A Newton, Massachusetts mother is hoping the kindness of friends and strangers can help her keep her family home.

When Elinor Beatrice met her husband Jeff 20 years ago, they each had children from previous marriages, but they would spend the coming years expanding their family even more.

They raised 11 kids in the same house Jeff grew up in, a rambling Victorian on a leafy street in Newton.

“My husband was the heart of the home. It’s very quiet without him now,” she said.

Not even two weeks ago, Jeff Beatrice had a heartache in that same home. He died in Elinor’s arms. He was 49 years old.

“It’s hard to believe he’s gone. Every day gets a little harder,” Elinor said.

Harder still because Jeff was the breadwinner, a struggling self employed CPA whose financial woes spiraled after a bad real estate investment. The Beatrice’s had trouble making ends meet and after a few years, the mortgage got away from them.

“We’ve tried food stamps but, you know, we’ve always made just a little too much to qualify for any real assistance,” Elinor said.

Eventually, they were foreclosed upon and just days before Jeff died, the mortgage company let them know it would be auctioning off their house. The family did not get swindled or taken advantage of. They fell behind and now Elinor must figure things out, with seven kids still living at home — the youngest just five.

“It’s just an overwhelming thought. And where do you go with seven kids?” Elinor said.
Thankfully, she is not answering that question alone. For the past two decades, Jeff Beatrice has coached every youth sports team imaginable — from Newton Little League to girls basketball.

“You never knew who his kids were,” family friend Jim Byrne said. “It was all the same to Jeff.”

“Any kid that was in trouble, their family was struggling, they weren’t getting enough attention at home, those kids gravitated toward the Beatrice’s house,” family friend Diane Wilcox said.

When word got out that the Beatrice family needed help, hundreds of people stepped up to the plate. A memorial fund has been established, the high school hockey team gave up money from their yard sale, strangers have dropped off everything from gift cards to groceries.

“Even my eleven year old’s friend gave me $6 from her piggy bank, which is all she had, but she was willing to give to us,” Elinor said.

The house was supposed to be auctioned off November 5th, but strangers and politicians have gotten the family a 60 day extension. Sixty days to keep a house a home.

“With the end of the year coming, the banks are going to dump a lot of stuff,” says Richard Zwick, a real estate agent from DeLand, Fla. “The prices will keep coming down and down as the banks are forced to take less and less.” In the area of central Florida Zwick covers, price tags on many foreclosed homes are as much as 50% lower than they would have been six months ago.

Before you start focusing your energy on finding a foreclosed home, here are a few ideas to keep in mind.

First off, try to get a sense of how many foreclosures there are in your area. Places like Phoenix, Las Vegas and central Florida are hot spots with massive inventories.

In contrast, foreclosure rates in many rural areas have barely gone up since the recession hit. And even if there are a number of foreclosures in the neighborhood you’ve got your eye on, factors such as high-quality schools could lead to hefty competition for each one.

Next, become familiar with the different categories of foreclosure sales. “Short sales” usually occur when homeowners are behind on their mortgages and their home is worth less than what is owed to the bank. The homeowner requests that the bank agree to a short sale in order to escape the overly burdensome payments without getting the blot on their credit record that a foreclosure would leave. Banks usually go along with these deals because they figure they will face smaller write-downs and fewer administrative costs than with a foreclosure. The catch with this type of sale is that the current homeowner’s mortgage lender, who gets to approve the new buyer, might take as long as two months to sign off on an offer.

“That gets very frustrating for those involved,” says Timothy Warren, head of a Boston firm that publishes information on foreclosure sales in the New England states.

Once a home is foreclosed on, it’s auctioned off at a public event. Most of the time it’s the lender of the original mortgage that buys the property. (That was the case 95% of the time in Massachusetts last year, according to Warren.) Why do individual buyers tend to stay away? At this point in the foreclosure process, the financially beleaguered original homeowner is often still living in the foreclosed property, which makes it extremely difficult to arrange a thorough property inspection. And when amateurs do try their luck at an auction, they tend to make rookie mistakes.

“Most people get so excited, they overbid,” Zwick says.

