In January 2011, Fewer Mortgage Modifications Were Granted
Financial institutions granted fewer mortgage modifications in January of 2011 than in previous months. Throughout the country, approximately 101,000 mortgage modifications were granted in January, while more than 111,000 mortgage modifications were granted in December. Of the modifications granted in January, seventy-three thousand were modifications done with lenders and twenty-eight thousand were new modifications under the HAMP program.
Republicans seek to cancel HAMP. The Republican majority in the United States House of Representatives has approved a statute that would end the HAMP program. The democrats in Congress oppose this measure. In the unlikely event that the elimination of the HAMP anti-foreclosure program is approved by Congress, President Obama has stated he will veto this statute.
Mortgage Delinquencies Increase
While the amount of mortgage modifications went down in January of 2011, the number of mortgage delinquencies rose. There were three million home loans that were more then sixty days overdue in January of 2011.
There were 200,000 new foreclosure proceedings in January of 2011. This is down from the 230,000 foreclosure proceedings in December of 2010. In January 2011, 73,000 homes were sold in foreclosure. This was a major increase from the 56,000 homes that were sold in December of 2010.
Long Island and New York City Foreclosure Defense Lawyers
Should you be facing a foreclosure, it is important that you have high quality legal defense as early in the proceedings as possible. We provide foreclosure defense for our clients. We attend foreclosure court conferences. We litigate issues involving defective foreclosure lawsuits, defective mortgages, predatory lending, bad faith on behalf of financial institutions and other real estate matters. We assist our clients in mortgage modifications and, when necessary, we will file either Chapter 13 or Chapter 7 bankruptcies on behalf of our clients. Call us at 1-800-344-6431, 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802 for a free consultation.
Foreclosures Represent 12.5% of all Real Estate Sales on Long Island
In 2009, there were 2,836 foreclosure sales of homes on Long Island. This represented 10.7% of all sales of single-family homes on Long Island. In 2010, there were 2,571 homes sold related to foreclosure proceedings on Long Island. Even though the number of homes sold in foreclosure was less in 2010 than the prior year, the percentage of real estate transactions on Long Island related to foreclosure sales grew in 2010.
Foreclosure Home Sales Dominate the Real Estate Market in the U.S.
In 2010, 25% of all home sales throughout the United States were the result of foreclosure proceedings. It is anticipated that the percentage of home sales related to foreclosure proceedings will increase in the year 2011. It is expected that foreclosure sales will increase in 2011 because lenders are getting their act together with regard to providing their attorneys with the appropriate paper work to facilitate foreclosure proceedings through the courts.
John Fitzgerald, a real estate broker in Hauppauge, New York, whose business focuses on foreclosure transactions, stated that he has been told by lenders in New York to “get ready because there are properties coming” with regard to increased foreclosure activity on Long Island.
Foreclosure Defense on Long Island and the Five Boroughs of NYC
Should you find your house in foreclosure, we can help you. We’ll assist you in obtaining a mortgage modification. If you don’t qualify for a mortgage modification and you are sued in a foreclosure proceeding, we can represent you in court.
We will see to it that your rights are protected. We are experienced in dealing with mortgage modification programs that fail to provide the homeowner with the promised relief. We maintain a foreclosure blog to educate our clients and the general public with regard to the foreclosure crisis in the United States.
When foreclosure ensues, we attend foreclosure court conferences on behalf of our clients. We litigate defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending issues, bad faith on behalf of financial institutions and defective mortgages.
Our law office has been handling real estate litigation for more than three decades. Should a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy be appropriate to deal with your financial situation, we will discuss this issue with you and assist you in filing bankruptcy, if necessary. The filing of bankruptcy will stop foreclosure proceedings from moving forward and in some situations eliminate the security interest created by second mortgages. We can also assist you in reestablishing your credit after you have been discharged in bankruptcy.
Feel free to call us at your earliest convenience at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802 or 1-800-344-6431. Our phones are monitored 24/7.
The Real Estate Market
For the past few years, home prices in the large majority of the United States have been falling. I am happy to report that in an article recently published by the National Association of Realtors, it showed that in seventy-eight markets throughout the United States, representing most major metropolitan areas, housing prices have started to stabilize. Stabilization of the housing market is good news. However, stabilization is indicative of the slowing of the downward valuation of homes and not their increasing in value.
