Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

The Obama Administration Announces Modifications to the Home Affordable Refinance Program to Help Underwater Homeowners

South Florida has embraced the new modifications being made to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), which include eliminating some appraisals and loosening underwriting requirements, making it easier for underwater homeowners to alleviate their mortgages. To qualify homeowners must be current on their payments, and the mortgages must be backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
These revisions are projected to help tens of thousands of South Florida homeowners who have not qualified for other government relief programs. The government is doing away with a cap that prevented borrowers whose mortgages exceed 125 percent of the value of their homes from being eligible for the program. Other changes include reduced risk for lenders and lower fees for borrowers. Nearly half of all single family homes with a mortgage in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties are worth less than what is owed, according to third-quarter data from real estate website Zillow.com. People who otherwise may have been tempted to walk away from their homes will be able to qualify for some of the lowest mortgage rates on record and possibly pay off their homes faster.
To read more on this story visit:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-harp-revisions-20111115,0,4175968.story?track=rss

Choosing the right attorney can make the difference between whether or not you can keep your home. A well qualified attorney will not only help you keep your home, but they will be able to negotiate a loan that has payments you can afford. Foreclosure defense attorney, Timothy Kingcade has helped many facing foreclosure alleviate their stress by letting them stay in their homes for at least another year, allowing them to re-organize their lives. If you have any questions on the topic of foreclosure please feel free to contact me at (305) 285-9100. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade & Garcia, P.A. website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Foreclosure Crisis Only Halfway Over

The latest data on home foreclosures and delinquencies reflect that the foreclosure crisis is only about half way over. The pace of new home foreclosures increased in the third quarter and the number of borrowers falling behind on their payments eased a bit, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The good news was that the rate of borrowers who have fallen three or more months behind on their payments has dropped to about 3.5 percent of all mortgages. That is down from a peak of 5 percent in late 2009. But it is still three and a half times the “normal” rate of about 1 percent that prevailed before the mortgage meltdown hit in late 2007.
Borrowers with subprime adjustable mortgages saw the biggest jump in new foreclosures in the third quarter. Some 4.65 percent of those subprime loans entered into foreclosure. Underwater borrowers simply walking away from their home and no longer making mortgage payments have complicated the housing market recovery process. The most critical variable affecting the pace of such defaults was the length of time a given home was in the foreclosure process. The longer the process takes, the longer the idea ‘strategic default’ has to spread from one borrower to another.

A lot depends on recovery of the economy and creating jobs fast enough to get people back to work and decrease the 9 percent unemployment rate. Continued improvement in home sales and prices will depend heavily on the volume of foreclosed homes coming back on the market.

To read more on this story visit:
http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/17/8859967-foreclosure-crisis-only-about-halfway-over

Foreclosure defense attorney, Timothy Kingcade has helped many facing foreclosure alleviate their stress by letting them stay in their homes for at least another year, allowing them to re-organize their lives. If you have any questions on the topic of foreclosure please feel free to contact me at (305) 285-9100. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade & Garcia, P.A. website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Home Prices Continue to Plunge due to an Increase in foreclosure activity and high unemployment

According to Fiserv, a financial analytics company, home values are expected to fall another 3.6% by next June, pushing them to a new low of 35%, below the peak reached in early 2006. Should this prediction occur, it would make it the most substantial decline for home prices since the housing bubble burst in 2009. Several factors have attributed to the continued decline in housing prices, including an increase in foreclosure activity and sustained high unemployment.
Naples, FL is expected to take the biggest hit of any metro area. Fiserv predicts a price drop of another 18.9% by the end of next June for Naples, FL. Home prices in this area have already fallen 61% from the peak. Other cities expected to be hit hard include Las Vegas, Riverside and Salinas, CA, and Miami, which is expected to decline by 13.2% (total loss: 57%).

What can we expect from a housing market that continues to surprise all of those involved? Economists and housing experts predict a slow recovery. Even after the housing market begins its comeback in mid-2012, the recovery is predicted to be modest at best. Nationwide, Fiserv is projecting that home prices will climb just 2.4% between June 2012 and June 2013.

To read more on this story visit:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/31/real_estate/home_prices/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2

Foreclosure defense attorney, Timothy Kingcade has helped many facing foreclosure alleviate their stress by letting them stay in their homes for at least another year, allowing them to re-organize their lives. If you have any questions on the topic of foreclosure please feel free to contact me at (305) 285-9100. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade & Garcia, P.A. website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Law Firms Nationwide Descend on Florida to capture Growing Foreclosure Business

Law firms from Atlanta, North Carolina, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Philadelphia are heading south to take over files from the Law Offices of David J. Stern and Ben-Ezra & Katz, previously two of Florida’s largest foreclosure firms. David J. Stern and Ben-Ezra Katz’s law offices abandoned business after being investigated for possible foreclosure fraud, leaving tens of thousands of cases in need of representation. The new law firms are being handed between 3,500 and 5,000 transfer files at $1,200 to $1,400 per file, according to a legal headhunter. Many of these foreclosure firms are placing their South Florida central offices in the Fort Lauderdale area. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s plan is to spread out the cases among more firms, instead of a few large ones, preventing any streamlining.

