Foreclosures Archives - Page 17 of 56

Florida can’t shake its High Foreclosure Ranking

Posted on May 10, 2016by Admin

Even though the numbers are shrinking, Florida can’t seem to shake its spot at the top of the nation for foreclosures. The state accounts for approximately 15 percent of all foreclosures nationwide. Mortgage lenders closed on 71,644 foreclosures in Florida during the 12-month period that ended in February, according to CoreLogic. That total was down by more than 41,000 foreclosures, or 37 percent, from 2015.

Florida’s foreclosure inventory (i.e. – mortgaged homes in some stage of the foreclosure process) was 2.2 percent in February, the fourth-highest in the nation. While that number is down from 3.4 percent over the year, it remains double the U.S. rate of 1.1 percent.

Nationwide, completed foreclosures have dropped by 10 percent and the foreclosure inventory has fallen by 24 percent. Statewide, 5.1 percent of all mortgages are considered seriously delinquent — at least 90 days past due — the third-highest level in the nation.

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Choosing the right attorney can make the difference between whether or not you can keep your home. A well-qualified Miami foreclosure defense attorney will not only help you keep your home, but they will be able to negotiate a loan that has payments you can afford. Miami 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 website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Seniors Face More Foreclosures as Reverse Mortgages “Bite Back”

Posted on May 6, 2016by Admin

Lenders who cannot work out a repayment plan with homeowners must foreclose or risk losing federal insurance. The insurance protects the lenders against loss on 600,000 reverse mortgages totaling about $146 billion in debt – almost the entire reverse market.

There is “a historic backlog” of loans with unpaid property charges, which are coming due, according to Peter Bell, president of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association.

Nearly 24,000 borrowers in the U.S. received notices that their reverse became “due and payable” in the 2015 federal fiscal year ending last September, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Rules for new reverse mortgages, including assessments to make sure borrowers can pay property charges, were issued in the wake of the financial crisis to make the loans a sustainable way for seniors to age in place, the agency said.

Under a reverse mortgage, borrowers put up their homes as security and receive a loan either in a lump sum or in monthly payments and are allowed to defer payments on the debt until they die, move away or fail to pay property charges. They appeal to seniors who may have substantial equity in their homes but are having trouble meeting living expenses.

But five years ago, facing federal auditors’ criticism for losing millions on defaulting reverse mortgages, HUD notified lenders that they should foreclose when property charges were not paid, unless they could work out a plan for borrowers to pay them. Otherwise, the properties would no longer meet federal guidelines and FHA would refuse to insure the mortgages, leaving lenders at risk of financial loss.

Housing advocates have also heard from a number of troubled borrowers. In 2014, several borrowers sued HUD seeking to protect widows as more of them were being forced out of their homes because they were not co-borrowers with their spouses and therefore not covered by the guarantee that they could stay until they died. The suit prompted HUD to issue guidelines allowing lenders to turn over mortgages to the FHA when a sole borrower dies – getting fully paid for the debt – and allowing aged widows to stay in the home. But some housing advocates say that lenders do not have to initiate the process to have that happen, and not all of them do.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Why more widowed homeowners are struggling to prevent foreclosure

Posted on May 5, 2016by Admin

Consumer advocates say more widows and widowers nationwide are having trouble saving their homes from foreclosure. Even though servicers will generally accept loan payments, surviving spouses who are not on the mortgage face increasing resistance when seeking loan modifications, once they have fallen behind on the mortgage payments. This is often due to the loss of their spouse’s income.

Many are being told there is nothing they can do to prevent foreclosure. Consumer advocates believe the problem dates back to practices done nearly a decade ago during the housing bubble. These include a rise in “risky” first and second mortgages, many that were taken out by older Americans who previously avoided taking on new debt- and securitization of loans, which has increasingly put servicers in control of the foreclosure process. Sometimes these servicers flat-out refuse to deal with the surviving spouse. Other times they give inaccurate information or require unnecessary documentation to prove ownership of the house, stalling a modification while the foreclosure moves forward.

