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Florida Mortgage Foreclosures Remain High

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Florida courts disposed of 69,513 mortgage foreclosure cases during the time period from July 1 through October 31, 2012, according to a Palm Beach Post article titled “Decline in foreclosure backlog may give false hope.”

While this may sound like good news, underwater homeowners may find two related factors troubling. First, 69,078 new foreclosures were filed in Florida courts during the same time period, for a net decline of only 432 cases. Second, over 40 percent of the mortgage dispositions were dismissals. A mortgage dismissal frequently means that one or both parties are not totally prepared to try the case at the present time, and that the case may simply be refiled at a future date.

Florida courts had 377,272 pending foreclosure cases as of October 31, 2012, according to state courts records and as reported by the Palm Beach Post. That’s a net of just 432 fewer cases than July 1 because of the 69,078 new foreclosures filed in the four-month span.

Fort Lauderdale Foreclosure Defense Attorney

Choosing the best approach to protecting yourself and your family from a mortgage foreclosure involves many legal considerations. Contact Fort Lauderdale mortgage foreclosure attorney Marcy Resnik to discuss how you can defend your legal rights in a foreclosure. You can contact Ms. Resnik online or call her at 954-321-0176.

Foreclosed Florida Homeowners May Get $2,000 Checks

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The National Mortgage Settlement Administrator will mail Notice Letter and Claim Forms in late September through early October 2012 to those borrowers who lost their home due to foreclosure between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2011.

Qualifying loans were serviced by one of the five mortgage servicers that are parties to the settlement:

  • Ally/GMAC
  • Bank of America
  • Citi
  • JPMorgan Chase
  • Wells Fargo

Some 167,398 Floridians who lost homes to foreclosure may each get about $2,000 as part of the nation’s largest consumer financial protection settlement, according to a Sun Sentinel article titled “Thousands of South Floridians to get about $2K after losing homes to foreclosure.”

Qualifying homeowners who receive a “notice letter” must file a claim form online or by mail no later than January 18, 2013. You must have your personalized claimant ID number, which is located on the Notice Letter and Claim Form you will receive by mail, to submit your Claim Form online. Instructions are available online at the
National Mortgage Settlement Claim Filing Site.

Fort Lauderdale Foreclosure Defense Attorney

Choosing the best approach to protecting yourself and your family from a mortgage foreclosure involves many legal considerations. Contact Fort Lauderdale mortgage foreclosure attorney Marcy Resnik to discuss how you can defend your legal rights in a foreclosure. You can contact Ms. Resnik online or call her at 954-321-0176.

 

Florida Mortgage Foreclosures Continue to Increase

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Foreclosures in Florida increased on a year-over-year basis last month for the seventh time in eight months, according to a recent Miami Herald article titled “Foreclosure rate falls nationally, but Florida still trending up.”

Florida now has the second highest foreclosure rate in the country (1 for every 328 housing units), behind only Illinois. New Florida foreclosure filings increased 26% annually in August.

The chart below shows Florida foreclosure activity by county for August, including Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties.

If you and your lender agree that you can not keep your home, there may still be options to avoid foreclosure, according to the Florida Attorney General:

  • Short Payoff: If you can sell your house but the sale proceeds are less than the total amount you owe on your mortgage, your mortgage company may agree to a short payoff and write off the portion of your mortgage that exceeds the net proceeds from the sale.
  • Deed-in-lieu of foreclosure: A deed-in-lieu of foreclosure is a cancellation of your mortgage if you voluntarily transfer title of your property to your mortgage company. Usually you must try to sell your home for its fair market value for at least 90 days before a mortgage company will consider this option. A deed-in-lieu of foreclosure may not be an option if there are other liens on the property, such as second mortgages, judgments from creditors, or tax liens.
  • Assumption: An assumption permits a qualified buyer to take over your mortgage debt and make the mortgage payments, even if the mortgage is non-assumable. As a result, you may be able to sell your property and avoid foreclosure.
  • Refinancing: While refinancing is not necessarily a good option when facing foreclosure and can sometimes even be a predatory practice, there are instances where it may help. Talk to your lender to see if refinancing is an option for you.

