Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Attorney Generals from all 50 States are getting Involved in Foreclosure Investigation

Officials in 50 states and the District of Columbia have launched a joint investigation into allegations that mortgage co.’s mishandled documents and broke laws in foreclosing on hundreds of thousands of homeowners. Attorneys general are calling into question the accuracy and legitimacy of documents that lenders relied on to evict people from the homes. – Reuters

A bipartisan group of state attorneys general from 49 states and financial regulators from 39 states will work together to comb through foreclosure filings and documents from mortgage servicers to see if any state laws have been broken in the rush by services to kick borrowers out of their homes without following various state and local laws.

Homeowners, homeowner advocates and various state officials have complained that mortgage servicers have failed to follow basic procedures, like reviewing documents, properly signing them and other tasks long followed prior to the mortgage securitization boom that took off this decade.

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Contact us we can help.....


American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Friday, October 8, 2010

Bank of America Freezes Foreclosures in All States as Documents Reviewed

Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. lender, will halt foreclosures in all 50 U.S. states to determine whether documents used to seize homes from people had the correct data.

“We will stop foreclosure sales until our assessment has been satisfactorily completed,” the Charlotte, North Carolina- based company said today in a statement. “Our ongoing assessment shows the basis for foreclosure decisions is accurate.”

Bank of America already froze foreclosures this month in the 23 states where courts supervise home seizures. The new policy extends the moratorium to the entire nation. Banks are being pressed by state officials to halt foreclosures amid allegations that employees used unverified or false data to speed the process. Attorneys general in Ohio and Connecticut have said the practices may amount to fraud.

Lenders took possession of a record 95,364 homes in August and issued foreclosure filings to 338,836 homeowners, or one of every 381 U.S. households, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California-based data vendor.

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Contact us we can help.....

American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Thursday, September 30, 2010

JPMorgan Suspends Certain Foreclosures As Doubts Grow Over Legality

Even as August saw more Americans lose their homes to foreclosure than in any other month on record, there are growing concerns over the legality of many of those proceedings.

JPMorgan Chase has suspended legal proceedings on 50,000 foreclosures, due to concerns about the validity of the foreclosure documents, a spokesman for the bank told CNBC Wednesday (hat tip to Zero Hedge).

JPMorgan spokesman Tom Kelly confirmed to the AP Wednesday that "employees signed some affidavits about loan documents without personally verifying the files."

The decision is the latest signal of a potentially massive stall in the nation's foreclosure process. Last week, after GMAC Mortgage halted its foreclosures in 23 states, the Washington Post reported that one of GMAC's employees hadn't read the roughly 10,000 foreclosure documents he approved each month (and now Colorado wants to be added to that list of states). It then turned out that the "robo signer" might not have been alone.

This week, the controversy extended to JPMorgan Chase, as lawyers for a Florida homeowner challenged the person's JPMorgan foreclosure, citing a May statement from an executive for the bank who said she didn't properly review foreclosure documents before approving them.

Zero Hedge, for what it's worth, sees this as the beginning of a larger unraveling in the country's foreclosure process. Indeed, regardless of what JPMorgan determines during its review, the freeze will throw countless foreclosures into doubt.

As Bloomberg noted this week, delays in foreclosure proceedings would cripple the already wounded housing market.

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Contact us we can help.....

American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Government Forcing Lenders to Approve all Short Sales in 45 Days?

Distressed homeowners looking for a way out of their
mortgage that doesn’t involve foreclosure, may find relief
is on the way from a new bill introduced in the U.S. House.

The legislation would impose a deadline on lenders to
respond to short sale requests, requiring them to return an
answer to the borrower within 45 days.

The bipartisan bill, Prompt Decision for Qualification of
Short Sale Act of 2010 (H.R. 6133), is sponsored by Reps.
Robert Andrews (D-New Jersey) and Tom Rooney (R-Florida).

Lenders have taken a lot of heat for the elongated timelines
it takes to get an approval on a short sale proposal.

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Contact us we can help.....


American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801

Thursday, September 16, 2010

U.S. Homes Lost to Foreclosure Up 25 Percent

LOS ANGELES -- Lenders took back more homes in August than in any month since the start of the U.S. mortgage crisis.

The increase in home repossessions came even as the number of properties entering the foreclosure process slowed for the seventh month in a row, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

In all, banks repossessed 95,364 properties last month, up 3 percent from July and an increase of 25 percent from August 2009, RealtyTrac said.

August makes the ninth month in a row that the pace of homes lost to foreclosure has increased on an annual basis. The previous high was in May.

Banks have been stepping up repossessions to clear out their backlog of bad loans with an eye on eventually placing the foreclosed properties on the market, but they can't afford to simply dump the properties on the market.

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN
U.S. Navy limiting use of 'Cyclone' patrol boats
Ten Worst Places to Live
President Changes Tune on Health-Care Costs
Why Did Jack Daniel Name it 'Old No. 7'?
FedEx Forecast, Data Pressures Futures

Concerns are growing that the housing market recovery could stumble amid stubbornly high unemployment, a sluggish economy and faltering consumer confidence. U.S. home sales have collapsed since federal homebuyer tax credits expired in April.

That's one reason fewer than one-third of homes repossessed by lenders are on the market, said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

"These (properties) are going to come to market, but very slowly because nobody wants to overwhelm a soft buyer's market with too much distressed inventory for fear of what it would do for house prices," he said.

As a result, lenders are putting off initiating the foreclosure process on homeowners who have missed payments, letting borrowers stay in their homes longer.

The number of properties receiving an initial default notice -- the first step in the foreclosure process -- slipped 1 percent last month from July, but was down 30 percent versus August last year, RealtyTrac said.

