Till date lenders have modified approx 235,000 mortgages during the administration of Obama. Despite this, till date, the first few months of 2009 witnessed 1.8 million foreclosures. Due to the rising rate of unemployment, more homeowners are rendered jobless and that is impeding their attempts of loan repayments. The Obama government, against this issue revealed on 4th August the plan stating the initiatives to stem foreclosures.

The Mortgage companies have agreed to alter at least 406,500 loans and above according to the Making Home Affordable program. They have actually altered 235,000 loans and above. As per the observations of Jaret Seiberg, who is a policy analyst with Concept Capital’s Washington Research Group, “This is a classic instance where reality and perception collide in Washington and disappoint everyone.” Though there has been faster progress in the range of mortgage modifications are stemmed by 1.8 million foreclosed houses have already been calculated during the initial months of this year as per the assumptions of Equifax (EFX) and Moody’s Economy.com.

This program is expected to sort out at least 3 million to 4 million foreclosures within the next two years. According to John Taylor who is head of the network of housing counseling groups, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, this is a welcome note but he does not expect much changes to come up in the economy. He emphasized that, “To the extent that people are hoping it will eradicate contributions to the recession [from foreclosures], we’ve got to see more significant numbers.” The figures feature that, at least half a dozen officials have by now modified at least 19% and 25% of the mortgages. On the other hand, few others have altered almost less than 6% loans.

According to Paul Leonard who is an official for the Housing Policy Council, inclusive of being a lobbyist for the Financial Services Round table representing few of the popular financial firms, “It’s probably too early to say who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.” This is mainly because with the new program by the Administration, the officials needed to hire fresh staff for handling various alterations.

Andrew Jakabovics, the associate director for housing and economics at the Center for American Progress observed that, “You’re looking at large institutions that don’t turn on a dime.” However, the industrial critics have very little patience for this kind of thinking. In excess to forcing court modifications, the supporters assess that the judicial modification threat has forced the mortgage companies for making more alterations to loans. According to Representative Barney Frank, “the argument for revising the bankruptcy option will be extremely strong, and I think there is a substantial chance that the outcome will be different.”

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The new real estate problem after foreclosure being faced by the people are the liar loans. This is a type of loan/mortgage that has been approved without any prior proof of the income or assets of the borrower. The worst of this loan are known as ninja loans, which means unable to repay due to no income, no job, and no assets. So far, the biggest problem that was being faced by the housing market nationwide was the subprime foreclosures. But now the liar loans has stood as a big threat to the defaulters and their numbers are increasing rapidly.

According to the housing economist of Virginia, Thomas Lawler, this liar loans problem are more prevalent in those areas where the prices of home are dropping sharply. Some of these places include Nevada, Florida, Arizona, and California. In fact in some parts of US, the bad loan conditions are expected to restore the mortgage crisis for another two years which is turn is going to increase the rate of foreclosure homes. Lawler says that these loans are going to have a very bad effect. The homeowners undergoing the problem of liar loans in this ongoing foreclosure market are unable to refinance as the prices in those markets have plunged and also the lenders are seeking for the income and assets documentation.

IndyMac Bank, Bear Stearns, and American Home Mortgage banks, which specialized in those loans, have now become inoperative. The biggest buyers and backers of mortgages of the nation named Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been reported with a loss of about $3.1 billion between the periods from April to June. About half of the credit lost by them came from liar loans. Countrywide Financial Corp, which is a part of the Bank of America Corp., used to be counted among the biggest providers of liar loans. This type of loan earned huge popularity when there was a stable real estate market in US, especially among those investors who wanted to get properties fast. Besides, the mortgage industry found this loan to be very profitable as they enjoyed higher interest rates and higher fees.

First American CoreLogic has put forward that nearly 13 percent of the borrowers of liar loans have almost defaulted by two months on their payments in the month of May. Some of the mortgage bankers and brokers who have been able to survive have said that they were also brushed up by the housing problem to some extent.

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The US other than the foreclosure homes is also facing the problem of tax foreclosures. It has been observed that about $6.6 billion worth property in 2007 were in the tax foreclosure market. Besides, about $558 billion worth property were in the pre-foreclosure process last year. This is in fact a huge amount. Thus in 2007 about a total of 2.1 million of homes were undergoing the liens of the local taxing authorities. If these properties are not saved by the homeowners, it is soon to become a part of the foreclosed market. This will further degrade the real estate industry. This is a bad time for the local government and the property owners who depend on the property tax for more than 80 percent of their budgets. But the tax foreclosure market opens the door of a good business opportunity.

There was a growth of about $4.5 billion to $6.6 billion in the tax foreclosure market from 2006 to 2007. The main reason behind this inability to pay the real estate debt is the increasing rate of unemployment and a very sluggish growth in the consumer income. In a bid to provide access to the tax foreclosure market, Maryland based SC&H Capital Sparks is providing advices to an ownership group on the sale of URLs (uniform resource locators) as strategic assets.