Fort Lauderdale Foreclosure Defense Attorney

Choosing the best approach to protecting yourself and your family from a mortgage foreclosure involves many legal considerations. Contact Fort Lauderdale mortgage foreclosure attorney Marcy Resnik to discuss how you can defend your legal rights in a foreclosure. You can contact Ms. Resnik online or call her at 954-321-0176.

Home Preservation Forum, Saturday June 30

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Florida homeowners in danger of default or mortgage foreclosure will have a chance to speak directly with lenders at a “Home Preservation Forum” being sponsored by the Broward Housing and Community Development Task Force and the City of North Lauderdale.

Date and Place:
Saturday, June 30, 2012
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
City of North Lauderdale’s Municipal Complex
701 SW 71st Avenue
North Lauderdale, FL 33068
For more information, call 1-877-686-0623

Participating lenders include Bank of America, SunTrust, Chase, Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Homeowners should bring current copies of their pay stubs, bank statements, income tax returns, mortgage statement, utility bill, and any hardship letter they might have.

Homeowners will meet with lenders on the spot and decisions will be made that day.

Fort Lauderdale Foreclosure Defense Attorney

If you are at risk of losing your home to mortgage foreclosure, there is action you can take. Contact Fort Lauderdale mortgage foreclosure attorney Marcy Resnik to discuss how you can defend your legal rights in a foreclosure. You can contact Ms. Resnik online or call her at 954-321-0176.

Checks Going Out to Mortgage Foreclosure Victims

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A check for $1,000 may not do much to offset the financial distress associated with a mortgage foreclosure, but that is the most many victims can expect under a recent government program intended to provide compensation for mortgage errors. The payments will range from $300 to $125,000.

Military veterans who incorrectly had their home foreclosed on while they were on active duty will receive the highest payments.

Bank regulators initially planned a review of all qualifying mortgage files, but soon discovered that the number of actual mortgage errors exceeded expectations. The automatic portion of the review was then terminated early. Consumers were allowed to ask for a review of their foreclosure files, and about 439,000 did so. These borrowers are expected to be paid twice as much as those who didn’t seek a review.

Overall, payments of $3.6 billion payable to 4.2 million borrowers are scheduled to begin on April 12 following an agreement reached by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Board with 13 mortgage servicers.

Qualifying mortgages must meet the following criteria:

  • Home that were in any stage of the foreclosure process in 2009 or 2010
  • Mortgages were serviced by one of the following companies, their affiliates, or subsidiaries: Aurora, Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, MetLife Bank, Morgan Stanley, PNC, Sovereign, SunTrust, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo.

Mortgage compensation checks will be sent in several waves beginning with 1.4 million checks on April 12.  The final wave is expected in mid-July 2013.  More than 90 percent of the total payments to borrowers at 11 of the 13 servicers are expected to have been sent by the end of April.  Information about payments to borrowers whose mortgages were serviced by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will be announced in the near future.

In most cases, borrowers will receive a letter with an enclosed check sent by the Paying Agent—Rust Consulting, Inc.  Some borrowers may receive letters from Rust requesting additional information needed to process their payments.  Previously, Rust sent postcards to the 4.2 million borrowers notifying them of their eligibility to receive payment under the agreement.

Rust is sending all payments and correspondence regarding the foreclosure agreement at the direction of the OCC and the Federal Reserve.

Borrowers can call Rust at 1-888-952-9105 to update their contact information or to verify that they are covered by the agreement.  Information provided to Rust will only be used for purposes related to the agreement.

Borrowers should beware of scams and anyone asking them to call a different number or to pay a fee to receive payment under the agreement.

Accepting a payment will not prevent borrowers from taking any action they may wish to pursue related to their foreclosure.  Servicers are not permitted to ask borrowers to sign a waiver of any legal claims they may have against their servicer in connection with accepting payment.

