Starting last month, the mega banks began an aggressive campaign to avoid modification, settlements or principal reductions and seek foreclosures before they are forced to modify.
Yes, we can help at livinglies, but the numbers are so high that there is no way we have the resources to help everyone. I am pitching in too, having become attorney of record for some. Like you, I am tired of waiting for lawyers who get it. I get it and although I am licensed in Florida we can help anyway.
Lawyers, accountants, analysts and others should be seeing this as a major opportunity to do well for themselves and for the owners of these homes by challenging the rights of the those collectors who are taking their money now, or demanding payment or threatening foreclosure. Lawyers have been slow on the uptake and in so doing are potentially setting themselves up for future malpractice claims for anyone, whether they aid or not, who received advice from the lawyer that was not based upon the realities of the securitization scam.
Call 520-405-1688, where you can get help in documenting the fraud, help in drafting the documents, and help in finding a lawyer. If you are a lawyer involved in foreclosure defense, bankruptcy or family law, you need to to start studying the real facts and the strategies that get traction in court.
We are planning a possible new Chicago seminar for lawyers, paralegals and sophisticated investors or homeowners. But we will only schedule it if we get enough calls to indicate that the workshop will at least pay for itself and that there will be volunteers to help on the ground to set up the the venue. It is a full day of information, strategy, role-playing and tactics to use in the court room.
Editor’s Analysis: Despite loosening standards for principal reductions and modifications, the foreclosure activity across the country is increasing or about to increase due to many factors.
The bizarre reason why the titans of Wall Street want these homes underwater combined with the miscalculation of the real number does not bode well for the housing market nor the economy. With median income now reported by the Wall Street Journal at 1995 levels, and the direct correlation between median income and housing prices you only need a good memory or a computer to see the level of housing prices in 1995 — which is currently where we are headed. As the situation gets worse, the foreclosure and housing problem will become a disaster beyond the proportions seen today. And that is exactly what Wall Street wants and needs — the investors be damned. Millions of proposals far in excess of foreclosure proceeds have been rejected and forced into foreclosure and millions more will follow.
Wall Street NEEDS foreclosures — not modifications, principal write-downs or settlements. Foreclosures are food for the lions. The reason is simple. They have already received trillions in bailouts from the Federal Government. All of that was predicated upon the homes going into foreclosure. If the loans turn out to be capable of performing, many of those trillion of dollars ( generally reported at $17 trillion, which is more than the total principal loaned out to all borrowers during the meltdown period), the mega banks could be facing trillions of dollars in liability as the demands are properly made for payback. The banks should not be allowed to collect the money and the houses too. Neither should they be allowed to collect the bailout money and keep the mortgages.
The “underwater” calculation is far off the mark. If selling expenses and discounts are taken into consideration, the value of homes used in that calculation is at least 10% less than what is used in the underwater calculation, which would increase the number of underwater homes by at least 15% bringing the total to nearly 10,000,000 homeowners who know now that they will never see valuation even coming close to the amount owed. The prospect for strategic defaults is staggering —- totaling more than 10 million homes — or nearly twice the number of foreclosures already “completed”, albeit defectively.
Illinois is now getting hit hard, as the foreclosure menace spreads. Jacksonville up 30% in Florida, South Florida at 22 month high, Arizona with more than 600,000 homes underwater, all the paths lead to foreclosure. With that bogus deed on foreclosure in hand, Wall Street figures it is a get out of jail free card.
Wall Street wants the foreclosures, needs the foreclosures and is going to get them — unless they are stopped in the courts. Don’t think you won’t end up in foreclosure just because you are current in mortgage payments. They have playbook that will trick you too into a foreclosure. If anyone tells you to stop making payments, watch out!
There’s A NEW Worst State For Foreclosures
By Mamta Badkar
Foreclosure activity in the United States fell 15 percent year-over-year in August. But housing is a local story and a few regions in the country were exceptions to the trend.
With one in every 298 properties receiving a foreclosure filing, Illinois had the highest foreclosure rate in the country for the first time since 2005, according to RealtyTrac’s latest foreclosure report.
Illinois pushed usual suspects like California, Arizona, and Nevada down the list.
