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Millions Shut Out of Mortgage Refinancing-Roughly 22.5% of home owners, or about 11 million, are “underwater”…they owe more than their homes are worth, according to CoreLogic, a real estate data research firm. The figures don’t show how many of the home owners obtained loans during the housing boom, when lending standards were often lax. Many lenders offered loans to people with poor credit, no employment checks and little or no money down. The Feds said that about 4.5 million refinancing applications were approved last year. In a healthy housing market that figure would be nearly 34% higher. With long-term mortgage rates at a near record low, below 5%, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is reviewing a program, which it launched two years ago, to see if it might be expanded to let more home owners qualify for refinancing at lower rates. But to be approved for the program, home owners must be current on their mortgages, which must date from 2009 or later. As of July, about 838,000 home owners had refinanced through the program. Officials had hoped at least 4 million Americans would take advantage. The Fed’s study reviewed information from more than 7,900 lenders. The number of approved mortgages fell from nearly 9 million in 2009 to fewer than 8 million in 2010. The peak was 15.6 million in 2005.

 

Home Buyer Assistance Program-Oakland County has received additional funding from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP3) to assist in stabilizing neighborhoods, communities and housing values in targeted Oakland County communities. The Oakland County Home Buyer Program provides loans to qualified middle and low income home buyers for 49% of the cost of the home and home improvements. The loan will be zero percent interest and is deferred until the home buyer no longer resides in the home. There are no monthly payments on this loan. The home must be a vacant foreclosed single family home purchased by the home buyer as their primary residence. The home buyer must obtain a mortgage for the remaining 51 percent. The program overview, guidelines, including income definitions, and maps outlining targeted areas are available at www.oakgov.com/chi, at the Community & Home Improvement Division offices, located at 250 Elizabeth Lake Rd., Pontiac or call, Home Buyer Hotline at 248-858-1529.

 

Foreclosure Lawsuits Soar-Litigation over the foreclosure process reached its highest level in the second quarter than in any quarter since MortgageDaily.com’s Mortgage Litigation Index was introduced in 2001. The second quarter came in at 190 cases Activity grew 26% from the prior quarter and was well more than double the level a year earlier.