Showing posts with label Mortgage Foreclosure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mortgage Foreclosure. Show all posts
Friday, August 21, 2009
FREE Mortgage Foreclosure Legal Consultation Clinics by Nassau County Bar Association
Nassau residents caught in the growing mortgage foreclosure crisis can have their questions answered by attorneys at a free clinic sponsored by the Nassau County Bar Association at the Nassau County Bar Association (NCBA) headquarters, 15th and West Streets, Mineola, NY. Attorneys have volunteered to provide one-on-one guidance, advice and direction to any Nassau County homeowner who is concerned about foreclosure matters or is already in the foreclosure process involving property in Nassau County. Attorneys have volunteered to review individual foreclosure issues with Nassau homeowners, help them sort things out, and give advice or refer them to agencies and programs, right in the same room, that may be able to help. This is not legal representation. The attorneys will help the homeowner find out if indeed, they need a credit counselor or a lawyer, and get them in touch with available resources. In addition to meeting one-on-one with a volunteer attorney, housing counselors from the Nassau County Homeownership Center and representatives from Nassau/Suffolk Law Services -- which provides free legal services for those who meet certain income guidelines -- will be on hand to provide assistance. Reservations are required by calling the Bar Association at 516-747-4070 between 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
From Newsday - Job Loss and Foreclosure
Job loss now reflected in foreclosure numbers
August 18, 2009 by TOM INCANTALUPO / tom.incantalupo@newsday.com
One lawyer calls it "Chapter 2" of the housing crisis: Increasingly, home foreclosures are the result of job loss, not subprime borrowers' getting slammed by resetting variable-rate mortgages or payments they'd have had trouble making even in a healthy economy.
And, experts said, solutions such as refinancing, stretching out loan terms and reducing interest rates are tougher to find when the household has either a greatly reduced income or none at all except for unemployment benefits. Making matters worse, falling home prices have made refinancing nearly impossible for many homeowners - employed or not - whose mortgages now exceed their home's value.
"It's a lot more difficult to work with a client who has no income," said Peter Elkowitz Jr., president of the Long Island Housing Partnership, a Hauppauge-based organization that offers counseling for homeowners in financial distress.
The trend nationally was documented in May in a report by the Mortgage Bankers Association, a trade group based in Washington, which said that in the first three months of 2009 the foreclosure rate on prime, fixed-rate loans had doubled from a year earlier and, for the first time since the rapid growth of subprime lending, represented the largest share of new foreclosures.
"More than anything else, this points to the impact of the recession and drops in employment on mortgage defaults," Jay Brinkmann, the group's chief economist, said in a statement.
Nassau and Suffolk had the state's second and third highest numbers of newly filed foreclosure cases last month, 736 and 725, respectively, according to RealtyTrac, an online market for foreclosed properties. The Island's unemployment rate was 7.5 percent in June, the highest since 1992. The national rate was 9.4 percent in July.
"Now we are definitely seeing more people either unemployed or where there's been some kind of change in their employment," said Martha Krisel, a Nassau County attorney who also chairs the Nassau County Bar Association Mortgage Foreclosure Task Force. "Often, it's not a huge difference in income, but it's enough that the mortgage payment is impossible."
The housing partnership said it has added two more foreclosure counselors and what executive director Diana Weir calls a "triage person" to get the help process in motion, sending a packet to homeowners with instructions on how to gather needed documents.
Nassau and the bar association hold monthly clinics where attorneys offer free advice on foreclosure and personal bankruptcies. The next session is Sept. 14 at the association's Mineola offices. Reservations are required by calling 516-747-4070.
Noting the growing link between joblessness and foreclosure, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has called for using some of the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program revenue to fund a program to lend money to help jobless homeowners avoid foreclosure.
August 18, 2009 by TOM INCANTALUPO / tom.incantalupo@newsday.com
One lawyer calls it "Chapter 2" of the housing crisis: Increasingly, home foreclosures are the result of job loss, not subprime borrowers' getting slammed by resetting variable-rate mortgages or payments they'd have had trouble making even in a healthy economy.
And, experts said, solutions such as refinancing, stretching out loan terms and reducing interest rates are tougher to find when the household has either a greatly reduced income or none at all except for unemployment benefits. Making matters worse, falling home prices have made refinancing nearly impossible for many homeowners - employed or not - whose mortgages now exceed their home's value.
"It's a lot more difficult to work with a client who has no income," said Peter Elkowitz Jr., president of the Long Island Housing Partnership, a Hauppauge-based organization that offers counseling for homeowners in financial distress.
The trend nationally was documented in May in a report by the Mortgage Bankers Association, a trade group based in Washington, which said that in the first three months of 2009 the foreclosure rate on prime, fixed-rate loans had doubled from a year earlier and, for the first time since the rapid growth of subprime lending, represented the largest share of new foreclosures.
"More than anything else, this points to the impact of the recession and drops in employment on mortgage defaults," Jay Brinkmann, the group's chief economist, said in a statement.
Nassau and Suffolk had the state's second and third highest numbers of newly filed foreclosure cases last month, 736 and 725, respectively, according to RealtyTrac, an online market for foreclosed properties. The Island's unemployment rate was 7.5 percent in June, the highest since 1992. The national rate was 9.4 percent in July.
"Now we are definitely seeing more people either unemployed or where there's been some kind of change in their employment," said Martha Krisel, a Nassau County attorney who also chairs the Nassau County Bar Association Mortgage Foreclosure Task Force. "Often, it's not a huge difference in income, but it's enough that the mortgage payment is impossible."
The housing partnership said it has added two more foreclosure counselors and what executive director Diana Weir calls a "triage person" to get the help process in motion, sending a packet to homeowners with instructions on how to gather needed documents.
Nassau and the bar association hold monthly clinics where attorneys offer free advice on foreclosure and personal bankruptcies. The next session is Sept. 14 at the association's Mineola offices. Reservations are required by calling 516-747-4070.
Noting the growing link between joblessness and foreclosure, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has called for using some of the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program revenue to fund a program to lend money to help jobless homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
BATTLE ON THE HOME FRONT
A proposal to modify mortgages in bankruptcy failed in Congress and this article discusses why it's what's needed in fighting foreclosures.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
FREE MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE CLINIC JULY 14 - NASSAU COUNTY
This is from the Nassau County Bar Association: Nassau residents caught in the growing mortgage foreclosure crisis can have their questions answered by attorneys at a free clinic sponsored by the Nassau County Bar Association on July 14, 4-6 p.m. at the NCBA headquarters, 15th and West Streets, Mineola, NY. Attorneys have volunteered to provide one-on-one guidance, advice and direction to any Nassau County homeowner who is concerned about foreclosure matters or is already in the foreclosure process involving property in Nassau County. “Attorneys have volunteered to review individual foreclosure issues with Nassau homeowners, help them sort things out, and give advice or refer them to agencies and programs, right in the same room, that may be able to help. This is not legal representation,” cautioned NCBA President Peter Levy. “We will help the homeowner find out if indeed, they need a credit counselor or a lawyer, and get them in touch with available resources.” In addition to meeting one-on-one with a volunteer attorney, housing counselors from the Nassau County Homeownership Center and representatives from Nassau/Suffolk Law Services -- which provides free legal services for those who meet certain income guidelines -- will be on hand to provide assistance. Reservations are required by calling the Bar Association at 516-747-4070 between 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
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