Foreclosures Archives - Page 31 of 57 - Kingcade Garcia McMaken, P.A. Bankruptcy Attorneys

Foreclosure: Bad for your Neighbor’s Health?

Posted on May 15, 2014by Admin

According to research published in the American Heart Association Journal, Circulation, the stress associated with living near a foreclosed home increases the chance of developing high blood pressure. Foreclosures are known for decreasing the property values of neighboring homes, but new research suggests it can also affect the health of your neighbors.

The study tracked 1,750 Massachusetts residents from 1987 through 2008 and found that each foreclosure within 100 meters of a person’s home affected their systolic blood pressure, the top number in the reading. According to the study, neighbors may be worried that foreclosures are hurting their home values or the safety of their communities, and that this anxiety can boost blood pressure. The study was controlled for age, income, education, race, sex and other factors, including whether the participants were taking blood-pressure medications. It also considered alcohol consumption and weight and found that both increased when there were foreclosures nearby.

Homes that lapse into foreclosure but are quickly purchased do not appear to lead to a rise in blood pressure, whereas homes that are seized by banks and stand vacant do, according to the study. The increase was not significant enough to present a huge health risk, but it does suggest that the housing crisis extends beyond the economy into the public health arena.

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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.

Bankruptcy Law, Credit, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Top Five Home-Rescue Scams Revealed

Posted on May 5, 2014by Admin

A recent report, called “Foreclosure Rescue, Inc.” has documented the ongoing problems of fraudulent foreclosure rescue businesses and how these companies have plagued unsuspecting consumers following the housing crisis. The report by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network says a database maintained by the committee has compiled more than 40,000 homeowner complaints since March 2010 from borrowers who say they have lost $90 million.

BEWARE of the following foreclosure-rescue scams:

1. Your modification is APPROVED! Send your payments to the following address… The homeowner is tricked into believing their lender has agreed to terms of a loan modification and is instructed to pay the “new” modified payment to the bogus company.

2. We volunteer all our hours with no payments. A purported non-profit agency contacts a homeowner, but after reviewing his or her mortgage sends the person to a law firm that the non-profit works with, which then begins collecting a fee.

3. You are eligible to join our lawsuit. Homeowners are told that they are eligible to join a lawsuit against their bank, but they have to pay an upfront fee and make monthly payments after that. The lawsuit is then never filed and the case goes nowhere.

4. Discount for military members and their families. Homeowners hesitant to pay for loan modification of foreclosure-rescue help are told they can use military discounts to get lower prices.

5. Pay us instead of your mortgage lender and we will protect you. Homeowners are told by the “foreclosure-rescue company” to make their mortgage payments to them and not their lender. Months later, they are blindsided by a foreclosure notice and out thousands of dollars.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Foreclosure Rate on the Decline in U.S., Florida

Posted on April 24, 2014by Admin

According to a recent report by Black Knight Financial Services, the share of loans in foreclosure is down nearly 37 percent year-over-year, dropping to rates not seen since 2008. In Florida, 12 percent of homeowners with mortgages are not current with their payments, the third largest percentage in the nation of those behind on mortgage payments.

Less than 4 million people are not current on their mortgage payments- the lowest amount since November 2007. The report said Florida has had the second biggest improvement in the past six months, with a 20 percent reduction in delinquency. These levels have not been seen since October 2007, with foreclosures at a 7.5 year low. In addition, pre-payment rates have increased from last month to eight-tenth of a percentage point- not seen since 2008.

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http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2014/04/23/black-knight-report-foreclosure-rate-sinking-in-u.html

Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Homeowners may be unaware their homes are no longer in Foreclosure

Posted on April 21, 2014by Admin

A recent report from RealtyTrac confirms that an increasingly larger number of homes in the foreclosure process actually have positive equity. According to the report, the share of foreclosures with positive equity in the first quarter reached 35 percent, up from 31 percent in the previous quarter and 24 percent in the third quarter of 2013. This percentage includes borrowers who have defaulted on their loans or are in some other stage of the foreclosure process but their homes have not been taken over by the banks, yet.

The reason behind this can be attributed to timing. Once a foreclosure is initiated, it can sometimes take years to complete the process. As we have seen, a lot can happen to housing prices in a couple of years. Home prices have risen dramatically in the past couple of years; some that are still stuck in the foreclosure process have regained their equity.

Homeowners may be unaware of this, either because they have moved or have stopped keeping tabs on their home’s property value. A high-percentage of all homes in the foreclosure process are vacant. RealtyTrac has not cross-referenced to see how many of the vacant ones have positive equity.

Real estate experts agree that paying attention to home values can make all the difference. In certain cases, struggling borrowers may be able to hang onto their homes by refinancing. The latest numbers reveal 9.3 million homes, representing 19 percent of all properties with a mortgage, were seriously underwater in the fourth quarter. Florida has the second highest percentage of seriously underwater properties at 31%. Nevada has the highest share of underwater properties at 34%.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Some Americans paid off credit cards while waiting on Foreclosure

Posted on April 16, 2014by Admin

The number of foreclosures during the recession helped some Americans pay off other debts, such as credit card bills, according to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Foreclosures peaked in 2009, and the timeline for processing them stretched out in some states for as much as three years, allowing many people to remain in their homes without paying a mortgage.

The economists looked at data from U.S. households that were already delinquent on at least one credit card before falling behind on mortgage payments and going into foreclosure from 2004 through 2010. Their research of more than 27,500 loans found people whose foreclosures took longer to process were more likely to pay off nonmortgage debt like credit cards.

