Living Will, Estate Law,Legal Issues

Much has been made of the 2% base rate included in the guidelines for the Obama Administration’s “Making Home Affordable” plan. It’s been well documented that the plan is off to a very slow start with current estimates of approximately 50,000 loan modifications in process. Less talked about, at least so far, is that the 2% headline interest rate of the plan may be unavailable to most homeowners seeking loan modifications that follow the plan’s guidelines.

As the saying goes, “The devil is always in the details” and Making Home Affordable has a detail which goes by the name of the “Net Present Value” test. Many of the mortgages which were originated during the boom in real estate, including those considered to be toxic, were sold to investors on Wall Street, from pension funds, and insurance companies (like AIG). These investors didn’t have the infrastructure or experience to collect payments, prepare statements, etc. so they left the handling of those matters to loan servicers like Saxon Mortgage (now a part of JP Morgan Chase). These servicers interface with the homeowner on all matters, including home loan modifications. For that work, they receive a small percentage off of each of the homeowner’s monthly mortgage checks as their fee.

An unintended consequence of the meltdown in real estate prices and skyrocketing default rates is there is now a conflict of interest between servicers and the investors that employ them. The foundation of that conflict is this; with monthly mortgage payments functioning as the lifeline of the servicers, their priority is to keep those payments going. To that end, granting loan modifications, even with drastic cuts in interest rates, is a much better outcome for the servicer than not receiving payments at all and/or having the home go into foreclosure. Aggressive loan modifications which benefit the servicers often hurt the investors by forcing markdowns on value of loans in their portfolio, hence, the conflict of interest.

Having experienced this conflict prior to the unveiling of Making Home Affordable, investor groups insisted that the net present value test be added to the plan to protect their interests. A net present value (NPV) calculation works this way:

1) Determine the proposed monthly mortgage payment for the life of the modified loan

2) Calculate the total return in dollars over the life of the loan – monthly payment x 12 months x 30 years = total return

3) Estimate the value of what the foreclosed home would sell for at auction

4) The highest number between the total return and the estimated selling price at foreclosure determines what action will be taken.

Motivated to keep properties generating monthly payments and out of foreclosure, servicers will negotiate the highest interest rate possible, within the constraints of the plan and what the homeowner can afford, to generate higher fees and to make sure that the net present value test comes out on the side of loan modification. With higher fees and the net present value test driving the negotiations in a loan modification, granting 2% interest rates becomes a very low priority and in some cases a deal killer for the servicers.  

Congress, hearing the cries from their constituencies, has backed the efforts of the mortgage servicers by passing the “Safe Harbor Law” in May. The law protects servicers from lawsuits filed by investors claiming that the servicers are acting in their own best interests in loan modifications, at the expense of the aggrieved investors. It also gives servicers more autonomy in their structuring their home loan modifications.   

The net present value test can present formidable challenges to the loan modification process due to many factors that are constantly changing. In New York City, for example, overall property values have remained relatively high but income levels have dropped. Limited by Making Home Affordable guidelines, mortgage payments cannot exceed 31% of the homeowner’s monthly income. The cap on payments can result in a net present value outcome that favors foreclosure on a property. Industry watchers have expressed concerns that the relative resilience in real estate values in the city could actually work against homeowners.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are cities such as Las Vegas and Detroit where property values have dropped as a much as 80%. These are areas where the net present value tests favor loan modifications but homeowners are walking away, forcing the properties back to the investors.

The next issue for investors wishing to foreclose is whether they can actually sell properties at auction. In California, approximately 17,000 out of 111,000 foreclosed properties went up for sale at the most recent auctions. Of the 17,000 properties, banks took back 85% of the properties when bids averaged only 59% of the outstanding loan balances. The lack of foreclosure sales across the country has led to a massive backlog of foreclosed properties that are either being kept off the market, put up repeatedly at auction, or for sale to private parties.

With unfavorable outcomes on either side of the net present value test, it’s apparent that investors are deciding not to decide on either action. The advantage of leaving properties in limbo is that they don’t have to be marked to market until action is taken, a necessary concession from Congress granted to investor groups in March. That way they can carry the properties in their portfolios at values that don’t trigger capital requirements. If it all sounds like a house of cards, well, at least it’s house.

