The initial three months of 2012 in Beaufort County has experienced a remarkable rise in the total number of foreclosures although this trend is apparent but not troublesome. In comparison to the last quarter of the previous year, there is a straight 40% increase in the total number of foreclosed properties from January to March 2012. Real estate data firm RealtyTrac issued a report recently to show that there was a statewide increase in foreclosure numbers.

The broker-in-charge at Beaufort based Lowcountry Real Estate Edward Dukes said that this sudden rise in foreclosure numbers is due to the suspension of many foreclosure cases last year which resumed this year.

Since 2010, lenders filed out a large number of foreclosure cases without proper verification of the mortgage documents. With the emergence of various foreclosure scandals, lenders suspended their foreclosure processing and were waiting for the situation to stabilize. According to Dukes, this yearlong backlog is increasing the foreclosure numbers.

Duke’s business associate, John Trask stated that many banks have not yet disclosed their foreclosures and so the number is yet to spike more. He said, “They may have delayed some of these foreclosures so as not to pile it up on one year. Or maybe they were just in the Christmas spirit”

Trask also warned that these statistical reports are not the only things to look out for, but everyone will have to focus on them in the midst of the economic recession which has devastated this country.

He added, “There’s a lot of inventory still to shake out, and it’s a process that’s going to take time. There will be peaks and valleys, and I’m guessing that’s what this is.”

The entire Palmetto state is experiencing this increase in foreclosure numbers so the trend is not new to Beaufort County. On a year over year basis, the foreclosure numbers in Myrtle Beach have increased by 95%, Greenville by 15% and in Charleston, the spike is 8.5%.

However, this nationwide report is a combination of both step up and step down cases. An increase in foreclosure numbers have been reported in nearly 50% or more of the metro areas of the country in the first three months of this year. Along with this quarterly increase, the report also shows that there is an improvement in foreclosures in most of the areas in the country with respect to the figures seen in 2011.

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The real estate database firm, CoreLogic tracks all the foreclosure activities that are going on all across the country. Recently, it has published the National Foreclosure Report for the month of February which reveals the present status of delinquency rates and foreclosure inventory in the country.

According to this report, there were nearly 65,000 foreclosure cases which were completed this February whereas in the month of January 2012, there were 71,000 completed foreclosure cases. In comparison to January 2012 and February 2011, the figure this February is quite low. A year earlier, there were 66,000 completed foreclosures.

Since February 2011, a total number of 862,000 foreclosures were completed in this one year period and since 2008 when the economic crisis hit the market for the first time, there have been nearly 3.4 million foreclosures completed.

In the existing foreclosure inventory, there is a huge stock of foreclosed properties. Till February, there were about 1.4 million properties in inventory; this number was 1.5 million a year back. In both January and February 2012, the figures were the same.

These numbers remained steady in both these months due to a decrease in the total number of willing borrowers all across the nation. On a year-over-year basis this February, the total number of willing borrowers moved down by 115,000 which is a drop of 7.6%.

In the words of the chief economist at CoreLogic, Mark Fleming, “The pace of completed foreclosures is down slightly compared to January, running at an annualized pace of 670,000, but compares favorably to the pace of completed foreclosures in February a year ago.

Even though the pace of completed foreclosures has slowed, the overall foreclosure inventory is decreasing because REO sales were up in February. With the spring buying season upon us, the inventory may decline further as the pace of distressed-asset sales rises along with the rest of the housing market.”

The CEO and president of this firm, Anand Nallathambi stated, “In February, more than 60 major markets saw a decrease in their foreclosure rates compared to a year ago. This combined with faster REO-clearing rates, better employment news, and continued historically low interest rates are all positive signs of improvement in the housing economy.”

This February, the total number of 3 months delinquent borrowers moved down by 7.3% and on a year-over-year basis, the rate was lower by 7.8%. However, in comparison to this January, when the rate was 7.2%, the rate in February was better.

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On the basis of a report published by a Los Angeles based company, RealtyTrac which keeps track on all housing transactions, the rate of foreclosure activity in the area of Scranton – Wilkes-Barre – Hazleton moved down by 41% in the period of January to March 2012 in comparison to the same months a year ago. This is also the 5th quarter in a row showing a decrease in the total number of foreclosure notices.

A Dunmore based real estate lawyer, Mark Conway who deals with foreclosure and bankruptcy cases, said, “The market is stabilizing. I think we have run out of road. I think most people in free fall have already gone over the edge.”

The rate of foreclosure filings in this metro area moved down by 52% last year in comparison to a year ago. The total number of bankruptcy cases in this area moved down by 15.6% between January to March 2012 in comparison to the same months in 2011. Moreover, compared to 2010 in the previous year, the total number of Sherrif’s sale for foreclosures also moved down by 28% in Luzerne County and by 33% in Lackawanna County.

Michael Kalteski dealing with foreclosure sales for a real estate firm, Coldwell Banker in Clarks Summit stated, “Maybe we are leveling out. At some point, they have got to ease up a bit.”

