Philadelphia Comes Up With a New Strategy to Fight Foreclosures

ForeclosuresRI President and co-founder, Jeremy Shapiro New Hampshire has not seen so many for sale signs in neighborhoods for a long while. The signs are appearing in front of homes that went unsold last year, or worse, in front of foreclosed homes up for sale by a bank or lender and they are everywhere. A study conducted shows that many homeowners are worried that their home values will be dropping dramatically and that they wont be able to make a payment on their mortgage within the next six months. Alabama's foreclosure rates fell last month as the rest of the country continues to be affected by sub-prime lending. Currently the state has about 1 foreclosure in every 3,251 homes and ranks 43rd in the nation for foreclosure rates. March numbers continue to show that foreclosure activity is 60 percent above levels seen last year. However, auction rates are were up only 32 percent indicating that more and more homeowners are simply walking away from their homes. Philidelphia judges have developed a pilot program that will hopefully cut down on foreclosures. One of the key components of the plan is a time line requiring mortgage companies to respond more quickly to proposals made by housing counselors on behalf of borrowers in default on their mortgage payments. Under the plan, foreclosed properties occupied by the owners will be diverted to a different track from vacant and investor owned properties.

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