Real Estate Problems Create Continued Economic Problems on Long Island

More and more homeowners on Long Island are falling behind on their mortgages. Rising unemployment has forced more Long Island residents onto the welfare rolls. Long Island continues to lose jobs to other areas of the country.

The Recession on Long Island Continues

Although Nassau County is among the weathiest counties in the United States, its future does not look promising. At one time, Nassau County was a hub of National Defense related industries. Among these many industries was Grumman Corporation, which was the largest employer in Nassau County. With fewer and fewer jobs available, Nassau County now finds itself in financial difficulty.

With the loss of jobs, the devaluation of real estate, and newer companies hesitant to move to Long Island due to high taxes and expensive property values, the future for Nassau County looks bleak. Even beyond that, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano has had the county’s finances taken over by the State appointed organization known as “NIFA” (Nassau Interim Finance Agency). What is a county such as Nassau County – considered a mature and economic county – to do about rising its prospects for the future? Innovative programs must be developed to bring new industries into the county, and tax breaks may be necessary to entice these industries.

When homes fall behind in their mortgages and are taken over by banks, they shouldn’t be sold. The continued selling of foreclosed homes results in creating an over supply of homes for sale on the real estate market, driving home prices down, and further creating losses for everyone. Instead, these homes should be rented to their former homeowners, who should be given the possibility of purchasing these homes down the road. The cost of maintaining the infrastructure of Nassau County needs to be reduced. Nassau County Police Officers are among the highest paid in the United States. A combination of their wages, pensions and fringe benefits are beyond what the county can afford to pay. Only aggressive action by the politicians and the business community can save Nassau County.

Long Island Foreclosure Defense Lawyers New York City Foreclosure Defense Lawyers

For those who are behind on their mortgage, a mortgage modification may be the best way to keep their home. Unfortunately, however, banks are approving fewer and fewer mortgage modifications. Should your home go into foreclosure, you need the best foreclosure defense lawyers to help you and your family stay in your home. The Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo has been providing legal assistance to homeowners and keeping them in their homes for more than 45 years. Our law firm represents clients concerning mortgage modifications, and deals with the problems involving mortgage modifications that fail to meet our clients needs. When our clients are sued in foreclosure, we submit the appropriate documents to the court in order to defend them. We attend court conferences regarding the foreclosure, and we try to persuade both the court and the bank attorneys to put pressure on the bank to approve mortgage modifications. We submit formal Answers to foreclosure lawsuits. When appropriate, we include in our answers legal defenses such as defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending, defective mortgages and numerous other types of real estate related legal defenses.

Our law firm has extensive experience in dealing with the Federal laws and foreclosure. In some situations filing either a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy is the best route to deal with foreclosure and other financial issues. Filing a bankruptcy will stop foreclosures from moving forward, stop debt collection, and in some situations, eliminate second mortgages. At the end of the bankruptcy filing, we also advise our clients with regard to reestablishing their credit.  There are many myths about bankruptcy that are simply not true. Call us for a free consultation. At this first meeting we will discuss your foreclosure and bankruptcy options and how we can keep you in your home. Thank you for visiting the Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq. foreclosure blog.

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.