In December of 2010, the economic stress in the United States increased. This was largely due to the depressed housing market. Foreclosure rates rose in thirty-three states during December. In addition, bankruptcy levels remained very high.
Social Security Rates Go Down
During the 2011 calendar year, the tax rate for social security taxes was reduced. This results in workers’ paychecks going up.
Manufacturers Are Adding Jobs
In the United States, manufacturers, after many years of having shrinking payrolls, plan on hiring more employees in the year 2011. In January of 2011, the manufacturing sector of the United States economy added approximately 50,000 jobs. This was the largest increase since August of 1998.
Unemployment Rates Go Down
The unemployment rates have been slowly decreasing in the United States for the past two months. The unemployment rate was 9.8% in November of 2010 and fell to 9% in January of 2011.
Bankruptcies and Foreclosures Increase
Rajeev Dahawan, an economist at Georgia State University, stated, “bankruptcies and foreclosures are the side effects of the damage from the real estate bust. First you have the real estate problem and then it spills over into bankruptcies and foreclosures.”
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcies generally increase during times of economic stress. In November of 2005, the Bankruptcy Reform Act led to more stringent standards for filing a bankruptcy. A “means test” was a mandatory part of the Bankruptcy Reform Act. Since November of 2005, the rules regarding filing Chapter 7 bankruptcies have been liberalized; however, the means test standard still applies on all new Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings.
Our law office files Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies on behalf of our clients. These bankruptcies will stop foreclosures from moving forward and, in some circumstances, eliminate second mortgages. In addition to filing bankruptcies, we educate our clients on how to re-establish credit after bankruptcies are filed.
Our law office provides comprehensive foreclosure defense legal services. We assist our clients in applying for mortgage modifications and deal with mortgage modification programs that fail to meet our clients’ needs. We litigate defective mortgages, predatory lending, defective foreclosure lawsuits, bad faith on behalf of financial institutions and all other real estate related matters. During the course of foreclosure litigation, we attend foreclosure court conferences on behalf of our clients and try to motivate the financial institutions to give our clients mortgage loan modifications. Feel free to call us at 1-800-344-6431, 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802 to discuss your legal needs. Thank you for reading our foreclosure blog.
