Foreclosure Recap – Week #45
Freddie Mac has been in trouble for a long time. For the last three months since Ed Halderman joined the board of trustees he has been working to steady the stability of the struggling company. He is a mere 70 years of age and is the executive director of the board of trustees at Freddie Mac. His main objective here is to boost President Obamas’ image and to make as many home restructurings happen as he can in order to lower the foreclosure rate in our country. His primary focus since arriving there in August has been to get as many of the employees there behind this objective and working towards that end.
Speaking of President Obama. On Friday last week he signed into law a new bill giving a total of $24 million in the form of an economic stimulus bill that is ear marked for prospective homebuyers and the people who have been unemployed for the long haul. The bill also included some tax cuts aimed at stabilizing some businesses out there that are having a rough time. He says that there is more coming and he will not – and I paraphrase him here –going to stop until everyone that wants to be working a job is working a job. The long term unemployed rate is at the largest number that it has been since 1948 and this bill is going to add between 14 and 20 more weeks of benefits to people that have already seen those benefits expire or were due to have them end by years end.
The Michigan website mLive.com brings us the story here that says that today with the economy that more landlords are unlawfully discriminating against families than at any time in history. One woman in Grand Rapids went to rent an apartment for her and her three children and was told that the security deposit would be twice what was originally quoted due to the children and the potential for destruction of the premises. Complaints on this type of problem in the state of Michigan alone are up nearly twice as much already this year over what they were for all of last year. The article goes on and shows blatant examples of discrimination that has actually been placed in ads posted by potential landlords.
The Los Angeles Times Business section brings us this story about the tax credit. There are a lot of people out there that have bought homes in this market and a good portion of them have done so due to the $8,000 tax credit that has been offered to them on that purchase by the Federal Government. This article spells out quite concisely the terms that conditions that you have to meet in order to cash in on this first time homebuyers credit. Especially since it has been modified to include not just the first time buyers. There are a lot of new rules, timelines and a whole new category. The income requirements were changed and there is a lot in the mix not that can and will affect your ability to get that credit or not.
Just when you thought that things couldn’t get worse, ABC News reports to us that even though we all feel bad about the recession and the problems that it has on humans. It is also putting the major cities in the country a risk of being over run by rodents. Rats to be a little more precise. The top two cities in the country when in comes to the invasion of the furry critters is not surprisingly New York City and the number two city, oddly enough is the City of Atlanta. The city as it turns out has a very high poverty rate of over 20 percent and a foreclosure rate that is five times that of the national average. This is a very well written and though provocative article that people should read, even if you happen to not be in one of the top cities.
Many people actually are buried so far into the houses that are the family dwellings that they often are unable to pay both the first and the second mortgages. So what does happen in this situation where you are upside down to the point that if you didn’t pay the second mortgage? Well, while it is still an option for a second mortgage holder to initiate a foreclosure on the property it is unlikely that they would do so because all the profits would go to pay the first mortgage leaving them out in the cold. However, it is going to have a long reaching effect on your credit score and so it would be wise to not follow that route if it can be avoided.
Fannie Mae has announced a new plan that they hope will be successful in many ways. It is known as a deed for lease program. This article walks you through the ins and outs of it all but in a nutshell it allows you to avoid foreclosure by signing a lease that allows you to actually stay in the home rather than to be foreclosed on. It is a case of desperate measures being designed to fit these desperate times that we are living through in this country today. In order for the homeowner to qualify it must be the primary residence and they must not be able to qualify to get the loan restructured. The new lease is good for 12 months and then may be done monthly there after and can not exceed more than 31 percent of the persons income. While it is not the best option, it beats being booted out of your home.
This story is all about the Home Loan Modification program. You can go here and get some quick information about the people interested in it. The interesting tidbit that jumped out at me is the one that pointed out that every time a home is foreclosed, the rest of the homes in that immediate neighborhood lose an average of 9% of the value that they had.
Finally the folks in Mouseland in Florida, fondly known as the Orlando area, are currently ranked as the ninth highest in foreclosures in the United States of America. While the rest of the Sunshine state has seen a nice decline in the rates, the area around Orlando continues to skyrocket in the numbers.
