March Foreclosure Rates Rise According To Realty Trac. Arizona Ranks #4 With The Highest Number Of Foreclosures!

Overall, 1 out of every 538 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing last month. Arizona ranks #4! Fortunately, SellQuickForCash.com can help you stop foreclosure fast!

Top 10 States for Foreclosures in March

Nevada: 1 in 139 homes
California: 1 in 204 homes
Florida: 1 in 282 homes
Arizona: 1 in 283 homes
Colorado: 1 in 339 homes
Georgia: 1 in 351 homes
Ohio: 1 in 448 homes
Michigan: 1 in 475 homes
Massachusetts: 1 in 486 homes
Maryland: 1 in 538 homes

Data From Realtytrac

The list shows the titanic force of the housing bust, as the states with the scariest ratios—Nevada, California, Florida, and Arizona—were the hottest spots during the boom. Look for more pain coming out of midwestern states like Ohio and Michigan, where tough housing markets could trigger a spate of failures at small banks that got deep into housing construction.

Lucky you, Vermont. Foreclosures in the state—known for cows, liberals, and maple syrup—stand at only 1 in every 154,779 homes. Keep up the good work!

If you are in foreclosure and would like to speak with one of our Foreclosure Specialists, please call 480-861-8732 or visit our website www.SellQuickForCash.com.

Sell Your Tempe House Fast With www.SellQuickForCash.com. We Are Foreclosure And Short Sale Experts!

ARE YOU TRYING TO SELL YOUR TEMPE HOUSE FAST? ARE YOU FACING FORECLOSURE AND SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS?

The experts at http://www.sellquickforcash.com/ understand Arizona's Foreclosure Process and can assist you in preventing foreclosure in Tempe, Arizona therefore saving your credit! We understand that each situation is unique and that is why we create custom solutions to your housing / financial problems! We also understand that you are being bullied by your lenders, and feel threatened by greedy investment companies!

Below is a list of tips that we have created to ensure that you are getting a fair deal when working with a "We Buy Houses For Cash" investment company.

• Most important...make sure everything is in writing!


• Ask for a business address. Investors just showing up to your door are more than likely trouble so you should use extreme caution when signing any papers!


• Ask for "real" referrals from past clients to check their business practices!


• Check with the BBB to see if they are in good standing!


• Never sign a deal on the first consultation!


• Ask them if they are going to pay you cash for your Tempe house within days, or are they just trying to lock your house down in a contract and then go find a buyer? This is called wholesaling and unless they are up front about their intentions, many investors will try and put a contract on your house with no real intention to buy it! They then go out and try to find a buyer for your home for more money. These investors are not real buyers and you should make sure they put up some kind of earnest money when they sign the initial contract!


• Trust your gut...if it feels like a good match, make the deal!


• Ask for all options in writing and make sure you fully understand each one!


• Choose to use a company that has a strong team of professionals that each have one common agenda...helping you sell your home quickly and for a FAIR deal!


• Call SellQuickForCash.com, while you shop us, we can refer other professionals to shop as well that we know apply ethical business practices!

Take the time and visit our website http://www.sellquickforcash.com/to learn how you can sell your Tempe, Arizona House Fast. We are LOCAL, we are ETHICAL, we are FORECLOSURE EXPERTS, and we are SHORT SALE SPECIALISTS WITH A PROVEN TRACK RECORD! Why try and sell your Tempe house fast without first visiting our website and calling one of our Home Buying Specialists! We offer a FREE, NO OBLIGATION CONSULTATION! We have the cash on hand to close within 3 days...sometimes quicker if need be! There are many imitation investment companies out there that pay cash for your Tempe house, so spend the time and learn about those you are dealing with. We have many referrals to validate our business practices!

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Housing Crisis Puts Off First-Time Homebuyers. Falling Prices Affecting Arizona!

BOSTON (Reuters) - For decades, buying a home was a key step on the path to financial security for the American middle class.

Home owners could count on a fixed mortgage payment rather than rising rent, take advantage of tax breaks, and build equity as their houses increased in value over time. But with home prices falling and families losing their homes to foreclosure, some people who under other circumstances would be looking to buy their first home now see greater security in renting.

