Chapter 13 can provide a glimmer of hope to homeowners struggling to make 2nd mortgage payments. Getting rid of a second mortgage mortgage in a chapter 13 bankruptcy has become routine in many jurisdictions like New Hampshire and Massachusetts. As a bankruptcy lawyer who has filed a couple of dozen of chapter 13s to strip...
[caption id="attachment_273" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Natural disasters often leave homeowners holding the bag on mortgages, property taxes and more."][/caption] We’ve all seen the devastating television footage of Mother Nature’s fury. From out of control wildfires in the Southwest to historic flooding and the ravages of hurricanes in the Northeast, it seems that no one is immune...
The September 29, 2011 final deadline for the Emergency Homeowner’s Loan Program passed without much fanfare, but it left in its wake several hundred thousand mortgage holders who desperately needed financial assistance to keep their homes. Officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimate that only about “10,000 to 15,000 homeowners...
[caption id="attachment_51" align="alignleft" width="385" caption="Bankruptcy filings still on the rise"][/caption] A recent LA Times blog (August 10, 2009) by Tom Petruno* highlights the highly controversial and divisive issue being debated in today’s bankruptcy circles. The problem surrounds homeowners with upside-down mortgages (i.e. those whose homes are worth less than they are mortgaged). The current mortgage...
[caption id="attachment_28" align="alignleft" width="413" caption="A growing number of foreclosure signs are appearing in neighborhoods across the country."][/caption] The real estate boom of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s caused a super inflated valuation of both property and the attached mortgages. Many individuals and families anxious to assume their place in the American Dream became homeowners...
The Mortgage Industry 'House of Cards'Yesterday morning's Good Morning America (7/23/09) ran a piece on mortgage modification companies such as the Nation's Housing Modification Center that are dangling rescue plans in front of desperate struggling homeowners. These disreputable firms send mail in official government-looking envelopes and their letters promise homeowners that they can streamline the...