Miami foreclosure defense attorney Archives - Page 14 of 20

How Foreclosure Rates Affect Homeownership

Posted on February 9, 2016by Admin

The housing market has experienced a gradual recovery largely due to the fact that foreclosure start rates are returning to “normal,” pre-recession rates. In 2014, foreclosure start rates fell to 1.75 percent, after exceeding 5.4 percent at the height of the housing market crisis in 2009. The third quarter of 2015 experienced the lowest foreclosure start rate since the second quarter of 2005, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

Prior to the housing market crash, homeownership reached a peak rate of 69 percent of households, meaning that 31 percent of households were renters in 2006. Studies show that most people rent before they own, therefore the ‘normal’ flow is for renters to become owners with age. According to the National Association of Realtors, first-time buyers closed approximately 36 percent of the 6.5 million existing-home sales in 2006. Which meant that approximately 2.3 million renters became buyers in 2006.

There is also a flow in the opposite direction where homeowners become renters. In 2006, 1.9 percent of existing mortgages entered into foreclosure. This means that approximately 900,000 homeowners left their homes and became renters. Using these two measures, first-time homebuyers and foreclosure starts, we can see that the flow into homeownership was strong and the flow out of homeownership was weak in 2006.

This trend greatly changed during the housing market crash. At the height of the recession in 2009, the foreclosure rate rose to historically high levels and first-time homebuyers fell drastically. That same year, nearly 2.8 million homeowners left their homes after entering into foreclosure and became renters.

Mortgage companies have since offered assistance to first-time homebuyers to ensure the housing market stays on the right track. For example, many mortgage companies offer first-time buyers the ability to obtain a mortgage with less than a 20 percent down payment. Mortgage companies have also tightened their grip on mortgage lending criteria for obtaining a home loan. Lending companies’ historically reckless lending practices played a big role in the housing market crash.

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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.

Credit, Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Active Foreclosure Backlog is Clearing Out

Posted on February 3, 2016by Admin

The rate of foreclosures was down in 2015 compared to the previous five years. As a result, foreclosure inventory was down to its pre-recession level, meaning the backlog of foreclosures in the court systems are continuing to clear out at a substantial rate.

Nearly half the residential mortgage loans that were in foreclosure at the beginning of 2015 were either liquidated or returned to current status by the end of the year. Active foreclosures at the end of the year were less than a third of what it was during the peak of the housing market crisis, five years ago, according to a report released by the Black Knight Financial Services.

Approximately 880,000 residential mortgage loans were in active foreclosure at the beginning of 2015. Out of those, 484,000 were at least two years delinquent. By the end of the year, 47 percent of the total number of loans in active foreclosure had either returned to performing status or were liquidated. This is 1.5 percent higher than the previous year.

Active foreclosure inventory went from 880,000 at the beginning of the year to 689,000 at the end of the year. This is the first time the foreclosure rate has ended the year below 700,000 since 2006.

However, consumers are not out of the woods just yet. The remaining foreclosure volume was still two and a half times the “normal” level at the end of 2015, even with the declines.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Foreclosure Filings Hit Nine-Year Low

Posted on January 26, 2016by Admin

The U.S. reportedly had 1,083,572 foreclosures in 2015, down three percent from 2014, according to RealtyTrac. This is the lowest annual total since 2006. The report includes default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

Last year was also the second consecutive year where the annual foreclosure rate was below one percent of all housing units. Data showed that one in every 122 homes or 0.82 percent had at least one foreclosure filing in 2015.

The report also showed data for individual months, revealing that December 2015 foreclosure filings were down one percent from the previous month. It was also the sixth consecutive month foreclosure filings decreased.

RealtyTrac’s Vice President, Daren Blomquist said, “In 2015 we saw a return to normal, healthy foreclosure activity in many markets even as banks continued to clean up some of the last vestiges of distress left over from the last housing crisis.”

Florida was among the top five states with the highest rate of foreclosure in 2015 with 1.77 percent. New Jersey was the only state with a higher percentage of housing units in foreclosure at 1.91 percent. Maryland followed closely with 1.60 percent, Nevada with 1.40 percent and Illinois with 1.26 percent.

Tampa, Jacksonville and Miami reportedly had the highest foreclosure rates of any of the metro areas in Florida.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Fraudulent Debt Relief Companies Shut Down by Florida Attorney General

Posted on January 14, 2016by Admin

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the filing of a stipulated consent judgment against Bobby R. Blackmon, Financial Help Services, Inc. and Nation Wide Consumer Debt Relief based on alleged unfair and deceptive business practices.

