Foreclosures down? Don’t bet on it

Posted by kevin on October 12, 2012 under Foreclosure Blog | Comments are off for this article

RealtyTrac reported that foreclosure activity around the country dropped to the lowest point since July, 2007. True or false? Good news or not good news?

When you delve deeper into the numbers, you see that the biggest decreases were in so-called “non-judicial” states. In those states, the lender is not required to file a lawsuit to obtain a foreclosure judgment. What happens is the borrower, at closing, signs a Deed of Trust. Under the terms of that document, upon default, the trustee is allowed to foreclose after proper notice. The process is very quick and certainly not owner/borrower friendly.

In states requiring judicial foreclosure, foreclosures are actually up. For example, Florida shows a 24% increase in foreclosures. RealtyTrac says that you could expect an increase in the judicial foreclosure states especially where the courts temporarily halted foreclosures during the robo-signing controversy.

Well, New Jersey is a judicial foreclosure state and foreclosures were put on a hold for about a year beginning in late December, 2010 because of the robo-signing scandal. Inventory of mortgages in default increased. Then, lenders put a hold on foreclosures pending the Supreme Court decision in Guillaume. That happened in late February. At that time, the talk among the foreclosure bar (that means attorneys active in foreclosure practice) estimated that New Jersey was backed up over 75,000 foreclosures. You can rest assured that the lenders are not going to walk away from these properties.

So, why do we not see a deluge of foreclosure activity in New Jersey. Well, my opinion is that the lenders realize that the real estate market is weak. If they flood the market with thousands of foreclosed homes, the market will only get weaker. Better to sit on properties and spread out the process so that the lender can get a better price on each foreclosed home.

Sorry to be the bearer of not so good news.

Educated Consumer Can Save her Home

Posted by kevin on September 6, 2011 under Foreclosure Blog | Comments are off for this article

If you have been checking into this blog with any frequency, you know that we are providing both facts and comments on what is happening in foreclosure defense, especially in New Jersey.  We are giving you cutting edge information- what the law is and where it is going; what settlement strategies are bearing fruit; how the trial courts are reacting to issues and how the appellate courts are reacting to the trial courts.

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