This report by RealtyTrac reveals a different foreclosure picture in these three months. Although the rate of foreclosure activities was down by 16% all across the nation, the rate was 22.5% higher in this state. Contrary to the decrease in the total number of filings in New York by 35%; the total number of foreclosure activities in Lancaster County increased by 65%.

Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Northeastern Pennsylvania is an agency which provides debt-management and budgeting services in many counties. The President and CEO of this company, Mike Elick stated, “We are seeing a mixed bag. We have seen just a slight drop in the number of people coming in.”

According to him, the foreclosure activity is high in Poconos and RealtyTrac reported that foreclosure postings increased by 17% in Stroudsburg in the first ninety days of this year.

After the 49-state settlement this March, banks are providing some relaxation in norms to struggling homeowners by allowing them loan modifications through reductions in principal, refinancing and more options. In this context, Conway stated, “It seems to me that the lenders are taking a fresh look at entering into mortgage modifications and other non-foreclosures remedies that they were not pursuing in years past.”

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A bipartisan advocacy agency in Washington DC, First Focus deals with family welfare. This agency has recently published a report which reveals that nearly 2.3 million US children have been affected due to this prolonged 5 year foreclosure crisis. Owing to the foreclosure crisis, all these children have lost their homes. According to their report, there is one child in every 10 children who has been suffering or will suffer in future from post-foreclosure effects.

There is another group of nearly three million children who are living in homes which are standing on the verge of foreclosure as homeowners are either seriously delinquent or are struggling to repay their home loans. Apart from these 3 million kids, there are another three million who are living in rented houses after losing their own homes in foreclosure.

Julia Isaacs prepared the report after a thorough study while she was associated with the Brookings Institution. At present, she is a senior fellow at the Labor, Human Services and Population Center of Urban Institute. She said, “Children are the often invisible victims of the foreclosure crisis.”

She examined the data provided by the US Census Bureau and foreclosure records to calculate the approximate figure for the total number of foreclosure affected children. This is the 2nd report released by this agency dealing with the adverse impact of the foreclosure crisis on children, and this is also the first report by this agency where they have revealed an estimate of the total number of US children living in rented homes.

It is quite evident that the impact is more adverse in those regions which were the worst affected areas of foreclosure. In this context, Isaacs said that there is one child in every 5 children in Nevada who is either living in foreclosed homes or living in their own home, which is standing on the verge of foreclosure.

In California, 12% of the children are foreclosure affected whereas in Arizona, the rate is 14% followed by Florida, where the rate is 15%. North Dakota and Alaska report the lowest rate in US which is only 2%.

In the words of the President of First Focus, Bruce Lesley, the foreclosure crisis is not only affecting the children physically and mentally but is also affecting their educational career. On the basis of sixteen studies, Isaacs concluded that for every eviction process, students are giving poor results in their school exams, and sometimes remaining absent for almost a month.

She even warned that this number may also increase in the near future as her study only included foreclosure cases seen in the last 5 years starting from 2004.

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On the basis of different area based foreclosure reports, many people concluded that the foreclosure crisis would soon come to a conclusion because most of the reports showed a steep decline in foreclosure numbers.

After the 49-state settlement with the five leading banks of the United States (Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo), strict guidelines were provided to these banks for foreclosing a property so no such scandal reappears in the real estate market in the future.

Since 2010, many foreclosure cases have been lingering in some stage of foreclosure. According to a professor at Kansas State University, Eric Higgins, the lenders suspended the foreclosure processing as they “were afraid that anything they did would be under a microscope.”

Owing to this suspension, delinquent borrowers got an advantage and continued living in their houses for a long time (ranging from several months to years) without paying any mortgage payment.

All across the nation, normally it takes about 370 days to foreclose a property. This average time is calculated from the first instance of non-payment of the monthly mortgage installment to final repossession of the property by the bank. Marketing Director of real estate data firm, RealtyTrac, Daren Blomquist said that five years earlier, banks used to take only about 185 days to foreclose a property.

In many areas like Florida and New York, delinquent borrowers have been staying in their foreclosed properties for nearly 861 and 1056 days respectively. In the words of the executive vice president of a housing investment firm, Carrington Holdings, Rick Sharga, “Perhaps a million foreclosures could have been pursued last year but weren’t. We’re going to see an increase in the speed of foreclosures and a higher number of foreclosure starts.”

But after this recent settlement, lenders have started processing all their backlog foreclosure cases. According to the latest information released by RealtyTrac, after March 2012 the rate of foreclosure filings has increased by 10% in 26 states of the country where the court is involved in foreclosure processing.

Foreclosures were most affected due to the robo-signing scandal in these regions. In Indiana, the rate of foreclosure processing has moved up by 45% in April 2012 in comparison to April 2011, whereas in Florida the rate has increased by 26%.

CEO Brandon Moore at RealtyTrac said, “The dam may not burst in the next 30 to 45 days, but it will eventually burst, and everyone downstream should be prepared for that to happen — both in terms of new foreclosure activity and new short sale activity.”

