Foreclosure Recap – Week #18
We are going to recap another week full of interesting tidbits related to foreclosure and foreclosure issues.
The Obama Administration said that they are expanding the housing aid in order to give lenders amore incentives to folks on second mortgages. What has happened is back when the market was good it was not unheard of for lenders to give homeowners a second mortgage with little or no money to back the load as down payments. These loans were often given to people with much less than stellar credit and today many of the people that got those second mortgages are failing to be able to make the payments and keep them current.
CBS News reported that in Cape Coral, Florida one man came up with a unique way to attempt to sell his real estate. It seems that beachfront property has been particularly hard to sell in that particular market and he cam upon a way to improve it. Marc Joseph owns a company called Foreclosure Tours R Us and basically what they are doing is taking people on boat tours which show them the prospective property from a totally different perspective and all indications are that the idea is working and seems to be having some impact in turning around the local market.
People in the state of Michigan have begun attending forums help be lenders that are aimed at helping them come up with solutions to lower payments in hopes of stemming the rising foreclosures. It seems to be a little less nerve racking to the homeowner when they sit and discuss things one on one with a real human and everyone can see the emotions on each others faces. With the many different plans now in place from the Obama administration, people can use the explanations as to the plans and how or if they can qualify for the relief offered by them.
According to the people at Credit.com, the plan that the Obama camp had was to allow federal bankruptcy judges to modify some troubled home loans when people are in bankruptcy court in front of them. Unfortunately the bill failed to pass the Senate vote last Thursday. It would have been a huge help to the people facing bankruptcy because it would have given the bankruptcy judge the ability to reduce the principal for the troubled borrower to allow them an opportunity to get current and stay in their homes. While the Senate did not pass the bill they are keeping it available in the event that the overall situation worsens and then it may become a viable option at that time. There is concern on Capitol Hill that the lenders would change terms to increase the loans before the borrowers could feel the effects of any relief.
The New York Times gave us the story last week about some people that are about to be evicted out of the homes that they rent. The sad part of this story is that these renters did nothing wrong. They kept up payments and did everything that they were supposed to. Unfortunately the person that actually owned the homes they are living in and are renting from has defaulted on the mortgage and the house is being foreclosed and these people are going to lose the homes that they are in and they really have no way to stop it. These are the types of casualties that one doesn’t hear about or think about until a story like this is run.
The Memphis Daily News brings us the story of the former home of Suntrust Bank nearing the auction block due to foreclosure. The building its self is no stranger to this having been in foreclosure in the mid 1990s and even during the rocky start back in the late 1960s when the builder was having trouble raising enough capitol to even get it built. The building, which is located at 40 South Main in Memphis has been touted by many as a white elephant in the Memphis business skyline while others say it is a signature building that helps to define the area with the other huge bank buildings in the general area.
Once again the New York Times tells us of mishandling of funds. It seems that even though the world is in financial crisis nearing meltdown, they big banks are still doling out a surprising number of large paychecks not unlike the days of old where there was no problem looking. These same larger banks have posted phenomenal profits in the last quarter. Profits to the tune of Wells Fargo at 3 billion, Goldman Sachs at 2.8 billion, JP Morgan Chase at 2.1 billion, Bank of America at 4.25 billion and Citibank at 1.6 billion dollars in profit. All of this came during the same time that the senate buckled under pressures from lobbyists to try and help homeowners facing foreclosure.
If you want to get a complete walk through on how an average group of Americans deal with a normal day in these troubled time, the Associated Press posted and article which Google picked up which shows exactly how people feel about how America got in this position by giving huge open balances to College students, or mortgages for as much as ten times what the person’s salary was with no real thought as to how they might actually be able to repay the credit card loan or the mortgage. Most [people are surprised that the country held out as long as it did under those circumstances.
There is another facet of this crisis that often goes unnoticed and was just recently written up by the East Valley Tribune in Phoenix. That is the amount of pets that are left behind when families vacate or are forced out onto the streets. This puts a huge burden on animal shelters and animal adoption facilities because when the families leave, there are many times when they just can’t take the family pet or pets along. There are, I am sure, many reasons why this phenomenon has occurred but the simple fact of the matter is, there are animals in need.
In the Chicago Daily Herald is the story of how vandals and even the former owners of some foreclosed homes have taken to stripping the contents of the homes. They have been taking every thing from appliances to wall and floor coverings. It seems like just about anything is fair game in these troubled times. It is quite a disturbing trend in the Chicago Suburbs.
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