After months vehement opposition to most of what the Obama administration has tried to push forward to help struggling homeowners, mortgage investors have thrown their support behind one of the biggest failures of the Bush Administration. The Federal Housing Administration’s Hope for Homeowners (H4H) program, estimated at its outset to be able to help 400,000 homeowners, only originated one new loan.

As he Obama Administration tried to breathe life back into H4H, the mortgage investors saw some potential and started coming around. Part of what they liked was taxpayer money bailing them out of bad investments. The spin on H4H is that it aims to ease a struggling borrower’s debt burden by allowing for a principal reduction to bring a homeowner to approximately even between the size of the mortgage and the value of the home. The mortgage investors would forgive some of the borrower’s debt as part of the principle reduction and then get cashed out by receiving a check from Treasury for something less than the home’s current value.

Being able to roll up to the government sponsored trough and cash out with more taxpayer dollars is, by far, the best option presented to the investors since the bubble started popping in 2006. H4H will allow them to cash out of delinquent mortgages, convert a liability into cash, get a defaulting bond off the books, lick their wounds, and move on. Under the plan, taxpayers will become the new investors in residential real estate, at a time when professional investors are either fleeing or sitting on their hands waiting for the bottom to fall out of the market.

The Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable home loan modification plan has frustrated mortgage investors as they have had to take a back seat in home loan modification process, with their loan servicers in the driver’s seat. The recent passage of a safe harbor bill by Congress in May added salt to the investor’s wounds by granting loan servicers even more autonomy in their loan modification negotiations. Those negotiations basically yield one of two outcomes for the investors: either a lowered interest rate on their bond with the possibility reduced principle, and a longer maturity or a home that’s going into foreclosure. With the small percentage of sales at auctions, foreclosures are building a huge backlog as bids often come in at 60% or less of the mortgage balance. The FHA plan gives them a third option of putting cash in their pockets without having to worry about selling the property.     

The recently updated version of the H4H program is simplified, costs less, and has some incentives but, in its current construct, is still a dog that won’t hunt. A bunch of details need to be worked out, like profit splits with taxpayers and lenders, should a participating homeowner sell at a profit. That part is another aspect of the plan the investors love. Being able to participate in profits after cashing out is as good as it gets coming out of a situation as convoluted and costly as the current foreclosure debacle.

Another issue is that H4H breaks a single refi into three mortgages under the original design of the plan, which is probably one of the reasons that it yielded only one mortgage origination the first time around. Scott Simon, from Pimco, likes the FHA plan but knows it still needs work. “Unfortunately there are still too many devils in the current details for it to be widely used,” he said. Investors are hoping that the plan will be streamlined in continued meetings between HUD officials, the Treasury Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and the White House.

Under the new design of H4H, homeowners get a mortgage with a smaller balance which is then sold to investors as a 100% taxpayer-backed bond. Ideally the mortgage balance will be reduced enough to give the homeowner an equity position in the home which, combined with lower mortgage payments, would greatly reduce the chance of foreclosure. That conclusion was backed by a recent Fitch rating report which estimated that 65 to 75% of subprime mortgages that were modified will end up going back into default, a huge jump from the current default rate of 50%. When those loan modifications include a principle reduction the default rate decreases by about 30%, according to the report.

Christopher Mayer, a vice dean and professor of real estate at Columbia University, in a recent interview said that “ …investors realize that H4H isn’t some grand solution and are championing it primarily because they see it as better alternative to the government’s modification program. They see the modifications as delay, delay, delay.”

Mayer supports the safe harbor bill that protects servicers and would like to see loan modifications increase. He doubts that the government’s efforts to subsidize this push for H4H will work out as planned. Seeing the plan for the investor bailout that it is he said, “This is just going to be a morass for taxpayers. Sometimes the best thing to do is foreclose and foreclose quickly. Speed is incredibly important in this business.”