One such person is Lisa Chesnut, who lives in Tucson, Arizona, and works as an information systems coordinator. With a good job and two young sons, 29-year-old Chesnut and her husband, Bryan, look like classic first-time buyers.

They had considered it, until the market started to slide a year ago. "At first we thought, prices are falling, that's good," she said in a phone interview. "Then we started reading about the foreclosures and the ARM rates and people losing their homes," she said. "We thought, what if something happened where we could lose our house?"

Her big fear is falling behind on a mortgage. Having read about people who face higher payments on their adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM), she realizes that being approved for a loan does not guarantee it will be affordable.

STAYING PUT
One sign that more people are choosing to remain in rental apartments while they wait out the slump comes from Equity Residential, one of the largest U.S. apartment owners. Fewer people have been moving out of its apartments -- last year 63.3 percent of its units changed hands, down from 64.9 percent in 2006.

"Turnover is slowing and the rate of moving out for home purchase we also saw slow throughout 2007," said Fred Tuomi, president of property management at the Chicago-based company, who oversees about 150,000 apartments nationwide.

And population projections by the National Association of Realtors suggest hundreds of thousands of young Americans are sitting out the housing market entirely -- neither buying nor renting.

"There's probably 700,000, maybe 800,000 people out there that are not getting into the market either as a renter or as a home buyer," said Walter Molony, spokesman for the NAR. "Where are these folks? They're out there, they've got jobs. Some of them are moving back with their parents, never left the house, they're doubling up with roommates."

There's no scarcity of data to worry potential home buyers. Recent reports show that the average price of an existing single-family home in U.S. metropolitan areas fell 6 percent in the fourth quarter, while foreclosure rates in the top 100 metropolitan areas soared 78 percent last year.

"They're the most nervous people I've ever met in my life," said Bob Moulton, president of Americana Mortgage Group, referring to the potential first-time buyers he speaks with. "They've seen what can go wrong in the mortgage market," said Moulton, whose company brokers $300 million of mortgages a year, mainly in suburban New York. "Everybody's advising them, from the mother, to the father, to the uncle, their co-workers, telling them, 'Don't buy. Prices are coming down."'

OWNERSHIP DOWN
Indeed, home ownership rates have fallen to 67.8 percent of households at the end of last year from 69.2 percent in 2004. That is below a 69.8 percent rate in Britain, but still much higher than European countries such as France and Germany.

For young people who are unsure about whether to buy instead of renting, experts said the key thing to consider is how long one plans to live in a house.

During the boom years, from the late 90s through the first half of this decade, rapidly rising house prices meant that in many parts of the country a buyer could turn an easy profit after owning a house for just a year or two.

Now young buyers should plan to stay in their homes longer than that, said Jim Gaines, a research economist at the Real Estate Center of Texas A&M University, in College Station, Texas. Even his own son, who recently married, has come to him with fears about buying real estate.

"I told my son this, 'Look, if you buy a home today, you better be prepared to stay in it for a minimum of five years. Don't worry if it goes up or goes down (in value) a little bit in the next six months,"' Gaines said.

That knowledge is another factor keeping some young Americans in their rental apartments.
"A lot of people I know are in that position, where their home isn't going to sell for what they paid for it right now," said Josh Stenger, a 37-year-old professor of film studies who lives in a rental apartment in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Stenger said he has toyed with buying a house or condominium, but has held off until he was sure he would be staying put for several years.

"I don't foresee buying anything without planning to stay in it at least five years," Stenger said. "If the economy was different and it looked like prices were going to start going up again, I might feel more pressure."

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Eddie Evans)
Copyright 2008 Reuters News Service.

Why Let The Stress And Pressures Of Today's Turbulent Housing Market Determine When You Can Or Cannot Sell Your House? Gain Peace Of Mind And Contact http://www.sellquickforcash.com/ Today. Our House Buying Specialists Are Waiting To Create A Custom Solution To Your Housing Problem!

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Homeowners Throwing In The Towel And Walking Away From Their Mortgage.

