Mistaken debt and the new rules of committment.
“If mortgage delinquencies are not yet clearly improving, it also appears they are not getting worse. However, a bad situation that is not getting worse is still bad” according to Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association. A Newsday article by Emi Endo offers additional statistics as it reports that “nearly one in seven US homeowners fell behind on mortgages or were in foreclosure from January through March and roughly one in 10 borrowers nationwide, a record high, missed at least one payment in the first quarter of 2010.” 
We are living in a homeowner’s house of cards. Our clients have no margin of error in their family’s financial planning. Some kitchen tables, essentially reserved for family gatherings and mealtime sharing for school reports, job talk and daily exchanges are now resting places for unpaid credit card statements, demand letters from creditors and other evidence of mistaken debts taken during times of plenty. Suffolk and Nassau counties sadly share rankings by the Federal Reserve Bank in the top 50 for distressed mortgage ratios.
Success stories amidst the statistics
Yet despite such seemingly oppressive and disturbing statistics, I witness success stories while working with clients who have received summons and complaints from their lenders seeking to foreclose upon their homes and families. These are not missteps of judgment made while blind to the risks and consequences of unforeseen dangers. These were purchases of homes made by fathers and mothers and people of all persuasion who committed to many of the American dreams and ideals that are almost inborn and inbred from coast to coast.
I like what I see and hear when a new client calls and relive their experience and hope. These clients are the people who listened to our political leaders, our Presidents and Governors and bought homes, bought appliances, bought new cars and created jobs, new schools and new neighborhoods. Our clients waited patiently until they could hardly wait another instant and entered the board of real estate. We have now learned that the foreclosure crisis has invaded not only the subprime market but reaches into the nonprime loans and conventional marketplace. In our law firm, we focus in discussing these issues, not as potential bankruptcy matters and insolvencies, but as a platform to advocate and represent our clients who have received notices of delinquencies and foreclosure summons. Our purpose is to save these homes and investments from foreclosure..
New legislation encouraging
Our legislature has adopted laws, and our courts have enforced these laws. These are effective avenues that encourage homeownership retention but require new commitments on the part of our clients. You can keep your home your own, even in the face of months and months of non-payment. Many solutions and settlements depend upon your new commitment to maintain the stability of your desire to keep your home. Our judges have much less tolerance for the one sided and heavy handed position of yesterday’s lender’s demands to auction off your home.
HAMP and Treasury Guidelines, with servicer agreements, favor so many homeowners who partner their wishes with well placed actions and monthly submissions of income, residency and hardship evidence. Foreclosure settlement parts provide a steady hand and experienced leadership to afford the homeowner the necessary confidence and increased support to keep their homes.
This hopeful message leads to the predictable conclusion that our clients’ closings, their dreams of backyard barbecues and gatherings were not errors of our past. The lending criteria were piled with errors of judgment made by financial giants, many of whom have faded away. But each client who visits with us is a reminder of the strength of our dream of American homeownership. Our homes, shopping areas and office buildings remain as a constant reminder that yesterday’s goals are not to be forgotten.
Our lending and borrowing patterns and programs over the past eight years have saddled our neighborhoods and communities with an enormous sea of debt. In the face of this crisis, new rules have emerged. It is much more than wishful thinking when we say that these new commitments which are offered to save your home can reveal solutions and opportunities to keep home your own.
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not a done deal, but at least we know that someone in Washington is listening. 