Why New Jersey is Ground Zero for Foreclosures cbsnews | March 6, 2014 By Kim Peterson Congratulations, New Jersey. Your job growth is barely moving, your unemployment rate is higher than the national average and your state credit rating is facing another downgrade. Add one more distinction to the list: Youre the new ground zero for the U.S. foreclosure crisis. New Jersey now has the highest share of residential mortgages that are seriously delinquent or in foreclosure, Bloomberg reports, citing recent Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) statistics. New Jersey moved ahead of Florida, now in the No. 2 spot, while New York comes in third. Some of the states that previously topped the serious foreclosure list, including Arizona and California, have seen a dramatic improvement after allowing banks to quickly move foreclosures through the system. By now, many states are quite good at whisking foreclosure proceedings along. In Florida, for example, nearly 119,000 homes completed foreclosures over the last year, NJ reports. In New Jersey, however, slightly more than 5,000 were foreclosed. New Jersey used to plow through the foreclosures at light speed, processing some 150,000 in 2009, Bloomberg reports. But then claims arose of robo-signing -- unauthorized documents automatically shunted through the system -- leading the states attorney general to begin an investigation. New Jersey has announced several settlements, usually as part of multistate agreements, with companies accused of robo-signing practices. The robo-signing-related slowdown appeared because New Jersey forces banks to get approval from a judge before foreclosing. And that legal hurdle has delayed the entire process. About 7.9 percent of mortgages in the state were in foreclosure at the end of last year, according to NJ. The number of homeowners losing their homes hit a three-year high last year in the state and in neighboring New York. It is really a delayed reaction in New Jersey and New York, said Michael Fratantoni, chief economist for the MBA, told Bloomberg. Loans that were made pre-crisis have been in this state of suspended animation for a number of years. And now, we are beginning to see the pace of resolution pick up. New Jersey has begun moving faster, and now it takes only about two months for banks to get a final judgment against a delinquent homeowner. Thats down from nine months a few years ago. And while a slimmed-down foreclosure portfolio will undoubtedly help, New Jerseys housing market is suffering from other problems that arent as easily cleaned up. The state must still contend with high property taxes as well as a large inventory of aging homes. Theres also the question of what to do with bank-owned homes that have sat vacant for years as piping and other materials were looted. The nations overall foreclosure picture is improving, with the percentage of loans in foreclosure at about 2.86 percent, the MBA reports. Thats the lowest rate since 2008. Said Fratantoni: We continue to see substantial improvement in both delinquency and foreclosure rates, with most measures now back to pre-crisis levels. But for now at least, New Jersey is trailing the pack. Back to March 2014 Archive CFLA was founded by the Nation’s Leading Foreclosure Defense Attorneys back in 2007 to serve the Foreclosure Defense Industry and fight pervasive Bank Fraud. Since opening our virtual doors, CFLA has rapidly expanded to become the premier online legal destination for small businesses and consumers. But as the company continues to grow, we’re careful to hold true to our original vision. For us, putting the law within reach of millions of people is more than just a novel idea—it’s the founding principle, just ask Andrew P. Lehman, CFLA’s Chief Executive 888-758-2352. Call us today to obtain samples of work product, including Bloomberg Securitization Audits, Litigation Support, Quiet Title Packages, and to get more information about our Nationally Accredited and Industry Acclaimed “Forensic Loan Auditor Training Certification Classes (3 days). The Nation’s Only Certification Training Class for Auditors in this industry! SEE BELOW- certifiedforensicloanauditors Call us toll free at 888-758-2352 Read more: certifiedforensicloanauditors/articles/03.14/why-new-jersey-is-ground-zero-for-foreclosures.html#ixzz2vWFwtp8X Under Creative Commons License: Attribution No Derivatives
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 01:33:37 +0000
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