Mortgage lenders see more borrowers give up

By Noelle Knox, USA TODAY

On the front lines in the mortgage foreclosure crisis, lender and loan servicer Dennis Lauria says his deepest losses are from borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth and simply mail in the keys, rather than try to work out a new payment plan.

"I can't get you to pay if you've got no skin in the game," says Lauria, senior vice president of Popular Mortgage Servicing in Cherry Hill, N.J., who says 14% of his customers with subprime loans — high-interest loans given to people with poor credit ratings — are in default.

Nearly 3 million homeowners were behind on their mortgages at the end of last year, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said last week. An additional 1 million-plus borrowers were at risk of imminent foreclosure. The number of foreclosures is likely to set records throughout the year and poses an increasing risk to the housing market, the financial markets and the economy.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the mortgage industry needs a "vigorous" response to help beleaguered homeowners. But what about the response — or lack of one — from borrowers?

In California, Florida and Nevada, particularly, where prices are falling the steepest, rising numbers of borrowers are giving up and abandoning their homes despite the significant damage a foreclosure can have on the credit ratings that determine their ability to get future loans.

Nationwide, more than half the borrowers who lose their homes through foreclosure never answered their lenders' calls or letters, according to Freddie Mac. And an MBA analysis found that 23% of loans in foreclosure last fall were to homeowners who had no contact with their lenders, and that an additional 18% were to absentee owners.

The numbers help explain why it's so difficult to reverse the trends of rising foreclosures and falling property values. Even some homeowners who can afford to pay their mortgages are defaulting, Lauria says, because their house might have lost 30% of its value, and they figure it will be a long time before it's worth what they paid for it.

"They say, 'If I play my cards right, I can live here free for 12 months, maybe longer' " before the lender can foreclose, Lauria says. "Our challenge isn't contacting the borrower. I can talk to them, but they stick their tongue out at me."

Hundreds of thousands of distressed homeowners are reaching out for help. The Homeownership Preservation Foundation, part of the Hope Now Alliance, fields more than 4,000 calls daily to its toll-free hotline (888-995-HOPE). But about 1 in 4 callers don't want credit counseling, the foundation says. Many simply want financial relief.

Thary Yin, 26, who works at Wells Fargo's call center in South Carolina, talks with 10 to 20 borrowers a day.

"A lot of the stories I hear from mortgagors are situations that are very, very extreme," she says. "I talked to a cancer patient, and after Katrina hit New Orleans, the stories I hear. … Wells Fargo offers solutions on the mortgage side, but on the personal side, you can only cover so much on a phone call. Not being able to do more personally is the most difficult thing for me."

Getting more aggressive

With home prices sliding and politicians calling for government and the mortgage industry to do more to help troubled homeowners, lenders and loan servicers such as Lauria are becoming more aggressive in contacting delinquent borrowers and modifying loans to make payments a bit easier.

Such tactics make sense for the loan industry: The last thing a lender wants is another vacant property to fix up and sell.

"We're becoming more realistic about where the market's going to go," said David Sunlin, senior vice president for foreclosures and bankruptcy at Countrywide Financial, which is the nation's largest mortgage lender and the focus of several government investigations into aggressive lending practices that made the company financially vulnerable.

With an inventory of nearly 40,000 foreclosed properties nationwide, Sunlin says, he will work with a borrower to try to sell a property, even with a sizable loss, up to the date it's scheduled to be auctioned at a foreclosure sale.

At JPMorgan Chase, which has seen foreclosures jump 38% in the past two years, cases now go from collections to the "loss mitigation" department just five days after a borrower misses a payment, so the company can try to find a faster solution to keep the homeowner in the property. Not so long ago, the loss mitigation department didn't get involved until 90 days after a missed payment.

As soon as a lender takes control of a property, the value begins to drop while the maintenance costs mount.

Safeguard Properties, a company many lenders use to change the locks, cut the grass and board up windows on foreclosed homes, has seen business rise more than 15% during the past year. A lender will pay $600 to $1,200, and more in some cases, for Safeguard to care for each property.