According to Joseph Bradley, Vice President of SC&H Capital, “These internet properties have strategic value to an acquiring firm in the financial services or tax foreclosure market, particularly given current market conditions and the state of the economic cycle. The owners of these assets are offering the singular and plural dot-com domain for a nearly $600 billion market with a high probability of growing substantially as the effects of the sub-prime and ARM mortgage problems cascade in the market.”

Bradley further said that the lack of tax escrow happens to be a part of the ARM mortgage issue’s fallout. A large number of people in a bid to make payments for their property went with ARM. Although the monthly payments they needed to make were low but their tax liability went such high that it became difficult for them to pay back. A direct request URL according to Bradley has inherent brand strength. As the domain names appear prominent in the search engine recognition algorithms, so sites which use the direct request domains figure a higher position in the search engine rankings. Now a large section will be able to search out the value of topic-related content that includes attorneys, financial institutions, wholesale real estate channels, consultants, etc.

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The droop in the real estate market began in the start of 2006 for the majority of natives of America. However, in the parts like Provo and Orem, the home prices witnessed a leap of 14% by the end of third quarter of the year. The city of Wenatchee could be considered as the only exception that saw appreciation in the real estate prices.

The homeowners in the region of Provo have started offering the discounts to the homebuyers, who show the interest in purchasing the houses. This is the clear indication that the hottest markets of the market like Utah are witnessing a decline in the prices.

There is no area that is untouched by this housing slump that is leading towards fall in prices, slowing down the sale of houses in the region. The mess created by the foreclosures has weakened the loan provisions offered earlier in the market of real estate properties.

According to Kevin Shoell, the owner of Title One in Salt Lake City, the economy of Utah is not as strong as it has been termed in the recent times. The real estate mortgage crises are being witnessed right from August 2007. David Stiff, a well-known economist, considers that no state is capable of saving itself from the real estate and foreclosures crises. Even the strongest markets will find a tough time in keeping themselves intact.

The worst effects of these crises are felt in the markets of Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida. The people with high rate interest mortgages are turning into the defaulters and facing the threats of the foreclosures upon their houses.

The crisis has also found its roots in the places like Ohio and Michigan with the house prices falling at a constant rate. The worst performing real estate market is found at Merced, with the prices plunged 13% from the past. Moreover, the market of Merced has maximum filings for foreclosures. However, one may consider Wenatchee metro area as the best market during the time of crises, where prices saw an increase of 15.7% year over year in the third quarter of 2006.

The regions with the maximum price growth over the 3 quarters of the year are found to have the better market conditions. These markets belong to the places like Texas, Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, and North Dakota. The places like Washington have been benefited by the fall in the price of the dollar.

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We all know that the real estate industry has been going through a bad patch for sometime now. The Foreclosure Listing Service has come out with an information bombshell, yes, believe it or not, North Texas homes that are bound to be auctioned as part of the foreclosures process is going to be the highest since the year 1989! The auction process would kick start next month but these figures are just too frightening!

To reiterate for your understanding, it is important to understand the legal meaning of foreclosures. When a bank or lender is unable to recover payment on a pending loan that wasn’t paid on time by the homeowner, a legal process that allows a bank or a lender to sell or acquire the possession of that particular piece of property is known as foreclosures.

The foreclosures for next month in the real estate segment indicate postings that total 4,303 for the five-county area. This means there has been an increase by 7 percent vis-à-vis the same time last year. Figures for the previous year indicate that 4,009 postings had been listed. The same year to date, the postings for the foreclosures rose up 10 percent to a figure of 38,880 for the region, despite excluding Rockwall County. In Dallas County, the figures rose up 8 percent to a figure of 18,326.

It is definitely too complex to clarify this month’s postings. This is due to the fact that no substantial or material change took place in the context of the prevailing economic conditions. In fact, the trend of increase in foreclosure postings had shown declines during the months of both September and October.

The lenders had been holding off the processes for foreclosures simply on the assumption that aid was on its way. At some point of time, the lenders had changed their stance, dropped the waiting façade and brought out their viewpoint that they simply couldn’t carry on with this situation of indefinite waiting.

But it doesn’t really happen that all homes that are posted for foreclosures get sold at an auction in the real estate. Sometimes, there is a delay in the sales or a delay because the borrower decides to go ahead and negotiate a new agreement with the lender.

The disintegration that has erupted in the real estate segment and mortgage markets, along with the spiraling trend in foreclosures has effectively affected most buyers. But economists do point out that sales in retail have improved and settling of financial markets would definitely help to soften the turmoil that has been brewing for long in the real estate segment.