Fort Lauderdale Foreclosure Defense Attorney

Choosing the best approach to protecting yourself and your family from a mortgage foreclosure involves many legal considerations. Contact Fort Lauderdale mortgage foreclosure attorney Marcy Resnik to discuss how you can defend your legal rights in a foreclosure. You can contact Ms. Resnik online or call her at 954-321-0176.

Savings Protect Homeowners from Foreclosures, FINRA Reports

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Households without emergency savings, or rainy day funds, were three times more likely than households with emergency savings to make a late mortgage payment—and almost twice as likely to be involved in a foreclosure. These differences exist even after controlling for other factors that can impact mortgage payment behavior—like income, education and geographic region, according to a report recently released by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.

The new study, Softening the Blow: Income Shocks, Mortgage Payments and Emergency Savings (PDF 140 KB) is based on data from the 2009 National Financial Capability Study, an online survey of more than 28,000 respondents (approximately 500 per state, plus D.C.).

Softening the Blow found that minorities and households with dependent children are more vulnerable to income shocks. Among households that experienced an income shock:

  • Minorities were 52 percent more likely to make late mortgage payments relative to non-minorities; and
  • Dependents in the household increased the likelihood of late mortgage payments by 48 percent.

“The Great Recession and the housing downturn devastated the finances of families across the country,” said FINRA Foundation President Gerri Walsh. “Data collected during this period, when many family budgets were stretched past the breaking point, suggest that having a rainy day fund can make the difference between being able to stay in your house and making late mortgage payments and facing foreclosure. That’s an important lesson for all Americans, especially as the economy continues to recover.”

The FINRA Foundation’s new study shows the extent to which lower-income Americans were especially unable to withstand an income shock during the Great Recession. Among households experiencing an income shock, those with incomes below $50,000 were 43 percent more likely to make late mortgage payments relative to their more affluent counterparts.

The sample used in this study was weighted to match the adult U.S. population (age 18 and up) on age by gender, ethnicity, education and census division. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey were used to construct the weights. However, as in all survey research, there are possible sources of error – such as coverage, non-response and measurement error – that could affect the results. The full data set and methodology are available at www.usfinancialcapability.org.

Fort Lauderdale Foreclosure Defense Attorney

Choosing the best approach to protecting yourself and your family from a mortgage foreclosure involves many legal considerations. Contact Fort Lauderdale mortgage foreclosure attorney Marcy Resnik to discuss how you can defend your legal rights in a foreclosure. You can contact Ms. Resnik online or call her at 954-321-0176.

Mortgage Fraud Accusations for Nationwide Investment

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Nationwide Investment Firm, a Palm Beach County foreclosure rescue firm, is the target of increasing homeowner complaints.

Clients allege that Nationwide promises to arrange short sales, negotiate loan modifications, or work with lenders to delay homeowner foreclosures, according to a lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County. Rather than getting help, however, unsuspecting victims actually sign over the deed to their home to Nationwide.

Seven lawsuits charging fraudulent business practices have been filed against the company in the past year, according to the Palm Beach Post. Nationwide Investment now has title to 65 homes in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, St. Lucie and Lee counties, according to the article.

The Florida Office of Financial Regulation confirmed last week that it is conducting an investigation into the firm.

Watch a Channel 5 News video about the mortgage fraud allegations involving Nationwide Investment Firm.

Contact Fort Lauderdale mortgage foreclosure attorney Marcy Resnik or Howard Kahn to discuss how you can defend your legal rights in a foreclosure. You can contact them online or call her at 954-321-0176.

Mortgage Foreclosure Can Mean Deficiency Judgment

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Many Florida homeowners facing foreclosure do not realize that they might still owe money to the mortgage lender long after a foreclosed property has been sold.

Lenders can obtain a “deficiency judgment” against a homeowner, which is the difference between the homeowner’s outstanding mortgage balance and the value that a bank receives after a foreclosure or short sale.