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The federal regulators of the United States are getting ready to assault eight financial agencies of the country. These agencies were not included in the recent foreclosure settlement over various foreclosure issues involving improper foreclosure practices or fraudulent mortgage documentation.

Recently, these agencies have raised questions about this settlement and also regarding the foreclosure problems in the banking sector. A senior official of the Federal Reserve recommended a penalty for these agencies. Moreover, some advocates, lawyers and judges favoring homeowners also stated that many homeowners have complained against these firms that they have lost their homes in foreclosure after the involvement of these agencies.

These eight financial agencies are PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh, SunTrust Bank, US branch of HSBC, OneWest, MetLife, Goldman Sachs, US Bancorp and EverBank.

According to the senior associate director for the Federal Reserve’s Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, Suzanne Killian, these agencies should be penalized for “unsafe and unsound practices in their loan servicing and foreclosure processing.” She stated this last month during a hearing for a House Oversight Committee in New York.

This recommendation is an outcome of the two years long investigation in foreclosure processing. These banks have been carrying out their foreclosure process with inaccurate data without reviewing any of the documents, and as a result many properties moved into foreclosure due to this.

According to some, this settlement of the Federal Reserve was an effort to force these financial agencies to agree with the settlement which involves all the state federal officials and Attorney Generals. The attorneys and federal officials tried to reach all these organizations so all the agencies could abide by the same settlement decision.

In this 49-state foreclosure settlement program, the main focus was on the 5 major banks of the country which includes Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPmorgan Chase, Ally Financial and Citigroup. These 5 banks did not admit to allegations of improper and inaccurate foreclosure processing but agreed to pay $25 billion as compensation during the settlement program.

Although this settlement has solved most of the problems seen in foreclosure cases handled by these 5 giant mortgage servicing firms, the settlement could not amend problems in other foreclosure cases that are being handled by other firms.

After proper scrutiny, The New York Times has found that there are many foreclosure cases piled up in courts all across the nation which are handled by these eight financial institutions, many of which have been filed on the basis of fraudulent mortgage papers.

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The federal and state courts of Oregon are giving a variety of opinions about the controversial electronic mortgage registration system which has been used all across the nation to carry out foreclosure processing. With so many different opinions from courthouses, the matter will soon move to the Supreme Court for final justice.

Even if this matter is placed in the high court and if the judge thumbs down this registration system, a huge number of pending foreclosure cases in Oregon will be released from foreclosure processing. Moreover, this will also save many almost-completed foreclosure cases.

Last week, an order was filed in the US District Court located in Portland. In this order, a set of questions have been given so that the chief judge of this district court can certify these questions before placing the order in the Supreme Court. After formal acceptance, the Supreme Court can reject or rephrase any question stated in this order.

Finally, if the Supreme Court gives a final decision on this issue, then the array of different decisions given by different courts would come to an end. Depending on the decision given by the Supreme Court, it could be decided whether state law will permit the mortgage registration system, popularly known as MERS, in case of documentation of properties.

Law Professor at Williamette University, Jeff Dobbins said that the involvement of the Supreme Court is very necessary to put an end to this conflicting mortgage registration issue. He added, “It’s such a significant issue. Unless they see something in the case that makes them think it’s not right, I think the betting is probably reasonable that they’ll go ahead and consider the question.”

This Mortgage Electronic Registration System was designed in the early nineties so that the mortgage industry could maintain proper documentation of housing transactions all across the nation. Earlier, after every transaction, updates were entered in county records which involved large amounts, and this was a tedious job. To avoid these issues, MERS was created, which was totally plagued with discrepancies in later years.

Many Oregon homeowners have filed allegations against this mortgage registration system in court houses, and as a result some of the courts have suspended the foreclosure process of many people while some have allowed MERS to carry out the foreclosure process. With different kinds of rulings in different parts of the region, this issue has moved to the Supreme Court for a final ruling applicable to every foreclosure case.

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According to an analysis by Detroit News, nearly one-fourth of the foreclosed properties of 2006-07 have been demolished or are waiting in the demolition list to be razed soon.  These foreclosures were paved out of this city to give a new look, heralding the rebirth of this city.

The neighborhoods in the extreme western zone and in the north-eastern region have knocked down 2/3 of the foreclosed properties that emerged in this city five years back. These foreclosures have either been demolished or will be removed shortly.

According to recent records by RealtyTrac, the foreclosure rate has slowed down here, with a total of nearly 28,000 foreclosed properties since 2007. But there could be more vacancies.

In the words of a retired labor professor of Wayne State University, Steve Babson who lives in East English Village, “I don’t think you can engage in any credible program for economic recovery if you let this foreclosure crisis go unchecked.”