You may have a number of questions regarding loan modifications and how they can help you avoid foreclosure.  Loan modifications have been all over the news lately.  President Obama has passed major, historic legislation giving homeowners more access to loan modifications; the California legislature has also passed legislation promoting loan modifications.

Here are some questions and some answers for loan modifications:

Q: What is a loan modification?

A: A loan modification is an agreement between a lender and a borrower to change the original terms of a loan in order to make payments more affordable.  For homeowners, a California loan modification could be a way to stay in their home.  A loan modification attorney can be a major asset when trying to get a loan modification.

Q: How can a loan modification be accomplished?

A: There are actually a number of different ways to get a loan modification.  The interest rate on a loan can be either lowered temporarily, or permanently set at a lower rate.  An adjustable rate could be set to a fixed rate.  The term of the loan could be changed, from say 30 years to 40 years.  There could be a principal reduction of the loan amount.  There are other ways and you could also have any combination of options.  All of this is geared towards lowering your monthly payments and making your mortgage more affordable.

Q: How common are loan modifications?

A: As the real estate crisis continues, loan modifications are becoming increasingly common.  Loan modifications have been around for a very long time, but only when many people are in danger of losing their homes does everyone begin to ask questions.  Some think loan modifications are a new invention, or a scam, but people with mortgages have been getting loan modifications for quite a while.

Q: Does the federal of California state government play a role in loan modifications?

A: As so many people are suffering due to the economic crisis, President Obama and the California legislature have passed various laws pressuring lenders to offer loan modifications.  Lenders are not opposed to loan modifications, especially at a time when so many Americans are facing foreclosure.  A foreclosure hurts the banks’ bottom lines, and the industry has already seen hundreds of billions of dollars in financial loss due to the mortgage crisis.  California passed a law in 2008 promoting loan modifications, and in early 2009 President Obama wasted no time in helping people get the loan modifications they need to stay in their homes.  With Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in serious trouble due to foreclosures (both of which are federal entities), it behooves the federal government to act that much quicker in saving people’s livelihood.

As you can see, there is a lot of information out there on mortgage loan modifications, and many people are unaware as to whether or not they qualify.  If you are facing foreclosure or facing another financial crisis, contact a qualified California home loan modification attorney today and get “in the know.”

Visit us at http://www.feldmanlawcenter.com or call 800-588-0425.

A new report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies indicates that if there is to be any stabilization in the housing market, it will be at “…extremely low levels that will make the climb up all that more difficult.” Muting any of the recent news in the steadiness of new construction and sales are housing price declines, a record level of foreclosures, rising interest rates, and a shrinking job market. Summing up the study, Nicolas P. Retsinas, Director of the Joint Center said, “Although there are some signs of improvement or at least steadiness in new construction and sales, housing starts stand near 60+ year lows and any life in home sales is coming from distressed foreclosure sales, temporary first-time buyer tax credits, and low interest rates that moved higher in recent weeks.”

Sounding like they were trying to find anything at all possible to spin to the positive, the center was optimistic about the coming of age of the “echo baby boom”, counting on the largest generation in American history to “refuel demand for housing of all types”. Considering that the EBB’s are witnessing the meltdown firsthand, it’s hard to make a convincing argument that the collective will be urgently buying real estate any time soon.

Separately Roger Orf, CEO of Citigroup Property Investors, was calling for governments to force banks to sell their foreclosed properties in a process he dubbed “creative destruction”. Orf favors an immediate clearing of the deck in terms of toxic properties as opposed to the malaise of a gradual unwinding of assets.  Orf doesn’t expect fully functioning property lending markets to return before 2011, by when he hoped banks will have completed repair of their capital bases through a wave of real estate sales. The amount of damage to real estate prices as a result of Mr. Orf’s proposal is unknown but when the government forced savings and loans to sell their junk bond portfolios in the early 90’s prices dropped by up to 85% on bonds that were paying interest and backed with solid financials. In that instance, buyers simply stepped aside and let bond prices plummet to levels that carried no risk for the buyers.

