Alabama Consumer Law Blog

I have a profile on Avvo (a legal help website) and I recently wrote a consumer guide "What Is The Difference Between A Non Judicial Foreclosure And A Judicial Foreclosure?"

This is a short, easy to read guide that explains how states differ in their approach to foreclosure.

In Alabama we are a "non judicial" foreclosure state so some of the things that work and don't work in a judicial foreclosure state such as Florida are different here in Alabama.

You can also read our articles The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you like it the Avvo consumer guide on foreclosures, please feel free to comment on it or indicate that it is helpful to you.

Feel free to contact us through our website or you can call us at 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Our friend Denise Richardson, of givemebackmycredit.com, has posted an article that highlights some of the foreclosure problems that have been happening all over the country, specifically in Florida, which has been hit with above average numbers of foreclosure and fraud. Homeowners in Florida have had to deal with several unnecessary issues, such as bank accounting errors and mortgage board practices, when facing foreclosure.

Florida lenders are looking to speed up the foreclosing process and claim that dragging out the process is "time-consuming and expensive."

If members of the Florida Banker's Association have their way, homeowners facing foreclosure could have as little as three months before having to leave their homes. That isn't much time considering it takes at least that long to modify or refinance a loan -or simply try to clean up erroneous credit reporting caused by mortgage servicing abuses.

This means that homeowners will have a more difficult time and a much smaller time span to prove to lenders that the foreclosure proceedings were started illegally and/or due to error, misinformation or through deceptive practices.

Defaulting homeowners are going to be unfairly pushed through an accelerated foreclosure process. Responsible homeowners who have arranged loan modifications with their lenders, but who have been lost in a sea of red tape, will be at risk of losing their homes if they don't have the proper amount of time to prove their innocence -or that they are in good standing on their loans. This shouldn't happen.

Banks would use a non-judicial method to push foreclosures through so quickly. This type of proceeding bypasses judges, legal courts and also doesn't give enough time for the homeowner to prove that they are being foreclosed on unfairly. This method would take from 90-120 days to completely foreclose.

The Florida Consumer Protection and Homeowner Credit Rehabilitation Act currently being perused by state lawmakers would give lenders the right to go after homeowners for unpaid mortgage debt even after they have been evicted. While banks have that right, they can opt not to exercise it. This is small comfort for the homeowners who can no longer rely on mandatory mediation since the new bill totally bumps that concept right out of the picture.

If you would like more information on foreclosures, please check out our articles The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have further questions or concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The New York Times has posted an article that discusses how mortgage modifications affect homeowners' credit scores. Lenders can use special codes to keep track and let credit bureaus know if homeowners are paying on time.

When the loan modification program, which lowers mortgage payments for homeowners who are behind in their payments or in danger of imminent default, was announced in February, lenders used an existing code, called AC, to signal that borrowers were participating in the program.

A problem is that the AC code only shows that a partial payment was made. That can cause a credit score to fall anywhere from 30 to 100 points. The AC is an old code that is just being used until a newer one is developed. Nonetheless, it is responsible for damaging the credit scores of homeowners who "made timely payments before and after agreeing to loan modifications as making only partial payments."

Banks should switch to a code that doesn't damage credit scores. Consumers can also call and request it. They can also file disputes and ask for corrections on credit reports that were affected by the old code.

But shouldn’t people with modified loans who never missed a payment not suffer a credit score decline under any circumstances? Industry experts believe that some mark is necessary. The reason: those getting the modifications in the first place probably pose more risk to future lenders, given that the mortgage modification program was devised to help people whose money problems make them vulnerable to foreclosure. “They are having financial difficulty, so there is some risk involved,” said Mr. Magnuson.

If you would like more information on foreclosures, feel free to check out our articles The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have further questions or concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Foreclosurebuzz.org has posted an article and a video about the imbalance of high foreclosures and low mortgage modifications. Despite numerous government instigated programs to stave off foreclosures, the numbers of permanent mortgage modifications remain very low.

The Program’s own Loan Modification Report here, shows that as of January 2010 less than 4% of borrowers that are more than 60 days delinquent have received permanent modifications. The first step is obtaining a trial modification, and very few homeowners have been offered one (according to the report it’s about 37.3% of eligible borrowers).

A big reason for this is the conflicting information homeowners receive. Often they are told one thing on the phone doesn't coincide with information they have in writing. Loan servicers tell homeowners not to worry about the written documents because "it is part of the process" but then a few days later may turn around and decide to foreclose because the homeowner failed to submit a document or other information. Loan servicers are also notorious for consistently losing documents, even after being sent multiple copies, so it's a very real possibility that it's the servicer in error and not the homeowner.