For the Mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing, it is his top priority to reshape the city with foreclosure free neighborhoods. At present, the most important project for him is the Detroit Works Project, which focuses on targeted neighborhoods to give a new shape to these areas. However, the progress of this program is being hampered due to the increasing number of vacancies.  This increase in the number of vacant and abandoned foreclosed properties is weakening the already weak tax base, affecting the recovery program and also affecting the standard of living of the common people.

In some parts of this city, it is almost impossible to absorb abandoned foreclosed properties. In these areas, whenever evictions from foreclosed properties take place, the strippers burnt down these properties within days.

A 30 years old man, Armando Wilson, living in Vaughan Street said, “It makes everyone want to leave. Everybody is leaving Detroit. They feel there is nothing in Detroit anymore.” He also added that his neighborhood is dotted by burnt homes and house strippers make a regular visit to the area.

For many years, Detroit has been struggling with vacant foreclosed properties, and in a decade (since 2000), the number of residents of this city has moved down by 25%. The foreclosure crisis in 2006 and 2007 added 7,600 foreclosed properties to the knock down list. At present, nearly 10% of the total households in this city are to be demolished shortly. There are about 38,000 properties waiting demolition.

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Last Thursday, a report has been released regarding foreclosure issues in Rhode Island. In this report, it has been stated that the foreclosures in this state have taken a huge toll on tenants because there is a huge supply of multi-family properties. Owing to this large stock, the foreclosure inventory with an ample number of available buildings is shrinking and the impact of this is reflecting on the home prices which are increasing on a regular basis.

According to an affordable housing promoting agency HousingWorks RI, in the past three years, among all the foreclosures in this state, one-third of the foreclosures are multi-family apartments and for each such apartment, two or more families have became homeless.

In these past three years, about 2,200 multi-family buildings in Rhode Island moved into foreclosure and as a result, nearly 6,300 families were affected as they lost their apartments which were in these buildings. Another report states that more than 40% of the residents of this state live in rented homes, so on an average for every four people, one person spends nearly 50% of his or her income for housing rent.

Executive Director of HousingWorks, Nellie Gorbea said, “Because you have fewer apartments and higher demand, you have sustained high rental prices. That’s a really bad situation for Rhode Island and for Rhode Island’s economy.”

The total number of foreclosed properties in this state in 2009 was 2,840, and in the following year, it moved down to 1,891. However in 2011, there was a slight increase in the number which was nearly 2,000.

There are three regions in this state which were severely affected by foreclosure: Providence, Woonsocket and Central Falls. Since 2009, about 14% of the total mortgages (of 19,000 people) in Central Falls were foreclosed; in Providence, the rate was about 10% with Woonsocket having the lowest rate among these three regions with around 8%.

These three areas are struggling to recover from this distressed condition. Moreover, the mayors in Woonsocket and Providence also stated that these two areas could also go the same way as Central Falls did when it filed for bankruptcy and it would happen within this financial year.

According to some housing advocates, there should be some additional rights for distressed people who are living in their own foreclosed homes. They are trying to come up with some legal acts which would stop lenders from forcing out these homeowners from their foreclosed homes.

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On the basis of a recent data published by a Boston based real estate data agency, The Warren Group, it has been seen that the rate of completed and new foreclosure cases was stable in Wrentham in the last month. According to this data, there were only two foreclosure petitions filed in Wrentham in the last month to initiate the foreclosure of two properties, and this rate is exactly similar to the number seen in the month of February 2011.

The total number of foreclosure deeds and completions remained nil this February, similar to a year earlier.

However, amidst of all these steady rates, this state has experienced a significant increase in the total number of petitions that were issued this February. In comparison to February 2011, this year in the same month the rate of issued foreclosure default notices moved up to 1,394, which is nearly double the number seen in 2011 when there was only 694 petitions in that month.

The rate of foreclosure deeds also increased by 41% from 521 in the month of February 2011; this rate has increased to 736 in the same month this year.

In this context the CEO of the agency, Timothy Warren Jr. stated that this sudden increase in the rate of foreclosure deeds and petitions is an outcome of the previous year’s slow pace of foreclosure processing by lenders due to various legislative activities. He added, “The large year-over-year increase doesn’t necessarily indicate another wave of foreclosures. Foreclosure activity was nearly frozen a year ago, and now it’s beginning to thaw again.”

The foreclosure data of February 2012 in different areas of this region is given below:

• Foreclosure petitions were fixed at zero and with one petition last year; this year there was no foreclosure petition in Dover.
• On a year over year basis, there was an increase in petitions in Easton with 2 in 2011 and 9 in 2012 whereas foreclosure deeds remained nil in either year.
• There have been four foreclosure petitions filed in Foxborough in 2012 whereas there was only one petition last year with deeds steady at 2.
• Foreclosure petitions increased to 3 from 2 in Mansfield but deeds remained nil in both the years.
• Without any deeds, another foreclosure petition was added to make it two petitions in Medfield.
• With one foreclosure petition, the rate of foreclosure deeds increased to two from zero in Norfolk.
• With a decrease in deeds, the petition number increased to 6 in Norton this year.
• In Norwood, the foreclosure petitions increased to four from three whereas deeds moved down to zero from half a dozen.
• With a 75% decrease in petitions, Plainville had zero deeds.
• Both the rate of foreclosure deeds and petitions increased in Sharon.
• With a decrease in foreclosure deeds, Stoughton experienced an increase in petitions.