What both reports signify is that the need for home loan modifications will continue for the next few years as prices either stabilize or drop and interest rates on mortgages continue to reset and recast. With a relatively small number of reluctant and extremely careful new homebuyers the lenders, servicers, and investors behind today’s mortgages could become much more interested in getting mortgage loan modifications completed, especially if a modification is the only way to generate cash flow from a property in a portfolio. While it’s unlikely that Mr. Orf’s proposition ever comes to pass, the foreclosure of properties will become less desirable if more buyers don’t materialize or if the value of REO’s at the banks continues to decrease.

With over six hundred completed loan modifications The Feldman Law Center proven home loan modification process can help homeowners to either avoid or stop a foreclosure proceeding. If you are struggling with your payments and worried about the possibility of foreclosure, call The Feldman Law Center at (800) 527 8497. Take the first step toward regaining control of your mortgage payments today.

Hope and optimism emanating from the announcement of the Obama Administration’s “Making Home Affordable” plan have been replaced by the cold reality that the program has gotten off to start deemed by industry watchers as “anemic”. After almost four months since President Obama first announced the $75 billion mortgage rescue effort, the administration continues to tweak the program in an attempt to reach its originally stated objective of saving up to 5 million homeowners from foreclosure. Standing between the anemic start and lofty goals of the program are four roadblocks:

1) Overloaded loan modification processors – While the specifics of the plan were released in the first week of March, lenders couldn’t start handling applications until systems were re-programmed and processors were brought up to speed, which took an additional four to six weeks. Processors were immediately buried with stacks of applications that had been accumulating during the conversion to the new guidelines. Participants in the process report that servicers are still digging out from the initial rush as applications continue to flood their desks. Troubled borrowers, many backed up against the possibility of foreclosure, have become increasingly frustrated to the point where they have abandoned the process to retain their own legal assistance.  JP Morgan Chase spokesman Tom Kelly recently said of the ramp-up, “It’s an enormous task. We’re moving quickly, although not as quickly as an individual might wish.”

2) Investors – The massive sums of money that supported the real estate/mortgage boom came from investors on Wall Street, pensions, and other institutions. Servicers say those investors are now balking at some of the terms being presented when a loan needs to be modified. The net present value test, a little known aspect of the plan, allows for a calculation to determine whether the greater return for investors will be achieved via modification or foreclosure. In the modification versus foreclosure decision, investors have been threatening lawsuits against servicers when the servicers are deemed to not be acting in the best interests of their investors. The threatened legal action adds another layer to the home loan modification process and can draw out the approval process even more. The “safe harbor” bill recently passed by Congress was intended to alleviate that logjam by protecting servicers from investor lawsuits but it’s likely that lawsuits will arrive on the servicers doorsteps anyway, safe harbor or not.

3) Lenders – Lenders are caught in a three sided bind between the above mentioned borrowers/investors and their own capital structure. No longer required to mark their loans to market, they can carry the value of the loans in their own portfolios at values they can rationalize, whether factual or not. Loan modifications could generate reviews of portfolio values, and nobody wants to go there in the current environment.

4) Unemployment – According to John Taylor, head of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, “Unemployment is becoming a bigger factor than almost anything.” When sub-prime mortgages started blowing up it was attributed to the risks inherent in lending to lower quality borrowers. Increasing unemployment, in addition to taking down the lower quality borrowers, is now hitting prime mortgages. In fact, primes are now going into default at a much faster rate than sub-primes as previously solid borrowers are now being affected by the contracting economy.

Of the four roadblocks, the toughest barrier is unemployment due to the fact that, regardless of credit scores, if a homeowner doesn’t have a job a loan modification isn’t going to help. Short sales, cash for keys, or foreclosure become the next options. At that point every side of the three sided bind ends up on the losing end.

Unsecured Personal Loans are popular among the borrowers for two major reasons. First, you do not need to own a home to qualify for the loan. In other words, the borrower can avail an unsecured loan without pledging any asset as collateral. Secondly, these loans are processed fast since there is no need for property valuation and others such legal formalities. Less documentation is an added advantage. For borrowers, unsecured loans are low risk loans because of the absence of security. The Lender, however, compensates the risk involved for him by charging a higher APR in comparison to the secured loans.