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There are about 4210 families staying in the country-club community area, and the ratio of foreclosure is approximately 1 for every 41 households since the last seven months. Real estate agents are acquiring foreclosure properties from everywhere i.e. Victor Valley, Mountain resort communities and so on. The number is increasing irrespective of the value of the house.

The crisis in the sub-prime market is making lenders cautious about making any such deals again in the future. Now lenders are finding very difficult to trust anyone with such heavy debt amounts. Besides, it can cause great psychological trauma to the house owners. Those who cannot afford to pay the money vacate the house, and this leads to a deep pervading sense of loss and helplessness. It has a great devastating effect on the neighborhood as well. People don’t like to leave in an ambience which is surrounded by empty houses with a big “resale” sign in front of them. Plus the effect on the cleanliness of the area is an added pressure. Real estate agents are paying Homeowner’s Association (HOA) in Spring Valley Lake to keep the surroundings of the empty houses clean so that it does not have a negative effect on the property values.

The board of directors of the HOA has put the responsibility of cleaning the neighborhood either on the banks or on the real estate agents. And therefore, they are paying for the staff’s wages to the HOA. The amount budgeted for this by HOA is around $15,100. This also includes fees paid to court for allowing them to enter the premises of these homes. $40100 is budgeted for any losses incurred due to unpaid wages. These efforts have been taken up by the HOA to demonstrate to the residing people their concerns about the impact on property values.

There are many cases in the Spring Valley where the owners have bought the house thinking that they can pay the mortgage from their annual income, but unfortunately, the reality turns out to be something else and their properties are foreclosed.

Property agents believe that the situation in the market will continue like this for two to three years more in the Spring valley Lake area. The piled up stock of real estate inventory has become so high that property dealers will take almost three years to square it off. This is possible only if they do not include any more foreclosed homes in the list, which continues to grow with each passing month.

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The storm of foreclosure is flooding the entire country. Still, there are some places where the rate of foreclosures has declined even though the countrywide rate is increasing. A fresh report by RealtyTrac names some areas where the rate of foreclosures has fallen compared to that in the last year.

As per the yearly average statement of RealtyTrac, foreclosures rates have declined by two digits in more than a dozen areas in almost ninety prime locations. This is because there are some markets which were not touched by the calamity of foreclosures. Locations like Greenville, Little Rock, McAllen, Charleston have had a very low number of default notices, bank buys and auctions in the first half of this year as compared to that of last year.

In Salt Lake City the foreclosures rate were down by 40 percent, and 37 percent in Albuquerque compared to the figures from 2006. Sadly, the general trend of increase in foreclosure rates remains the same in other parts of the country.

11 out of the top 21 foreclosures filings are from Ohio and California cities.

In Stockton, the number has gone up by 257 percent compared to those in the last year during the same period. There were 8170 foreclosures filings on 4,240 properties. This is three times higher than the first six months of 2006.

Foreclosures filings include all the foreclosures notices i.e. default notices, bank repossessions, and auction notices which are filed during a given phase of time. If at least one foreclosure notice has been filed against a property, they are then termed as “properties with filings”.

Among the country’s largest metro areas, Motown has the second highest foreclosures rate. The ratio is one foreclosure filing for every 29 to 30 houses. Wayne County, in Detroit had 28704 foreclosure filings on 20232 properties, which are around 27 percent more than last year. This is almost twice the figure.

The third highest foreclosures rate is Sin City among the top metro areas. Here the ratio is one foreclosure filing for every 30 houses. In Clark County, Las Vegas there were 22927 foreclosure filings on 13026 properties. This number is double the figure from last year during the same period, and is around 71 percent more than last year.

Cities like Miami, FL; Sacramento, CA; Riverside-San Bernardino, Bakersfield, Memphis, TN and Cleveland, OH, Chicago, Los Angeles are also in the top ten listing of foreclosures filings.

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Florida – once the hot spot of housing sector is now under the storm of foreclosures. Signs of resale can be noticed on most of the houses of Cape Coral, a beautiful place on the gulf coast of Florida. The once flourishing real estate market of Cape Coral now appears to be at its closing stages.

People have to leave their three bedroom and two bathroom luxurious apartments for a condensed asking price. The asking price of these houses is priced to match the amount owed by the homeowner. Sub-prime loans and the current credit crisis are among the few but major reasons for the current condition of the people of Cape Carol.

Increase in property taxes and also the augmenting rate of insurance, after the hurricane in 2005; have affected the lifestyle of the people here. This is also a reason why people are leaving Florida, to secure themselves from losing all their money. People leaving their houses also added to the piled stock of empty houses apart from foreclosure mortgages.