Since being under the congressional spotlight, Fannie Mae is being proactive to ensure firms maintain proper procedures and are even sitting in on lawyer interviews at firms. Fannie Mae is using new criteria when choosing new firms to contract with. This new criteria requires firms to be in good standing with the Florida Bar and local bar associations, demonstrate experience in handling foreclosures, provide quality and cost-efficient work, posses diversity and overall capacity to handle the foreclosure volume, among other considerations. Despite new legislation to monitor foreclosure firms, without some sort of program in place to teach young lawyers how to conduct themselves properly– the same problems will exist.

To read more on this story visit:
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202517889234&Law_Firms_Descend_on_Florida_to_Take_Over_Foreclosure_Business&slreturn=1

Choosing the right attorney can make the difference between whether or not you can keep your home. A well qualified attorney will not only help you keep your home, but they will be able to negotiate a loan that has payments you can afford. Foreclosure defense attorney, Timothy Kingcade has helped many facing foreclosure alleviate their stress by letting them stay in their homes for at least another year, allowing them to re-organize their lives. If you have any questions on the topic of foreclosure please feel free to contact me at (305) 285-9100. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade & Garcia, P.A. website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

 

Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

President Obama Announces New Program to help ‘Underwater’ Homeowners Reduce their Monthly Mortgage Payments

The Obama administration recently unveiled a new government program aimed to provide assistance to ‘underwater’ homeowners who owe more than their properties are worth and help reduce their monthly mortgage payments. The goal of the program is to keep families in their homes and lower interest rates for responsible lenders. Those who qualify for the program will be eligible to refinance their mortgages at a new low rate, near 4 percent.

This plan is part of what the Obama administration calls the “We Can’t Wait” campaign. In order to be eligible for the program homeowner loans must be backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Final details will be published in mid-November 2011. The plan comes as an official revision to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), which began at the start of Obama’s term. It was initially designed to provide assistance to as many as 5 million homeowners; of which only 822,000 (one-tenth) have been helped by the program.

However, HARP had several barriers that resulted in its lack of success. These barriers included: limiting the program to lenders owing 25 percent more than the worth of their home, upfront fees, and banks concerns that they would be ultimately responsible in the case of a default. Officials backing Obama’s new program hope this will reallocate money and help stimulate economic growth and development.

To read more on this story visit:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fhfa-announces-new-program-to-help-underwater-homeowners/2011/10/24/gIQAG1oUCM_story.html

Foreclosure defense attorney, Timothy Kingcade has helped many facing foreclosure alleviate their stress by letting them stay in their homes for at least another year, allowing them to re-organize their lives. If you have any questions on the topic of foreclosure please feel free to contact me at (305) 285-9100. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade & Garcia, P.A. website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Another Robo-signing Law Firm Brought to Justice

One of the largest foreclosure mills in the country, Steven J. Baum, P.C., in Amherst, New York is required to pay $2 million and make significant reforms as a result of a settlement agreement reached on October 6, 2011. Most significantly, Baum employees may no longer sign mortgage assignments as officers of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (“MERS”).

Tens of thousands of homeowners have lost their homes in cases where Baum employees signed mortgage assignments as officers of MERS. In most cases, these employees assigned mortgages to mortgage-backed trusts so that the trusts could foreclose; even though such transfers did not take place on the dates and in the manner set forth on the Baum assignments.

These Baum Assignments appear throughout the New York courts, but often in the Courts of other states as well. Two million is also the amount paid by the Law Offices of Marshall Watson in Florida, whose associates engaged in similar practices of signing as MERS officers, assigning mortgages after foreclosure actions were initiated.

This is a first-of-its-kind settlement and further relief may be forthcoming, from both criminal prosecutions, the NY Bar, and from private class action and RICO lawsuits brought by private litigants.

To read more on this story visit: http://frauddigest.com/fraud.php?ident=4729

Foreclosure defense attorney, Timothy Kingcade has helped many facing foreclosure alleviate their stress by letting them stay in their homes for at least another year, allowing them to re-organize their lives. If you have any questions on this topic or on the topic of foreclosure, please feel free to contact me at (305) 285-9100. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade & Garcia, P.A. website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.