As for the second step of the modification process, permanent loan modification, Bank of America was just sued for promising to make modifications to loans at a foreclosure clinic and failing to do so. So far in our office, we have seen one permanent modification. Bank of America and Wells Fargo were sued in Massachusetts for providing trial modifications, but failing to permanently modify the loan. Article here. HAMP guidelines are ridiculously weak. They allow lenders to continue the foreclosure process even when they are considering a modification application. See Supplemental Directive 09-09 here at Page 10. Lenders are prohibited from conducting a sale when they are still considering a modification, but what they say typically is that the borrower is not eligible the day before. Why not make that a clear ban?

If you would like more information on foreclosures, please check out our articles The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have further questions or concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The Associated Press has posted an article about mortgage walk-aways. Tishman Speyer Properties in New York City was facing the same problem that many homeowners are...they were paying more on mortgage payments than their property was worth. The real estate group paid $5.4 billion for an 11,232 unit apartment building and the current value has dropped to $1.8 billion. Tishman did what many homeowners are tempted to do and they walked away from the mortgage. Ironically, Tishman Speyer Properties experienced no repercussions.

Tishman said last week that it was turning the property back over to creditors to avoid filing for bankruptcy protection. In recent weeks, Tishman failed to restructure $4.4 billion in debt, and couldn't find another buyer, according to a statement from the company.

However, homeowners face a very different scenario; namely, there will be consequences, when thinking of walking away from a mortgage. It may be tempting, but doing so can severely damage your credit score for as long as seven years. Also, the effect can be economically devastating if large numbers of people begin to do it. Home prices will go even lower and banks will give fewer loans and have more bad loans to contend with.

Walking away from your mortgage is never a good plan and we certainly don't recommend it. If you would like more information on foreclosures, please check out our articles The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have further questions or concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The Sarasota Herald Tribune has posted an article about the rising problem of uncontested, bogus foreclosure claims. "Bulk-rate foreclosure firms" are cutting serious corners and filing "sloppy documents with unverified and false claims." They usually get away with it, too, because for the most part, foreclosure claims aren't contested and the documents are seldom even skimmed.

The article cites an incident in Sarasota where a man's house was almost foreclosed on by out of town foreclosure lawyers. William Berta, the homeowner, was never served with foreclosure papers because the lawyers claimed his house was abandoned and he couldn't be located...a ridiculous claim since he was a local business owner. A judge overturned the case and foreclosure was avoided.

That has led to filings so ridiculous that I thought anti-foreclosure lawyer April Charney was kidding when she e-mailed a recent find from Lee County. It is a template, a fill-in-the-blanks foreclosure document, that foreclosure-mill lawyers filed in court as a real one, with almost nothing filled in. But though law office employees or contractors apparently forgot, or didn't bother, to fill in names of key parties in that foreclosure, some ironic truth was left in there, Charney says. Where there should be names of the investment company that allegedly held the mortgages or transferred it to another company, the court document lists "Bogus Assignee" and "Bad Bene" (beneficiary, it seems).

This has been happening all over the country. After learning of the foreclosures through local ads, local law firms have no problem contacting homeowners who the bulk foreclosure firms couldn't locate.

If you would like more information about foreclosure, please check out our articles The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have further questions, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The Associated Press has posted an article about the direct relationship between lawyer misconduct and the rising numbers of foreclosures. Crooked mortgage lawyers have certainly leveraged the mortgage crisis for their profit.

This is a nationwide problem, but the article specifically mentions the investigation of 400 attorneys by the California Bar. The California Bar is responsible for licensing and regulating the 250,000 lawyers in the state and has already received the resignations of 15 lawyers accused of ripping off homeowners. Disciplinary charges are pending.

Complaints against crooked mortgage lawyers vary widely, ranging from "do nothing attorneys" to one California lawyer was charged with

not only failing to perform vital tasks to stop foreclosures, but calling his clients "losers" during the rare occasions they could get him to return their telephone calls.

If you would like more information about foreclosures, please check out our articles The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have further questions or concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The Los Angeles Times has posted an article about a growing concern that the number of foreclosures will continue to go up in 2010. High unemployment is still making it hard for people to pay their mortgages and it's difficult to receive help from the government instigated programs that are supposed to help keep people in their homes.

The Obama administration's mortgage modification plans look good on paper, but have been slow to turn temporary reduced mortgage payments into permanent reductions.

