Loan Modifications And Tax Liens Part I

As a mortgage foreclosure defense attorney in Southwest Florida, I've witnessed mortgage modifications work in many instances; however, the overwhelming majority are going nowhere fast. You definitely need someone who knows what they are doing to help you. When you add a tax lien to the mortgage modification mix, you could all but guarantee the mortgage company representative will move your file to the bottom of the pile, until now. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has recently announced a

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Redefault Rate on Mortgage Mods 55% Within Six Months

Proponents of mortgage modifications contend that the cost of even a deep principal reduction still puts the lender ahead of foreclosure, and experience in past real estate downturns would bear that contention out. So why is this time different? Data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency show that 55% of mortgage mods redefault within six months. Even more discouraging, the three month re-default rate was higher for loans modified in the second quarter of 2008 than the first. It

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16% of Mortgages May Go To Foreclosure by 2012

It was bad enough that Credit Suisse projected 6.5 million foreclosures over the next five years, back in April. This month they upped the ante to over 8 million potential foreclosures or about 16% of all mortgages in the United States. The frightening thing about such projections is that they are (so far) turning out to be fairly accurate. In this case, the projection indicates that 2008 was actually the peak year for subprime foreclosures. The next few years will be the heyday for forec

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Reflections of the Subprime Aftermath Loan Modification is the Light at the End of the Tunnel

Loan modification is a new way of saving your home with out utilizing the usual debt remediation/loss mitigation techniques of previous years. Never before have we seen such a surge in foreclosures and pre-foreclosures. The old saying power in numbers is holding true for distressed homeowners. Many Americans have been left seething with the recent $700 Billion bailout/stimulus plan. You and I, the tax payer ultimately are left to foot the bill for the banks mistakes. Good,bad,or indifferent

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Latest News in Mortgages and Home Loans- Dec 23, 2008

Bush Administration to End FHA Secure, Despite Calls for Continuation One of the programs that many mortgage industry and related groups has been fairly happy with has been FHA Secure. FHA Secure is a program that the Bush Administration put into practice back in August of 2007 when the first hints of a massive subprime mess were starting to be taken seriously. (Warnings, of course, Fannie Mae Servicers Can Now Do Streamlined Loan Modification Yesterday marked the first day that Fannie M

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BofA: Countrywide, Countrywide, Countrywide

Alright. Bank of America has weaseled another $20b. out of the US Treasury. Now, just like Citigroup, BofA has received $45b. in direct bailout funds. Now 2009 turns a weird psychological game for Wall Street. Are the bailout funds supposed to build confidence in the institutions or do they signal continued weakness? Both banks™ stock prices have been battered in recent days ahead of both the bailout deal and ugly earnings announcements. This is why what comes next is so vital. Citigroup is

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MONEY TALKS SO TALK MORE BUCKS.

The senate has gone and released the second half of the TARP funds, $350 billion of what could be deployed as an augmentation to the stimulus legislation. Remember that this money goes out in loans and it is possible that the public will actually make a profit off these investments; the entire program will not end up costing the government $700 billion, the original size of the package. Some political observers were concerned that the vote to release the money might go against the incoming admi

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BofA Gets More Bailout Money

BofA (shorthand for Bank of America - NYSE: BAC) got another round of bailout money from not only the Treasury, but also from the Fed and the FDIC as well. BofA has already recieved one of largest dole outs of the first round of TARP funds along with the other eight Paulson hand-picked mega-banks when the initial bailout was approved and funded by Congress a few short months ago. BofA - Among The Biggest Bailout Recipients In the wake of the Senate passing the authorization to release the seco

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Watcher's Council results, 1/16/09

The Council has spoken! A complete rundown of the voting tallies is here.This week's winner on the Council was yours truly, for The Hidden Story On Gaza , my piece connecting the dots on the political aspects and back ground of the war. Thanks gang, as always...I appreciate it.In second place was Right Truth for America Said NO, Debbie Hamilton's fine piece on the Bush Administration's refusal to aid an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.That decision may well end up having far more to

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BofA gets $138 billion bailout

It's a big news day for Bank of America. Here are key developments: The Treasury and FDIC are protecting BofA against unusually large losses on $118 billion of loans and securities backed by loans, according to a press release by the Federal Reserve. The release says, The large majority of these assets were assumed by Bank of America as a result of its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. The assets will remain on Bank of America's balance sheet. As a fee for this arrangement, Bank of America will

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Could it be that the free market still works? Part II

In October, JP Morgan Chase said that it would start more aggressively changing the terms of home loans in order to try to prevent foreclosures. At the time, I wondered if this might be taken as a sign that the free market still worksâ€"that federal programs forcing servicers to rewrite mortgages in order to keep them affordable might not be as necessary as we think. The problem, though, with that October announcement was that it only applied to loans Chase holds on its own booksâ€"a mere 20% of

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Bank of America: Bailout hides huge bank subsidy deep in press release text

Marshall Auerback here. I wanted to add a few thoughts to the discussion about recent events in U.S. banking. Below is the Federal Reserve press release on the Bank of America bailout. Here are the most important words from the release: where the debt is supported by collateral and the issuance supports new consumer lending. The carrot and stick in the paragraph in red above and below is something brand new and out of the box. It is surprising that it came on Bush's watch but it has Obama

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Bank of America To Modify 630,000 Loans in 2009 To Avoid Foreclosures

