With unemployment still north of 9% (in some cities it’s in double digits), the housing market is struggling. Foreclosures continue to mount as the job market and housing markets are interlinked, ie, without a job, homeowners can’t afford to pay the mortgage.

The Obama administration announced recently that it would launch two new programs aimed at helping homeowners stop foreclosure. One is a refinance program to help underwater homeowners; the other is aimed at helping those who have lost their jobs. Details will be forthcoming in a few weeks, but here’s what we know now:

. . . FHA refinancing program to help borrowers whose mortgages exceed the market value of their homes. He also said the department will launch “an emergency homeowners loan program” to help people who are unemployed keep their homes. {Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution, 2 new programs planned to help homeowners.}

Fingers crossed that these programs fare better than HAMP.

Related Posts

Home Loan Modifications: Why Federal Government’s Mortgage Modification Program a Mix of Good and Bad News for Homeowners

Home Loan Modification: 65-75% of Loans Modified via HAMP (the govt’s Home Affordable Modification Program) Likely to Go Bad

Home Loan Modifications via Government’s “Prevent Foreclosure” Program Go Up, But Will It Help Stem the Tide of Foreclosures?

Home Foreclosures Projected to Rise as Government’s “Prevent Foreclosure” Program Falters

Foreclosure Crisis to Drag on for Another 9 Years?

One man’s misery is another’s opportunity. Never has this saying been more true than in the current foreclosure crisis. The industry needs buyers to step in and buy up some of this inventory so that the housing market can start to recover.

Even though it’s moving at a snail’s pace, it seems to be happening, as discussed in this article on buying cheap foreclosures. The article states:

. . . [there's] a lot of deals are out there for homebuyers who have the patience and energy to tackle buying a foreclosed home.

P.S.: Buy Cheap Foreclosures. Learn how to secure your financial future by investing in cheap foreclosures, paying them off, retiring early and living off the rental income. It’s easier than you think. 

P.P.S.: Like this post? Follow Foreclosure Business News on Twitter.  

Copyright © 2010 Yuwanda Black for Foreclosure Business News. Article may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner without the express, written consent of the author.

While the Obama administration’s foreclosure prevention program continues to help some struggling homeowners, it is doiong so at a snail’s pace – and it hasn’t helped nearly as many as it was projected to in the beginning.

The Good News for the Government’s Foreclosure Prevention Program

Permanent modifications are happening: Just last month, 37,000 homeowners had their home loans modified. 

Temporary home loan modifications: As of July, approximately 1.3 million homeowners have had thier mortgages modified to lower payments — at least temporarily.

Payments lowered by more than a third on avearge:  Homeowners lucky enough to have their mortgages modified — either temporarily or permanently — have on average received a reduction of 36%, which works out to more than $500 a month.

In spite of these numbers, following are some reasons many think the Obama adminstrations stop foreclosure program has been such a colossal failure.

The Bad News for the Government’s Foreclosure Prevention Program

Permanent modifications hard to come by: When the Homes Affordable program was implemented last year, it was projected to help between 4 million and 9 million homeowners, depending on which source you read, prevent foreclosure. But, so far less than 500,000 have gotten permanent modifications.

And, this is what’s needed as most struggle to replace jobs they’ve lost. And, this is what leads to the next statistic, which is . . .

Cancellations in the program are up: Many don’t qualify for help at all under the program. And for those who do and have gotten help, they’re prone to default again. Proof? So far, according to the Los Angeles Times article, Federal foreclosure prevention program still growing, just not as fast:

12,912 permanent modifications [of the 434,716 granted since the program began last year] have been cancelled, nearly all because the homeowner has missed at least three straight payments.

This is because people need jobs to keep up with payments. Also contributing to this factor is that many banks aren’t writing down principals, which means many homeowners have to make higher payments – and with unemployment continuing to hover around double digits, many simply can’t keep up — even with reduced payments.

Related Posts

Home Foreclosure News: 9 Million Homeowners Could Go Into Foreclosure Between 2009 & 2012

Home Loan Modification: 65-75% of Loans Modified via HAMP (the govt’s Home Affordable Modification Program) Likely to Go Bad

Home Loan Modifications via Government’s “Prevent Foreclosure” Program Go Up, But Will It Help Stem the Tide of Foreclosures?

Home Foreclosures: Why So Many Homeowners are In Limbo When Trying to Refinance or Modify Their Home Loans Now

Home Foreclosure Scams: Attorney General Cracks Down on Firms Preying on Desperate Homeowners Facing Foreclosure

P.S.: Start a Business Cleaning Foreclosed Properties. While the foreclosure crisis has been a nightmare for many, it has presented a perfect small business opportunity for others. Learn how to start a foreclosure clean up business. Read how one foreclosure cleaning business owner rakes in $40,000/wk (not a typo).

P.P.S.: Like this post? Follow Foreclosure Business News on Twitter.

Copyright © 2010 Yuwanda Black for Foreclosure Business News. Article may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner without the express, written consent of the author.