Getting an unsecured loan is not as easy as availing a secured loan. Since the lender is at risk, he’ll thoroughly check your credit history and repayment record to be sure that you’ll repay him his money. Unsecured personal loans are governed by the Consumer Credit Act, 1974. The act has stringent regulations on how the money must be lent. The act allows unsecured loans up to £25,000 and these loans are known as ‘regulated loans’. But, lenders prefer not to lend more than £10,000. Thanks to the popularity of online loans, lenders have also started offering hefty amounts on unsecured loans, depending on the debtor’s profile.

Before procuring unsecured loans, the borrower is asked to sign a credit agreement, and he’ll be thereafter bound by it’s terms. So, its always advisable for the borrower to carefully go through each minute detail of the loan agreement. The customers for availing a fast unsecured loan tend to neglect the vitalities of the loan agreement. This should be avoided. If at all there is some disparity between what is written and what was offered verbally, the borrower should talk to the lender directly and rectify the errors through mutual cooperation.

As extra protection for both the borrower and the lender, insurance policies (known as payment protection insurance) are available. PPI covers the debtors’ repayments in the event of sickness, accident or unemployment. Although beneficial, these policies can be costly very expensive. the borrower can always bargain on terms of PPI. So, before venturing into the task of availing online unsecured loans, one should always go through the term and conditions and other legal issues carefully.

President Obama’s historic presidency began in the midst of possibly the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.  The housing and real estate markets seemingly jumped off of a cliff, taking with it the financial stability of every other industry.  Obama passed sweeping legislation to help homeowners make payments and deal with the financial crisis while staying in their homes.  This plan in turn helps lenders who need homeowners to continue making their mortgage payments.  A key part of this plan is the loan modification process, which now helps homeowners even more.

The federal government is relying heavily on loan modifications with the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 and Making Home Affordable Program.  Under these programs, current borrowers who are at imminent risk of default may qualify for a loan modification as long as the immanency of the default is tied to a specific event.  By specific event, they mean a pending interest rate increase in your mortgage loan or a demonstrable change in economic situation such as your spouse losing his/her job or a severe medical condition.

Ultimately, the plan centers around the thought that struggling borrowers can stay in their homes as long as they make their monthly payments (regardless of the sharp decline in value).  The plan has many backers, including billionaire Warrant Buffet.  In a recent letter to shareholders, Buffet wrote “Commentary about the current housing crisis often ignores the crucial fact that more foreclosures do not occur because a house is worth less than its mortgage (so-called ‘upside-down’ loans).  Rather, foreclosures take place because borrowers can’t pay the monthly payment that they agreed to pay.”

In the end, regardless of what the cause is for the foreclosures, homeowners are looking for ways to stay in their homes and everyone is hoping that Obama’s plan is the path toward that reality.  For homeowners facing foreclosure, struggling to make payments, and overwhelmed by creditor and lender phone calls, having someone they can trust by their side could make a huge difference.  During these difficult financial times, California loan modification attorneys are doing their best to be more than just an attorney; they are trying to be a confidante.  

A California loan modification attorney can sit down with you and discuss your options and if any new options were opened up under the Obama plan.  At the Feldman Law Center, our California loan modification attorney team is up to date with all federal and state laws governing loan modifications.  FDIC loan modifications, California loan modifications and more all fall under our jurisdiction.  We can help you find the program that’s right for you and your financial situation.

Millions of California residents are investigating California loan modifications as a possible solution to their financial troubles and as a way to avoid foreclosure.  If you find yourself in this situation, you should contact a loan modification attorney and get as informed as you can about all the state and federal loan modification programs available to you.

Visit Feldman Law Center at feldmanlawcenter.com or call 800-588-0425.

If you check the stock market on Monday, people will be saying the market is up and everything is looking better financially.  If you check the market on Tuesday, all economists will be in complete agreement that the world is going to end in 48 hours.  What does this mean for you?  No one, not even the “experts,” have any clue where the economy is going or how long it will take for the country to climb out of this “Great Recession.”