"The overarching sense is that the mortgage modification process has not worked that well," said Bert Ely, an independent banking consultant.

Progress is expected to come and the Treasury has really been pushing banks to increase the numbers of permanent mortgage modifications. A recent report said that those numbers were up to 12,700 from 3,200 in December 2009. Another 13,900 modifications are currently supposed to be in the final stages.

But that's a drop in the bucket considering that BofA holds about 1 million mortgages that are at least 60 days delinquent. About 4 million homeowners nationwide are 90 days or more delinquent on their mortgages or in foreclosure proceedings, according to Moody's Economy.com, which analyzes data from credit reporting company Equifax Inc.

Trial modifications have also helped keep homeowners in their homes temporarily, but another 2.4 million people are expected to lose their homes in the upcoming year, up from 2.1 million in 2009. This will drive real estate prices even lower, making it even worse for homeowners who owe more on their home than it is currently worth.

If you would like more information on foreclosures, please check out our articles The Three Stages Of Forelcosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The Huffington Post has posted an article that that discusses how the Obama administration has chosen to ignore some of the problems resulting from the many foreclosure programs that were instigated last year.

The administration has chosen to ignore the rising numbers of foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies and has not interfered with making mortgage companies reduce the amount owed by mortgage owners. Instead, the administration has left the companies alone and hoped they'd take care of it themselves.

...the administration "specifically had designed the program to allow principal reductions without taking a position of where principal reductions would be most advantageous," he said.

So for the past year, the administration had a policy of "rather than us endorsing a uniform approach to principal reductions, let's give flexibility to servicers and hope that they do it on their own in the right circumstances," Wheeler said.

Currently, about 11 million people, roughly a fourth of mortgage holders, are facing foreclosure or owe more on a mortgage than their home is worth...and the numbers are expected to rise. Negative equity is a huge problem and a driving force of defaults and also makes obtaining a mortgage modification very difficult.

Less than 10 percent of permanent modifications under the administration's Home Affordable Modification Program have involved principal reductions. Simply reducing interest rates for five years, which the Obama administration's program does for homeowners who transition out of three-month trial periods, is "a purely temporary modification [that] ultimately doesn't solve the problem," said Micah Green, a partner at Patton Boggs LLP, a Washington law firm that represents a mortgage-investor group of asset managers who hold more than $100 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities.

Meg Reilly, a Treasury spokeswoman, responded to this information by saying that 850,000 homeowners are now paying reduced mortgage payments, three million have refinanced and $6 billion has been provided to restore vacant or foreclosed properties (called the Neighborhood Stabilization Program Grants through the Recovery Act).

If you would like more information on foreclosures, please check out our articles The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have further questions or concerns feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

TampaBay.com has posted an article about an outrageous home foreclosure case. In 2005, Massachusetts couple Charlie and Maria Cardoso spent their life savings to pay for their future retirement house in Florida in cash only to have Bank of America seize the house, remove their belongings and change the locks five years later. Mr. Cardoso was forced to drive to Florida to get their home back.

The infuriating part of the story is that Bank of America had the wrong address. The home that was supposed to be foreclosed was about 10 doors down across the street. The Cardosos and a realtor employed by Bank of America were unable to convince the bank that they had to wrong address.

The Cardosos are seeking unspecified damages from Bank of America. The company showed negligence, trespassed and caused the couple emotional distress and financial hardship, especially because a tenant renting the home at the time got worried and left, according to the complaint. It's still unclear if the couple's credit rating has been affected, deMello said.

The couple became aware of the problem when their renter called them in a panic saying that men were there to clear out the house and change the locks. The Cardosos are also upset because this issue has also damaged their reputation amongst the community in their Florida neighborhood.

Cases like this are absolutely ridiculous, especially when the home has clearly been paid for and even the bank's own employee was insisting that their information was wrong.

If you would like more information on foreclosures, please check out our articles Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama and The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama.

If you have further questions or concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Our friend Denise Richardson of Givemebackmycredit.com has posted an article that discusses why most homeowners aren't taking advantage of the massive government spending that is supposed to stall foreclosing and make homes more affordable.

Homeowners seeking a loan modification are often met with difficulties from the government programs supposed to help. They get responses like "we lost your paperwork" and "you're not qualified" and "we're understaffed." But the simple truth is that there is more money to be gained in foreclosures and short sales than in loan modification and the government programs make modifications such a hassle for homeowners that many see it as not worth it. Richardson also references a video.

