Catherine Curan from The New York Post reports, “Underwater homeowners are jumping onto an unexpected financial life raft that lets them escape crippling second mortgage debts and keep their homes — Chapter 13 bankruptcy.”
Curan writes that, if the home worth is estimated at less than the first mortgage, then the owner can go to bankruptcy court and ask to reclassify their debt from the second mortgage. It would then transform from a secured debt to an unsecured debt. A secured debt has to be paid whereas an unsecured debt does not have to be paid in full.
This economy provides the perfect breeding ground for these situations. Curan consulted with a New York City bankruptcy attorney who said that about 20 percent of his Chapter 13 bankruptcy clients, that are homeowners, qualified for this circumstance.
This offers a new alternative to borrowers who are unable to reach a loan modification agreement with their bank.
If you need help with a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, contact an experienced and trustworthy New Orleans Chapter 13 bankruptcy lawyer at Kervin and Young, LLC, by dialing 504-599-5906.
A recent RealtyTrac Inc. report shows that nationwide foreclosure filings are finally going down.
April is the first month this year that has seen the number of foreclosure filings nationwide fall, with a 2 percent overall decrease. Some states, like New York, experienced a drop of up to 23 percent.
“There were two important milestones in the April numbers that show foreclosure activity has begun to plateau — but at a very high level that will not drop off in the near future,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “April was the first month in the history of our report with an annual decrease in U.S. foreclosure activity. Secondly, bank repossessions, or REOs, hit a record monthly high for the report even while default notices dropped substantially on a monthly and annual basis.”
“We expect a similar pattern to continue for most of this year,” Saccacio said, “with the overall numbers staying at a high level and ripples of activity hitting the various stages of the foreclosure process as lenders systematically work through the backlog of distressed properties.”
California, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, and Nevada foreclosures account for more than 50 percent of the nation’s total filings. Nevada leads the pack with one in every 69 homes receiving a foreclosure filing in April.
If you are facing a foreclosure filing or bankruptcy, contact the New Orleans bankruptcy attorneys of Kervin & Young, LLC, at 504-599-5906.
RealtyTrac Inc., a California-based financial tracking firm, reported last week that one in 465 homes in the Houston, TX, area had been foreclosed on in March. This number represents a 29 percent increase from foreclosure numbers in February and a 53 percent increase from March of 2009.
Nationwide numbers follow the same trend. One in 352 homes across the United States received a foreclosure filing in March. These 367,056 properties denote a 20 percent increase compared to February’s foreclosures and an 8 percent increase compared to March last year. RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report states that this is the largest number of foreclosures they have tracked since January of 2005.
“Foreclosure activity in the first quarter of 2010 followed a very similar pattern to what we saw in the first quarter of 2009: A shallow trough in January and February followed by a substantial spike in March,” said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.
This substantial spike in March has been represented by the final stages of foreclosures in previous years. This year the spike is represented by an aberrant 9 percent quarterly increase in bank repossessions as opposed to the 13 percent quarterly decrease in repossessions seen at this time in previous years.
If you are facing the prospect of a foreclosure filing and need financial advice and legal counsel in how to proceed with a bankruptcy filing, call the New Orleans foreclosure attorneys of Kervin & Young, LLC, at 504-599-5906.