Real estate has been a nightmare for many people as well.  One minute the housing markets look great, and yet with unemployment at a 25 year high and climbing, no one has any idea what the future will bring.  This affects available homes, available credit, interest rates and more.  There is very little sure footing in today’s market, but with a loan modification, you could be closer to security than many other people.

Five Steps

Here are five steps you can take to get a loan modification:

1.    Do your homework – Read as much as you can about loan modifications.  While at work, while watching the ball game, while you are eating lunch – read and learn about loan modifications.  This will only enhance your understanding of the industry and give you a sense of what a loan modification can do for you.

2.    Get your ducks in a row – It is important to have your financial paperwork in order to get the loan modification that is going to work for you.  That means tax returns, pay stubs, bank slips and more, all from the last few years.  A bank is going to want to see your financial history, as well as your current financial situation in order to make a decision.

3.    Talk to your spouse – You cannot get a mortgage loan modification without having the assistance and agreement of your spouse.  While your financial situation may be dire, you must work together in order to make this happen.

4.    Find a loan modification company – You can always attempt to get a loan modification on your own, but having a highly qualified loan modification attorney working with you might be the necessary help you need.  Knowing how to fill the application out, how to file the paperwork, how to organize the communication between your side and the lender and much more can all be helped by a loan modification attorney.  You wouldn’t go to court without an attorney, so do not try getting a loan modification without an attorney.

5.    Calm yourself – It is important to be patient and understanding with yourself and your situation while trying to get a loan modification.  It can be very easy to overreact and lose your calm.  In fact, more marriages end because of financial troubles than for any other reason.  So, giving yourself, your spouse and everyone else around you some slack will keep your relationships and your life in a good place.

Contact a loan modification attorney today, and begin the process of staying in your home.

Visit us at http://www.feldmanlawcenter.com or call 800-588-0425.

Feldman Law Center – As the foreclosure backlog grows, a new class of American homeowners as described by a recent article in the Washington Post is growing by the month. These are homeowners that have fallen into a financial limbo where they are badly behind on payments, but their lenders have not yet foreclosed on the home. “I have even begged them for a foreclosure,” delinquent mortgage-holder Charlotte Jensen said. Behind on payments and not willing to wait for an eviction notice, she filed for bankruptcy, and left the home. Nearly a year later, still with no further payments, Bank of America has yet to take back the home.

The total of the backlog is estimated at one million borrowers, sits on top of the one million foreclosure actions that had been taken this year through May. It presents a major obstacle for any kind of rebound or stability in the country’s hard hit real estate markets. It’s also an obstacle than can drive the market lower and then keep it there indefinitely. Banks are currently doing the best they can not to flood the market with foreclosures but each sale, when one occurs, is counted as a “comp” for appraisal purposes. Everything similar gets indexed to the comp until the next sells at a lower price. For evidence of properties being kept off of the market one need only look at one of highest foreclosure states in the country. California had 111,000 foreclosed properties which could have gone to auction in May. Of that number, only 17,000 went to auction and only 2,000 sold. If those kinds of numbers repeat for just a few months, the state will have a backlog that will take years to unwind. Properties that aren’t sold on the way down would most likely be sold as prices stabilize or start to bounce back, which would mute any recovery.

“Lenders are having an immensely difficult time handling the capacity. They are torn between loan modification, short sales, foreclosures, and they are finding they can’t do all these things at once, and do them well, so we’re seeing a lot of things falling through the cracks,” said Howard Glaser, a housing industry consultant and a housing official during the Clinton administration.

Mortgage lenders and investors in that scenario would be looking at more losses as a result of the mortgage crisis. “It just means foreclosure rates are going to keep rising,” said Patrick Newport, an economist for IHS Global Insight. Without an end to the downward spiral in prices any kind of meaningful recovery in the economy will be impossible.