For the natives of Florida, the great depression has already come. More than 41 percent of single family owners, at a single point of time, have listed their housing at prices lower than $249,000 – the median market value, while just 17 families have priced their houses above the market value.

Builders are gradually removing their housing stock at discounted rates. But investors who are buying them will come to know the actual price of the deal only while maintaining the property. The real estate market in Cape Coral town has dried up. So builders want to shed off their liability of the piled stocks as early as possible.

Big houses are being sold off at the ground level prices. For them even a delay of one day could bring more losses. And for some, it is the transaction they were waiting for their entire life. Its like investors are getting prosperous on the ladder of someone else’s misfortune.

Builders who go by the short sell method are happier than those who don’t. This way, they at least get the bulk of their amount if not the entire amount. It also helps them in shedding off their inventory.

There are also people who buy houses from banks and lenders in Cape Carol and then sell it off at higher prices. For them, it has become a regular business. Builders ultimately find themselves a potential buyer. For the buyer it is like buying a dream home at much lower rates all thanks to the large number of foreclosures in the state.

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The situation in Dallas County is getting worse day by day. The houses which were once occupied by happy families now have the tag of resale / foreclosure posted on them. The foreclosure tragedy is spreading its wings all over the county of Dallas. Around 16500 houses comprising a massive locality are under the gloom of foreclosure.

Banks occupying large portions of the locality, even if it is just one house in the area, affects the whole neighborhood harshly. On just a single block of Desoto there are around seven to eight foreclosures. This scene has made the neighbors whose houses are safe restless, because of the constant insecurity surrounding them all the time.

The rising dues of the homes in the area put the integrity of a neighboring owner at stake. It also affects the realty value of the neighborhood dramatically. Those who can afford make a shift. The rest of the people, who cannot move, find it very difficult to avoid or to see houses being taken away from their owners, many of them your neighbors.

Three years ago, in 2004, the situation was still under control though it was far from okay. In Places like Desoto, Duncanville, Garland, Irving, Mesquite, and Cedar Hill there were 561 cases of foreclosures in the month of August alone. But in August 2007, there are 863 cases of foreclosure in similar cities.

These vacant foreclosed houses make the neighborhood unappealing. The area deteriorates when there is junk mail, broken fences, unattended gardens etc. In such cases, homeowner’s associations have to take the responsibility of cleaning up the neighborhood. But the point is – how to keep the homeowners association going? City managers have to provide them with incentives to do so. Currently, they are made to pay twice, first to develop the general locality i.e. parking area, gardens, entry gate etc., and then again to keep the foreclosed area clean.

There are still some families who come to stay in areas which are hit badly by foreclosures. It’s a tradeoff that they take. They believe that their invested money will add up to their profits in spite of the empty foreclosed houses surrounding them. Plus they are assertive that the financial crisis leading to foreclosures will end soon. Otherwise, people will not be left with any other option, because if people keep on running from foreclosure, then eventually there will be no place left to live.

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With regards to real estate data released recently, officials say that there are chances of undercounting or over counting in mortgages and foreclosures in US mortgage data. For instance, officials believe that in Colorado the numbers have been over counted.

Monthly and quarterly Reports of RealtyTrac on the number of mortgage foreclosures helps in analyzing the issues in the mortgage market. Officials say that RealtyTrac data is disguising the actual condition of housing foreclosures in various states.

Defending themselves, company officials said that they gather data on foreclosure sales, mortgage default notices and lender repossessions. Such information is collected from major counties representing 96 percent of the population of the U.S, and 74 percent of the family units. In case the data collected represents more than 95 percent of the overall population they use it to project the numbers. Still, if something is under reported, officials say, it must be because of an intrinsic difficulty in collecting information from individual counties. In addition, the old and complicated make up of some of the counties makes it very difficult to hunt for data. RealtyTrac is ready to rework the data for any of the counties whose data is not correct. At the same time they also say that their data presents a significant portion of the foreclosure filing numbers.

Colorado, which topped the foreclosure chart presented by RealtyTrac, is actually not at the top. This was concluded when the Colorado administration itself collected data and found that it was much less than what was projected by RealtyTrac.

28,436 foreclosures last year were reported by the state’s data whereas RealtyTrac’s data reported almost double the figures at 54748 foreclosures. In the quarterly report of this year, Colorado’s official figure was 9253 whereas RealtyTrac’s was 16434, second in the list. The survey was done by Colorado’s housing division. The data was collected from the public trustee’s offices of the county which points out the number of families severely delinquent on loans.

Whereas the foreclosure numbers of Minnesota is remarkably undercounted. The current report on the county sheriff mortgage foreclosure sales indicates 11207 last year. This figure is almost double the figure, given by RealtyTrac, which was 5994 homes.

