RealtyStore Real Estate Blog

A majority of Americans have lost confidence in mortgage lenders and banks as a result of the credit crisis, according to a new survey by Housing Predictor.

The poll indicates that the majority of those surveyed have lost trust in the nation’s banks and mortgage lenders. Mortgage companies and lenders went on a free-wheeling lending spree for years making mortgages to even those at the highest risk of not re-paying triggering the subprime crisis.

The free wheeling days of mortgage lending ended in the worst epidemic of foreclosures in the nation’s history. Already, 2.4-million properties have been foreclosed and another 3.2 million foreclosures are forecast by Housing Predictor through 2011.

Some 56 percent of those surveyed said they have “lost confidence” in mortgage lenders as a result. The remaining 44% said they had not lost confidence in lenders. The online poll was conducted over a three week period, during which time Congress has been working on a plan to help many more homeowners under the threat of foreclosure.

Upward changing adjustable rate mortgages calculated to increase to higher interest rates, resulting in higher mortgage payments and a nearly record setting deflationary real estate market cycle has resulted in slower home sales in nearly all housing markets.

Housing Predictor forecasts more than 250 local markets in all 50 states and keeps visitors to its web site up to date on real estate conditions throughout the nation.
Housing Predictor regularly surveys visitors on real estate related issues in its widely monitored Predictor Polls, which have become increasingly popular as a result of the troubled housing market in the over-whelming majority of the nation.

The independent information driven web site regularly tracks housing markets with a staff of researchers and journalists to keep up to date on real estate market conditions, and reports on major issues related to housing markets throughout the country.

Read the report on the latest survey, other real estate news and search foreclosures and other real estate listings at http://www.housingpredictor.com

Be careful homeowners, do not be one of the victims in Florida, specifically Tampa foreclosure scams.

Foreclosure Scams Lurking In Your Neighborhood

Delinquent homeowners looking to break free from default notices are getting tricked by brokers promising to save them from foreclosure, only to make off with thousands in fees or what home equity is left.

Take rent-to-buy scams. In cases like these, a fraudulent rescue company convinces a homeowner to sign over the title while building equity as a renter. The homeowner avoids foreclosure but risks being evicted by the very firm that promised to save his home.

The situation is bad enough in Florida, one of the nation’s foreclosure capitals, that State Attorney General Bill McCollum has filed suit against National Foreclosure Management, a mediation company, for allegedly defrauding troubled homeowners; fraudulent rescue companies in Illinois have been increasingly penalized, while in Massachusetts the for-profit practice of foreclosure rescue transactions has been banned.

With rising foreclosures threatening homeowners, rescue brokers prey on subprime or adjustable rate borrowers because many facing foreclosure are overextended and desperately looking for a way out of their mortgages.

Bad-News Bailouts

Low-level schemes involve those who pose as mediation specialists or counselors promising to rescue homes from foreclosure. Naturally, they work for a fee. While they might not charge an excessive amount of money, between $300 and $6,670, according to the Illinois state’s attorney’s office, the Federal Trade Commission says that once homeowners pay that first check, these so-called specialists disappear.

It hurts to lose a few hundred dollars, or even a thousand, but the wilier schemes involve surrendering the title.

The most basic involves pushing on homeowners’ phony documents that appear to be a new mortgage application. These are known as rescue loans which, if correctly represented, give a homeowner the cash to stave off a foreclosure. Instead, these false documents turn over the title.

A more sophisticated version of this scam involves a rent-to-buy provision. Here, a mediator matches a distressed homeowner with a management company that takes over the property while giving the homeowner the ability to become a long-term renter, with his rent paying down the mortgage.

The premise here is that the management company has great credit and can refinance at a better rate, which they will do for a fee. This arrangement is attractive to a delinquent homeowner because the months-long foreclosure process is a black mark on a credit report.