Posts Tagged ‘foreclosure’

With a chronic shortage of affordable housing in many cities and an abundance of foreclosed properties, advocacy groups for the homeless in some cities have been quietly moving homeless people into vacant, foreclosed homes, often the ones they previously lived in. Some groups operate as a kind of modern-day underground railroad, according to one advocate quoted in a New York Times story, while other groups do their work openly, sometimes with the support of neighbors in low income neighborhoods who are tired of seeing vacant homes become derelict, vandalized and increasingly unkempt. Read more »

In what some call the next wave of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, banks in several older industrial cities hard-hit by foreclosures are declining to foreclose on properties because legal and maintenance costs are higher than the value of the real estate.

Instead of being an unexpected salvation for besieged homeowners, bank “walkaways” only add to homeowners’ problems, partly because they usually learn of their home’s legal status months later, after they’ve moved out of the house. So money-stressed homeowners go through the heartache of believing they’ve lost their home to foreclosure, move out and only later learn they’re still responsible for the mortgage when the sheriff’s sale is cancelled. Read more »

A year or two ago, most people had never even heard of the term “short sale.” Today, though, as the real estate business has become a heavy casualty of the severe economic downturn, short sales are becoming an increasingly popular alternative to foreclosures — especially for the buyer.

A short sale happens when the sale price is less than what the seller still owes to the lender via a mortgage loan. Let’s say you own a home, and you know you won’t be able to continue making the payments — that foreclosure seems inevitable. For you, a foreclosure is bad news on a couple of different fronts: Your credit score will take a big hit, you’ll have to move elsewhere, you stand to lose money on the deal (potentially a lot of money), and you compromise your eligibility for a future home purchase.

That’s why short sales have risen in popularity. Today’s falling home prices, combined with homebuyers making low down payments at the time of sale, mean that many homeowners owe more on their mortgages than the properties are currently worth. (This is what’s known as an “underwater mortgage.” It’s a lot like the term “upside down on a car loan,” except it’s often worse: an “underwater mortgage” typically involves larger dollar amounts.)

Add to that the population of homeowners who face foreclosure due to resetting mortgages (when adjustable rates reset, for example), not to mention the need to relocate for work or other reasons, and it makes sense that lenders would consider short sells to offset bigger losses from foreclosures.

On the other side of the coin, a short sale doesn’t recoup all of the home borrower’s losses, but it can help to limit the damage — and hit the “reset” button on the borrower’s future finances at a slightly more desirable level.

We’ve all seen the news about all the foreclosures happening all over the country, and, worse, some of us have first-hand experience in our own neighborhood. Homes that were once occupied by our friends, neighbors, perhaps even family, now stand empty. The banks aren’t getting paid, and the properties aren’t getting taken care of. It not only affects those who once lived in these houses, but the neighborhood too, by driving down property values of those homes around foreclosed properties.

Certainly, given all these foreclosures, we’ve also heard about — or have first-hand experience with — the occasional squatters, perhaps a homeless person finding some solace in some nice temporary shelter, or even some kids getting a bit carried away and finding a new party house. But there’s a new kind of squatter in town. These squatters are likely to scare away not only looters and thieves looking for their next empty target but perhaps even those looking for that bargain home to buy.

Who might these squatters be? How about a pack of mountain lions that decided to park themselves in an empty home in Lake Elsinore, California? Perhaps they figured that no one else was using the home, so they would. Maybe their thinking was much more devious: They decided that it was about time that they do something about the ever-encroaching human population that keeps pushing them farther and farther away from their habitat. Whatever the reason, they’re there, and it looks like they’re staying a while. They’re not making payments or even getting nasty phone calls and letters from the creditors, but authorities hope that, once the litter grows up a bit, they might move on.

Don’t be so sure, though. In this economy, even a bunch of cats can figure out when they’re living the high-life — and free of charge to boot.

A mountain lion roams a foreclosed home in California.

If you’re one of the two million people who’ve received a foreclosure notice this year, you might be concerned regarding your ability to vote on November 4. Concerns were voiced after a report noted that GOP officials in the state of Michigan planned to use the list of foreclosures to challenge voters’ eligibility at the polls.  (The GOP has since announced that it wouldn’t do so.)

With the number of foreclosed homes in the United States at an all-time high, the potential confusion voters may have over this issue might keep them from hitting the polls next week.

Rosemary Rodriguez of the United States Election Assistance Commission states that foreclosure does not take away the right to vote. If your home has been foreclosed on, or if you’ve received a foreclosure letter, you can still vote. If a poll worker should attempt to deny you a vote, and you believe you are a registered voter, challenge the poll worker to prove that you’re ineligible to vote.  (This year, there should be any number of people at various voting locations across the country who’ll be happy to help you defend your right to vote.)

If worse comes to worst, simply ask for a provisional ballot.  (The problem with that is that provisional ballots are much more likely to be cast aside uncounted than a regular ballot is.)