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In comparison to the number of foreclosures in February 2011, there were almost double the foreclosures in Mildford and MetroWest area in February. Such a significant spike in the rate of foreclosure clearly reveals that a large number of homeowners in this region are still losing their properties.

A Boston based real estate data firm, The Warren Group stated that there is a 98% increase in the number of foreclosure petitions that are filed in this region this February.

CEO of this firm, Tim Warren Jr. stated that although this sudden rise in the foreclosure rate seems to be very drastic, but actually it is not as severe as it seems. According to him, last year the pace of foreclosures slowed down in February due to various allegations against the lenders, and as a result of this slow pace, the foreclosure numbers automatically came down.

Warren said, “We’re basically comparing what is a reasonable number of petitions to foreclose against an unreasonably low number last year. Lenders slowed it down because they got caught doing (the process) backwards.” Last month, lenders filed 105 new foreclosure petitions to initiate the process of foreclosure in this region. According to Warren, most of the bad loans sanctioned to borrowers earlier have been removed from the banking system.

He also added, “I don’t think there is much question that there are people who are having trouble paying their mortgages. It’s a reasonable number, given the state of the economy and the real estate market.”

Richard Ravosa is a bankruptcy lawyer and works as an attorney for foreclosure prevention issues at Natik based Town & Country Legal Associates. According to him, in recent times his workplace has remained crowded with distressed homeowners seeking help to avoid foreclosure.

Ravosa said, “That’s what we see day in and day out, it’s people that had good mortgages and were a two-income household, and then somebody loses their job or gets a pay cut and start to get into trouble. They burned through their retirement, and burned through their savings, and … then sadly they come to a point where bankruptcy is really the best option.”

Recently, a foreclosure prevention program has been launched which is still to come to full swing. So, he suggests that all homeowners meet their respective lenders at an early stage to prevent foreclosure.

He added, “The problem is the foreclosure track is running parallel to that program. The homeowner thinks they’ve filed for the program, and they’re all set. That’s just not true, because the bank is still moving to protect their interest. The earlier they call their bank the better. The trouble is people bury their heads in the sand, and that’s the worst thing they can do. You have to move quickly, or else it could be fatal.”

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In the United States, last winter was a good season for the economy of the country and it was the best time for the real estate market in the last five years. The employment market got a boost last winter which has helped to increase the rate of home sales in the country. In the last two months, there were maximum sales of formerly occupied properties, and in the first month of this year, the rate of sales has peaked the first time since the month of May 2010.

However, according to the National Association of Realtors, the sales rate declined slightly in the following month. This February, the sales rate was 4.59 million, which is 13% above the rate in July 2011. In January 2012 the rate was 4.63 million.

In the words of the chief economist of High Frequency Economics, Ian Shepherdson, the low sales rate in February “should not detract from the key point, which is that sales are trending upward.”

Although this rate is considerably a good one for the present market, it is actually 6 million lower than the rate seen in a healthy market. Although many first-time customers is coming up to buy new properties but the number is too far from the expected level and the rate of foreclosures is also high.

Still, according to an economist of TD Economics, Chris Jones, “economic environment is ripe for home sales to keep gaining pace.”

Since November 2011, this is the first time that the US housing market has experienced an average home price of $156,000 this February, and the rate of new homes in the real estate market increased by nearly 4% in the same month. Besides these, there are also some positive signs of recovery in the gloomy real estate market.

House building agencies have started taking new contracts after seeing that many people are willing to buy new properties. The maximum number of requests for home building permits has been submitted in the previous month since the month of October 2008. Moreover, mortgage numbers are very low with the lowest supply of foreclosures seen in the market in the last seven years.

As the rate of foreclosed postings decreases, home values will increase, and along with that the housing transaction will increase, which generally includes good quality properties.

The most important reason behind this recovery in the economy and the real estate market of the country is the increase in the employment rate. In the last three months, about 245,000 people have got jobs and as a result, the rate of unemployment moved down to 8.3% which is the lowest rate seen since 2009.

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Michael Boyter, aged 61 was the owner of a property situated in Bethel Island which has been foreclosed and auctioned off. He has filed a lawsuit against the lending bank about this foreclosure in the federal courthouse in San Francisco. Last Friday, after the hearing, the judge has given a judgment keeping room for Boyter to carry on with his legal fight.

Boyter said, “I have a chance to keep fighting. Not only for me, but for the thousands of other families who are out here in the rain like this and are hurting.”

Judge Susan Illston of US District Court dismissed this case and asked him to reframe this case properly with more supportive evidence before re-filing it in the courthouse. According to the judge, “I’m struggling with the consequences if there were irregularities in the (foreclosure) transaction.”

