hit as of this point in time. The foreclosure crisis is not being kind to any of the states. This article does list the top – or bottom – of the barrel depending on your point of view. You can see what parts of the country and which particular portions of those states have been hit the hardest. You can review the numbers and see the reasons and even see what is being done. It is always good to know where you stand in the countries ratings in this list. Not so much to surprise or to shock you but more to keep you informed.

According to Reuters, the year 2009 was a record-shattering year in foreclosures in spite of the actions and aids of the United States government. And according to the folks at RealTrac who gave Reuters the information, the coming year is going to offer no relief in those numbers. The unemployment rate is one of the major contributors to the problems and many people can’t even seem to make it even once a loan modification is applied to the loan. The pricing of the homes is down an average of 30 percent since 2006 according to the report.

As if the state of Michigan didn’t have enough bad news. The Mlive web site states that in and around the city of Flint, 6,600 properties are currently overdue on taxes and are heading into foreclosure. Of these properties at least 19 of them are values in excess of $1 million dollars. So the problem here is not only with the middle and lower class as you can see. The county is giving notice to these folks on January 21 of this year and the foreclosure proceedings are scheduled to begin on March 31. Foreclosures are up a shocking 46 percent over last year. This is going to cause a lot of problems for the county as well since they lose the tax revenue and they have to pay someone to maintain the property once it is foreclosed.

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And you thought your bank was giving you grief. The First Of America Bank in the state of Nevada is seeking control of a very popular and prominent shopping center in Las Vegas claiming that the people in charge there have not turned over the rent monies that they had collected in a timely manner and caused hardship for the investors. It is for a nearly $58 million dollar loan that the bank has outstanding for the property. At the time the loan was given in 2007 the shopping mall was at nearly 95 percent lease. Today that number has fallen to between 51 and 63 percent and the actual value of the property is currently listed at $38.5 million, nearly $20 million less than what is owed in the loan.

The folks in Atlanta seem to think that the housing market is on the way to a recovery. At least they say it is going to be a slow climb but 2010 looks like the year to them. The article shows that the area is now selling homes in the in town area at a fairly good clip and gives some optimistic views and over all outlook. The recovery, as they state, is going to be slow and a gradual climb but all the things in the Atlanta Georgia area are pointing upwards. A good deal of the increase is from the stimulus package and the tax breaks, which carry over into April of this year.

As you are reviewing the real estate news and if you’d like to have a little insight into the real estate market in the state of Florida. The New York Times gives us this article telling a very depressing and sad tale about the real estate market there. One example that they listed was a home that is in Cape Coral Florida on an outlet that empties directly into the Gulf of Mexico. A well maintained home that was sold in the year 2005 for the price of $850,000 and is listed on the market today for a mere $273,000 and is still not selling. In fact these homes have even found their way into the tourist attractions in the area because it is just plain hard to believe that something this spectacular is listed this cheaply and it is still not selling. You can review the entire article from the New York Times here:

In the state of Connecticut a family has fallen prey to the foreclosure issues facing the nation today. Their story is a little different and quite heartbreaking to read. The house has been in the family for 105 years and through a series of issues that was capped off by what appears to be nothing more than miscommunication between the lender, HSBC and the owners. They are being forced out of a home that has risen generations of member’s of this family. The owners tried working with the lender who continually assured them that they were working on it and would work it out with them and then in mid-December they got the foreclosure notice from the lender. It makes you stop and wonder how many of us could actually end up in a similar situation and quite literally through no fault of our own. They appear to have done everything right and yet have ended up on the wrong side of the statistics.

Our next article comes to us courtesy of the USA Today paper and is centered in the biggest city in the south, Atlanta. One of the newest and most posh places to stay in the city, the Mansion on Peachtree is in danger of being a victim of foreclosure in the current crisis. There are 42 stories and 127 rooms that go for as low as $269 per night. While to some of us that might seem a bit on the high side it was not over the top a few years ago. But since companies and many people as well have cut back on travel. The downturn is being felt in a big way as people cut corners and head to less expensive places to sleep.

In a rather amusing anecdote to the current foreclosure, unemployment and bankruptcy issues facing the country today we bring you thins story of the parent company of Foreclosure.com who has just filed for federal bankruptcy protection. We won’t waste a lot of time on this one. Some of you will find it worth the time to read and others won’t. Personally, I think it is worth a few moments to review.

This story is one that most homeowners today can relate to. It is about underwater mortgages and the options that you might have for refinancing your underwater real estate. The article contains some useful information and links to other areas that expound on things that are mentioned within the context of the article. While there is very limited new information available her and most of it has to do with governments “Making Homes Affordable” program. Having all of the information in one place can certainly make things easier if you are interested in checking out the options.

