Wednesday, April 1, 2020

COVID-19 is impacting home sales

ROCKFORD (WREX) — With record-low interest rates, now would seem like the perfect time to buy a home. That's if the world wasn't dealing with a health crisis.
"It definitely changed things quite a bit. We have noticed showings dropping off about 20% year over year," said Conor Brown, CEO of Rockford Area Realtors.
Brown also said showings are down 40% from their peak earlier this year.
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, realtors have had to take special precautions like never before. Some are opting to show homes with virtual tours, to limit exposure to people. But despite the changes, Brown says the real estate business is still going, albeit a little differently. Read more..

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Saving Your Home from Bank Foreclosure!!

An unexpected financial crunch can leave you wondering how you're going to pay your mortgage. Perhaps you've lost your job or had a medical emergency that's left you unable to work for a while. Its scary! If you've missed several payments and the bank is threatening foreclosure, try not to lose your head. There are usually other options. Here's how you can help to avoid foreclosure until you get back on your feet. **Explain Your Situation** Although it can be tempting to hide in a corner screening those scary phone calls from the bank, the last thing you want to do when you need financial help is cut off the lines of communication. Pick up the phone and talk, explaining your situation in detail. If the bank has stopped calling you, call them up instead. Most banks are reasonable once you start to talk things out and will be willing to arrange adjustments in your mortgage payments until you're financially stable again, or even give you an extended grace period to put them on hold temporarily. Read more...

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Flip Side of Foreclosure

The Flip Side of Foreclosure


Five words or less(NewsUSA) – In so many ways, foreclosure is an end. It’s a bank’s last resort, and the sad final chapter for a family sold on the American dream of home ownership.
But in another sense, foreclosure is also a beginning — a never desirable, but often useful, tool that can help stave off neighborhood blight and create a path toward rejuvenation.
As much as everyone wants to avoid foreclosure, it does provide cities — especially older ones with declining populations — the legal means necessary for acquiring property that would otherwise become vacant or abandoned.
The trouble is that there’s a stigma associated with foreclosure, and legislators can be swayed to impose restrictions on the process that make it more difficult for municipalities that want to reclaim and reuse property that has been left to decay.
So, from a policy perspective, what can be done to create better legal tools for clearing titles that don’t depend solely on the self-interest of debt collectors? Here are some ideas proposed by Mary Helen Petrus, a researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland:
* Quiet title actions, in which governments go to court to “quiet” any and all claims to a property’s title.
* Laws to facilitate nuisance abatement through receivership (giving courts the power to assign repairs or improvements to an overseer of a vacant property).
* New rules making it easier for willing homeowners to forfeit their properties so that governments can take stewardship.
* Processes for tax foreclosures that don’t have to go through the courts.
This is not to say that foreclosure is always the best option. In viable neighborhoods, the most beneficial course of action is generally to focus on improving the quality and affordability of housing for the people who still live there. But when there’s a breakdown, and there’s no hope of rescuing properties from becoming vacant or falling into disrepair, foreclosure is often the most viable option.
This is especially true in American cities where joblessness is high, or the population is dwindling. In these situations, where there simply aren’t enough homebuyers to purchase the number of homes available in a market, foreclosure can actually help begin the process of revitalizing neighborhoods. For more information on this subject, visit www.clevelandfed.org/pr/foreclosure.

How to Find and Buy a Foreclosed Home