Bank of America is planning on proactively modifying 630,000 loans in the coming year. Did you hear that? A bank is going to be proactive in protecting its assets and providing relief at the same time. We all know the tremendous cost of foreclosure to banks. And who will do more to take care of a home than someone who has an ownership stake in it? By being committed to keeping families in the homes instead of foreclosing Bank of America is cleaning up many of the ills that they have inher

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How You Can Avoid Foreclosure

Home foreclosures can be real nightmare for homeowners who missed making their monthly mortgage payment. The terrible fear of losing home makes the borrower go restless and sleepless and witnessing auction of their cherished house can be highly traumatic for homeowners. Lenders proceed with the process of home foreclosure so as to recover the due debts incurred by the non payment of home loans. The top ways by which one can prevent home foreclosures include: Loan modification- To stop home fo

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Latest News in Mortgages and Home Loans- Dec 30, 2008

Post-Christmas Personal Finance: Selling Your Gift Cards When Christmas is over, many people begin to wonder how they can sell or exchange their gifts. And, as gift cards have become more popular, they are part of this speculation. Blueprint for Financial Prosperity offers some useful information on selling or trading your unwanted gift cards: Selling you gift cards First of all, when you sell or Buying a Home in 2009: What You Need to Know About Financing and Credit With the coming New Y

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Streamlined Loan Modification Now Available

Last week Fannie Mae announced that the Streamlined Modification Program (SMP) would now be available to borrowers. This is program is part of ongoing effort by the GSE to prevent foreclosures. Borrowers of course need to know of the rules and requirements to participate in the program. Tammy over at the Arizona Mortgage Team blog has done a nice job putting all this information in one place: Under the Streamlined Loan Modification Program, your mortgage and escrow payments can be cut to 38

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HUD Extends Help To Troubled Borrowers

HUD Extends Help To Troubled Borrowers by Peter G. Miller December 30th, 2008 What should you do if you have an FHA loan and face foreclosure? HUD has come out with a new letter for lenders which explains how to handle situations where a property owner cannot make their payments. The Pre-Foreclosure Sale (PFS) option, says HUD, allows mortgagors in default (resulting from an adverse and unavoidable financial situation) to sell their home at FMV and use the sale proceeds to satisfy the m

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MortgageNewsClips: Lets Help Nathan, Low Rates Spur Defaults, Sandlers and POAs, John Dugan Speaks, Prepare For Stimulus, 5 Smart People, AIG, Bob Eisenbeis 2009, Paper Trail, Ira has 2

3 Home Mods in progress - ¦Nathan, an investor, has 3 loans he is trying to modify. Here is what he said - ¦ we stopped making payments on all three homes because we figured we might as well save the money since we don't know if we will be able to keep the homes. Foreclosure Forum at LoanSafe.org Low Mortgage Rates to Spur New Wave of Defaults - has reasons loans are not making it out of application stage - MR Mortgage On the Sandlers and POAs - The Problem With O

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Etymology and Scandal

In the course of this month two journalists have approached me with questions related to political scandals. My answers, neither of which has been printed in full, may perhaps interest the readers of our blog. Question 1: “How typical are phrases like Ponzi scheme?” As far as I can judge, three ways exist of attaching a proper name to a noun that follows it. A suffix can be added to a proper name: cf. Byronic or Shakespearean. Such adjectives usually mean “in the style of.” Thus, we can spea

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Recent Trends in Loan Modifications

A loan modification is an agreement between a lender and a borrower to alert the original terms of a loan in order to make payments more affordable. This can be accomplished by temporarily or permanently reducing the interest rate on a loan or changing an adjustable interest rate to a fixed interest rate. Another method of loan modification is to increase the term of a loan from the standard 30 years to 40 years or longer. In some cases, the lender may also reduce the principal balance due on a

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Will a home loan modification lower your payments?

by J. Ochs Right now the country is seeing record high foreclosure rates. People across the nation are literally walking away from their homes and letting them go back to the bank. The important thing to realize here is that the banks do not want the homes back. Banks are not in the real estate business, they are in the banking business. Why is this important? If you are in a situation where your mortgage payments are too high due to a financial difficulty, an adjustable rate mortgage, or other

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Can a home loan modification program help you save your home?

Can a home loan modification program help you save your home? By J. Ochs | January 1, 2009 by J. Ochs In the United States right now, foreclosure rates are higher than they've ever been. Homeowners are literally fleeing their homes and letting the banks deal with what they leave behind. Since banks are in the banking business and not the real estate business, they don't really want the houses back. If you're in a place where you think you'd be better off leaving your home because you can n

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Help Available For Homeowners; Home Loan Modification Plans

by J. Ochs In the United States right now, foreclosure rates are higher than they've ever been. Homeowners are literally fleeing their homes and letting the banks deal with what they leave behind. Since banks are in the banking business and not the real estate business, they don't really want the houses back. If you're in a place where you think you'd be better off leaving your home because you can no longer afford your mortgage payment, you should first look into one of the many programs avail

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Gonna Bailout Party Like Its 1999

Well, what's next with the government bailout that was going to save our bacon? Let's face it, the housing mess started in 1999 and was really escalated during 2005-2008, and look where it has gotten the U.S. taxpayer as of today. Check out this article from 1999 [yes, that's 1999]: Fannie Mae Eases Credit to Aid Mortgage Lending. In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements o

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Foreclosures Tips for the First Time Investors

The first time investors can think of investing into foreclosed properties. Foreclosed properties are available at a cheaper rate and this is the right time to purchase properties. The real estate market tends to become stable after sometime. As the market stabilizes, a real estate investor can sell it earning a good profit from the transaction. However, the first time investors need to be aware of a few important things to...

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