It’s that time of the year, when people look back at what promises were made by the folks in Washington and get ready to look at the elections due to happen. Time to look over what actually happened that was good and what was bad and to try and sort out who should be elected to help stem the tide of the bad things. This article from the Washington Independent attempts to answer the questions of who screwed up on what promises and who stands where on what in terms of how to best effect the changes that need to happen. Certainly not an earth shattering article bit one worth a few moments time to review, no doubt.

Finally this week from the New York Times we have a story about walking away from your mortgage. For the first time in history people are choosing to forego the American dream and let houses go and simply walk away. In prior years families would do whatever they need to do to be able to hold on the family homestead. Unfortunately is has become more of a moral issue where people weigh how other people will feel about the decision. No one actually cares when a financial institution makes the decision to walk away from a bad investment and let it go into foreclosure and yet if a family does it there is a social stigmatism involved. The article gives you a good meaty story to read and give you some interesting food for thought. You can find the entire story located here:

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According to the Los Angeles Tiems Business Section there is a log of 1.7 million homes that are sitting in the wings waiting to hit the foreclosure market. These are homes that have been foreclosed upon to some degree but have not yet made it into the marketplace. Once this backup of homes is actually released into the stream of existing foreclosures into the general public, it is expected to reak havoc upon the Obama administration’s stimulus package. The outlook is not great but it is, according to this article, only a matter of time as to when the lenders actually choose to release these foreclosures or what kind of negative affect it will have on the general public. Obviously, if it is done all at once, it will be devastating.

If you have never heard of Stan Thomas, and in fact even if you have, this is a story that you really ought to read. It will definitely help keep things in perspective for you. He was a real estate developer that often used hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money to get things rolling when he wanted to do something. He was very well off, had plenty of capital and was at the root of many major retail-shopping developments among other high-budget real estate development projects. However, Atlanta Journal Constitution reported in one of its weekly articles that the 55 year old had to place three major projects under bankruptcy protection and narrowly avoided averting a foreclosure in one of his signature development in Atlanta.

The folks at Fannie Mae have given a bit of a holiday present to the folks that are facing foreclosure. On about the 17th of December, the people at Fannie Mae announced that they were suspending foreclosure proceedings on people between December 19 of this year and January 3 of the next year. That is a pretty impressive thing when you consider that, at the moment, there are about 11,000 homes per day going into foreclosure, which would mean that somewhere around 160,000 people will be affected during that two week period. The bad side of that is that the numbers will be larger than in January and February as the homes eventually make their way into the foreclosure arena. Still, for the people that were facing a foreclosure over the holiday season, it is a small blessing to get to spend one more season in the family homestead.

Usually we see the story and the headlines of how the sub prime mortgage loans are the ones causing all the issues and that the numbers are horrendous. However, this story focuses on the opposite side of the tracks and is all about prime mortgages. The recent numbers seem to suggest that 3.6 percent of the foreclosures are from prime as opposed to sub-prime loans. That figure is up nearly 20 percent from the quarter before and is double what it was a year ago. This shows us that even the people who were supposedly stable and had good credit risked having issues with their bills. That is not a great sign for the economy. When you couple this with the fact that, even after having mortgages re-structured, a good amount of them end up in a re-default situation and are put 60 or more days behind schedule. The article hits a sore spot with many but it is an issue that needs to be addressed.

The Cuyahoga County Treasurer in Ohio has announced that he is placing a six-month halt on all the tax foreclosures in his area. While this is not going to totally stop the process of foreclosures in Ohio, it will certainly have an impact on the homes where the folks have simply not been able to make the mortgage payments and pay the real estate taxes as well. The county has the power to foreclose on a property once the taxes have become a year past due. However, under the new announcement they do not plan on filing anything new until at least the summer for single family homes and any cases that happen to be pending will not be placed into a sheriff’s sale. This is great news and the hopes are that it will prove helpful for the folks there are high. Other areas will also be sure to adopt the plan.

From the Associated Press comes this next story with just a little hint of hope to it. The government tax packages and the stimulus packages appear to have driven a fairly significant upsurge in sales. The sales numbers are up 46 percent from the numbers in January. That is still down 10 percent from the same period a year ago but the $8000 dollar tax credit has certainly made an impact that can be seen and felt in the housing numbers. According to the article, the single biggest factor that is going to come into play when deciding if this trend will continue or not is the overall economy its self. Unless there is an economic recovery there is no way that the real estate market will rebound.

More good news, if you believe in or follow the national hardship index sites, the index claims that the total scores have dropped for all twelve-index types in the month of December 2009. According to the article, the last time that the numbers looked this good was back in July 2008, which was right in the middle of the election campaign. What happens is that when people check out and total the foreclosure number, unemployment and gas prices rise among other things, which creates a cross reference against which to make these figures useful. They then transfer this data on to a map called the “Patchwork Map” which will show you, in a glance, how your county fairs against the rest of the country at that particular point it time.