The prairie state’s foreclosure rate jumped 29 percent month-over-month (MoM), and 42 percent year-over-year (YoY), with 17,781 properties in the state received a foreclosure filing in August.
And every detail in the state’s foreclosure report was ugly. Foreclosure starts – the pace at which mortgages enter the foreclosure process – were up 18 percent on the year. Scheduled foreclosure auctions were up 116 percent YoY. Bank repossessions climbed 41 percent YoY.
As a state that requires foreclosures to go through the judicial process, Illinois’ foreclosure rate was “artificially low” last year, according to Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.
5,268 homeowners in Illinois received a total of $357.3 million in assistance as part of the $25 billion national mortgage foreclosure settlement as of June 30, 2012, according to a report by the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight. That’s roughly $67,817 per borrower but it’s unlikely to have a large impact in reducing foreclosures in the future.
Foreclosure activity in the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metro area was up 44 percent YoY, making it the metro with the eighth highest foreclosure rate in the country.
Blomquist told Business Insider in an email interview that in the case of the Chicago metro area, a land bank, like the ones set up in Cleveland and Detroit that rehabilitate properties or demolish them, could help ease the burden of distressed properties.
He doesn’t however expect any improvements in Illinois’ foreclosure rate anytime soon. “The foreclosures coming through the pipeline in Illinois and other states now are likely on mortgages that the banks do not deem are a good fit for any of the foreclosure alternatives outlined in the mortgage settlement.” He does however think that a program similar to Oregon’s foreclosure mediation program could help slow down foreclosures.
This chart from RealtyTrac shows the recent surge in Illinois’ foreclosure activity as its banks and courts push through foreclosures:
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RealtyTrac’s report also broke down US metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates.
14 thoughts on “Illinois Tops List of Most Foreclosures”
Love The post E Tolle
@Ivent,
What’s with the all caps?
And other than that non-stop ranting, do you have something of value to contribute…?
I didn’t get past the first page of that OCCUPY PDF and I realized, I was reading a communist maifesto. They are trying to tell us that the Governments borrow money from the banks…? BANKS DON’T LEND..! THEY COLLECT THE INTEREST MONEY…BY CREATING CREDIT AND HANDING US CREDIT…THEN THEY OVERSELL INVESTMENTS IN THEIR DEBT, THEY BORROW FROM THE U.S. TREASURY… TO INVESTORS BY TURNING DEBT INTO BONDS AND STOCKS AND EXOTIC DERIVATIVES…IT’S ALL FRAUD..!…! Rick Santelli said just the other day on CNBC..THE U.S. TAXPAYERS PAY FOR EVERYTHING…THE FED JUST PRINTS THE PAPER AND HANDS US THEIR BAG OF IOU’S…! THE FED BORROWS FROM THE U.S.TREASURY..WHICH IS THE U.S. TAXPAYERS TRUST FUND AND PRINTS THE MONOPOLY MONEY…! Now I know WHO OCCUPY IS..! They are just another Government fraud…a Government psy op..! SUE THE FED…!
Ohhh … I wish I could be a fly on the Wall in Chicago after what happened … Almost happend …..to a Wonderful Hardworking African American Chicago Family this week. Shame on You two NA’s! Shame on You! Shame on You! Shame on You! Shame on You! You have Excellent ( Educated) Borrowers who always paid on time and you tried to Scam them! They asked Legal Questions ……. I am Not an Attorney, your Question is of a legal nature and I advise you to speak with an Attorney! NO Signatures … NO Scam! Shameful! I guarentee both NA’s involved will get whats coming to them! I will see to it! The wheels are already turning ….
“We gave the banks the power to create money because they promised to use it to help us live healthier and more prosperous lives…”
Really? When? As far as i can see, banks never promised anything to anyone, except lend them money with interests so that they would go out, work increasingly harder to repay it all while fostering the secret hope of bettering their lot in the process. Anyone thinking that banks have ever been in the magnanimous philanthropy business of bringing health and wealth to everyone is seriously delusional…
Banks help only to the extent that they allow people to buy the means required to work harder and harder. And banks succeeded only because people have been brainwashed into believing that their lot in life is to work, work, work. Credit religion for it. What kind of a sadistic God would bring people to life only so that their only purpose in life would be to work, work, work… and give birth to generations upon generations of people whose only purpose in life is to work, work, work?
