Foreclosure Freeze loses Steam 8/13/11

[hvactec]

A proposal by an Ohio Congresswoman to enact a temporary freeze on foreclosures has lost steam to reach a vote in Congress. The proposal, offered by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) was made more than a month ago but has failed to gain interest to be brought to a vote in the House of Representatives.

It's the first time since the Great Depression that a lawmaker has offered such a measure after more than 7-million homeowners have suffered through foreclosure since the U.S. crisis started more than four years ago. An estimated 4-million homeowners are either in the foreclosure pipeline, have vacated their homes or are in default of their mortgages currently.

I don't think that the current house leadership is interested in taking it to a vote, said Steve Fought, a press spokesman for the Congresswoman. “It doesn’t mean we are not going to keep trying, but right now it just isn’t very likely.

The proposal asks President Barack Obama to declare a national residential mortgage foreclosure emergency, urging state lawmakers to use their “police powers” to enact a moratorium on foreclosures at the local level. Kaptur offered the resolution before the House Financial Services Committee.

Kaptur represents Ohio, which has been targeted as one of the 18 worst effected states in the country with foreclosures, and has received federal aid from the Obama administrations Hardest Hit Fund to help mostly unemployed homeowners with mortgages. However, the fund and the administrations mortgage modification program, HAMP, has failed to gain traction to help enough homeowners losing their homes to aid the nation overall economy.

read more Foreclosure Freeze Loses Steam

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says the housing market gonna lead us into double-dip recession...

Foreclosures rise in August
September 15, 2011: Foreclosure filings rose in August, as more homebuyers fell behind on their mortgage payments.

Filings were up 7% compared to July, but were still 33% lower than they were a year ago -- marking the eleventh straight month of year-over-year declines, according to RealtyTrac, a leading online marketer of foreclosed properties. According to the report, 228,098 homes in the U.S. received some kind of foreclosure filing in August. Default notices, which typically initiate the foreclosure process, surged more 33% from July. Foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions, which come later in the process, both fell slightly.

The increase in default notices may signal that lenders are starting to finally push through foreclosure paperwork that was previously delayed by the "robo-signing" controversy last fall, said RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio. "It also foreshadows more bank repossessions in the coming months as these new foreclosures make their way through the process," he said in a release. The good news is that bank repossessions have been falling. Lenders repossessed 64,813 homes in August, a six-month low and a 37% decline after bank repossessions hit a peak in September last year. Meanwhile, foreclosure auctions were scheduled for 84,405 homes, the lowest number in more than three years.

Not surprisingly, Nevada, California and Arizona housing markets continued to be the hardest hit by foreclosures. Nevada has had the nation's highest foreclosure rate for more than four-and-a-half years now, and even though bank repossessions and auctions both fell in August, the state saw default notices increase 31%. One in every 118 Nevada homes received a foreclosure filing in August. California came in second place, with one in every 226 homes in foreclosure, and Arizona, with one in every 248 homes, was third.

Source