Another issue is the growing conflict of interest between mortgage investors and the companies that service the loans for them. In many cases, what is good for the servicers is bad for the investors and vice versa. For instance, in a home loan modification versus foreclosure situation, the servicer will favor the modification because it keeps payments and fees they can charge on them alive. The mortgage investors, seeing the potential for a decrease in cash flow as a result of the modification, will favor foreclosure as a means of getting their money out of the deal. The resulting stalemate can cause a house to sit in limbo while the servicers and lenders decide a course of action. For the homeowners in the situation, the stalemate can be beneficial as it allows them to stay in the house but the stress of knowing that an eviction can come at any time is tough to deal with.

While some of the backlog reflects the inability of lenders to keep up with the sheer volume of delinquent properties, another reason is an intentional slowdown in the pace of foreclosures as government and industry try to work with borrowers who want to stay in their homes. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-run mortgage financing companies, put a temporary moratorium on foreclosures late last year, some states imposed moratoriums, and many of the country’s largest lenders voluntarily participated as well. The extra time gave lenders time to see how the guidelines of the Obama Administration’s “Making Home Affordable” would work and which borrowers could be helped by modifying their current mortgages under the plan. Many of those moratoriums started expiring at the end of the first quarter of this year, and foreclosures have been setting records on a monthly basis since then.

With potentially millions of foreclosed homes on the market and more coming every day, Prices have been hit across the country. The prices for existing homes fell another 16% in May versus the prices one year prior.  The growing backlog of homes in limbo indicates that foreclosure rates are likely to increase dramatically during the second half of this year and into 2010. Some estimates are calling for foreclosures to reach 2.4 million by year end. Bob Bellack, chairman of Zetabid, which auctions foreclosed properties, said “Prices will fall to the point where you have equilibrium, and it won’t reach that until there is no longer this foreclosure overhang.”  

Financial firms that carry mortgages or mortgage-backed securities on their books are scrambling to stem past and anticipated losses with any means possible. Whether a sign of desperation or not, mortgage investors have thrown their support behind  the Hope for Homeowners plan, a leftover from the Bush Administration which was considered an absolute flop the first time around. Intended to help over 400,000 homeowners at its outset, the plan originated only one loan. If the economy doesn’t turn, and without some sort of government assistance, continued foreclosures will result in continuing rounds of losses for investors.

Being in limbo has allowed some homeowners the time to save money while not making mortgage payments and take action through the home loan modification process to save their homes from foreclosure. In general, however, statistics don’t bode well for homeowners once they start missing payments. According to a March report from NeighborWorks America, a large housing counseling group, 60 percent of homeowners go into foreclosure after missing more than four payments.

Normal protocol is for the foreclosure process to start after the third payment has been missed but now it’s common for a foreclosure process to take nine months or more to get started, said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance. “No one is in a rush, lender-wise, to deal with the property,” he said. “If you have to sell at a loss, why rush?”

Another protocol has lenders writing down the value of the home six months after an owner stops making payments, but the total loss is not recorded until the property is sold in foreclosure, said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com. “Some may feel that the property is worth more than the market can bear at this time, and they are willing to wait until the market improves”, he said. “They don’t want to sell it into a completely depressed market.”

The typical foreclosure process varies by state and has been slowed down by the constant incoming volume. The timeline of the process is also dependent on who actually owns the mortgage and whether a bankruptcy has been filed by the homeowner. One of the biggest issues in the process now is that the phase preceding eviction, sale at auction, isn’t happening. Lenders, considering their workload and the costs of each foreclosure, aren’t eager to start a process which isn’t likely to be seen through to completion so limbo is the next best option.  

“During that period, where the property is in limbo, until there has been a sale of the property, the homeowner is still the owner, technically,” said John Rao of the National Consumer Law Center. Despite being seriously delinquent, homeowners can apply for a home loan modification to stay in their homes, even if they were turned down previously. Success after being turned down can be achieved if the homeowner has been hired into a new job, is generating more income, and/or by hiring legal representation to renegotiate the terms of the existing mortgage. The odds of approval are also increasing due to lenders’ reluctance toward taking more properties into foreclosure. Whatever they may have thought about home loan modifications before, at this point they’re a better option than either foreclosure or sitting in limbo.