Archive for the 'National News/Local News' Category
FREE MONEY TO AID IL HOMEOWNERS
September 14th, 2011 categories: National News/Local News
Illinois is receiving $345 million in Federal Funds to assist struggling homeonwers who are either unemployed or underemployed and not able to pay their mortgage.
Eligibility to the program is expected to help up to 15,000 families who have been rejected by other assistance programs.
Illinois residents whose income has fallen at least 25% or are currently unemployed can seek up to $25,000 in mortgage help.
The purpose of the program is to give temporary relief to homeowners who have fallen behind in their mortgage payments.
Program Highlights:
- For Illinois residents whose incomes have fallen 25% or are temporarily unemployed.
- Provides up to a maximum of $25,000 to bring delinquent loans current and keep them current for up to 18 months.
- This loan is for 10 years and may be forgiven if homeowner meets all program criteria.
- Homeowner must participate in making payments of 31% of income toward their mortgage.
- If unemployed the program will pay 100% of the mortgage until homeowner gets a job.
For more details on this program please contact your local Illinois Housing Development (HUD or CEDA) offices. The program is a FREE PROGRAM. http://www.ihda.org/
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Chicago Tops List in Number of Foreclosures
July 12th, 2011 categories: Local Markets, National News/Local News
Chicago Has Most Foreclosed Homes Of Any City In Americafrom The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com by The Huffington Post News EditorsAlthough it never shared the notoriety of Miami, Los Angeles and Phoenix during America’s foreclosure crisis, the Chicago area now has the nation’s largest inventory of foreclosed homes because it is harder to unload troubled properties here than in most other metropolitan areas. The inventory data compiled by RealtyTrac, a California company that tracks housing sales, place Chicago first among the country’s 20 largest metropolitan areas. Real estate experts attribute the high concentration of foreclosures to numerous factors including the strong protections built into Illinois law to protect borrowers, the impact of the “robo-signing” investigation by the Illinois Attorney General, and the reluctance of banks to dump properties at prices far below the value of mortgage loans on their books.
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Case Shiller Report on Real Estate in Chicago Reported by Francine Knowles
January 26th, 2011 categories: Local Markets, National News/Local News
Home prices in the Chicago metropolitan area set a new low since prices peaked in 2006, falling 2.2 percent in November from October and 7.6 percent over the year.
That is according to the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price index, which showed prices weakening across the country and also setting new post-peak lows in eight other cities.
The annual decline in the Chicago area was the second biggest among 20 major metropolitan areas, trailing only Atlanta, which posted a 7.9 percent decline. But the drop in the Chicago area was an improvement from the 8.5 percent annual drop reported in November 2009.
The index for the Chicago area stood at 119.57 in November 2010, falling below the 119.71 level of last March, which had been the low for the year, and marking the lowest point since April 2002, when it stood at 118.97.
The 10-city composite fell 0.8 percent over the month and slid 0.4 percent over the year, while the 20-city composite fell 1 percent over the month and dropped 1.6 percent over the year. Home prices fell in 19 of 20 metropolitan areas over the month, excluding San Diego, which reported a 0.1 percent gain. Only four metropolitan areas showed gains over the year—Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
The eight other metropolitan areas that set new lows since home prices peaked in 2006 and 2007 are Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Charlotte, Portland and Seattle.
“With these numbers, more analysts will be calling for a double-dip in home prices,” David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P said in a statement. “Certainly nine cities setting new lows and with the only positive news concentrated in southern California and Washington, D.C., the data point to weakness in home prices.”
Thirteen of the metropolitan areas and both composites have posted at least seven months of decline since the beginning of 2010. The Chicago area has posted five months of decline since then. As of November, average home prices across the country are back to the levels they were in the latter half of 2003. Since June and July 2006, the 10-city and 20-city composites are down 30.3 percent.
Home prices in the Chicago metropolitan area set a new low since prices peaked in 2006, falling 2.2 percent in November from October and 7.6 percent over the year.
That is according to the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price index, which showed prices weakening across the country and also setting new post-peak lows in eight other cities.