If banks were interested in our health and wealth, we’d all be healthy and wealthy. They have the means to accomplish it. Vatican (religion plus banking combined) had the means to accomplish it centuries ago. Didn’t happen. In fact, revolution happened. it simply isn’t their purpose nor intent. Never was. Never will be.
The Debt Resistors Manifesto:
We gave the banks the power to create money because they promised to use it to help us live healthier and more prosperous lives—not to turn us into frightened peons. They broke that promise. We are under no moral obligation to keep our promises to liars and thieves. In fact, we are morally obligated to find a way to stop this system rather than continuing to perpetuate it.
This collective act of resistance may be the only way of salvaging democracy because the campaign to plunge the world into debt is a calculated attack on the very possibility of democracy. It is an assault on our homes, our families, our communities and on the planet’s fragile ecosystems—all of which are being destroyed by endless production to pay back creditors who have done nothing to earn the wealth they demand we make for them.
To the financial establishment of the world, we have only one thing to say: We owe you nothing. To our friends, our families, our communities, to humanity and to the natural world that makes our lives possible, we owe you everything. Every dollar we take from a fraudulent subprime mortgage speculator, every dollar we withhold from the collection agency is a tiny piece of our own lives and freedom that we can give back to our communities, to those we love and we respect. These are acts of debt resistance, which come in many other forms as well: fighting for free education and healthcare, defending a foreclosed home, demanding higher wages and providing mutual aid.
Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/09/occupy-wall-street-2-0-the-debt-resistors-operations-manual.html#EKLERI8UcbHfyO1m.99
I am more shocked everytime I go to foreclosure court, that this robbery could be still going on. If you know the truth, you know that every single mortgage is not legally foreclosable. Therefore, every one of these attorneys and that includes the judges in that court room are lying through their teeth. They make me sick how full of shit they all are. To say this is about money is completely missing the mark. Money certainly incentivizes this, however, this is foreign espionage, from behind the scenes., no doubt in my mind. My husband and I both agreed on our ride home, these people are evil.
carie:
You could say “objection facts not in evidence”. Sometimes it will work and some times it won’t.
I heard this report today. FEAR…FEAR…FEAR..! The media also reported ..investors are not buying here..the winters are too cold and the taxes are too high. THAT’S ONE REASON WHY THEY WANT LOAN MODS….THE OTHER IS TO KEEP THE CROOKS COFFERS FILLED…I was in Cook County fraudclosure Court today…nothing but a courtroom packed with bank attorneys, like a den of vipers, walking away with the place. NO ONE WAS PUTTING UP A FIGHT…! EXCEPT ME & 2…others. Attorneys for these defendants bowing down to these crooks…I am going with what a good attorney told me…don’t sign or agree to anything in regards to the banks debt..it is insolvent and unsustainable …a loan mod is a set up to fail..I agree with him… by the looks of this economy and QE 3 coming…NO ONES GOING TO BE PAYING…I am going with the rule of law…no proof of negotiation ..? They can get lost. I will not bow down to these crooks.
Obama Housing Program Hits Milestone: 1 Million Failed Mortgage Modifications
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/13/obama-housing-hamp_n_1881972.html
Just answered my own question from wikipedia:
“…Many jurisdictions that generally disallow hearsay evidence in courts permit the more widespread use of hearsay in non-judicial hearings.”
“Hearsay” from banks and servicers is allowed when foreclosing and pretending to take your money for a pretend “mortgage”…moving on!
“…If anyone tells you to stop making payments, watch out!”
Also, Neil—if anyone says “apply for a modification”—also watch out—it is a 100% trap.
Neil,
Why can’t you lawyers use the hearsay rule in court with regards to all this? As in—“securitization” of the loan in question is hearsay? And even actual “funding” is hearsay, etc…because they never ever actually showed that these things occured—and yet they use all this “hearsay” to collect our money and foreclose…
Just a thought…but I’m sure the other side would have a snappy comeback that the judge would allow…
Here’s nice legal question—for someone:
When the servicer says “We are foreclosing on behalf of the securitization..”
Isn’t that “double hearsay”?