Buyers’ Market
We still have a buyers’ market for single family homes. Sellers are reluctant to commit to buying homes when home values are decreasing. Perspective home purchasers are always looking for bargains. Will housing prices continue to go down or will they rebound? No one can be absolutely sure as to when the housing market will hit its absolute bottom.
Is this a Good Time for Selling?
Are you interested in selling your home? Many prospective home sellers have kept their homes off the market with the hope that there would be a rebound in the housing market in the United States. The stabilization of the real estate market should not be considered a rebound. However, there is no guarantee homes will be worth more in the near future.
Location, Location, Location
There are three rules concerning the valuation of real estate. Those three rules are known as “location, location, location”. The valuation of real estate is a local issue. The market value of homes and commercial real estate changes from state to state, city to city, suburb to suburb and locale to locale. It could even be different from one block to the next in the same neighborhood. It behooves you if you are a purchaser to use due diligence and to become familiar with the area in which you seek to purchase a home.
The Improving Economy
Although the real estate market has been stabilizing, we are still in a recession. Will the rising stock market bring back the real estate market with it? I am hopeful, but I am also concerned that the problems in the real estate market in the United States are so severe that it may take several more years to sort this out.
Foreclosure Defense Lawyers in Long Island and New York
Our office assists our clients with mortgage modification applications. We are knowledgeable about the mortgage modification programs and why they fail. We maintain a foreclosure blog to update the public concerning various issues involving homes and real estate. We aggressively litigate foreclosure proceedings. We litigate defective mortgage lawsuits, predatory lending and we attend court conferences for our clients when necessary. We advise our clients with regard whether they should file a bankruptcy to deal with being behind on their mortgage and as to whether a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy would be appropriate. In the event you are behind on your mortgage or experiencing foreclosure problems, we can help you. Call us at 1-800-344-6431, 516-561-6645 or 718- 350-2802.
In 2010, One Million Homes Foreclosed and Repossessed in the United States
Posted by Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq.
2010 was the worst year in modern history with regard to homes being foreclosed on in the United States. One million American families were forced out of their homes. It is estimated that we will break this horrendous record in the year 2011 and more than a million families will be forced out of their homes due to foreclosures.
It is estimated that more than five million mortgage holders are more than two months behind in their mortgage. Unless more jobs are created by the Obama administration, it is expected that more Americans will lose their jobs in 2011. As foreclosures increase, the home values in the areas with high levels of foreclosures decrease.
2.9 million homeowners received foreclosure filing notices in 2010. This amounts to virtually one in every forty-five homeowners receiving a foreclosure notice. In December alone, more than a quarter of a million homeowners in the United States received a foreclosure notice. As incredible as this sounds, this is good news! This is the lowest amount of foreclosure notices in the past thirty months. The reduction in foreclosure notices was caused by banks reviewing their foreclosure processes after there were numerous instances where it was found that evictions and foreclosure documents were being inappropriately handled by financial institutions. There has also been lawsuits by the Attorney Generals in all fifty states that have put banks under greater scrutiny regarding their practices concerning foreclosing on homes.
Arizona was the leader in 2010 in foreclosures. One in every seventeen households in Arizona received a foreclosure notice. Florida came in second. One out of every eighteen homeowners in Florida received a foreclosure notice. Approximately fifty-percent of the foreclosure notices in the United States were in the five states of California, Illinois, Arizona, Michigan and Florida.
Suffolk County on Long Island had the highest foreclosure rate in New York State in the year 2010. Although the foreclosure rates in New York are lower than many other states, they are still extremely high by traditional standards. The foreclosure crisis in the state of New York is causing real estate values to be depressed.
Our law firm represents New Yorkers in foreclosure defense proceedings. We litigate foreclosures on behalf of our clients in the five boroughs of the City of New York, Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, as well as Westchester County. We attend foreclosure conferences on behalf of our clients, we deal with bad faith predatory lending issues, mortgage modification problems, mortgage modification programs and defective foreclosure lawsuits. We are available 24/7 to assist our client. Feel free to call us should you need help to save your home! Our telephone numbers are 1-800-344-6431, 516-561- 6645 or 718-350-2802.