Maryland has had a tough time during this recession and the current real estate crisis. It seems like any indicator number that could be lower that before, was lower. It was a pretty bleak year to put it mildly. However, one of the bright spots in the economy here was rather unexpected. Tourism is up and the numbers clearly seem to be at odds with what the nation is going through. The numbers are interesting to say the least because this story examines Maryland’s foreclosure pitfalls and triumphs. You can see that a good many of the major business players in the state have had significant problems, which caused many to avoid bankruptcy, hurting the state as a whole. While most of the data in the article focus on Prince Georges County, it is still something that should be reviewed because, to many people, the increase in tourism shows a sign that the bottom has been reached and we are starting to climb out of the hole.

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What a difference a year can make. Things can be drastically different from one twelve month period to the next. As this article illustrates, things in Oregon are indeed a lot worse than they were in October 2008. In fact, the foreclosure rate there has effectively doubled in that amount of time. The good news here for Oregon is that even at double the rate from a year ago, they are still considerably lower in the foreclosure rate than a good portion of the rest of the country.

If you are looking for some residential or commercial real estate to purchase at foreclosure prices and would like to attend an auction where there are more than a few from which to choose, you might want to review this article and get plane tickets to Birmingham, Alabama for this coming weekend. According to the Birmingham Business Journal, there are around 200 residential commercial properties due to go up for sale at a bank forced auction this coming Saturday the 19th. Even the local Ideal building, which is appraised at nearly $900,000 dollars, will be on the auction block in this bank ordered mega-sale.

The New York Times tells us this week that even though mortgage rates hove tumbled to a point lower than they have been since the 1940s due to help from the Federal Government Bail Out program, many banks are not terribly interested in helping people out by refinancing at the lower rates. The sad part about this is that if these homeowners were allowed to do a refinance on the mortgage, they would literally save hundreds of dollars per month, which could then be used to pay down debt or to purchase things that would in turn stimulate the economy and help everyone in the long run. The story is a well-written piece that will have you wondering why the banks don’t understand this theory.

In a complete case of mismanagement, the city of Cleveland is taking some heat for the methods they used in doling out money for the Federally sponsored Making Homes Affordable program. It seems that they gave money, sometimes up to $20,000 dollars from this fund to help low income families get the down payment for a home. The problem is that when they were passing out the money for the loans they didn’t bother to see if the people they were giving it to be actually financially able to repay the loans. As a result there are a lot of them that cannot do so and the result, as you might imagine, is a quagmire of bad loans that are now being defaulted on. You can read this sad story here “”

The story from Idaho tells us that upwards of 7.4 percent of the homes here are worth far less than is actually owed on them and the numbers here are expected to continue to get worse as 2010 begins. The state of Idaho is not in great shape and more often than not the foreclosures here are going to continue to rise at an alarming rate if you believe what is written in the article at the Idaho Statesman site. While this state has not been high on the numbers list when it comes to foreclosure totals that might well change if this story is indeed an accurate assessment.

Years after Katrina the folks in New Orleans as well as the rest of the country are weathering another king of storm. One that is causing many homes to be lost just as surely as the flood waters and the winds of Katrina swallowed up and destroyed homes and lives not so long ago. This article gives a rather in depth look at the specific challenges that are facing the people of the Louisiana and New Orleans area. While it might not be information that everyone wants to read it certainly is something that I believe everyone should read to help put the current crisis in more of a perspective.

A bright spot this week comes to us by way of the Los Angeles Times business section. It seems that in the month of November that the median price of a home in the state rose 1.8 percentage point to an average of $285,000 dollars and during that same period total sales of property was up 14.7 percent from the previous month. Certainly this is encouraging news for people living there and the eyes of the country are on those figures since the state of California is in very poor shape due to the foreclosure numbers. TO be sure, the market is far from in a full rebound but the unexpected rise between October and November is certainly a welcome relief.

In this week’s Fannie Mae related story, it seems that Fannie Mae and the newly formed Cuyahoga land bank have come to terms and forged a new agreement that may or may not be of interest to you. This is especially true if you live in the Cleveland Ohio area. The folks at Fannie Mae are going to be selling homes that are in foreclosure to the land bank entity for the sum of $1. They will also contribute a total of $3,500 towards the costs of demolition for each house that isn’t going to be salvageable. From these properties it appears that the first 25 are slated to change hands between Fannie Mae and the Land Bank this month and most of those properties will end up being torn down.

