During 2012, in many villages on Long Island, there were more foreclosures than there were real estate sales.  Areas where there were more foreclosures than real estate sales involve the towns of Freeport, Bellport, Inwood, Amityville and a variety of other towns on Long Island.  Even without the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, the real estate market was far from being healthy.

Home Sales Fall

In 2005 there were approximately 50,000 homes sold on Long Island.  In 2012 there were only 22,000 home sales.  The value of the homes sold in 2005 was approximately $30 billion, while the value of the real estate transactions in 2012 was only $13 billion dollars.  There were approximately 6,200 foreclosed homes in 2005 while there were 14,000 in the year 2012.

Stagnant Real Estate Market

The real estate market on Long Island is not recovering.  Experts refer to it as being “stagnant”.  Maryann Garvin who heads the Community Development Corp of Long Island, a not for profit housing advocacy group, recently stated “you want a healthy housing market where you have movement…where people can sell their house and get a bigger house, or sell it and get a smaller house.  It doesn’t feel like our market is that fluid.”

Investors Buying Homes

In some areas of Long Island, speculators are purchasing distressed homes.  These speculators purchase the homes, do a minimum amount of repairs and either rent them or resell them for a profit.  Investors are now becoming involved in the purchase of homes in water front communities which were badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy.  In some of these situations the homeowners have decided not to repair their homes because of the fear there will be hurricanes in the future.

Unfortunately for the homeowners, the real estate market in many of these areas was further devastated by the extensive damage caused to many homes by Hurricane Sandy.  The investors are buying these homes for rock bottom prices with the hope in a few years people won’t remember the problems caused by Sandy and they will make a significant profit on their investments.

Fighting Foreclosure Proceedings

Many homeowners, especially those in waterfront communities which were significantly damaged by Hurricane Sandy are no longer paying their mortgages.  They hope to stay in their homes for as long as they can while hiring lawyers to fight their foreclosures proceedings.

Foreclosure Defense Lawyers

The Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo is one of the largest foreclosure defense law firms in the metropolitan New York area.  Our firm has helped hundreds of families stay in their homes and fight off foreclosure proceedings.  In some of our cases, families have not made mortgage payments for close to a decade and still reside in their homes.  Our law office aggressively litigates issues concerning fraudulent mortgages, foreclosure fraud and predatory lending issues.

To watch today’s video blog, please click on the link below:

http://youtu.be/oV8CVtudXOg

Elliot S. Schlissel is a foreclosure defense attorney.  He can be reached for consultation at 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802.

In May of 2013, home sales rose 4.2% in the United States. This on an annualized rate would amount to 5.2 million home sales in the United States for the year 2013. The last year when there were more than 5 million home sales of occupied homes in the Unites States was 2009. It should be noted during 2009 there was a home buying tax credit which inflated the number of homes sold. The median price of homes sold in 2013 so far is $208,000.

Strong Housing Market

Jim O’Sullivan, the Chief United States economist at High Frequency Economics, recently stated “housing is now the strongest part of the economy in growth terms.”

Foreclosed Homes

The number of homes taken in foreclosure in the United States by financial institutions is decreasing. However, homes foreclosed on by banks still represent a larger portion of the homes being sold on the market than existed prior to the real estate and mortgage crisis. Prospective purchasers are buying homes they feel are priced to sell.

About The Author

Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq. is a foreclosure lawyer. He and his staff of attorneys represent families whose homes are in foreclosure and are seeking mortgage modifications. Elliot’s motto is “I can keep you in your home!”

Regulators in Washington have requested financial institutions, subject to the recent settlement between the Federal Government and all fifty states, for improper mortgage and foreclosure practices, be required to review all of their foreclosures to determine which consumers are to receive funds pursuant to this settlement. Banks are supposed to review their own files to determine where errors were made. They’re supposed to target their most needy customers and provide these needy homeowners with financial aid related to the settlement of the lawsuits brought by the governmental entities against them.

Foreclosure Review

Initially, the Office of the Control of the Currency had required foreclosure review by independent consultants. However, this foreclosure review did not work out. The reviewers were inefficient and there were numerous delays related to these reviews. Instead, Federal Regulators are requiring banks to review their own records to determine which of their abused homeowners are to receive the 3.6 million dollars in payments from them. The Comptroller of the Currency felt the elimination of the middlemen consultants would speed up the payments to the abused homeowners.

Suspicion Of Further Abuse

Many homeowners are concerned. They feel having the banks, who created these problems, review their own records is a foolish attempt to deal with the rightful grievances of the homeowners who have been put into foreclosure due to improper, illegal and fraudulent bank practices.

The New Plan

Banks are supposed to be reviewing their loan files. They are supposed to determine whether mistakes were made in processing the loans, whether the foreclosures were illegal and whether improper action was taken by the bank employees. The banks are supposed to make a list rating the level of abuse. After this is done, regulators will make the decision as to how much money to pay in each category of abused borrowers. The bigger the errors, the larger the payout. Regulators believe this will be the most equitable way to divide the money among the homeowners.

Conflicts Of Interest

This system seems to me to be analogous to having criminals decide their own penalties. Isaac Simon Hodes, an organizer with the community group, Lynn United For Change, recently stated, “the whole process has been a slap in the face to homeowners and a slap on the wrist to banks.” He also stated “the latest development shows how there has been no accountability” for the banks.

Under this program, Bank of America is to distribute 1.1 billion dollars to its homeowners. Wells Fargo Bank is supposed to distribute $700 million dollars to homeowners.

Conclusion

The banks are still getting away with murder!

About The Author

Elliot S. Schlissel and his dedicated group of attorneys represent homeowners cornering foreclosure defense legal proceedings and mortgage modifications. Elliot S. Schlissel has been involved in helping homeowners deal with financial institutions for more than 3 decades. For the first 15 years of his career, he was a creditor’s attorney representing the financial institutions. He helped them collect funds from debtors. Elliot S. Schlissel and his dedicated attorneys are one of the largest foreclosure defense law firms in the metropolitan New York area. They help homeowners deal with fraudulent mortgages, improper bank practices, robo-signing issues and violations of truth in lending laws.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, on January 17, 2012, established new protective procedures related to homeowners whose homes are going into foreclosure. These new rules further regulate the conduct of mortgage servicing organizations.

The purpose of the new rules, according to Richard Corday, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, are to ensure a fair treatment for all borrowers. In addition, these rules intend to establish further protection for those individuals trying to save their homes. The intent of these new regulations is to only allow mortgages to be made to prospective homeowners who have the capability of a repaying these loans.

Missing Mortgage Payments

If the homeowner misses two consecutive mortgage payments, going forward, the mortgage servicing organization will have to provided the homeowner with information about alternatives to foreclosure

Loan Modifications

If the homeowner submits a loan modification the financial institution will no longer be able to initiate a foreclosure proceeding until all aspects of the processing of the mortgage modification are completed. Banks will no longer be able to bring foreclosure proceedings unless the loan is a more than four months behind.

Even in the event a home is scheduled to be sold in foreclosure, the homeowner can still submit a mortgage modification application as long as it is 37 days prior to the sale of the home. This will also force the foreclosing financial institution to stop the foreclosure sale from going forward until the mortgage modification is fully processed and it is dealt with. It should be noted, customer service processing organizations that service less than 5000 mortgages are exempt from some of the new rules.