In Texas, Homeowner’s Associations (HOAs) are on a foreclosing spree, selling members’ homes on the courthouse steps for just a few thousand dollars simply because they are a few hundred dollars behind on their homeowner’s dues. Sometimes they’re even selling it to HOA board members, who turn around and sell the house for half of what it’s worth, netting a tidy profit. [More]
foreclosures
CredAbility.org: 911 For Personal Finance Emergencies
By 6.7.10
If your house catches on fire, you call 911. But who do you call when your personal balance sheet catches on fire? [More]
Strategic Foreclosures Can Bring Financial Relief
By 6.3.10
If you’re a harried homeowner buried in debt and have no chance of covering your mortgage, one option is just to stop paying your mortgage and save up as you wait for the gears to slowly grind toward your eviction. [More]
VIDEO: Angry Homeowners Rally Outside BofA Exec's House
By 5.24.10
Embittered homeowners and activists packed the yard of a Bank of America executive on a recent weekend, and they brought their bullhorn. [More]
10% Of Homeowners Just Missed A Mortgage Payment
By 5.20.10
The Mortgage Bankers Association says that if you just missed a morgage payment, you’re not alone — 10% of homeowners just did the same thing. [More]
HUD calls For Lenders To Send Tennessee Flood Victims A Lifeline
By 5.11.10
Tennesseans homeowners have enough to worry about with the flooding, but the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has stopped worries that victims would drown in the resulting debt. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan directed lenders to put a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures in flood-ravaged areas. [More]
They Foreclosed On Our Landlord And May Leave Us Homeless
By 5.10.10
Jennifer says her apartment’s landlord suffered a foreclosure, which will leave the rooms uninhabitable if the utilities have been shut off. Her horror story is probably more common than you’d like to believe in this era of rapid foreclosures, and a cautionary tale of signing a lease in which utilities are included. [More]
BoA Sued For Taking TARP $ But Not Helping Foreclosures
By 5.7.10
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Bank of America for taking $25 billion in federal TARP bailout money but intentionally failing to live up to its part of the bargain. The deal was that banks were supposed to use use the money to allow struggling homeowners to reduce their payments to affordable levels. “Bank of America came up with every excuse to defer the Kahlo family from a home loan modification, from stating they ‘lost’ their paperwork to saying they never approved the new terms of the mortgage agreement,” said the plaintiff’s attorney. “And we know from our investigation this isn’t an isolated incident.” Bank of America declined to comment.
Washington homeowners file class action against Bank of America [Seattle PI]
Man Seals Self Inside Foreclosed Home
By 5.4.10
Now we finally understand the secrets of the pharoahs: a bunch of angry people in Stony Ridge, Ohio have sealed up a home with the homeowner inside, with his permission, leaving only a golf ball-sized hole in the front door. The man, Keith Sadler, says he fell behind last year after paying on his mortgage for 12 years, and that his bank promised to work with him but instead proceeded with foreclosure. [More]
What It's Like To Buy A Short Sale House (Hell, With Benefits)
By 5.3.10
With the housing bubble burst and evaporation of credit, short sales have grown in popularity as debtors behind on their mortgage seek to offload their depreciated property and avoid the derogatory effects a foreclosure can have on their credit report. Ads in the paper and tacked onto telephone poles at intersections scream about the great steals to be had.But what is it actually like to go through this process whereby the bank agrees for the house to be sold at a small loss instead of incurring the sizable fees a full foreclosure would entail? A lot harder than the brightly colored bold letters would have you believe. Long-time reader kyleorton walks us through what he went through to buy his a house listed at $274k via short sale for $229,000, a procedure complicated by Bank of America bureaucracy and a seller’s agent that didn’t feel like doing any work. [More]
Bank of America Forecloses On, Then Auctions Off, Home With Paid-Up Mortgage
By 4.9.10
Imagine that you’re a homeowner who has managed to stay current on all your mortgage payments. And then you find out that the bank has not only foreclosed on your house, but they’ve also sold it at auction. That’s exactly what happened to to a couple in Georgia. [More]
As Miami Homes Enter Foreclosure, Cats Move In
By 4.2.10
In Miami-Dade County, hit particularly hard by the housing boom, about one in ten dwellngs are in foreclosure. Don’t worry, though. They’re not empty. Homeless families have moved in. To be precise, colonies of feral cats. Because nothing makes a bank-owned property more appealing than the stench of cat urine. [More]
Chase Hassles Woman For $45K In Payments For Home She No Longer Owns
By 3.26.10
In Oct. 2008, a mother of four in Illinois needed to unload her house or face foreclosure. So she worked with Chase Home Financial and got them to agree to a short sale. Unfortunately, more than a year later not everyone at Chase knows the house was sold, because they’re telling the former homeowner she owes almost $45,000 in late payments. [More]
Foreclosures Slow Down An Itsy Little Teensy Bit, But Not For Everyone
By 3.11.10
Once again looking for anything even vaguely resembling a silver lining in these craptastic economic times, a new report shows that, while foreclosures did increase overall in February, they only increased a little bit… relatively speaking. [More]
New Program Wants To Help You Sell Your Home At A Loss
By 3.8.10
While some indicators seem to say that the economy is turning around or at least not getting worse, there are still millions of homes out there that are at risk of foreclosure. And since so many of those outstanding mortgages were based on grossly inflated home prices, the odds of finding a buyer that will pay off the mortgage are slim. However, a new program about to take effect in April will encourage lenders to accept less than they’re owed. [More]
Is The Guy Who Bulldozed His Home A Folk Hero?
By 2.26.10
Terry Hoskins, the guy in Ohio who bulldozed his home earlier this month to prevent it from being taken back and auctioned off by his bank, is now the subject of a song. Someone else made t-shirts and caps–they feature a bright yellow bulldozer and the words, “Take ‘Er Down”–that are being sold to raise money for him. WLWT says Hoskins didn’t break any laws by dozing the home, but as he puts it, “I still have a mortgage of ($160,000). I still (have) to pay that.” [More]
80% Of Today's Delinquent Homeowners Will Lose Their Homes
By 2.22.10
If you know 5 people behind on their mortgage payments, 4 of them are going to end up losing their homes, according to a new study released by John Burns Real Estate Consulting. [More]
Man Bulldozes Home After Foreclosure
By 2.18.10
A man in Ohio grew so angry at his bank for refusing to work with him to keep his home that he bulldozed it. He told WLWT News, “As far as what the bank is going to get, I plan on giving them back what was on this hill exactly (as) it was. I brought it out of the ground and I plan on putting it back in the ground.” [More]