In the wake of the current crisis with foreclosures, governors across the country are scurrying to find answers and solutions to help the people in their state. The governor of the State of New York has just signed in to law a new and wide reaching bill that is geared to help homeowners, tenants and even entire neighborhoods to survive the current problems facing them. There is much too much to cover in this short amount of space but you should take a few moments and review it.

Yes, if you look at the numbers things appear to be on the rise in the market and that has many people hopeful. However, if you look at the overall numbers and compare them with those of a year ago you will find that they are still up about 20 percent. That means that this crisis is still a long way from being over. The article covers some whys and gives you food for thought while keeping a somewhat positive tone. It is definitely worth a couple of moments to review.

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Let’s start off bad and see where it goes this week. The website The Last Call is stating that things are absolutely terrible and we are on track as a nation to reach 2.9 foreclosures started in this year alone. That is an awful lot to take in right off the bat. According to this article one out of every seven homes in this country is in some form of delinquent status as of November 19 of this year. The article, which is based on data from the MBA or Mortgage Bankers Association who published the numbers say that the unemployment numbers are the single largest contributing factor in these numbers being where they are.

Today a lot of people are attending auctions and looking to pick up a great bargain on a foreclosure home. With more property than ever on the market today you need to remember that just because something is priced cheap does not always make it a good buy. This story walks you through a lot of things to do and other things not to do in order to make sure that you get a good buy and are not throwing your money out the window. A lot of times folks get carried away in the auction process and either forget to do basic things or don’t know what to so. Either of these can be very costly indeed and it is worth reviewing the information before going on a hunt for that once in a lifetime buy.

The Washington Post gives us an eye opening view on the relief program. It tells how some have been helped and others have been actually hurt by the stimulus package offered by the folks in the Obama camp. It seems that while a lot of folks get relief from the money that is earmarked at cutting mortgages, the same government then often times ends up cutting down on work forces and those people end up losing jobs. This has a negative effect on what the stimulus was attempting to do and is becoming more of a common issue than you might think. For example between the months of March and October nearly 600 jobs were created by the stimulus package. However in that same time frame over 5,000 jobs were lost in the same county. You can take a few moments and go through the article and I am sure there will be some points in there that you can identify with.

If you were of the opinion that the foreclosed owners were the only ones affected by the market. Take a few moments and review this article that comes from the state of Michigan. It is an eye opener that really will have you looking a little kinder on the lowly real estate agent. It used to be that they would sit in offices waiting for the business to come to them and they made a great living. Now days you find top five star agents raking leaves on the side or dog sitting amongst other things just to be able to make ends meet. Remember that real estate sales are typically commission only based. So making no sales means no income coming into the family economy. This is well worth the few moments that it might take you to glance over the details since it will give you a new appreciation for how the other side of the fence is coping.

If you are looking to buy some good property with some future potential then Myrtle Beach South Carolina might be a great choice. But how do you know if you are getting an okay deal or a killer deal on property that can be pricey even at it’s low point? Simple. You go and read up on this article. It gives the potential real estate buyer in that area of the country a bunch of resources that will allow you to ascertain if the property you are looking at falls in the category of a deal or a killer deal. There is a good chance that you will see more of these sights showing up because the information makes life a lot easier on people looking to invest in a foreclosure.

How would you like a judge to totally wipe out over a half of a million dollar debt for you? That’s exactly what happened in New York on Long Island in Suffolk County. While it is not expected that the ruling will stand up under appeal, it certainly shows that even the judges in the legal system are sick and tired of the games that are being played by the lenders out there, many of whom blatantly refuse to work with borrowers who are legitimately attempting to restructure a loan to save the home.

This article will give those of you interested in the home loan modification programs available from the Obama administration more information to consider. It actually explains the process in short and rather easy to understand, almost over simplistic terms. But if you are a homeowner in need of this service, there is a chance that you really don’t want all the overly complicated information, just the highlights and this is the article that will give them to you quickly and to the point. Take just a few moments and go over the information, you won’t be sorry that you did.

For those of you that thrive on technicalities and need to see numbers in front of you in order to be able to make a good judgement on things. This article should be right up your alley. It’s going to give you almost any fact or figure that you might need in order to figure out that the economy and the real estate market are in very serious condition in the United States of America. I am including this because all too often web information gives an opinion of something and then leaves you uncertain as to how those figured were derived. This is not one of those articles and even those of you that don’t need all the nuts and bolts to be able to make a call on something might find it at least interesting to review.

According to the Arizona State University, even though the price of real estate has started to climb in the Phoenix area, there is going to be another wave of foreclosures hitting the area and the country in 2010. This is not a real shock to most people but it has to do with the slower than normal economy, the stagnant job market and the overall real estate conditions. Not a lot of new information, but coming from a college professor it might be worth a moment to read.

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