The housing fund president of Greater Minnesota, who conducted the study, found the need to present facts that were lacking in the report presented by RealtyTrac, and therefore he submitted the request to redo the survey once again. According to him, there are various small cities and town that RealtyTrac overlooked. The number of foreclosure filings in these areas is tremendous. What RealtyTrac represented were estimates, and not the complete facts, and so their county was placed 34^th, far behind where it actually should have been.

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With the deepening of the mortgage crisis, which ultimately forced middle class families to opt for foreclosures, the stock market also got pretty shaken up. This issue was immediately sized upon by the Democratic presidential contenders. It became a perfect issue for them to accuse the republicans of letting unregulated companies of oppressing hardworking families.

Senator Hillary Clinton of New York said in New Hampshire Yesterday that she would ban the fees that penalize the early payments. Additionally she also offered to create a fund of around $1 billion to help the struggling homeowners who are trying to prevent foreclosures. Banning of a longer list of notorious lending practices, including balloon loans, in which rate of interest grows drastically over time was called for by John Edwards, the Former senator of North Carolina.

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois led to the introduction of a bill which would impose new penalties on mortgage professionals who are guilty of fraud and propose to counsel homeowners who want to avoid foreclosure. Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut is putting in his own efforts so as to combat the prevalent problem of foreclosure in the real estate scenario. The more the crisis is prevalent in the economy, the further democrats put forward that Republican economic policies have scorned the families of middle and lower income class as per some campaign watchers.

Yesterday, Alan I. Abramowitz, a political scientist in the Emory University, said that it is a wonderful opportunity for the Democrats to disapprove of the collapse of the Bush administration. While delivering her speech at Ernest P. Barka Elementary School, Clinton put forth that the next president must “restore a sense of fairness to our economy.” She further said that “What the president calls the ownership-society; it’s the yo-yo economy,”. What she essentially meant is that some go up and some move downwards, while someone is pulling the strings. In fact this issue appealed to some of the residents who had heard Clinton lay out her plan to deal with the problems which begun in the subprime mortgage market affecting borrowers with blotchy credit records.

In fact some of the residents of Manchester feel that foreclosure is just one aspect of the economic squeeze that they face. Some had to shift to other city just because of the high property taxes. Hence they find themselves incapable of affording anything in the real estate market.

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Real property agents dealing in foreclosures, in San Diego County, are having a good time even though the housing boom has ended.

The increasing number of foreclosures, day by day, has form a sort of separate market in real estate. There are potential buyers in towns who are ready to invest in such properties. Still, lenders are finding it very difficult to make an immediate arrangement for the foreclosed homes and therefore the stocks of foreclosure property are piling up. In such cases they seek auction companies for assistance.

The implication of foreclosure on some is really devastating. It is an big hurdle for the homeowner, and this cannot be denied looking at the implications of the rapid increase in the rate of foreclosures being filed. Though the foreclosures form a fraction of the property market, its trend is upsetting. It is seen that property prices of other houses, in an area where foreclosure homes are located, generally fall below the market value. There are also apprehensions of sabotage.

In San Diego County, 2897 foreclosures are documented in the first year half of 2007. Compared to that, during the same time last year, the figure was 446- a straight increase of 552 percent.

There are about 23,999 houses recorded for resale presently. They are either in the last stage of sale or are foreclosed. Agents dealing with such real property, called as REOs i.e. real estate owned homes, are considered to be the busiest agents in town.

Some Agents deliberately shift to the distressed part of the industry to earn profits. They believe that their action is guided by having the most practical approach. Potential investors always investigate about a bargaining possibility in any deal, though real estate experts are not sure whether the discounts are available. A possible reason for this is that foreclosure filings are still unavailable in sufficient amounts to provide profound discounts.

As mentioned by the DataQuick Information Services, who are recording trends in real property since 1988, foreclosure sales increased by 9.8 percent of all the other sales between April and June this year. A year ago it was just 1.8 percent. Well, this figure is still less than what it was during the mid 1990’s.

Foreclosure is a hot market and a much discussed topic in real estate. It’s a new trend grabbing the attention of everyone whether it is an owner, an agent or an investor.

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The booming real estate market has encouraged a new player in the market i.e. Credit extending agencies. These agencies provide loans to people at low interest rates. Wooed by this, people buy a new house thinking the rates will not change much. But the scheme that seemed to work very well in the beginning has now proved out to be nothing but a pure farce as the number of foreclosure filings are increasing every day.

Home loans offered in this segment often bypass verification by lenders, brokers, agencies, firms and investors. Being spread out all over the countryside, this makes it very difficult to map out genuine ownership. In the case of Chase Home Finance (CHF), for instance, a homeowner used to send payments of his mortgage to CHF. The homeowner had to divert his monthly mortgage payments towards some other responsibility and so he could not meet his payments. It was CHF who initiated foreclosure proceedings and scheduled the auction date of the borrower’s house.