Illston said that Boyter should include his points properly and firmly before re-filing this case. She said, “I’ll put in the cases I’ve been reading.”

The case filed by Boyter was almost similar to the thousands of cases filed by borrowers who are victims of improper foreclosure processing. The allegations brought forward in Boyter’s lawsuit include the same problems including dubious mortgage documents and illegal foreclosure practices. However, the judges in California are indifferent to such issues and do not show any sympathy for distressed homeowners.

In the courthouse, Illston said, “California courts in several cases have already said it doesn’t make any difference” when similar cases arise. The Housing & Economic Rights Advocates of Oakland works with cases for distressed homeowners. The attorney of this organization, Lisa Sitkin said that the judgment given by Illston seems to be very encouraging.

She said, “I would not say it’s a ringing endorsement of (his) arguments, but it does keep the case alive. Depending on the specific issues she is inviting him to return with, it might be good for his side of things.” The deputy generals of Contra Costa County forced Boyter out from his foreclosed home recently. He has been staying in this property for a long time after this property was sold off in an auction held in September.

Boyter said that his property was foreclosed illegally because his lending bank Wells Fargo and his foreclosure servicing company, NDeX West proceeded with the foreclosure process on the basis of improper mortgage documents and an inaccurate electronic mortgage registration system.

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The rate of foreclosure filings in the United States moved down by 8% this February which is the smallest decline on a year-over-year basis since the month of October 2010. According to a real estate data firm, RealtyTrac which tracks foreclosures nationwide, the decrease is small because banks have started working with their backlog cases.

In February, there were 206,900 borrowers who received foreclosure notices either to initiate foreclosure proceedings or for the auction sale of seized properties. This number is nearly 2% lower than the last month. On an average, for every 637 US homes, one household received a foreclosure notice. This report was submitted by California based real estate data firm, RealtyTrac.

As the Attorney General’s of all the fifty states of the country were busy investigating fraudulent foreclosure cases, lenders suspended their foreclosure processing for a long time.

On February 9, 2012, a 49-state settlement has been announced where five major banks of the country have announced they will pay $25 billion as reimbursement to federal officials who were present in that settlement discussion. In the words of the chief officer of RealtyTrac, this declaration has paved the way for future steps regarding improper foreclosure practices.

Moore said, “February’s numbers point to a gradually rising foreclosure tide. That should result in more states posting annual increases in the coming months.”

This agency reported that the rate of foreclosure filings in 26 states of the country has moved up by 2% in the last month compared to its previous month whereas on a year-over-year basis, the rise is 24%. In these 26 states, the legal system and the courthouses of the state do not interfere in the foreclosure process.

In the rest of the 24 states, foreclosure processing is governed by the legal system led by the courts where the rate of foreclosure filings moved down by 5% in February in comparison to the last month, and on a year-over-year basis, the rate decreased by 23%. Phoenix and Seattle are the two states that experience a yearly decrease.

The maximum number of foreclosure filings has been recorded in Riverside – San Bernardino in California with an average rate of one foreclosure in every 166 homes. The second and third positions are occupied by Atlanta and Phoenix which is followed by Chicago and Miami. 58,886 foreclosure default notices were issued all across the country in the last month which is 1% higher than January.

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The five major banks in United States have admitted that due to extensive use electronic mortgage information without verifying the database, nearly 13,000 properties in New York had been foreclosed mistakenly. So, all these banks have decided to offer $25 million as compensation to the distressed New York homeowners.

A lawsuit had been filed against these banks regarding their illegal foreclosure practices using the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (commonly known as MERS). To settle this matter, Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have decided to pay an amount for compensation of $5.9 million individually. Ally Financial has decided to pay $1.25 million only.

But in the last lawsuit, dated February 3, the names of Ally Financial and Citigroup Inc were not mentioned. From the declaration made by these two banks, it is absolutely clear why these two banks have also decided to offer this reimbursement. These two banks are already working to negotiate similar issues.

All these banks participated in the 49-state settlement meeting which was organized this February and after negotiations with federal organizations, each of these five banks have decided to pay a huge compensation to resolve the improper foreclosure practices matter. The New York City settlement was also held in February but none of these banks directly denied or admitted the allegations filed against them in the lawsuit.

MERS is used to track mortgage ownership all across the nation with the help of electronic systems and this technique was introduced in 1990. However, according to the Attorney General of New York, Eric Schneiderman, this system was plagued by inaccurate data which resulted in illegal foreclosures all across the nation.

State officials in New York have decided to use this amount for different housing issues like mortgage defaults, foreclosed properties and for future investigations. The officials of these banks refused to comment about this settlement.

There are some other allegations also mentioned in this lawsuit which have not yet been solved. These allegations need the concern of the borrowers in the state to estimate the losses incurred by them due to faulty foreclosure proceedings.