News Channel 10 has an interesting video about Florida homeowners and deficiency judgments.

If you have questions about a mortgage foreclosure or deficiency judgment, contact Fort Lauderdale mortgage foreclosure attorney Marcy Resnik. You can contact her online or call her at 954-321-0176.

Florida is Top State for Mortgage Foreclosure Activity

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The Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach metropolitan area ranked #2 in the nation in foreclosure activity in January, with one in 228 homes receiving some type of foreclosure filing during the month, according to a recent Miami Herald article titled “Florida leads nation in foreclosure activity.” The Ocala, Florida area held the unfortunate distinction of being ranked #1.

California dropped out of its first place position as the state with the largest number of foreclosures for the first time since January 2007, according to survey sponsor RealtyTrac.

Several factors contribute to Florida’s unwelcome number of January foreclosures, including:

  • Florida requires that all foreclosures are subject to court review, as opposed to less time-consuming administrative proceedings. Courts in Miami, according to the article, are becoming more aggressive in pushing larger numbers of foreclosures through the court system in order to work through the backlog.
  • Lenders are processing foreclosures more quickly in the wake of the recent regulatory settlement with five major banks and mortgage lenders. (See our earlier blog post titled, “Mortgage Foreclosure Settlement for Florida Homeowners.”)

Florida foreclosure filings tracked include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

Fort Lauderdale Foreclosure Defense Attorney

Choosing the best approach to protecting yourself and your family from a mortgage foreclosure involves many legal considerations. Contact Fort Lauderdale mortgage foreclosure attorney Marcy Resnik to discuss how you can defend your legal rights in a foreclosure. You can contact Ms. Resnik online or call her at 954-321-0176.

National Mortgage Settlement Claim Deadline is Friday

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Florida homeowners who lost their home to foreclosure between Jan. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2011 and had their mortgages serviced by Ally/GMAC, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase or Wells Fargo may qualify for financial compensation under the $25 billion National Mortgage Settlement. The filing deadline is this Friday, January 18, 2013.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office is making outbound calls to reach Florida borrowers who may be eligible for cash payments under the national mortgage settlement.

“We want every borrower who may be eligible for a cash payment under the national settlement to submit a claim. Currently, approximately forty-four percent of the people to whom claim forms have been mailed have submitted their claims,” stated Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The National Mortgage Settlement Administrator mailed Notice Letters and Claim Forms in late September through early October 2012 to those borrowers who lost their home due to foreclosure between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2011 and whose loans were serviced by one of the five mortgage servicers mentioned above.

Forms must be completed and returned by Jan. 18, 2013, in the envelope provided, or they can be filed online at NationalMortgageSettlement.com. Claims received after January 18th may be considered, but payment to those claimants is not guaranteed.

Payment checks are expected to be mailed in mid-2013. The amount of the payment will be the same for all claimants and depends on the number of eligible claims received. Payments will be a minimum of $840, but higher payments to each eligible consumer are expected.

This $25 billion settlement between the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers and the federal government and 49 states and the District of Columbia, earmarked approximately $1.5 billion in payments for 2 million borrowers nationwide.

In Florida, approximately $170 million is available for cash payments to Florida borrowers. All available funds will be distributed to those who file claims; none of this money will be returned to the banks or used by the states for any other purpose.

More information about eligibility and filing a claim is available at the National Mortgage Settlement website, or via email to administrator@nationalmortgagesettlement.com. You can also call toll-free: 1-866-430-8358 (hearing impaired: 1-866-494-8281). The line is staffed Monday through Friday from (7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central).

Fort Lauderdale Foreclosure Defense Attorney

Choosing the best approach to protecting yourself and your family from a mortgage foreclosure involves many legal considerations. Contact Fort Lauderdale mortgage foreclosure attorney Marcy Resnik to discuss how you can defend your legal rights in a foreclosure. You can contact Ms. Resnik online or call her at 954-321-0176.