The largest surges in new foreclosures in the fourth quarter of 2007 were in California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida, where the frenzied real estate boom in the past several years attracted buyers who put little money down and got risky loans with virtually no proof of income.

Avoiding lenders

There are many reasons homeowners behind on their mortgages fail to contact their lenders, mortgage specialists say. Some don't believe their lenders can help them. Others fear it will only speed the foreclosure process. And some don't call because they simply don't have money to give the lender, according to surveys by Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac.

"It's (lenders') own fault that borrowers won't answer their calls," says Todd Buckner, CEO of National Housing Solutions, a for-profit mediator between borrowers and lenders to stop foreclosures. "Their collections departments have beat (delinquent homeowners) over the head for months. It's no wonder borrowers won't answer the phone."

To reverse public perception that they don't want to work with troubled borrowers, lenders are hiring and training hundreds of employees to answer calls and help borrowers restructure their mortgages. They also are turning to more creative ways to try to reach at-risk homeowners.

The Hope Now Alliance, a coalition of 28 lenders and loan servicers supported by the Bush administration, has mailed more than 1 million letters since December to borrowers with subprime, adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs). In many cases, the lenders are offering to freeze the borrower's interest rate for five years. In other cases, borrowers may qualify for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan. Even so, the response rate has been less than 20%, on average.

To find homeowners who have stopped paying their mortgages and moved out, lenders use companies known in the trade as "skip tracers." One of them, Players National Locator, for example, is receiving 7,000 cases a month from lenders looking to track down delinquent homeowners, up 20% since September.

Martin Goodman, president of Residential Capital in San Diego, sends his delinquent borrowers a $5 Starbucks gift certificate, along with documents that explain how his company can help them restructure their loans and avoid foreclosure. His response rate is only 10%.

But Goodman says making contact is only one challenge. The other is persuading delinquent borrowers to tell the truth about their financial condition. He suspects at least 90% of borrowers don't explain the real reason they are falling behind on their payments out of fear it might accelerate their foreclosure.

"Everybody's grandmother is dying. Everybody's kid is having surgery," Goodman says. "I'd rather somebody say, 'We mismanaged our debt. This is what we make, and this is what we can afford.' "

A 'sense of entitlement'

As home prices fall from coast to coast, 8.8 million homeowners will have mortgage balances equal to or greater than the value of their property by the end of the month, Moody's Economy.com. predicts.

That could come as a shock to consumers who thought property values would always rise, and it helps explain the attitudes lenders are seeing among their troubled customers, Goodman says.

"If you buy a car and it depreciates," Goodman says, "you don't expect the automobile dealer to write off your loan. There's a sense of entitlement (among homeowners) that is just unbelievable."

Goodman, whose firm specializes in home equity credit lines, says the main reasons people took out the loans were for home improvement, debt consolidation and medical expenses. But he estimates that about 20% used the cash to go on vacation or buy a new car.

Stories like his are fuel for the opposition in Washington against a government bailout for homeowners facing foreclosure. On the other side, consumer advocates such as the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) can cite a litany of abusive lending practices that hurt homeowners.

"The government ought to get involved because there's been a market failure," said John Taylor, CEO of NCRC. "Our proposal is for the government to act as a cash-flow agent, to temporarily acquire the mortgages creating these problems long enough to refinance them into sensible terms and conditions. There would be no bailout because the government gets paid back."

So far, the Bush administration has backed two initiatives from the Hope Now Alliance to help some homeowners avoid foreclosure. But their restrictions severely limit their effectiveness.

In December, for example, the alliance said it would freeze interest rates or refinance an estimated 1.2 million homeowners with subprime ARMs. To qualify for the interest-rate freeze, borrowers would have to be facing a 10% increase in their mortgage payment once their interest rate reset. But many subprime ARMs are tied to an international index that has fallen 2 percentage points since Christmas.

"In our portfolio, 60% of the borrowers who would have gotten fast-tracked (under the Hope Now plan) would not get that now that the rates have changed so much," said Melissa Lucas, director of loss mitigation for Home Loan Services.

Instead of a payment increase of $450 a month, on average, her customers will see their payments rise by only $135. They may still qualify for other loan modification programs, she said, but not for the Hope Now plan.