Blackmon’s two companies provided credit counsel management services to consumers in 48 states. Bondi presented stacks of consumer complaints stating the defendants withdrew consumers’ funds to pay creditors on a monthly basis, but did not pay the creditors within the 30 days as required by law. In some cases, the defendants did not pay the creditors at all.

Bondi and Blackmon reached an agreement that shuts down the two businesses and bans them from engaging in any consumer debt-related services. It will also cost the defendants at least one million dollars, including $600,000 in full consumer restitution. The remainder of the $7 million judgment will be suspended. However, if any of the material terms contained in the judgment are violated, the full $7 million judgment will be reinstated.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a similar lawsuit in Illinois in December, suing a company called Carrey Services, Inc. and its President, Reynaldo Rojas. The “mortgage rescue” company allegedly charged struggling homeowners $20,000 in upfront fees for mortgage relief. Ultimately, the company provided little, if any, assistance to keep consumers in their homes. Madigan’s suit is seeking to shut down the business and obtain restitution for consumers.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Obama Program that Hurt Homeowners and Helped Big Banks Comes to an End

Posted on January 6, 2016by Admin

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) promised to assist 3 to 4 million homeowners to modify their loans and avoid foreclosure. But nearly seven years later, less than 1 million borrowers have received assistance. In fact, nearly one in three re-defaulted after receiving their inadequate modification and 6 million families lost their homes during that same period.

HAMP’s failure essentially stemmed from its design. Rather than a cash-transfer program that hands vouchers to distressed borrowers so they can lower their mortgage payments, the government gave the money to the mortgage servicing companies, to encourage them to modify the loans.

So in the end, it’s the mortgage companies that decide whether or not to provide the aid. With servicers in control of modifications, they could manipulate the program to accumulate more bad debt on borrowers and extract a few extra payments before foreclosing.

Servicers make their money from a percentage of unpaid principal balance on a loan- so forgiving principal — the most successful type of loan modification — cuts into their profits. In addition, the mortgage servicers collect on all of the fees (i.e. – late fees, etc.), so in the end it makes it more profitable for them to keep the borrower delinquent.

70 percent of homeowners who applied for the program were turned down for a permanent modification, according to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). The government is also to blame, as it promised a $75 billion commitment to HAMP, and spent only $10.2 billion, with an additional $2 billion on related programs. Most of the spending came too late, after the initial years when the foreclosure crisis was at its worst.

In the most disturbing of revelations involving servicer misconduct, employees at Bank of America’s mortgage servicing unit testified in a class action lawsuit that they were told to lie to homeowners, deliberately misplace their documents, and deny loan modifications without explaining why. For their efforts, upper management rewarded them with bonuses, in the form of Target gift cards, for pushing borrowers into foreclosure.

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Bankruptcy Law, Credit, Debt Relief

Tips to Avoid Medical Debt- While You Are Still Healthy

Posted on December 22, 2015by Admin

Financial experts are advising Americans to save for a rainy day when it comes to their healthcare costs. The last thing you want to deal with when you are battling a serious illness is financial stress. Consider getting insurance for your credit cards and mortgage. Understand your insurance; know what it covers and what it does not cover.

Prepare a budget while you are still healthy. Know what it costs to run your household and the expenses that are coming out every month. If you spend $1,500 a month on living expenses, experts say you should put six to nine months worth of that money away in the bank.

For example, the treatment for what you have been diagnosed with or a family member has been diagnosed with- you will need to have cash on hand to travel for treatment, get a hotel, see doctors while still covering your monthly bills and expenses.

If you or a family member have been diagnosed with a serious illness, call your creditors and let them know immediately if you are having difficulty paying your bills. There are programs offered that can give you time to make those payments and if you find yourself falling too far behind, reach out to a reputable bankruptcy attorney in your area.

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If you are in financial crisis and considering filing for bankruptcy, contact an experienced Miami bankruptcy attorney who can advise you of all of 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.

Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

SunTrust to Pay Florida Homeowners as Part of Multi-State Mortgage Abuse Settlement

Posted on December 18, 2015by Admin

More than 4,000 Florida residents will be receiving checks this week from SunTrust Mortgage as part of a multi-state settlement over mortgage origination, servicing and foreclosure abuse. SunTrust has agreed to a $550 million joint state-federal mortgage settlement. The banking giant began mailing checks to claimants on December 8, totaling more than $1,300 for each valid claim.

