stopforeclosuresources.com

The only kind of whopper a person with this kind of ‘BK’ is going to get is a whopper of a headache. In this, the legal sense for the abbreviation, we’re talking about BANKRUPTCY. And for struggling homeowners it often represents what they think is the last stand they can take before losing their home to foreclosure….(read more)

At present it does not appear that there is enough evidence yet to declare that a market comeback is in the offing. The bottom line is that no one can say anything with 100 percent certainty given the current state of our national economy….(read more)

In desperate times people resort to desperate measures. Facing foreclosure, some homeowners are setting fire to their homes for the insurance money. But they usually end up with a criminal conviction instead of cash.

Consider the following:

In South Carolina, a homeowner was charged with burning her home on the eve of foreclosure.

In Massachusetts, there’s a growing concern that foreclosure arson is becoming a problem around the state as more and more properties are abandoned.

In Colorado, a homeowner was convicted for setting his home on fire to prevent the lender from repossessing the property.

“We’ve seen a dramatic increase in this kind of fraud,” Dan Bales, the head of fraud investigations at Mercury Insurance, told the Los Angeles Times. “People upside-down on their house with variable-interest-rate loans, or upside-down on their cars, are pretty quick to burn their property right now.”

In a statement delivered before the Committee on Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week, John M. Reich, Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), offered an alternative foreclosure prevention plan to the one under consideration from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)….(read more)

If the results of the latest Associated Press-AOL Money & Finance poll are any indication, prospective home buyers will be keeping their wallets closed and remain on the fence at least until the latest economic downturn blows over. And that could be years down the road….(read more)

For the third month in a row U.S. foreclosure activity registered at more than 50 percent above the level it was at a year ago, according to the March RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. And for the second month in a row, the number of bank repossessions, or REOs, was up more than 100 percent year over year.

The implication: while significantly more homeowners are falling into foreclosure, there is an even bigger increase in the number of homeowners already in the process who are losing their homes to foreclosure — whether through the typical foreclosure sale mechanism or whether by pre-empting the public foreclosure sale through what is called a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

In the latter case, the homeowner offers to convey ownership of the property to the foreclosing lender. The lender also has to agree to the DIL arrangement, which may involve clearing out other liens secured by the property. But that may be better than the alternative — a costly and lengthy process that will quite likely end with the bank repossessing the property anyway.

Anyone who has checked out this blog on a regular basis should be familiar with the national heat map RealtyTrac produces every month that correlates with the release of its national data for the month….(read more)

It doesn’t take a mental giant to do the new math of the foreclosure crisis. As a matter of fact, it’s as easy as two plus two….(read more)

Two reports came out Tuesday that are prime examples of conflicting opinions and the confusion they can cause the average consumer or investor when it comes to assessing the state of the economy….(read more)

It was bound to happen. With government officials at the local, state and federal levels clamoring to clamp down on the nation’s financial institutions and other loan originators, plus the recent bailout of Bear Stearns by the Federal Reserve after the Wall Street giant became so heavily invested in subprime backed mortgage securities, it was just a matter of time before the Federal National Mortgage Association (better known as Fannie Mae) did something to tighten the reins as well.
…(read more)