FHA can help, sometimes

In a separate push, the administration backed this year's temporary increase in the maximum loan limits of the Federal Housing Administration, which caters to first-time and low-income borrowers.

The FHA also has created a new loan program, called FHASecure, to help subprime borrowers refinance out of risky ARMs. Since it was announced in fall, the FHA has received about 277,000 applications and approved fewer than half of them.

In New Jersey, Lauria said he sent the FHA about 3,000 of his company's delinquent loans to see how many could be refinanced under the FHASecure program. The answer: 61.

Even for the borrowers who contact their loan servicers, the options the companies can offer are tightly constrained by their contracts with investors who buy and sell pools of loans that are packaged as bonds.

But Lauria doesn't believe every homeowner who can't pay their mortgage can or should be saved.

"One-third of people who are delinquent should be in foreclosure. It's the best alternative," he says. "They don't have the money. They shouldn't have (gotten the loan) to begin with."

And that's why, he says, he doesn't blame some of them for walking away from their homes.

Is The Governments Plan To Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure Enough??? -www.SellQuickForCash.com-

This is another statistic that lends to the reason why short sales are becoming a popular method of liquidation for lenders. The homeowners usually work out a payment plan with their lender and 80% of them don’t even receive a FIRST PAYMENT! It is no wonder why banks are discounting properties so frequently. Now is the best time to look at short sales as an exit strategy from your home!

CRL Criticizes Government’s Loan Modification Program

Article: Kerri Panchuk

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) says the U.S. Treasury Department’s existing plan to help distressed homeowners is ineffective and realistically will only have the impact of preventing 118,200 foreclosures, which is only 3-percent of the outstanding subprime loans that are in the marketplace heading towards rate resets.

CRL said, “This analysis shows the Treasury plan, plus existing lender modifications, barely make a dent in the growing foreclosure crisis and will allow subprime damage to continue spreading through the entire economy.”

In a critique of the plan, CRL claims data supplied by the Mortgage Bankers Association points to a disturbing trend in which voluntary loan modifications will be significantly outnumbered by potential foreclosures.

Below is a verbatim list of CRL’s criticisms of the Treasury Department’s plans:(Source: CRL)
On all loans, industry data show that for every loan modification made by a lender, seven times as many foreclosures are initiated. For the subprime adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) that are at the root of the current crisis, foreclosures outnumber modifications 13-to-1.

Lenders are giving themselves credit for loan "repayment plans," but these should not count. Repayment plans make homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments higher. And they allow lenders to designate a distressed loan as being current without actually changing any of the terms that made a mortgage unaffordable in the first place.

It is questionable whether even the true loan modifications will be sustainable because lenders have no obligation to report outcomes. In fact, previously Countrywide acknowledged that most of its touted modifications actually "involved deferring overdue interest or adding the past due amount to a loan," not reducing interest rates or principal balances on unaffordable subprime ARMs

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Are You Facing Foreclosure? Real Advice On How To Deal With And Avoid Foreclosure!

At www.SellQuickForCash.com we answer countless calls, and show up at many houses where homeowners who are facing foreclosure are not sure or understand what is happening to them, and more importantly, what to do about it! If you are falling behind on your mortgage payments and are getting letters and phone calls from your lender(s) asking you to contact them, then here are a few tips for dealing with foreclosure.

1. DO NOT IGNORE YOUR LENDER

You have options at this point and by ignoring the problem you are making it more and more difficult to negotiate a work-out plan (forbearance agreement) with your lender(s). The further behind you become the chances you will lose your home increases.

2. EVALUATE YOUR SITUATION

Do you have any equity in your house that you are trying to protect? This is the golden question and is not always easy to answer. Many of us created HUGE equity when the housing market went nuts in 2004-2005. Unfortunately many of us did not sell during that time and instead refinanced and stripped the equity from our house! Two things are happening today….one, prices are falling and therefore our equity is disappearing, and two, we have overleveraged our houses and already spent the money.