In an e-mail statement, a spokesperson for Schneiderman, Danny Kanner said, “We intend to aggressively litigate this case to finally prohibit the widespread illegal and deceptive practices of the banks set forth in our complaint. The significant sum of $25 million obtained by this office does absolutely nothing to limit the aggressive posture we will continue to take to protect homeowners and borrowers.”

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For the past few years, almost a decade in fact, the foreclosure crisis has shattered the livelihood of all the common people who took loans to purchase low-priced housing units. At that time, the wealthier section of the country managed to meet their mortgage payments but gradually they are also falling back in their payments. In the due course of time, many properties in the affluent areas of the country are also moving into foreclosure.

In Bay Area, there are a number of million dollar properties which are moving into foreclosure and the number of such foreclosures is gradually increasing in this area. Some of these properties are sold at a price much lower than what the mortgage is actually worth.

According to reports by the foreclosure tracking website, ForeclosureRadar, in 2011, nearly 1,500 such affluent properties from this region were put up for auction sale. In 2008, this number was almost half of this figure. Most of the properties were priced at or above one million dollars.

The President at Association of Realtors in Contra Costa County, Barbara Safran said, “The fact is, upper-end folks are starting to feel the crunch.” Among the six counties in Bay Area, Santa Clara County reported the maximum number of affluent properties moving into foreclosure. Last year, 400 such properties were put up for sale.

An executive at a Cupertino based Coldwell Banker; Anne Walker has a foreclosure list consisting of $1.7 million in the Monte Sereno area which is a prosperous region. Like many other borrowers, the previous owners of these properties declined to comment about these foreclosures publicly.

Walker said, “Most of these higher-end people are, like, 45 years old plus, and they’ve gone through all their assets. It’s a really devastating situation for them. They thought they had planned. They had their kids’ college fund, they had their 401(k)s, the stock, the mutual funds, and they’ve been hanging on for the last three years. They’ve gone through everything, and they have nothing left, not even the house.”

Contra Costa County was one among the regions with the minimum number of low-cost foreclosed properties, but at present it is among the hardest hit regions having a large number of high-priced homes in foreclosure.

Last year, nearly 300 housing units from this region were put up for auction. The minimum value of these homes was $1 million or above each. The effects of foreclosure have not spared even the exclusive area of Blackhawk. This region is famous for its country-club society.

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In comparison to the foreclosure rate seen in the last four years in California, the rate during the last quarter of the previous year was the second lowest rate so far. According to the housing data service, DataQuick, there are some reasons behind this notable drop in foreclosure rate.

After the robo-signing problem, lenders have modified their mortgage servicing policies and the terms and conditions of the property market have also been modified, which has reduced the total number of foreclosure activities in this city.

In the last quarter of the previous year, there was a 20% decrease in the total number of foreclosed properties in Santa Clara County.

According to this agency, there were 61,517 foreclosure notices issued during the last three months of 2011 all across the state which went down by 11.9% in comparison to the same quarter a year before. In the last three months of 2010, there were 69,799 foreclosed properties in this state. The highest number of filings were recorded in 2009 in this region with 135,431 homes foreclosed.

In this county, there were 1,847 issuance of default notices in the last three months of 2011 whereas a year before in the same quarter, the number was considerably higher at 2,325 notices. The number of notices issued in 2011 went down by 20.6% in comparison to 2010. Among the nine counties in the Bay Area, Alameda and Santa Clara counties reported the maximum drop in foreclosure activities.

There was a 20.4% drop in issued foreclosure default notices in Alameda County. Throughout the Bay Area, the overall drop in number of foreclosure notices was 16.6% with 10,012 notices issued in the months of October, November and December last year. In the same months in 2010, the number was almost 12,000 in this region.

According to reports by Trustee’s Deeds, the total number of properties that were foreclosed during last the three months of 2011 was 31,260, down by 11.8% than the same quarter in 2010. In the months of July, August and September 2008, this number was the highest, peaking at 79,511.

In the Bay Area, the total number of foreclosures in the last three months of 2011 was 5,764, down by 16.2% in comparison to 4,831 during the same period in 2010. In Santa Clara County, there were 718 foreclosures during the last three months of 2011 whereas a year before, the number was 901 homes. The 2011 number was 20.3% lower than the figure of 2010.

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For settling their previous improper foreclosure practices, banks have decided to pay $815 million as compensation to the distressed homeowners in Georgia. On the other hand, Governor Nathan Deal and other state legislators have decided to pay $104 million to settle all the foreclosure issues and this amount is included in this $815 million.

This discretionary amount will be utilized for the development of many other areas that are mentioned in the budget. After settling some issues with the tobacco companies of Georgia, the state earns a handsome amount from these companies which are used in different sectors mentioned in the budget, and in the same way; this amount of foreclosure compensation will be used by the state for the state.

According to some housing advocates who were working for victims facing improper foreclosure cases (or for areas devastated with foreclosed properties) requested legislators to utilize this amount for helping the distressed property owners of this state.