The annual decline in the Chicago area was the second biggest among 20 major metropolitan areas, trailing only Atlanta, which posted a 7.9 percent decline. But the drop in the Chicago area was an improvement from the 8.5 percent annual drop reported in November 2009.
The index for the Chicago area stood at 119.57 in November 2010, falling below the 119.71 level of last March, which had been the low for the year, and marking the lowest point since April 2002, when it stood at 118.97.
The 10-city composite fell 0.8 percent over the month and slid 0.4 percent over the year, while the 20-city composite fell 1 percent over the month and dropped 1.6 percent over the year. Home prices fell in 19 of 20 metropolitan areas over the month, excluding San Diego, which reported a 0.1 percent gain. Only four metropolitan areas showed gains over the year—Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
The eight other metropolitan areas that set new lows since home prices peaked in 2006 and 2007 are Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Charlotte, Portland and Seattle.
“With these numbers, more analysts will be calling for a double-dip in home prices,” David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P said in a statement. “Certainly nine cities setting new lows and with the only positive news concentrated in southern California and Washington, D.C., the data point to weakness in home prices.”
Thirteen of the metropolitan areas and both composites have posted at least seven months of decline since the beginning of 2010. The Chicago area has posted five months of decline since then. As of November, average home prices across the country are back to the levels they were in the latter half of 2003. Since June and July 2006, the 10-city and 20-city composites are down 30.3 percent.
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Illinois Association of Realtors News Brief
October 7th, 2010 categories: For Buyers, For Sellers, National News/Local News
Suspension of Foreclosure Activity
As you may have read in recent news reports or heard at the recent Legal Update at the IAR Convention, several banks/servicers have suspended foreclosure activities including GMAC, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. The Illinois Attorney General’s Office has issued letters to JPMorgan Chase and Ally/GMAC demanding meetings to address concerns that the companies have violated the state’s Consumer Fraud Act and reports about the accuracy of documents filed in foreclosure lawsuits. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation also issued a statement.
According to IAR Chief Legal Counsel Steve Bochenek: “This moratorium will impact clients in different ways. A seller client will have a little more time to sell a house where the mortgage is in default. In addition, if the suspension lasts for long then the lenders/servicers might have some incentive to agree to a short sale. Buyer clients that may be in the process of purchasing REO properties will not be able to close until the suspension is lifted and so there may be some delay in closing a transaction, although we do not know how long. Also, buyer clients need to be advised to obtain title insurance to insure title to REO property they are purchasing. Clients that have rented properties that were then foreclosed on will have some additional time before they may be evicted. The key is that if any client of a brokerage company has a question as to how this suspension impacts them they need to talk to an attorney or call the Illinois Attorney General’s office.” The Attorney General’s Homeowners’ Referral Helpline is 1-866-544-7151.
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Channel 5 News Report on Chase Bank
June 16th, 2010 categories: National News/Local News, Short Sales
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Shares to Be Pulled Off NYSE
June 16th, 2010 categories: National News/Local News
The NYSE plans to delist the shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This means Fannie and Freddie Mac will no longer be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
As of June 15, 2009, one share of Fannie Mae stock was selling at .92 cents while Freddie Mac shares were at $1.22.
In September of 2008 the Government took over both Fannie and Freddie when the housing bubble collapsed. So far taxpayers have poured $145 billion dollars into Fannie and Freddie to keep them afloat during the housing crisis and now they are being pulled from the NYSE.
What does this mean to you and I?
Well it means to date there is no confidence in our government running these two agencies and no market to sell these guaranteed mortgage back securities to private investors.
Remember Fannie and Freddie were created by Congress to buy mortgages from banks and then package them into bonds and sell them into the open market as mortgaged backed securities to investors. When the rating system of these mortgages collapsed and loans started to go into default then the market lost all confidence.
Today 31 million home loans worth $5.5 trillion dollars or half of all mortgages are guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie Mac.
When you see Congress debating over financial reform they are really debating over how to fix Fannie and Freddie as they are crucial to the success or failure of our housing market and banking markets.