Another roadblock for widowers- companies simply will not allow a modification until the surviving spouse assumes the loan, which cannot happen until the owner is current on the mortgage. This growing problem has caught the attention of federal regulators and state lawmakers. Rules are now being proposed to boost protections for surviving spouses. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is preparing regulations this summer that will assist surviving spouses and other so-called successors-in-interest.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

First Quarter Housing Market Trends

Posted on May 2, 2016by Admin

The housing market has continued to make improvement in the first quarter of the year. Home prices have increased, helping homeowners accumulate equity. Based on the first quarter trends of 6% home price gain, another $1.3 trillion in housing equity could be added to homeowners’ wealth this year. It has been a positive quarter for the housing sector, particularly for homeowners.

The spending growth for home improvement, including new home construction, rising brokerage commission income, more use of moving trucks and lawn care, and even increased consumer spending for many things arising from homeowner housing wealth accumulation are helping keep the economy afloat.

Another good sign- mortgage default rates are on the decline. The number of people late on their mortgage payment by only a month was 2.35% in the latest quarter, the lowest in at least 40 years when this data was first collected. In addition, the share of homes with new foreclosure proceedings fell to 0.36% of homes with mortgages – the lowest in over a decade.

The sense of stress is among renters. Rents have been outpacing income growth for the past four years. The strict credit requirements are holding many renters back from converting into homeowners. Another factor holding first-time home buyers back is student loan debt. That is a big reason why the homeownership rate remains at a near 50-year low, at 63.6% in the first quarter.

Among those under the age of 35, the ownership rate fell even more and was 34.2% in the latest quarter. Renter households in the meantime have been increasing upwards by an additional 9 million in the past decade while homeowner households have been reduced by a million.

The trend of more renters and fewer homeowners is occurring at a time of rising home values and housing equity gains. Many interpret it as a loss of The American Dream and attribute it to the rising wealth inequality.

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Bankruptcy Law, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Homeowners BEWARE: The Latest Foreclosure Rescue Scam- Securitization Audits

Posted on April 26, 2016by Admin

There are many struggling homeowners on the brink of foreclosure, and scammers have been there to capitalize on it, offering “mortgage elimination” or other foreclosure tactics that in some cases are illegal. One commonly advertised service is a Securitization Audit.

A number of companies have been pushing “forensic loan audits.” Since knowledgeable attorneys and homeowners recognize these “audits” are basically useless, scammers are now peddling, securitization audits. The supposed reason given for a ‘securitization audit’ is to determine the true owner of a promissory note. Allegedly, with this information, the homeowner can show a court that the party actually foreclosing on a mortgage is not the actual note owner.

These scammers are charging fees for information that is free to everyone. There is absolutely no need to pay for a securitization audit, but the scammers are counting on the fact that the average homeowner does not know that.

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Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

State Passes on Hardest Hit Funds- Florida Homeowners out $250 Million

Posted on April 21, 2016by Admin

Floridians fighting to save their homes from foreclosure are losing out on $250 million in mortgage assistance because state officials opted not to apply for additional money from the federal Hardest Hit Fund. The fund was created six years ago to help those states hardest hit by the housing market crash and foreclosure crisis. All of the board members who voted to turn down the assistance were appointed by Governor Rick Scott, a Republican who has opposed federal bailout programs and whose office once pressured the housing agency to limit the time homeowner’s could receive the Hardest Hit help.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson calls the decision “tragic” and has repeatedly blasted state officials for their slowness in spending the $1 billion that Florida originally received. As of January 1, 2016, the state had spent less than two-thirds of that amount and helped only 25,000 homeowners while rejecting 120,000.

In addition, the federal official who oversees the Treasury’s management of the Hardest Hit Fund has criticized Florida, issuing a report that found the state had “consistently under-performed” other states in the use of the relief money.

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Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

U.S. Extends Limited Reduction of Mortgage Principal for Stressed Homeowners

Posted on April 15, 2016by Admin

A federal regulator this week announced an initiative to allow certain homeowners facing foreclosure to reduce the principal on their mortgages. However, the plan is limited and comes years after advocates began pushing for greater relief in the wake of the housing crash.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency will help approximately 33,000 people whose mortgages are backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the housing finance companies seized by the government in 2008.