Earlier investigative reports clearly show there is little to no incentive for mortgage servicing companies to work with homeowners. As mortgage fraud continues to be exposed and lenders continue to cut off home equity lines and block consumers from access to credit, we can only ask - who's looking out for us? What government agency can the consumer or small business owner turn to for protection?

If you would like more information on foreclosure, please check out our articles The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have further questions or concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Yahoo! Finance has posted an article about the rise of consumers paying their credit card bills instead of mortgages.

A recent study developed by TransUnion found the percentage of Americans who were current on their credit cards but behind on their mortgage increased to 6.6 percent in the third quarter of 2009, up from 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, the share of consumers making mortgage payments on time but behind on their credit cards moved in the opposite direction, sliding from 4.1 percent to 3.6 percent over the same time period.

A simple reason for this is that it takes much longer for a home to be foreclosed than for a credit card to be revoked. Foreclosure can take anywhere from six months to a year and a half, whereas a credit card account can be cancelled in a few months.

With the high rates of unemployment, people are viewing their credit cards as more valuable than mortgages, using their cards to buy necessities like gas and groceries. Also, the tight economy has made credit more difficult to obtain, so consumers see keeping their credit as more important.

A credit card's ability to finance basic necessities--and the swift consequences of default--make the trends highlighted in the TransUnion study less startling, especially in a time of high unemployment and widespread negative equity. "For a borrower who has got a significant [cash] shortfall, it is a completely rational decision [to pay off a credit card bill while defaulting on a mortgage]."

We definitely don't recommend this method, but if you would like more information on foreclosures, please check out our articles The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have further concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

CNN Money.com has posted an article about how you might still be pursued by mortgage lenders even after your home has been foreclosed. If a foreclosed home sells at auction for less than what the mortgage is worth, the former homeowners are responsible for the difference.

These "deficiency judgments" can even come up years after a home has been foreclosed and include people who get approval from the bank to sell their home for less than it's worth.

Vanessa Corey, for example, short sold her Fredericksburg, Va., home in April 2008. She and her husband built the house in 2004, but setbacks, both personal (divorce) and professional (housing bust), made it impossible for the real estate agent to keep her home. So she negotiated the short sale and thought that was the end of it.

"My understanding was that the deficiency was negotiated away," she said. "Then, last November, I got a letter from a lawyer telling me I owed my lender $65,000. I had to declare bankruptcy. There was no way I could pay it."

These deficiency loans are really affecting people who have been impacted by falling home prices and unemployment. They can no longer sell their homes for what they owe and instead have to settle for quick sales or have to foreclose. After foreclosure, it's very common for banks to have houses that are worth less than what is owed on them.

Whether banks can and will pursue deficiency judgments depends on many factors, including what state the borrower lives in and whether there's a second mortgage or other liens. But if borrowers ignore the possibility of deficiencies, it could haunt them.

Lenders can currently pursue foreclosure deficiencies in 30 states. Even when lenders are willing, homeowners are often not aware that they can ask for release from further financial obligation. If you are interested in a short sale, be sure to have your attorney ask the bank to release you from further obligation.

If you would like more information about foreclosures you can check out our articles The Three Stages of Foreclosure in Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures in Alabama.

If you have more questions, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The New York Foreclosure Law Blog has posted an article about some of the difficulties that consumers face when seeking a mortgage modification. Difficulties with banks seem to be the most common. Banks are generally not equipped and are too understaffed to deal efficiently with the large numbers of modification requests sent in over the past year.

The understaffing causes a delay before the bank gets back to you or can even confirm that they received your paperwork. Loan modification departments have groups of rotating phone representatives, meaning that you won't likely speak to the same person every time you call and will spend more time giving explanations that getting answers.

This method can take months if you go it alone, and be irritating when having to deal with courts or other legal proceedings that you might not be familiar with. This article suggests that if you are interested in pursuing a mortgage modification it's easier to contact a lawyer who can get you faster results.

If you would like more information on foreclosures, please check out our articles The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have more questions about mortgage modification, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

MortgageLawNetwork.com has posted an article that gives advice on when is the right time to contact a foreclosure defense attorney. Andy Miofsky, author of the article, lists four circumstances where it might be in your best interest to contact a foreclosure attorney.

#4. You have received a Summons and Complaint for foreclosure and are now being sued by your mortgage company. You are in danger of losing your property and usually have 30 days or less to respond.

#3. A collection lawyer sends you a letter that gives you a deadline to catch up on delinquent mortgage payments and also threatens foreclosure. The next step is for the bank to sue you.