However, the benefits are often short-lived. The results of the study indicate that the foreclosed consumers are less likely to stay current on all of their credit cards as they have to start making mortgage payments once the foreclosure ends.

Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Foreclosures and Short Sales Decline in South Florida

Posted on March 31, 2014by Admin

Distressed home sales have accounted for a smaller portion of the market across South Florida in 2013. Palm Beach County posted 3,598 transactions involving a short sale or foreclosure last year, representing 23 percent of all single-family home sales, according to data from the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches.

Distressed home sales have been slowly shrinking over the past three years. In the condominium sector, 20 percent of sales involved a troubled mortgage in 2013, compared with 24 percent in 2012. Rising home prices have turned South Florida back into a seller’s market. Short sales and foreclosures are now selling for the list price and above.

With less distress in the market, thousands of underwater homeowners are now beginning to have equity. Federal lawmakers have even allowed the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act to expire this year, meaning the amount of debt forgiven in the short sale or primary residence is considered income and taxable.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Big banks meet obligations of robo-signing settlement, Homeowner relief falls short

Posted on March 20, 2014by Admin

Big banks are cheering now that they have fulfilled their obligations under the National Mortgage Settlement. However, new reports reveal the $20 billion “robo signing” deal has fallen short, leaving many struggling borrowers underwhelmed.

While the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said in 2012 that a million homeowners would see reduced mortgage principals or refinanced loans, data show only 630,000 homeowners across the country have seen any sort of relief.

In Florida, approximately 120,000 homeowners were offered $9.2 billion in relief, the nation’s second-highest level of assistance behind California. However, much of this money went toward short sales or second-mortgage forgiveness- relief, which did not help distressed borrowers stay in their homes.

Nearly $3.5 billion went toward eliminating second-loan debt that the lenders likely would have never collected. Banks earned another $3.5 billion in credit though short sales, by approving sales of distressed homes for less than the homeowners owed. Investors are the ones who largely benefited from banks’ focus on short sales. Approximately 11,000 of the 120,000 Florida homeowners offered settlement aid were allowed principal forgiveness.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Florida still No. 1 in Foreclosure Activity

Posted on March 14, 2014by Admin

The most recent data from RealtyTrac reveals that Florida remains the No. 1 state in the nation in foreclosure activity for the month of February. This activity includes initial filings, auction notices and lender repossessions. The number has dropped 24 percent from a year earlier.

One in every 372 residences in Florida received some sort of filing during the month of February; a rate more than three times the national average. In Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach, foreclosure activity fell 33 percent in February compared with a year earlier and was down 27 percent from the previous month.

Nine of the 10 major U.S. metro cities with the highest rate of foreclosure were in Florida. At the top of the list was Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville. Tampa ranked No. 2; Jacksonville, No. 3, and Miami, No. 4-with one in every 328 residences seeing some type of foreclosure activity during the month. Port St. Lucie was No. 5.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

NEW bill protects renters from foreclosure-related evictions

Posted on March 11, 2014by Admin

Receiving a foreclosure notice as a homeowner is devastating. But imagine losing your home or apartment to foreclosure as a renter, when you paid your rent on time every month. Congress is pushing for permanent protections for renters who find themselves in this very situation.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown is a cosponsor of a bill that would permanently extend the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009, which gives temporary protection against eviction to families renting houses that go into foreclosure.

Tenants who work hard and are responsible rent payers each month deserve protections for themselves and their families. The problem lies with the landlords, who failed to make mortgage payments on these properties.

Up until 2009, if the houses were foreclosed upon and resold, almost always at a discount, the new owners could evict the tenants, often giving the renters no recourse or very little notice to move. The 2009 law ended that by saying if the tenants had leases and were abiding by their terms, the new owners had to honor those leases. There was an exemption if the new owners intended to occupy the properties, but it required giving the tenants 90 days’ notice before eviction.

Tenants would gain a new protection in the latest legislation that they currently do not have: the explicit right to sue the new owners if they believed the owners violated the law. Tenants would have what is called a “right of action,” giving them a clear right to sue.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Wells Fargo Pays the Consequences in “Shocking” Foreclosure Case

Posted on March 10, 2014by Admin

A New Mexico judge issued a $3.2 million judgment against Wells Fargo & Co. for foreclosing on a man’s home after his death, even though he had a purchased insurance policy through the bank that would have covered the remaining balance on the mortgage. The judge called the bank’s conduct “shocking” and so reprehensible that in addition to damages, attorney’s fees and court costs; she awarded James Dollens’s estate $2.7 million in punitive damages.

Dollens had purchased an accidental death mortgage insurance policy for his Rio Rancho home that was marketed by Wells Fargo and issued by Minnesota Life. His death was reported immediately to Minnesota Life and to Wells Fargo to make a claim under the insurance policy.

However, instead of collecting funds from the insurance policy, Wells Fargo sent notices about the loan being in default and sent the loan to foreclosure. There was $125,000 owed on the mortgage.

When the bank received a $133,559 check from the insurance company in May 2011, it collected delinquent payments, late fees, and fees for lawyers and for 18 property inspections, leaving only $4,400 for Dollens’s estate ‘‘because of misapplication of the insurance proceeds,’’ the judge said.

Wells Fargo argues the family should have continued making payments regardless of the insurance policy. The judge called this case “a breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing- The bank’s unwillingness and failure to hold off on the foreclosure even when requested to do so by the insurance company was shocking.”

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