The plan balances the agency’s statutory mandate to “maximize assistance for homeowners,” while not adversely affecting the finances of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The program is available to homeowners who were at least 90 days delinquent on mortgage payments as of March 1. The outstanding principal on the mortgage must be less than $250,000, and the value of the home must be at least 15% less than what is owed on the loan.

The mortgage principal could be reduced no lower than 15% above market value, meaning the homeowner still would be underwater. No more than 30% of the total principal could be forgiven. Eligible borrowers should expect to hear from their mortgage servicer by Dec. 31.

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Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Goldman Sachs Reaches Subprime Mortgage Settlement for $5.1B

Posted on April 13, 2016by Admin

Goldman Sachs is the final U.S. bank to reach a subprime mortgage settlement with a national working group established in 2012 to investigate how Wall Street had inflated the mortgage bubble, which led to the economic crisis. The group included several federal regulators and state attorneys general.

Goldman’s $5.1 billion settlement is less than those of the other mortgage giants. JPMorgan Chase paid $13.3 billion, while Bank of America paid $16.6 billion. Morgan Stanley paid $3.2 billion to the working group, which consists of National Credit Union Administration, the Federal Home Loan Banks, and the states of California, Illinois and New York.

However, there is another side to this story. Concealed in the fine print are provisions that allow Goldman Sachs to pay hundreds of millions of dollars less — perhaps as much as $1 billion less — than the headline figure. And that is before the tax benefits of the deal are included. The bank will be able to reduce its bill substantially through a combination of government incentives and tax credits. For all the banks, the credits suggest that the amounts that the banks will have to actually spend on consumer relief will be much lower than the headline figures.

When asked about these differences, the Justice Department official said that the wrongdoing the banks were accused of was different and, as a result, the negotiations took different courses.

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Bankruptcy Law, Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Military members have twice the amount of debt collector complaints

Posted on April 7, 2016by Admin

According to a recent study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), members of the military submit debt collector complaints at twice the rate of civilians. Debt collection, mortgages and credit reporting were the subject of most of the complaints, according to the CFPB’s report.

While the higher rate of complaints could be due to a variety of factors, including time away for deployments and frequent moves from base to base, it is concerning because unpaid debts can threaten a military career.

The complaints concern disputes over money owed, debt collector calls to commanding officers and threats against security clearances held by service members. Veterans also complained of bill collectors trying to collect on medical bills that should have been paid for by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

It is unfortunate that the brave men and women who serve our country are being targeting by these unfair, deceptive and abusive debt collection practices. But it also comes as a warning to members of the military to diligently check their credit reports and proactively protect their credit files while away from home.

If you are in financial crisis and considering filing for bankruptcy, contact an experienced Miami bankruptcy attorney who can advise you of all your options. As an experienced CPA as well as a proven bankruptcy lawyer, Timothy Kingcade knows how to help clients take full advantage of the bankruptcy laws to protect their assets and get successful results. Since 1996 Kingcade & Garcia, P.A. has been helping people from all walks of life build a better tomorrow. Our attorneys’ help thousands of people every year take advantage of their rights under bankruptcy protection to restart, rebuild and recover. The day you hire our firm, we will contact your creditors to stop the harassment. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade & Garcia website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Related Resources:

http://www.insidearm.com/daily/debt-collection-news/cfpb-report-highlights-high-rate-of-collection-complaints-from-servicemembers/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/03/23/military-members-have-twice-the-bill-collector-complaints/

Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Widows, divorcees struggle with foreclosure rules

Posted on March 29, 2016by Admin

According to a recent report from the National Consumer Law Center, widows as well as surviving family members and the recently divorced continue to struggle to stay in their homes. It is estimated that thousands of homeowners, usually women who did not sign the original loan documents, are having trouble getting access to relief that the new federal guidelines have provided other homeowners since the foreclosure crisis.

The Federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is being urged to adopt rules that would expand protections to others who may have homeownership interest in a property, aside from just the borrower. Every month of delay increases the interest that the homeowner owes, increasing the fees on the loan amount and decreasing the changes of a loan modification.

Federal regulators need to do more to educate borrowers. Borrowers can fill out paperwork allowing lenders and mortgage companies to disclose financial and loan information to family members or spouses. Many borrowers are unaware that they can agree to disclosures so family members and spouses communicate with lenders to avoid undue hardships after death.

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