Initial defaults have fallen on an annual basis the past seven months. They peaked in April 2009.

Still, the number of homes scheduled to be sold at auction for the first time increased 9 percent from July and rose 2 percent from August last year. If they don't sell at auction, these homes typically end up going back to the lender.

More than 2.3 million homes have been repossessed by lenders since the recession began in December 2007, according to RealtyTrac. The firm estimates more than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year.

In all, 338,836 properties received a foreclosure-related warning in August, up 4 percent from July, but down 5 percent from the same month last year, RealtyTrac said. That translates to one in 381 U.S. homes.

The firm tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions -- warnings that can lead up to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.

Among states, Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate last month, with one in every 84 households receiving a foreclosure notice. That's 4.5 times the national average.

Rounding out the top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rate in August were: Florida, Arizona, California, Idaho, Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois and Hawaii.

Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, are now the main catalysts for foreclosures.

Lenders are offering a variety of programs to help homeowners modify their loans, but their success rates vary. Hundreds of thousands of homeowners can't qualify or fall back into default.

The Obama administration has rolled out numerous attempts to tackle the foreclosure crisis but has made only a small dent in the problem. Nearly half of the 1.3 million homeowners who enrolled in the Obama administration's flagship mortgage-relief program have fallen out.

The program, known as Making Home Affordable, has provided permanent help to about 422,000 homeowners since March 2009.

Regardless, many troubled borrowers have seen their efforts to get a loan modification stymied.

Larry Book of Winter Garden, Fla., was one packet away from a permanent loan modification from Chase under the Obama administration's foreclosure prevention plan after more than a year of back and forth and one failed attempt.

But his modification never went through. Instead, his loan was transferred from Chase to IBM Lender Business Process Servicers in July and he was told he owed $9,562.62 and must bring his mortgage current by Sept. 15 or foreclosure proceedings will begin.

"It just becomes too exhausting," Book said about the modification process. "That's why some people walk away. But I've invested too much and given up too much to just let it go.

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Contact us we can help.....


American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801

Friday, August 20, 2010

Commercial Real Estate Falling Behind

There are five states with commercial mortgage
delinquencies over 10%:

Nevada, Montana, Michigan, Arizona and Florida.

All of the other states are close to these delinquency
rates. There is no shortage of distressed commercial real
estate opportunities right now and it’s much easier to get in this
game than it used to be. Commercial loans that were
originated in 2006-2007 have doubled this quarter and are
defaulting at 3.95% and 4.28%. Loans originated in 2008 are
defaulting at 7.82%. Pretty eye opening, huh? That makes it
easy for you to find which properties to go after.

If you think that’s bad, check this out. These are the
delinquency rates for the different types of commercial
properties as of October 2009:

Office 2.29%
Hotel 6.81%
Retail 3.55%
Multifamily 6.00%
Industrial 3.09%

We are seeing the same signs of what the lenders did during
the 1981-82 and 1990-1991 recessions. There were more
millionaires made during then in commercial real estate
than any other time.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Homes lost to foreclosure up 6 pct from last year

Home repossessions surged in July, but pace of new home loan defaults continued to slow

The number of U.S. homes lost to foreclosure surged in July, another sign lenders are moving quicker to take back properties from homeowners behind in payments.

Lenders repossessed 92,858 properties last month, up 9 percent from June and an increase of 6 percent from July 2009, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

Banks have stepped up repossessions this year to clear out the backlog of bad loans. July makes the eighth month in a row that the pace of homes lost to foreclosure has increased on an annual basis.

Meanwhile, homeowners who are falling behind on their payments are being allowed to stay in their homes longer because lenders are reluctant to add to the glut of foreclosed homes on the market.
Story continues below...

The number of properties receiving an initial default notice — the first step in the foreclosure process — rose 1 percent last month from June, but tumbled 28 percent versus July last year, RealtyTrac said.

Initial defaults have fallen on an annual basis the past six months.

The latest data reflect a foreclosure crisis that continues to drag on as many homeowners struggle to make their monthly payments amid high unemployment, slow job growth and an uneven rebound in home prices.

Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, are now the main catalysts for foreclosures. Initially, lax lending standards were the culprit, but homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are now the fastest growing group of foreclosures.

Lenders are offering a variety of programs to help homeowners modify their loans, but their success rates vary. Hundreds of thousands of homeowners can't qualify or fall back into default.

The Obama administration has rolled out numerous attempts to tackle the foreclosure crisis but has made only a small dent in the problem. More than 40 percent, or about 530,000 homeowners, have fallen out of the administration's main effort to assist those facing foreclosure.

That program, known as Making Home Affordable, has provided permanent help to about 390,000 homeowners, or 30 percent of the 1.3 million who have enrolled since March 2009.

Still, RealtyTrac estimates more than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year.

In all, 325,229 properties received a foreclosure-related warning in July, up 4 percent from June, but down 10 percent from the same month last year, RealtyTrac said. That translates to one in 397 U.S. homes.

The firm tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions — warnings that can lead up to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.

Among states, Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate in July, with one in every 82 households receiving a foreclosure notice. The number of properties in Nevada receiving a foreclosure warning last month rose nearly 7 percent from June, but fell nearly 30 percent from the same month last year.

Rounding out the top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rate last month were: Arizona, Florida, California, Idaho, Michigan, Utah, Illinois, Georgia and Maryland.

Las Vegas continued to be the city with the highest foreclosure rate in the U.S., with one in every 71 homes receiving a foreclosure notice in July — more than five times the national average.

Source: AP News

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Contact us we can help.....

American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801