There are many nonprofit organizations in the country which are working to help struggling homeowners save their mortgage properties from foreclosure. According to John O’Callaghan who is the CEO of one such organization, Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, “It is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do, because it is about the recovery of the Georgia economy.”

A spokesperson for Governor Deal, Brian Robinson stated, “The governor is open to considering the suggested uses of the [foreclosure] money. But we have to weigh those against the needs for teachers, law enforcement officers and building transportation infrastructure.”

Georgia is one of the hardest hit areas facing foreclosure in the country. The metropolitan city of Atlanta in this state recorded the lowest home prices in December 2011 since 1988.

This gradual decline in home values has made this state one of the leading areas with the maximum number of default mortgages. In accordance with a statistical report, for every three homeowners in Georgia, one homeowner defaults on his or her mortgage with an amount which is much higher than the present value of the mortgaged property.

O’Callaghan stated, “That much money could help many families regain or stay in their homes and could stabilize neighborhoods heavily impacted by foreclosures.” However according to the budget agenda set by Governor Deal, there is no commitment from him to utilize this amount for the assistance of distressed homeowners. Robinson said, “The state constitution requires that the money go into the state treasury. The governor would prefer that it go from there to the rainy day fund.”

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Some recent news in America deals with a good number of church foreclosures. The records reveal that taking advantage of religious matters, church authorities have been lagging behind on their regular mortgage payments for a long period. Banks and lenders were waiting for their payments for a long time considering their religious entities. However, after a long wait, these lenders have started foreclosing many of these churches in the country.

In accordance to the information provided by a real estate agency, CoStar Group, there have been 270 foreclosed churches in the country since 2010 and nearly 90% of these foreclosed religious places have been put up for auction.

The agency also stated that last year, there were 138 foreclosed churches which were sold in auctions. In 2008, there were only 24 sales of foreclosed churches, and a decade ago there were just one or two such cases. The maximum number of these foreclosed churches was bought by other churches. A large number of sales of foreclosed churches were found in the hardest hit areas of foreclosure like Michigan, Georgia, California and Florida.

The MD of the Religious and Education finance department of Ziegler bank, Scott Rolfs said, “Churches are among the final institutions to get foreclosed upon because banks have not wanted to look like they are being heavy-handed with the churches.”

The rules and regulations for a loan and its default for a church are quite different from other housing loans. These commercial loans get matured after five years with the total balance as a pending non paid amount.

Generally, in such cases, the lending parties refinance such due loans. But in case of churches, the banks were reluctant to take any steps as the regulators restricted them from take any measures and pressurized the bank authorities to clear their balance sheets.

Rolfs said, “A lot of these loans were given when the properties were evaluated at a certain level in 2005 or 2006. Banks have had to reappraise the value of these properties, whether it’s a church or a commercial office building. Values have gone down, so the loans cannot continue in the same form.”

Some of the factors which are responsible for church foreclosures are almost similar to the factors responsible for residential foreclosures followed by an eviction process.

During the housing boom some years ago, church authorities took huge loans for renovation or to expand their churches, but as the economic crisis started to rule society, many people became unemployed or underemployed and stopped making donations to churches. As a result to all these factors, their loans remained unpaid and these churches moved into foreclosure.

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After a prolonged period of low rates of foreclosure, the last month in the Tucson region reported a sudden increase in the rate of foreclosure default notices that have been issued to the homeowners of this region to initiate the process of foreclosure.

There were 918 Pima County homeowners who have received foreclosure default notices as these people are lagging behind on their monthly mortgage payments and their mortgages have been scheduled to put up for auction sale. According to past records from the office of the county recorder, in comparison to January 2012, there was a 30% increase in February 2012 whereas in comparison to February 2011, the spike is 20%.

On a year over year basis, there was a 19% drop in the rate of issued foreclosure notices in 2011 in comparison to a year ago. This drop was a positive sign for the Tucson region and its real estate market was expecting stabilization in the housing market. However, this sudden spike in the foreclosure numbers in this region has put forward serious doubts about the recovery of the real estate market in South Arizona in the recent future.

According to the Vice president of the technology and marketing department of Long Realty, Kevin Kaplan, the local housing market of this region is experiencing a high demand.

He added that a large number of housing contracts have come up in February, and such high demand was not found in any month in the last two years. All the sales of these new homes have not yet been completed but he expects the completion of these sales very soon because of high demand.

Kaplan said, “A one-month bump (in foreclosures) doesn’t concern me so much because things are so strong on the demand side that we can probably use the inventory.” He also added that this sudden increase in the rate of default notices may be an outcome of the backlog of previous cases that the banks are handling at the moment.

Owing to various issues like foreclosure and sales of distressed properties, the home prices in this region have moved down significantly and the present housing rates are the lowest since 2000.

Tucson Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service reported that the average price of the Tucson homes was $125,000 in January. According to real estate experts, this reduction in home values is necessary to bring about a recovery in the housing market. It will take some time to reflect the impact of this increase in the rate of foreclosure default notices on the home values of this region.

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