The homeowner asked for either a break with a new payment scheme or a delay in foreclosure proceedings, though there was little CHF could do as they were not the actual investors. They were just a service provider. It was an unknown investor who was actually calling the shots. The investor denied making any changes.

Similarly, there are many other homeowners trying extremely hard to save themselves from delinquent payments. But what they get at the end is nothing but a simple ‘we’re just the service provider” line. A couple of decades ago the scene was different. Then, neighboring institutions carried out the entire procedure and services of mortgages. The current situation has made the attempts of officials in Massachusetts and housing lawyers very difficult in resolving this problem.

Nowadays, lenders sell off mortgages to an investment banker. These banks in turn sell bonds to investors, assuring them pay offs with ready money from the payments of mortgages received by the borrowers. These bonds are called mortgage-backed securities. In this, property mortgages are traded for profit like buying or selling a house.

The foreclosure problem has not affected real estate prices too much. In fact, as stated earlier, foreclosed homes are being looked upon as an opportunity by investment bankers. People should be more cautious. They should know the complete details of a deal i.e. what they are buying, when they are buying and whom they are buying from. It could end up saving them a lot of grief later.

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Foreclosure is like a deep, dark well for some homeowners. It becomes very difficult for them to rise from it once they fall prey to the legal proceedings associated with it. Unfavorable situations like loss of job, death, medical reasons, divorce, theft or fire in the house etc. – all these leave few options in the hands of the homeowner.

From January 2007 to June 2007, in Massachusetts, the number of auction announcements for foreclosure properties has increased up to 171 percent in contrast to that in 2006. An organization keeping track on all these activities in Real estate industry believes that the number will go up even more.

There have been 1398 auction announcements in the first mid half of 2007 in Worcester County. This amounts to 174 % increase in the foreclosure auctions in Worcester County during the first half yearly of 2007. During the same period last year the number was 510. Specifically in June the figure was much higher. It increased by upto 69% this year compared to same period last year.

Experts believe that the main reason behind the increase in the announcements and petitions to foreclosure is the continuous change in the interest rates. Homeowners find it very difficult to deal with these changing rates.

Rapid increase in the petition filings and auction announcements has not left any option with the homeowners but to sell off their homes. Earlier this trend had not caught much pace and therefore homeowners were provided with time to try out the alternatives like refinance or selling.

Foreclosure proceedings can take place under the supervisions of court and also under the sale deed. The former is called as Judicial foreclosure and the later is Nonjudicial. Housing and urban development department (HUD) is an agency that helps the homeowner in finding smart financial counselor – who gives them true picture of their income ,tells them about their budget and also how much they can invest in buying the house . It is the responsibility of HUD to see that the homeowners are well informed about the pros and cons of the home buying deal.

Real estate owned homes popularly known as REO are called such as they are properties whose auction announcement has been made, but due to lack of bidders or because of inadequate bidding, it turns out to be a bank owned home.

For foreclosures investment, REO is very safe and accepted investment. Real estate brokers appointed by the bank play an active role in selling off REO’s.

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In the hope of some recovery in value, those investors and bankers who were investing in the U.S. subprime mortgage bonds are on the verge of making worse losses. This will bring back the terrifying memories of the Japanese banking crisis in the 1990’s predict analysts.

Triggered in the early 1990s, the banking crisis in Japan was a result of deflating real estate market and brokerage collapses. Property prices went into a lull for over ten years, and things were looking quite bleak for the real estate sector on the whole, which also affected equity market prices. This led to a credit crunch which lasted for a decade. The government then intervened by giving public money in the banking system in order to bring things under control. The cause of the Japanese problem was their propensity of hitting and moving instead of holding on to the loss says Josh Rosner who is the co-author of the report. He is also a director of an investment research firm, Graham Fisher, based in New York.

Only a handful of banks and brokerages today are ready to recognize the losses on U.S. subprime mortgage bets and the surge in foreclosures. This is because of the deteriorating housing market and increasing foreclosures. Bear Stearns (BSC.N) is one of them who has publicly recorded losses incurred from hedge fund bets on subprime mortgage bonds. Outside the United States, four hedge funds have announced losses. Two of them are in the United Kingdom and two in Australia. Investors hiding their losses are a cause of concern. It can make things worse. The large number of foreclosure filings in the United States is a source of immense worry as it can badly affect corporate buyouts, debt financing and stock markets. $300 billion was the loss incurred by The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The massive sell-out in the US equity markets which began last week, saw this week ending with even more declines. All this started due to a bleak outlook on the mortgage market and poor foreclosure figures which were released last week.