#2. Your mortgage company sends out a notification that your payments are in default. The next notification you receive should be a letter from the mortgage company's lawyer.

#1. If you are knowingly behind on your mortgage payments, go ahead and contact a mortgage defense attorney to plan a strategy and confront the problem head-on.

If you would like further information on foreclosures, please check out our articles The Three Stages Of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have received one of the above notices, or have other questions or concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

MortgageLawNetwork.com has posted an article about a recent investigation into accusations against about 300 California law firms that were involved in loan modification scams, according to a California Bar Association report. "Typically, homeowners facing foreclosure complain that they paid attorneys who then did nothing to help them keep their homes.”

Mortgage modifications rarely work because the terms never go far enough to solve the long-term problem – massive negative equity. The only way a homeowner can eliminate negative equity is by convincing the “lender” that doing so is in the “lender’s” best interest. This ONLY happens by fighting the foreclosure in the state court case. A good litigator can shift leverage away from the lender and toward the homeowner, forcing the lender to offer more meaningful solutions.

California has seen huge numbers of unemployment and foreclosures, yet homeowners all over the country should avoid lawyers who only do loan modification "workouts" with a loan servicer rarely achieve long-term success and the foreclosure likely won't be permanently resolved. You should never hire a lawyer who does not intend to defend the foreclosure in state court.

If you would like more information about foreclosures, please check out our articles The Three Stages of Foreclosure In Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures In Alabama.

If you have more questions or concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

The mortgage companies want it to be. Right now Florida, unlike Alabama, is a judicial foreclosure state which means the mortgage companies and banks that want to foreclose have to prove their case in court. They don't like to do this. Because they usually can't. Here's what a friend of ours in Florida, Chip Parker, says in a scathing blog post about efforts in Florida to turn the foreclosure process into a non judicial one:

As a Florida foreclosure defense attorney with over 500 actively defended foreclosure cases, I believe the banks have “thrown in the towel” in the cases I’m defending. I cannot recall the last time the plaintiff in a foreclosure case came to a court hearing with an intelligent argument that resulted in a ruling against the homeowner.

Since the plaintiffs rely on fraud in almost every foreclosure case, good defense lawyers are always frequency-tuned to find the lies, and now that Circuit Court judges have been exposed to the stench of foreclosure mill pleadings, more judges are looking at each foreclosure with more skepticism.

We in Alabama who face foreclosures that quickly proceed through the Three Stages Of Foreclosure often look at Florida with some envy since the courts at least get to review the foreclosures. We did not expect that to change but it seems the mortgage companies want to change the rules since they are not winning under the current rules.

If you live in Florida and are reading this - let your representatives know you oppose this non sense.

If you live in Alabama and are facing foreclosure, make sure you stand up for your rights and fight back against wrongful foreclosure. We don't have judicial review unless you take your case to court to stop wrongful foreclosures.

Our tele seminar on Wrongful Foreclosure In Alabama happened last month and if you live in Alabama and would like the audio let us know. We are getting a transcript but don't have it typed up yet.

Also if you have already been foreclosed and are facing an Ejectment Action in Alabama, on Tuesday February 9, 2010 we are offering an hour long tele seminar on the Five Critical Mistakes Often Made When Sued For Ejectment In Alabama. This is free and you can contact us to let us know you want to be on the call.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

Feel free to contact us through our website or you can call us at 205-879-2447.

The Birmingham Business Journal has posted an article about the huge rise in Alabama foreclosures. Nearly one in every 107 households in 2009 was dealing with a phase of foreclosure. Foreclosures have risen 257% in Alabama since 2007.

Ourbroker.com has also posted an article that further elaborates on the massive rise in foreclosures nationally. 2009 saw a rise of 21% in foreclosures, which is 2,824,674 properties, because of the 7.2 million jobs that have been lost since 2007.

Going back to 2005, the annual totals from RealtyTrac look like this:

___ 2009 — 3,957,643 foreclosure filings — up 21 percent.

___ 2008 — 3,157,806 foreclosure filings — up 81 percent.

___ 2007 — 2,203,295 foreclosure filings — up 75 percent.

___ 2006 — 1,259,118 foreclosure filings — up 42 percent.

___ 2005 — 885,468 foreclosure filings.

However, due to state legislation, loan modifications and other short term factors, foreclosures actually decreased for about a four month window. However, the crisis is too severe for the turnaround to have lasted.