SunTrust entered into the three-year settlement that provides direct payments to Florida borrowers for past foreclosure abuses, loan modifications and other relief for borrowers in 2014. The bank also had to agree to more stringent mortgage servicing standards and to oversight authority by an independent monitor.

According to the agreement, Florida, 48 other states, the District of Columbia and the federal government required SunTrust to provide $550 million in various forms of relief to homeowners, including a $40 million fund to payments to certain borrowers who lost their homes in foreclosure.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

$5.4 Million Awarded to Houston Couple in Foreclosure Fraud Case

Posted on December 11, 2015by Admin

Sometimes David does beat Goliath. It’s a story we have heard thousands of times since the housing crisis. Homeowners fighting the big banks to try and save their homes from foreclosure. Many times arguing that the lender or servicer has no legal authority to foreclose on their home.

One Houston couple recently took on one of the nation’s largest banks- and won! David and Mary Ellen Wolf received a foreclosure notice in 2011 from Wells Fargo. There’s just one problem- The Wolf’s had never done business with Wells Fargo or their mortgage servicer, Carrington Mortgage Services.

After discussing the situation with their neighbor, who is also a lawyer, they determined that neither Wells Fargo nor Carrington had the legal right to foreclose on them. The issue of mortgage notes being transferred between lien holders and servicers after the mortgage was originated is not a foreign concept, but the Wolf’s argued that Wells Fargo violated Texas law.

According to the Houston Chronicle: Wells Fargo retroactively attached the Wolfs’ mortgage to a securitized trust that was closed and sold to investors three years earlier, the bank violated a Texas law that prohibits fraudulent real estate filings. The jury agreed, although State District Judge Mike Engelhart has not formally entered the verdict, and the bank and mortgage company have not said whether they’ll appeal.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Foreclosure Filings Fall in South Florida

Posted on December 10, 2015by Admin

South Florida had a sharp decrease in foreclosure filings in November, losing its spot on the “Top 10 states with the highest number of foreclosures,” according to RealtyTrac’s foreclosure report. There was one foreclosure filing per 645 homes in South Florida, ranking 12^th among metro areas. The region once had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation. However, with property values rising, homeowners who were previously underwater have been able to refinance or sell their homes.

Banks are continuing to work through the backlog of foreclosures. The recent numbers mean the share of active foreclosures tied to the housing bubble burst are shrinking, with 59 percent of all loans in foreclosure originated between 2004 and 2008. It continues to decrease from 61 percent earlier this year and 75 percent two years ago, according to Daren Blomquist, VP of RealtyTrac.

There were 3,824 South Florida foreclosure filings in November, down 38.9 percent from the same month a year ago. This total includes new lawsuits, judgments and repossessions. Repossessions accounted for the largest amount at 1,845, as most of the foreclosures are in their final stages.

Atlantic City, New Jersey led the nation in foreclosure filings with one foreclosure every 307 homes.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

South Florida Still in Need of Mortgage Debt Forgiveness

Posted on December 9, 2015by Admin

South Florida was hit harder by the 2008 mortgage, housing, banking and economic crises than any other region in the U.S. and continues to lag behind the nation as a whole in the housing market recovery. We continue to hear stories of families who are struggling to piece their financial lives back together after this seven year ordeal. To make matters worse, without the re-authorization of the Mortgage Debt Relief Act, a number of South Florida homeowners will continue to be unjustly burdened.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act eliminates the income tax on forgiven mortgage debt, eliminating a particularly punitive burden resulting from plummeting home values. In the aftermath of the housing crisis, many homeowners found that their homes were underwater- worth far less than their outstanding mortgage balance.

The most recent foreclosure statistics reveal that Florida’s foreclosure activity remains the nation’s second highest. Five Florida cities were among the 10 highest foreclosure rates for metro areas in the U.S. in the third quarter, including Jacksonville (No. 2), Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach (No. 3) Tampa (No. 4), Miami (No. 5), Lakeland (No. 7) and Ocala (No. 8).

Without the re-authorization of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, any forgiven principal reduction is currently taxable in 2015. This means struggling homeowners, who have already faced job loss and sought loan modifications, will be left owing thousands of dollars in taxes this year on top of the loss of their home and its equity.

Banks and investment firms in the mortgage industry have received numerous breaks throughout the recovery. South Florida homeowners, who have been hit particularly hard by the crisis, have earned the right to this temporary tax break. We urge the Florida congressional delegation to pass the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act.

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