Miami Foreclosure Defense Law Firm Archives - Page 2 of 2

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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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.

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

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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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

A WIN for Florida Foreclosure Plaintiffs!

Posted on November 27, 2015by Admin

Florida homeowners succeeded in getting a judgment in favor of Wells Fargo dismissed, allowing them to reverse a foreclosure action previously in favor of the bank. The case, Hicks v. Wells Fargo, reached the Fifth District Court of Appeals in the State of Florida. According to the complaint, the issue turned on the statute of limitations, with the Fifth District holding that the bank’s foreclosure claim was time barred by Florida’s five-year statute of limitations for foreclosure.

The homeowners claim it all began when an initial default occurred on June 1, 2006. At some point, a prior holder of the note sued to foreclose on Sept. 8, 2006, but the case was voluntarily dismissed in 2008. Then, in 2011, the current note holder (Wells Fargo) sent a notice to accelerate to the borrowers. The second foreclosure action did not occur until 2013, which is seven years past the original default date.

The appellate court agreed with the borrowers that the 2013 foreclosure action by Wells Fargo is “time-barred” by the state’s five-year statute of limitations; however, the bank is not barred from pursuing new or remaining foreclosure claims that fall within the statute of limitations period.

“Despite the previous acceleration of the balance owed in both the instant suit and prior suit, the bank is not precluded from filing a new foreclosure action based on different acts or dates of default not previously alleged, provided that the subsequent foreclosure action on the subsequent defaults is brought within the statute of limitations period,” the court wrote.

So what can be taken away from this case? Florida’s statute of limitations period is sensitive and acceleration actions cannot suffice without a timely foreclosure action. However, not all is lost if a bank fails to file on time, as long as there is a new valid claim to bring forth.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Mortgage Foreclosures & Delinquencies at Lowest Levels Since 2005

Posted on November 19, 2015by Admin

Approximately 0.38% of loans went into foreclosure during the third quarter, according to a report released this week by the Mortgage Bankers Association. This is the lowest rate since the second quarter of 2005. About 3.57% of loans were at least 90 days past due, the lowest rate since the third quarter of 2007.

These numbers can be attributed to a healthy job market and rising home prices, which allows troubled borrowers to sell as opposed to being foreclosed upon. Fewer foreclosures will likely help home prices, because bank-owned homes tend to sell for less. These often empty homes can deteriorate and affect the value of neighboring homes.

New Jersey, New York and Florida continue to have the highest foreclosure rates, but now the foreclosure problem is largely isolated to loans made before 2009.

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Bankruptcy Law, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Underwater Mortgages Decline in South Florida

Posted on March 25, 2015by Admin

Recent data collected by Zillow.com shows that underwater mortgages, meaning homeowners who owe more than their home is worth, are declining in South Florida. Sixteen percent of homeowners in Palm Beach County are currently underwater on their mortgages. The previous year there were twenty four percent underwater. Nineteen percent of Broward County’s mortgages are underwater, down from twenty five percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Home values are on the rise in South Florida and as a result, negative equity is declining since its peak of forty percent in 2011. Negative equity occurs when the value of an asset, such as a home, falls below the value of the outstanding loan balance.

Another factor that real estate experts attribute to the decline in underwater mortgages is the decline in foreclosures in South Florida this year. According to analysts, South Florida is recovering better than most markets across the country since the housing bubble burst in 2008.

Click here to read more about the decline of underwater mortgages in South Florida.