Fall is just over a month away (September 22^nd). Can you believe the year has flown by so fast! But, I digress.

If you’re a foreclosure cleanup business owner, while your competitors are thinking about the upcoming Labor Day holiday, you can get a jump on them by targeting lenders and offering winterization services.

Graphic courtesy of SignsbyRon.com

What Is Winterization and Why It’s Such a Needed Service?

Fall is the ideal time of year to offer this service, because the cold weather will be here before you know it. Learn exactly what offering this service entails, why it’s such a lucrative service to offer and how much lenders pay for this service in the post, Foreclosure Cleanup: Why Winterization is a Lucrative Service to Offer on Foreclosed Homes. We discussed this around the same time last year here on this blog.

Foreclosures have continued to escalate this year, with banks repossessing the second highest monthly number of homes ever last month.

So it’s a needed service by banks and other professionals who handle foreclosed properties. Proof? According to the article ‘Joe the Plumber’ finds new career winterizing Minnesota’s foreclosed homes, a local plumbing company received more than 100 calls about this service a couple of years ago. And where are these calls coming from. The article states:

. . . a company called 1st Class Plumbing and Heating is getting most of its calls for service from banks and Realtors needing foreclosed and vacant homes winterized.

Become the Go-to Company for Winterizing Foreclosed Properties

You can position your foreclosure cleanup company to capitalize on this need, so when those who need it wonder, “Where can I find a company to winterize foreclosed homes?,” your foreclosure clean up business will be top of mind.

Related Articles on Marketing Your Foreclosure Cleanup Business

How to Get More Foreclosure Cleaning Jobs with Postcards

Foreclosure Cleaning Business Advice: One Sure Way to Make Your Company Stand Out from the Competition

Foreclosure Cleanup Business: How to Start Quickly and Cheaply While Working Fulltime

Foreclosure Cleaning Jobs: Why Landlords Are Fertile Marketing Ground for Foreclosure Cleanup Businesses

Foreclosure Cleaning Marketing Advice: How to Use a Simple Call Intake Form to Get More Jobs

P.S.: Finally, an easier way to get foreclosure cleanup work is here. The Property Preservation & Real Estate Industry Contracting & Subcontracting Directory includes over 1,500 industry contacts to help you get more work – quicker and easier.

P.P.S.: Like this post? Follow Foreclosure Business News on Twitter.

Copyright © 2010 Yuwanda Black for Foreclosure Business News. Article may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner without the express, written consent of the author.

Another Extreme Home Makeover family is facing foreclosure.

Although the show has good intentions, this is not the first family given a home by the show to face this situation. And, it’s due to more than tough times. It seems to be a problem of people who don’t know how to manage money.

Extreme Home Makeover Families Facing Foreclosure: Irresponsible or Just Hard Times?

For example, the family Extreme Home Makeover family facing foreclosure this time is due in part to the owner taking out loans on the home to finance other business ventures (ie, a home-based ministry and a soup kitchen).

The article states:

“WFTV asked why Holmes [the homeowner] used a loan on her private home to help her struggling non-profit ministry. She says co-mingling finances is how she’s always done things.”

The particularly sad part of this is that these families are gifted the homes free and, ie, they pay nothing for them. So they START OFF with no mortgage – exactly where many Americans who’ve taken out mortgages are struggling to be.

And, these homes tend to be pretty extravagant, which may make tapping the equity in them particularly inviting.

So are these families just irresponsible, or is this just a sign of the times?

Stopping Foreclosure: Is It a Good Idea for This Show to Continue to Give Away Homes?

It seems that there should be some type of moratorium on when (and/or if) they can take out loans on these homes so soon after getting them. For example, maybe they should have to be in there for 5 to 10 years before being able to borrow against them.

After all, if you don’t have mortgage debt (eg, the roof over your head is covered), it should be easier – maybe not easy, but easier — to take care of the rest of your bills.

At any rate, with so many homeowners struggling to hold onto homes they’ve paid something into (eg, a down payment, mortgage payments for three, 10, or 20 years, it just seems that giving away homes to people without giving them some type of solid financial teachings to fall back on is like pouring money down a black hole.

Just the way it looks from this perch.

Your thoughts?

Related Posts

Octomom Avoids Foreclosure & Other Home Foreclosure News of Note Today

Stopping Foreclosure: “Extreme Home Makeover” Family Held Raffle to Avoid Foreclosure?

P.P.S.: Like this post? Follow Foreclosure Business News on Twitter.

Copyright © 2010 Yuwanda Black for Foreclosure Business News. Article may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner without the express, written consent of the author.

Wow? And many are saying that’s exactly why the home foreclosure crisis is dragging on.

Big Meeting Tomorrow to “Fix” Mortgage Finance System

According to the Bloomberg.com article, Treasury Fixing Home-Finance Juggles Bailout, Economy the U.S. Treasury Department will hold a summit tomorrow on how to fix the U.S. mortgage-finance system. The American taxpayer has a lot riding on it, as they’ve injected over $150 billion in the last couple of years to keep giants like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from going under.