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Up or Down Goldman Sachs Wins
April 28th, 2010 categories: Just "My" Opinion, National News/Local News
During the last couple of days I have been hearing the testomony from top executives at Goldman Sachs.
It appears from their testimony that it does not matter whether the market is up or down they will always find a way to profit.
According to Lloyd Blankfein , Chief Exectutive at Goldman, betting against mortgage backed securities that the firm was selling to clients was not a conflict of interest, or unethical.
According to Blankfein and other at Goldman, betting against mortgage back securites was just good business sense for the firm since the firm was hedging against lossess on sub-prime mortgages when they were on the other side of the transaction.
To them Short Selling a Security is just a normal activity for Goldman Sachs and their customers know this and trust them.
Yet would you trust a company when their interests come first before their customers?
It may take months before we see the affects of any financial reform legislation as a result of Golman Sachs behavior.
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TWO DIFFERENT STORIES… HARD TO FIGURE OUT
April 16th, 2010 categories: Just "My" Opinion, National News/Local News
In the Tribune business section on Thursday were 2 articles with 2 different stories and its hard to figure out or who to believe.
The first article was on the front page of the business section ” Illinois Housing Defaults Double” the other was on page 4 of the same section “$3.3 billion profit at JPMorgan tops estimates”.
So here is my question, is JPMorgan making such huge profits? I think the answer can be found in the article on the first page and that would be the homeowner.
Almost 15,000 Illinois homeowners lost their homes to foreclosure this year in the first 3 months. This is twice as many homes that went back to lenders during the same period in 2009.
Clearly there is a disconnect between what is being reported and the realities of the housing market as it relates to homeowners in Illinois.
According to Jamie Diamond, Chase Bank CEO, the US economy is clearly showing signs of improvement.
Well Jamie maybe it is showing signs at your bank with profits up from $2.1 billion in 2009 to $3.3 billion in 2010 but don’t tell that to homeowners who are loosing their homes to foreclosure in Illinois because I do not think they can appreciate what you are saying.
Maybe thats why this news is on the 4th page of the Business section instead of page 1.
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Political Action Voices Heard Loud and Clear…
April 12th, 2010 categories: Loan Modification, National News/Local News
The Voice of Frustration over the number of homes being foreclosed was Heard Loud and Clear today at James R. Thompson Center.
Several Political Action Neighborhood Associations met at a rally to voice support for a $1,000 fee on all judicial foreclosure sales in Illinois that would be used to try to prevent foreclosure.
- The $1,000.00 fee would be collected from purchasers at a Sherrif Sale.
- The collection of this fee would affect most lender’s because they are usually the ones who buy back the property at a Sheriff Sale.
- The fee would go into a Foreclosure Prevention Fund and help finance foreclosure prevention programs, organizations who are assisting homeowners who are delinquent on their mortgage.
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Illinois Attorney General Sues Debt Settlement Company
October 12th, 2009 categories: Loan Modification, National News/Local News
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed a law suit against Dallas Based “Credit Solutions of America”. Madigan is attempting to stop them from doing business in Illinois and wants the company to pay restitution to its Illinois customer, pay a $50,000 fine for violating the state’s Consumer Fraud Act and pay additional fines of $50,000 for each instance of fraud.
In the lawsuit, Credit Solutions of America accepted money from Illinois customers but failed to negotiate a lower payment on their debt with the bank. While Credit Solutions claimed to be successful in reducing customers debt by 50% it actually left them deeper in debt according to the law suit.
Lisa Madigan and the Illinois Attorney Generals office has filed similar lawsuits against SDS West Corporation and Debt Relief USA.
Her office seeks to ban all Debt Settlement Companies from operating in Illinois, unless they meet the following requirements:
- Provide individual credit counseling:
- Become licensed and Bonded in Illinois:
- Disclose risks to customers about entering into a debt settlement contract;
- Provide a written contract with a right to cancel clause.
Over the past year the Attorney Generals office received over 12,000 complaints regarding debt an credit issues.
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