Rosner said on Friday in an interview that the “dangerous game being played by investors and financial institutions can have far reaching consequences. Things can become worse than it is already. Standard & Poor’s debt reached $6.4 billion this month and for Moody’s Investors it was $5.2 billion. S&p lowered its third best rating “A.A” to “B” or five levels.

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Gradually the number of Harris County homes victimized by foreclosures seems to be reducing, according to the data provided by Foreclosure Information & Listing Service. Though foreclosures in Harris County came down six percent from the same month of the previous year, the numbers do not essentially signify that foreclosures are essentially declining. By June 2006, foreclosures in Harris County have again begun to rise in number and after that it has risen to about 1000 per month. It was noted that the general rise in foreclosure rate has been due hike in the national rate of foreclosures.

Though foreclosures can take place due to a wide range of reasons like divorce, rising bills or maybe even due to loss of jobs, but recently the problem has been seen amo9ngst those homeowners who had so sub-prime loans. Sub-prime loans are directed towards those home buyers who have bad credit ratings. In fact many of these sub- prime loans are also adjustable- rate mortgages that are now rearranging at elevated rates.

In recent years, borrowers have access to wide range of products: interest-only loans, low or no down-payment loans, adjustable-rate mortgages, low documentation loans and 100 percent financing. Due to rise in the rate of foreclosures, lenders have to cut down on giving such loans. Additionally, stricter guidelines are implemented by regulators. However, in no way does this indicate that foreclosures are about to decline soon.

Harris County had around 9357 foreclosures in the year 2006, as per the listing services. It is said that with the rise in the interest rates and a decline in the real estate market leaves many delinquent borrowers with very little options other than foreclosures. In fact Ralph Murdock of The Woodlands-based listing service noticed that the number of homes posted for the foreclosure sale in August summed up to 2,700 which is the highest total in one-month since September 1998. On the first Tuesday of every month, posted homes are sold at auctions and once they are sold off, they are taken as foreclosed by the listing services.

Foreclosures are said to have little effect on the housing market according top studies. In fact investors and bargain hunters have been grabbing these foreclosed homes so fast that the homes do not require to be discounted. Foreclosure is a phenomenon which is becoming regular in today’s scenario where due to multiple reasons; many homeowners have to give in to foreclosure.

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A study conducted by RealtyTrac, an online research and listing company dealing with foreclosures, shows that the rate of foreclosures in the country as a whole reached a peak in May 2007. June saw the rates falling marginally. According to RealtyTrac’s findings, the rate of foreclosure filings had risen 90% in May this year in comparison to last year and in June it fell to 87%. Foreclosure filings encompass default notices, trustee sales notices and repossession notices. But with actual numbers of foreclosures still very high, it is not yet time for homeowners to heave a sigh of relief.

RealtyTrac itself anticipates that the rates will rise again. It attributes this to the forecast that many adjustable rate mortgages are due to be rest at higher rates. This is bound to increase the number of foreclosures as many will then be unable to make the higher payments and may be forced to foreclose their loans.

There are several factors which are contributing to this rise in the rate of foreclosures. Many loans have been taken on the subprime market where loans are given to potentially risky borrowers and with little attention being paid to their ability to repay the loan. Rising real estate prices in the earlier period encouraged greater building activity and an increase in speculation on the real estate market. Increasing mortgage fraud, rising interest rates and predatory lending are some of the other factors which have led to the present situation.

Some experts hold the equities market responsible. According to them, lenders began to come down strongly on borrowers when they saw defaults increasing due to rising rates of interest. Anticipating a flood of such defaults, they decided to take a firmer stand so that they would not lose out on the loans they had given. This was particularly true in the case of balloon loans and loans with lax underwriting. First time buyers were among the first to be affected and many succumbed to foreclosures as they were unable to keep up with payments.

With more homes being sold the market is being flooded with real estate. This is pushing property prices down significantly. The hardest hit states are those which saw property prices booming earlier. The effect of resetting of adjustable rate mortgages is expected to especially affect those states where unemployment is high and where there has been widespread speculation. Together this accounts for a large part of the whole country!

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Like the rest of the country, Maryland too has been affected by the spate of foreclosures in the real estate market.In 2006, the state was ranked 40^th in the country in terms of foreclosures. But by June 2007 it was ranked at 18.

The highest number of foreclosure in this state have been in Prince George’s County. However even affluent counties like Montgomery have not been left unaffected.

Figures show that in April, May and June 2007 there have been more than 700 foreclosures in Montgomery. The significance of these figures becomes apparent if they are compared with those of 2006. Between April and June last year only 49 homes were foreclosed. Moreover the number of foreclosures in just the first quarter of 2007 was more than in the whole of 2006!

The government is aware that if immediate steps are not taken to stop this trend then the situation can get out of hand very fast. In an economically sound county like Montgomery, it would be easy to acquire a false sense of security. However people here need to realise that they are just as vulnerable as anyone else and unless something is done to prevent it, there could be more and more foreclosures taking place.