Other Startling News on the Home Foreclosure Front Brought to Light in This Article

Fannie Mae STILL needs more money — seeking some $1.5 billion more after losing money for 12 straight quarters: If private enterprise ran their businesses like this, the person heading this company would have been sacked long ago — and it would have shut its doors long ago. I say let it fail for Pete’s sake so we can all pick up the pieces and move on.

The Obama administration has earmarked $50 billion for foreclosure prevention and other mortgage-relief programs: BUT, very few seem to be getting help. The program that was supposed to help up to 4 million homeowners get some “stop foreclosure relief,” has only helped a few hundred thousand to date.

As we stated in the April 30th blog post here entitled HAMP Program Changes: If You’re Unemployed and/or Underwater on Your Home, Get Gov’t Help to Refinance or Modify Your Mortgage:

. . . according to the April 2010 Washington Post article,  [Treasury Secretary] Geithner tells panel that more has to be done to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, the program has helped about 200,000 borrowers get permanent home loan modifications.

To be fair, the government can only do so much. Banks/lenders have got to get real about ending this crisis by writing down principles so people can stop doing (or considering doing) the jingle mail walk, ie, voluntary foreclosure.

Many homeowners are simply fed up and don’t want to continue to pay on homes that are constantly slipping in value. And with so many stuck in ARMs, their payments are going up exactly when their home’s values are going down.

There is some light (agreement) at the end of the tunnel. It seems that all have agreed, according to the Bloomberg.com article, that there has to be some type explicit government guarantee for mortgage investors that history won’t repeat itself (eg, industry won’t collapse like it did starting in 2007 — the effects of which the American taxpayer is still paying for).

At least the tax-paying, picking-up-the-tab-for-wall-streets-scammers-and-greedy-lenders American public can hope, no?

P.S.: Start a Business Cleaning Foreclosed Properties. While the foreclosure crisis has been a nightmare for many, it has presented a perfect small business opportunity for others. Learn how to start a foreclosure clean up business. Read how one foreclosure cleaning business owner rakes in $40,000/wk (not a typo). 

P.P.S.: Like this post? Follow Foreclosure Business News on Twitter.

Copyright © 2010 Yuwanda Black for Foreclosure Business News. Article may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner without the express, written consent of the author.

Foreclosing on a home is a process – and lenders are finally working their way through it – pulling the foreclosure crisis full circle. What do we mean?

Stopping Foreclosure: Banks Slow to “Pull the Trigger”

In February, we wrote about how banks were purposely not foreclosing on homes. This was because so many of them were deluged so quickly with homeowners who were defaulting that that they couldn’t keep up. Extra staff had to be hired and trained to even begin to start processing default notices. Now though, it seems they’re working through the backlog.

Lenders Now Starting to Take Action on Foreclosed Properties

Even though they’re still not handing out as many default notices as they could, lenders have gotten busy if the following is any indication:

Banks repossessed the second highest monthly number of homes ever last month, working through distressed loans already on their books rather than sharply stepping up new default notices, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday. [Source: ABC News article via Reuters, Bank Repossessions Drive up July Foreclosures]

Prevent Foreclosure: What Current Foreclosure News Means for “The Average Joe”

There’s still time to save your home, but it’s slowly running out. To explain, in the post back in February we theorized that “once the market starts to recover, lenders will be much less likely to work with struggling homeowners.” So get your financial act together as soon as you can. If you can’t save your home — deal with that reality and make contingency plans, eg, strategic default, a short sale, a deed in lieu of foreclosure, etc.

The fact that banks are starting to process the backlog of foreclosed properties on their books is a sign that they’ve weathered the initial shock – and have now put support staff in place to begin digging out.

But according to the ABC News piece there are currently “5 million seriously delinquent loans, many of which would normally already be in foreclosure.”

Good News for Lenders May be Bad News for Homeowners Trying to Stop Foreclosure

Lenders getting their act together doesn’t bode well for those who want to prevent foreclosure. The reason is, what these homeowners need – more than a job, which is one of the mitigating factors of this prolonged crisis – is time.

They need time to find another job; time to seek a workable home loan modification or refinance, time to start paying some of the arrears due on their late mortgage . . .  time, time, time. And, this is exactly what they’re running out of.

And, while there’s good news on the home foreclosure front, it may be exactly what those trying to stop foreclosure don’t want to hear.

Good Home Foreclosure News

Foreclosure Activity dropped by double digits from a year ago (10 percent);

Default Notices drop by almost 30% from a year ago (remember, though the 5 million seriously delinquent loans which in any other type of market would have already been in foreclosure); and

Home foreclosure auctions down from by approximately 17% from first quarter of this year (March).

P.S.: Finally, an easier way to get foreclosure cleanup work is here. The Property Preservation & Real Estate Industry Contracting & Subcontracting Directory includes over 1,500 industry contacts to help you get more work – quicker and easier.

P.P.S.: Like this post? Follow Foreclosure Business News on Twitter.

Copyright © 2010 Yuwanda Black for Foreclosure Business News. Article may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner without the express, written consent of the author.