“In the long term a massive supply of delinquent loans continues to loom over the housing market, and many of those delinquencies will end up in the foreclosure process in 2010 and beyond as lenders gradually work their way through the backlog.”

December 2009 saw 349,519 foreclosure filings, up 14% from November and up 15% from December 2008. Four states have seen the most dramatic rise in foreclosure rates:

___ Alabama (up 156.26%)

___ Hawaii (up 182.64%)

___ Idaho (up 101.61%)

___ Mississippi (up 135.59%)

___ West Virginia (up 115.91%)

This percentage for Alabama matches up with the data reported by the Birmingham Business Journal.

If you would like more information on foreclosures, please read our articles The Three Stages of Foreclosure in Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosures in Alabama.

If you have further questions feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.
You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below:

American Banker has posted an article, written by Kate Berry, about two possible outcomes of the current mortgage crisis. Several hundred homes thousand homes have been repossessed and are n the process of foreclosure, and several million homes that have already been foreclosed. Such staggering numbers bring up a difficult question: "How long can lenders put off dumping these properties?"

There are two ideas of what will happen:

One group says a breaking point will come in the second or third quarter: The supply of these distressed homes will get so big that banks and mortgage servicers will have no choice but to begin moving more borrowers into foreclosure and working through their stockpiles of seized collateral...First American CoreLogic, an analytics unit of the Santa Ana, Calif., title insurer First American Corp., has estimated that 1.7 million homes make up the shadow inventory — properties that have been repossessed, are in foreclosure, or are seriously delinquent. This supply is not included in the official measure of inventory — amounting itself to 3.75 million homes - listed in Multiple Listing Services across the country.

Banks are in the difficult situation of trying to figure out what to do when the shadow inventory hits the market to prevent real estate prices from plummeting. Many think the situation will last longer because of programs like Obama's Home Affordable Modification Program.

"The time line for a recovery has been stretched out, because some of these government programs can't cleanly separate out the borrowers who can be saved from those who can't," she said. "Five years from now seems to be the time line for a lot of these servicers."

Servicers have approved 46,056 mortgage modifications under HAMP. Roughly 25% of the 787,231 borrowers in the program are expected to not make payments and drop out.

To speed the resale of foreclosed properties, the Department of Housing and Urban Development said Friday that it will temporarily waive a rule that restricts homebuyers from obtaining Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgages when the seller has owned the house for fewer than 90 days.

Pendley said she expects 65% to 70% of the small group of borrowers who received permanent mods to redefault within a year, largely because so many of these borrowers have large nonmortgage debts and they stretched to buy homes they could not afford.

Many experts say banks are expecting the government to come up with more money to fix the problems by tweaking the program to address borrowers who are unemployed and those who have negative equity.

If you would like more information about foreclosure, check out our articles Wrongful Foreclosures in Alabama and The Three Stages of Foreclosure in Alabama.

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The New York Times has posted an article about the current financial states of Fannie Mae, The American International Group, GMAC and Freddie Mac. Despite receiving massive amounts of money in government bailouts, the companies are still not able to begin to repay the debt. Actually, it looks like they will probably will be given more taxpayer money "from the government just to keep up with their existing government debts."

Though the four are not in all the same businesses, they were caught in one of the same traps: They sold mortgage guarantees — in some cases to each other. Now when homeowners default, as they are doing in record numbers, these companies are covering the losses. Essentially, taxpayer money to these companies is being used partly to protect banks and other investors who own the mortgages.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy and resell mortgages, will likely receive another $400 billion this year from the Treasury. Together, the two companies have used $112 billion. GMAC, which finances auto sales, was already given $13.4 billion and is in negotiations for another $5.6 billion "because a government “stress test” showed it was still too weak."

A.I.G., the insurance conglomerate, recently drew $2 billion from a special $30 billion government facility, which was created in the spring after a $40 billion infusion proved inadequate.

Altogether, the four companies have been given or have been promised a total of $600 billion... and it may climb up to $1 trillion if the government doubles its Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae support.

A spokeswoman said that Freddie Mac and GMAC have made all their scheduled payments to the Treasury. A spokeswoman for AIG has said that repaying the taxpayers will be difficult and depend on the market. Fannie Mae also said it will have trouble repaying the Treasury.

If you would like more information on mortgages and foreclosures, please read our articles The Three Stages of Foreclosure in Alabama and Wrongful Foreclosure in Alabama.

If you have further questions, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

You can also sign up for our free email newsletter sent out every Thursday morning - we cover topics such as the one in this post. We would love to include you! Just fill out the form below: