Active military service can be very difficult financially for the men and women who serve, and the family members they leave behind. The stress of knowing your loved one is potentially in harms way is enough of a burden, without having to worry about loss of income and unpaid debts that sometimes are a part [...] Click Here To View More

Under a bill proposed last week in Congress, those far behind on their mortgage can withdraw from their 401(k) to save their home – without any penalties. According to the language in the HOME Act, the proposed bill allows a taxpayer to withdraw ... Click Here To View More

After Big Jump in August, Foreclosure Starts Fall Again After a significant jump in foreclosure starts in August, driven primarily by Bank of America, foreclosure starts returned to levels in line with prior months, far below the numbers reached at the peak.  California has seen a drop in activity of 56 percent since its peak, [...] Click Here To View More

Recently, the New York Times ran an article entitled “Foreclosures Are Killing Us”. The writer states that due in part to a large increase in foreclosure filings in August, in addition to a the $1 billion unemployed and underemployed housing progra... Click Here To View More

Foreclosure filings and sales increase throughout most of our coverage are in August. Foreclosure starts jumped significantly, reversing what had been a declining trend over the past several months. Investors bought more properties on the courthouse steps in August than in July everywhere except in Washington. The number of properties Sold Back to Bank jumped significantly in Oregon, and also rose in California and Nevada. Click Here To View More

Foreclosure filings decreased throughout our coverage area, continuing a trend we've seen over the course of several months. Activity on the courthouse steps was down from a month ago everywhere except in Washington where foreclosure sales rose significantly Click Here To View More

This morning a headline in my inbox caught my eye: Homeownership Rate Drops to 13 Year Low. Seems the Census Bureau has tallied the homeownership rate to be 65.9 percent, down from nearly 70 percent at the peak of the bubble. Despite the drop, I believe this stat significantly over-estimates the real rate of homeownership [...] Click Here To View More

On average it took less Time to Foreclose in California, Arizona and Nevada in June 2011, countering what has been a growing trend to extend the foreclosure process. The time to foreclose has increased on a year-over-year basis throughout our coverage area, with the largest increase seen in Nevada where it now takes on average 319 days to foreclose, up from 239 days a year ago. California saw the second most significant increase with the average time to foreclose at 317 days, up from 261 days a year ago. The least change was observed in Washington where the average time to foreclose is 106 days, only slightly higher than the 105 days seen a year ago. Click Here To View More

Nearly a year ago I opined that banks were engaged in a game of Foreclosure Roulette — a game by which they randomly foreclosed on a few homeowners, while delaying most foreclosures for longer and longer periods of time. The primary aim of the bank’s random foreclosures being that they can’t let word get out that [...] Click Here To View More

Third party investors resold the homes they previously purchased at auction at a faster pace throughout our coverage area. As the most sophisticated and motivated homesellers in the marketplace, these investors provide an important indicator as to the health of the entire housing market. While the statistic is encouraging, it's too early to tell whether it is a turning point from the otherwise recent downward trend within the housing market. Click Here To View More

FORECLOSURE FILINGS DECREASE TO LOWEST LEVEL IN YEARS, WHILE FORECLOSURE CANCELLATIONS INCREASE Foreclosure activity slowed in April. Foreclosure filings were down in Arizona, California, Nevada and Washington, with Oregon being the sole exception where filings were up. California filings were down to levels not seen since late 2008, when governmental intervention caused a temporary but [...] Click Here To View More

Over the past month we noticed that Bank of America has been resuming foreclosures on loans originated by Countrywide. As you may recall in October BofA voluntarily imposed a foreclosure moratorium following the robo-signing scandal. We actually expected an increase in activity as lenders began to catch up after these delays and were instead surprised [...] Click Here To View More

FORECLOSURE SALES UP, TIME TO FORECLOSE GETTING LONGER Foreclosure sales rose dramatically in most of our coverage area, though much of the increase was due to March having more days than February. In California foreclosure sales increased 35.1 percent overall, but rose just 10.5 percent on a daily average basis. Nevada foreclosure sales, however, bounced [...] Click Here To View More

There’s been a lot of news lately about the idea of killing the mortgage interest deduction. While I think this deduction has far too much public support for it to face the axe anytime soon, I personally believe that support is misplaced. My core issue is that the mortgage interest deduction is not an incentive [...] Click Here To View More

FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY SLOWS ACROSS THE BOARD Foreclosure activity slowed significantly across the board in February with filings down in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Foreclosure sales saw a similar deep dip throughout our coverage area, a dramatic about face from the surge in sales seen in January. Despite the drop in foreclosure sales back [...] Click Here To View More

A year ago we appeared before the Joint Oversight Hearing of the California Senate Banking, Finance and Insurance Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that meeting, we pointed out that government intervention, while clearly well intentioned, had done little more than add delays to the foreclosure process, allowing banks to avoid losses by pushing [...] Click Here To View More

Arizona may require lender’s who are foreclosing on loans they did not originally make (a non-originating beneficiary) to document how the loan was transferred from the original lender to them. Arizona Senate Bill 1259 is awaiting approval by the House after a 28 to 2 senate vote passing the matter about a week ago. The [...] Click Here To View More

As the national debate continues over whether MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration System) has standing to foreclose, a recent San Diego, California based Appellate Court decision considering the issue has clearly sided with MERS. Last week, the 4th District Court of Appeals issued a published opinion in Gomes v. Countrywide Home Loans that held (1) California’s [...] Click Here To View More

INCREASED FORECLOSURE SALES ARE SEEN ON THE COURTHOUSE STEPS Foreclosure sales bounced back to levels not seen since robo-signing moratoriums went into effect last fall. With significant increases in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington; foreclosure sales rose both in terms of properties that went Back to the Bank and those Sold to Third Parties, [...] Click Here To View More

There has been considerable commotion about irregularities in documentation by foreclosing lenders that has lead to more and more delays in the foreclosure process. The conversation gained momentum about the time when an overwhelmed employee in Ally’s GMAC division testified that his team of 13 people signed about 10,000 affidavits a month without verifying the [...] Click Here To View More