If you evaluate your situation and realize that you do have significant equity in your home, you actually have some really good options! You could list your home with a highly skilled and determined Realtor that uses strategic pricing and strong marketing to sell your home before you go to foreclosure. Or, you could contact a company like http://www.sellquickforcash.com/ and sell your house within 3 days with no Realtor fees, repairs needed, closing costs, or hassles!

If you evaluate your situation and realize that you do not have any equity in your home, a Short Sale is a great option for avoiding foreclosure and if you CLICK HERE, we will explain the ins and outs of this amazing exit strategy!

3. UNDERSTAND YOUR OPTIONS

First, you want to try every available means to stopping your foreclosure before you decide to sell your house quickly. Contact www.HUD.gov/foreclosure/ for some great foreclosure advice. You can also visit www.fha.gov/foreclosure/index.cfm for more free advice. While we agree that these government services are great for some homeowners, they are not always able to act in the speed you might need to avoid foreclosure. Depending on your equity position, you can also:

SELL YOUR HOUSE FOR CASH: Maybe you are currently FACING FORECLOSURE or have other financial pressures and are forced to sell your house quickly. It can take 3...6...9 months or more to sell the traditional way, and there is no guarantee you will sell fast enough before the auction takes place. Whatever your reason is for needing to sell quick for cash, we have the cash available, and the team of experts in place to close in as little as 3 days. We buy homes all over the Phoenix Metro area and can buy yours too!

SELL YOUR HOUSE FOR CASH AND RENT IT BACK: There are many reasons why you would want to sell your house to us and keep living in it. Financial pressures, a difficult divorce, a pending foreclosure are just a few of the many reasons you may need to sell quickly. This option is perfect for anyone that says "I want to sell my house fast" but does not want to move out yet. You can rent your home back for as little or as long as you wish and the best part is we will always structure the deal at very competitive market rent rates.

SELL YOUR HOUSE FOR CASH, RENT IT BACK WITH AN OPTION TO BUY AT A PRE-DETERMINED PRICE: If outside circumstances have forced you to sell your home without you wanting to move, we can create a plan with a short-term rental, or long-term rental that has an option to buy-back the home at a pre-determined price. This allows you to get quick cash for your house, continue living in it, and buy it back for less than market value while saving most of your hard earned equity. This is a great option if you believe your situation is only temporary and you will want to continue owning your home in the future once your finances get stronger! The best part of this deal is all of our rental rates, and buy back options are set up fairly with the price agreed upon in advance.

If you do not have any equity, you can:

NEGOTIATE A SHORT SALE WITH YOUR LENDER: A Real Estate Short Sale refers to a lender(s) accepting a sales price that is less than what is currently owed plus all related sales expenses. This is common in a declining housing market and can be a win-win for both the bank and the homeowner. Normally a bank will begin to look at the short sale option only if the homeowner is behind on payments and begins to face foreclosure. This option is great if you have no equity and can find a skilled Realtor or Investment Company that understands how to negotiate through the short sale process.

4. AVOID FORECLOSURE PREVENTION SCAMS

If a company is sending you letters, calling you on the phone, or showing up on your doorstep and is promising to stop the foreclosure auction if you sign some paperwork, more than likely they are trying to take advantage of your situation and steal your equity. The most common scam in the foreclosure industry is where a fast talking person shows up with a lot of paperwork saying that he was sent there by your lender(s) and can stop the auction and refinance your home if you sign all the documents. What you are unaware of is within all those documents, is a purchase contract, and the deed to your house! Before you know what has happened, the so called representative is gone and you no longer own the equitable rights to your home. They then go out and use someone with good credit to pull cash out of your house and vanish without a trace! Follow the links for other well known foreclosure scams. The more you know and understand, the less likely you will ever fall into one of these traps!

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/virtual_realty.html

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mortgages/20050728a1.asp?prodtype=loan

If you would like to learn more about our company and the options we could provide you in this temporary time of financial need, please contact us anytime. Our consultations are always free and there is never any obligation to use us.

We are so confident in our abilities, that we share who our competition is on our “Who We Are” page for you to comparison shop. One of our Home Buying Specialists is waiting for your call!

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