Accordingly, the state as well as the county have joined hands to offer help to distressed homeowners and those looking to buy real estate through mortgages. They are offering advice and help on mortgage and refinancing issues. They hope that their efforts will help those facing foreclosure to find a way out of their predicament and at the same time guide new entrants into the real estate market so that they do not face the same situation.

According to Tom Perez, Maryland’s Labor Secretary, a task force has been set up to make a plan for helping out homeowners. Called the Maryland Homeownership Preservation Task Force, it is expected to bring about significant changes in foreclosure prevention in the state.

The plan drawn up by the task force will look at ways to educate those buying real estate as well as those who are on the verge of losing their homes to foreclosure. It will also analyse existing laws and determine whether they need to be amended. Accordingly, recommendations will be made to the Governor.

Perez also stresses that state agencies will work hand in hand with local governments as well as industry representatives and community groups to improve the present situation and ensure that it does not become worse.

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Interest rates in the real estate market were very low about three years ago. This prompted many people to use the situation to their advantage by taking out mortgages to buy property at that point in time. Variable rate mortgages which were also being offered were another attraction. These mortgages came with low teaser rates which would start climbing only after three years.

However, the situation has since changed. With foreclosures rising all over the country, interest rates have also been affected. Experts are anticipating that in the next five years a number of variable rate mortgages will be reset. They are forecasting that the interest rate that will now be charged will be higher than what the buyer would expect. It would also be more than the present rate for conventional house loans.

A look at the ABX loan pools show that the number of defaulters is already on the rise. A subset of the ABX index indicates that the interest rates in about 42 % of loans taken in the latter half of 2005 are due to be reset.

The change in the interest rates is bound to affect the rising numbers of foreclosures. Many of the low interest rate loans pertained to the subprime real estate market. Here loans are given to those who do not have good credit histories and where the requirements for qualifying for a loan are few. It can then be assumed that many borrowers from this market will be forced to foreclose if interest rates are revised as they will be unable to pay the higher rates.

An analysis of mortgage loan pools by Morgan Stanley shows that in May, 8% of the loans in pools formed at the end of 2005 were already more than two months overdue.

For loans take in late 2006 too, research shows that there is a rise in the percentage of homeowners who were defaulting payments. Most of the defaulters were more than two months behind on their payments. The percentage is not very high as yet. But what is significant is that it is twice as high as what it was at this time in the last year.

Not all defaulters face foreclosure. There are some who are able to make their payments current and save their real estate. But a significant number do have to foreclose on their homes. As the above research indicates, there is no denying that the number of defaulters is steadily growing. This in turn will ensure that the number of foreclosures the nation is facing will not abate very soon.

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Thanks to rising interest rates and falling real estate prices, more and more property mortgages are ending up in foreclosures today. This has made homeowners quite vulnerable and defaulters live in fear of losing their homes.

A number of unscrupulous individuals and companies have started exploiting this weakness of distressed homeowners. They appear like saviours with promises of refinancing and foreclosure rescue and homeowners, looking for a way out, accept their help gladly. Only to find that they have been cheated out of their homes anyway and are now in a worse financial condition than before.

Some government agencies, non-profit organisations and individuals are trying to counter this problem of foreclosure frauds. They aim to equip homeowners as well as prospective buyers with knowledge about the real estate market and the implications of property mortgages. With credit counselling programs and advice about financing they hope to protect their clients from fraud.

In some regions where foreclosure figures are high, groups have been created which guide homeowners about refinancing. In others, forums are organized to discuss various issues related to foreclosures, like risks of the subprime market, fraud and avoiding foreclosures.

Those involved in helping foreclosure victims stress the need for financial education. They feel that this should start much before a person starts thinking about buying real estate.

Stan Brown is one such person. A lawyer based in Largo, he is helping many with advice on how to handle debt. He points out that it is often the gullibility of homeowners which makes them fall prey to fraud. Many who come to him for help are first generation graduates. In their eagerness to furnish their lives with material comforts, they have often overlooked the future implications of their present overspending. Ultimately they find themselves buried under a mountain of debt.

Brown feels that many home owners lose their property because they do not go into the finer details of the financial contracts they are entering into. Lured by seemingly profitable deals, they brush over the formalities, taking everything on trust.

Civil Justice Inc. is a non-profit legal aid organisation. Its executive director, Philip Robinson, feels much the same. However he points out that many legal documents are difficult to understand because of the way they are drafted. His advice is that if a homeowner does not understand the transaction then getting help from someone who does understand is the most sensible thing to do.

With much being done in the way of guidance and counselling, many facing foreclosures notices can now avail of help to bail themselves out of the situation.

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