More bad news for strapped home owners. In a decision announced Nov. 9th, in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, Judge Ann Montgomery found that borrowers don't have a right to modification loans under the Obama administration's Making Home Affordable program.
Earlier this month the California Foreclosure Prevention Act, which established a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures in the state, ended. Mortgagors have been relieved that the close of the program on September 15, 2009 has not been marked by a pronounced spike in new foreclosure filings. And while California homeowners may be on their own, Wisconsin residents are getting a little more time to sort out their home finances.
Marshall & Ilsley (M&I) Corporation announced this week that it was extending its foreclosure moratorium for another 90 days---until December 31st 2009. The moratorium is on all owner-occupied residential loans for customers who agreed to work in good faith to reach a successful repayment agreement. It applies to applicable loans in all M&I markets. The moratorium was launched in December 2008 and has since been extended two times before the present extension.
Some landlord-tenant relationships are compatible matches that leave both parties fulfilled and satisfied; however others, are the stuff that nightmares are made of. If you are a tenant who finds yourself in the latter category, you may suspect that the landlord is trying to evict you. Evictions can be legal, but they must be filed in court and ordered by a judge.
If you notice any of the following, you may be the victim of an illegal eviction:
1. You come home to find your personal belongings on the curb.
2. The door is padlocked shut.
3. Your gas, electricity, heat, or water has been turned off or tampered with.
4. Your property has been destroyed.
5. The landlord has allowed the rental property to become uninhabitable.
Home foreclosure is still a hot topic on the minds of many Americans. Mass layoffs, furloughs, and salary cuts have given cause to worry for millions of homeowners who are tightening purse strings to budget for monthly mortgage payments. Over the past months we have covered the topic from various angles to inform consumers about the state of foreclosures and homeowner options to avoid foreclosure.
Here is a rundown of our top 10 posts:
1. California Foreclosure Moratorium Goes into Effect: Which Mortgages are Covered?
For lenders deemed to have less than comprehensive loan modification programs, the new law places a 90 day delay on some foreclosures...
2. What is the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP)?
HAMP allows eligible mortgagees lower their monthly payments to 31% of their pre-tax income, or lower, through a loan modification...
No, it's not the latest taebo-pilates-zumba routine. But if you're weighed down by foreclosure, a loan workout may be just what the debt doctor ordered to help put your loan back on track.
A loan workout is plan of how to restructure debt in the face of foreclosure. It is also called loan modification or mortgage modification. In loan workouts, the home owner sits down with the lender to discuss modification of terms to the loan in order to make monthly payment minimums and sidestep foreclosure. The parties must mutually agree on modified loan terms for the loan workout to be successful.
What does the lender look for?
Home foreclosures for July 2009 numbered 360,149, a 7% increase from June and 32% increase from July 2008. The report comes from RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties. The report also showed that one out of every 355 housing units in the U.S. was on the receiving end of a foreclosure filing in July.
Which states topped the home foreclosure list?
If your lease is coming up for renewal you may have looked around to see that not only are home prices falling but rental prices have taken a tumble too. This may be just the time to re-negotiate your lease using sound negotiating principles--putting yourself in the best position for a great deal and giving your landlord peace of mind that the unit won't lose money by sitting idle.
Second quarter figures from the real-estate realm have been released and the numbers show that asking rents went down by 0.6%, and that is after falling the same amount in the the first quarter, following a 0.2% drop in the 4th quarter of 2008. And to give a little perspective, over the past ten years there has been only a single other quarter in which asking rents showed a decline. And though not all cities across the board experienced a drop, areas that topped the list for major asking rent drops include: the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, New York, and Southern California.
What does this all mean for you, neighborly renter? It's time to finesse your game, and get in on the rent-dropping action!
A big part of the reason why the economy is sagging may lie in the difficulties facing the housing market. Now, many have probably heard reports about rising foreclosures, but could a chunk of the foreclosures going on actually come from homeowners making a "strategic" decision to, basically, throw their hands up and just stop paying? Well, according to a TIME article, that's exactly what a study suggests may be going on in some places.
Essentially, homeowners who are "underwater", i.e. they owe more than what their house is worth, may be making the choice to simply not put more money into a house that's lost such value. In other words, some people could be entirely capable of paying the mortgage, they simply may be choosing not to. The piece suggests a motive that, despite the potential consequences of failing to honor their mortgage obligation, "lenders tend not to pursue former homeowners for the money they are owed because of the prohibitive cost of tracking down such people and suing them." So, is this really a great idea?
