Is it time to get your life back?
A National Epidemic Is Looming...... Are You Ready?
Are you stressed out about mortgage payments? Have you tired of trying to push a mortgage modification through? Are you running out of money and time? Do you think your only option is a foreclosure? Is a short sale right for you? Millions and millions of homeowners are asking themselves the same questions. It is projected that over 20,000,000 homeowners will have negative equity in their homes in the very near future. In other words, they will owe more on their homes than they are worth. Foreclosure filings in the U.S. will reach a record for the second consecutive year with 3.9 million notices sent to homeowners in default, RealtyTrac Inc. said. And the number is only expected to grow. Expect the effects of the real estate recession to ripple for years to come.
This year's filings (2009) will surpass 2008's total of 3.2 million as record unemployment and price erosion batter the housing market, the Irvine, California-based company said.
Mortgage Modifications, Riiiight!
Still, fewer than 1.5 million homeowners — or less than half of those targeted — were eligible as of last month (Nov. 09) for President Barack Obama's Home Affordable Modification Program, Herb Allison, Treasury assistant secretary for financial stability, said in Dec. 8 congressional testimony. As of July, only 9% of eligible borrowers had seen their mortgage payments reduced. And a progress report on the plan Aug. 4 showed that 10 lenders had not changed a single loan.
Both Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. – which have received BILLIONS in federal bailout money- were below average. BofA modified 4% of eligible loans, and Wells Fargo 6%! And Wachovia, which was taken over by Wells Fargo last December, had modified just 2%.
"We are a long way from a recovery," John Quigley, economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said in an interview. "You can't start to see improvement in the housing market until after unemployment peaks."
What can you do now? Get your life back!
There is expected to be a massive tsunami of homeowners who are simply making the decision to sell their homes through a short sale vs. staying in a home, hoping that one day it may be worth what they paid. No one is safe. News stories from across the country tell the tales of both celebrities and average Americans who are all considering selling their homes through a short sale. Selling your home through a short sale doesn’t need to be a shameful, life-ruining experience. Sometimes short selling your mortgage simply makes smart economic sense, especially for homeowners who find themselves “upside down” — that is, they owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth.
Late last year, CNBC Financial Guru Jim Cramer was telling homeowners to ‘Just Walk Away’. (Watch the video on YouTube.com.) We are clearly in uncharted waters. The current housing crisis is different from all the previous housing recessions. It is well known that many financial institutions sold mortgages in a deceptive manner — for example, by approving people for loans they couldn’t really afford —then why should homeowners feel obliged to honor their commitments?
From a homeowner’s perspective, why should they stay in a home that is depreciating? Often times it’s possible to rent the same style home in the same area for half (or less) than their current mortgage payment. Assuming it takes years for the market to recover, the homeowner who sells their home via a short sale now will be far ahead of the person who ‘stuck it out’.