After the original mortgage lender purchases a foreclosed property, it typically puts it up for sale as-is. These sales are known as REOs, for “real-estate owned.” The thing to watch out for here is that banks are quick to yank a prospective buyer’s deposit for failing to strictly abide by deadlines.

“I’ve heard of people about to buy an REO losing their deposits because they don’t follow the inspection deadlines or the mortgage deadlines,” Zwick warns.

Another possibility, albeit a relatively remote one: key paperwork concerning your new REO’s previous mortgage was mislaid as investors traded it like a baseball card during the mortgage securitization boom. More and more state court judges have been ruling that such slip-ups create a reason to invalidate a foreclosure. That would jeopardize your claim to the foreclosed property you just purchased.

It’s tempting to believe you can navigate the foreclosure sale process on your own. Much of the information you need is public. The downside is that it can be difficult to track down, let alone do so fast enough to ensure you’re getting the jump on the competition. The petitions for foreclosure that precede a short sale often have to be dug out of courthouse record rooms.

Foreclosure auction information comes from hard-to-read-type in the back of major newspapers, or from subscription services like the one Warren operates. As for REOs, lenders tend to have favored networks of brokers they tip off about the best deals. The result? A DIY approach to buying a foreclosed home “is really not for the faint of heart, and requires a lot of patience,” Warren says. There are plenty of real estate agents who specialize in setting up buyers with foreclosed homes. Consider hiring one if you’re interested in the foreclosures market.

There’s a lot of confusion out there about the foreclosure crisis.

I remember editors at one paper I worked for seeking in vain a suburban counterpart of battered, boarded up and foreclosed Hendry Street in Dorchester.

Anyway, I am sure there was a lot of salivating over potential headlines, Wellesley’s Foreclosure Alley and things of that sort.

Of course, it turned out to be the El Dorado of foreclosure stories.

The fact is, you are not going to find a bunch of Hendry streets out in the suburbs, especially in towns like Wellesley and Weston, where foreclosures, while hardly unknown, are not a huge problem.

Anyway, I remember trying to explain in vain the idea, that, at least here in Massachusetts, the vast majority of foreclosures are taking place in low income areas that were flooded during the boom with crazy, high-risk subprime loans.

I might have better luck had I been able to roll out this nifty, new graphic just released by the Boston Fed detailing foreclosure trends in Massachusetts since 1990.

The new graphic highlights low-income towns and cities on a map of the state. Then it superimposes foreclosure trends on top of these.

Walk through the graphic year by year and you will steadily watch low income areas, from Boston neighborhoods like Dorchester and Mattapan to Brockton, steadily filing with color to signify rising foreclosure rates.

The map quickly fills in around such low-income zip codes during the real estate collapse of the early 1990s, when a similar frenzy of suspect lending yielded a bumper crop of foreclosures in poor neighborhoods. The map steadily drains of color from the mid-1990s until 2007, when foreclosure rates start to spike again.

Then a similar, but even more intense pattern emerges on the map as foreclosures mount again in 2007 and 2008 – apparently there’s no data yet to plug in for 2009.

Anyway, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Source: Boston Globe

Though he came too late to see any of the speakers’ presentations, much of Monday’s foreclosure prevention seminar at Marshfield Town Hall was familiar to Marshfield resident Jim Nielsen.

And not only because he had been to a similar seminar months earlier. Many of the issues and obstacles discussed by the nights’ presenters were familiar to Nielsen because he has experienced them himself over the past few years.

So, when Joseph Leonard, counsel for the Massachusetts Division of Banks, warned about the complexity of banking infrastructure and the difficulty of trying to maneuver the system without help, Nielsen would have agreed to that. He said he spent at least two years trying to hold off the foreclosure of his own home.

And when Dan Condon, from the attorney general’s office, warned the audience of the scammers and con artists that would try to take advantage of people who are getting foreclosed, Nielsen could have shown the visitors the stack of mail he had received offering him a swift, too-good-to-be-true solution to his problem.

And when Deirdra Hall, from Quincy Community Action Programs, gave a speech about the various ways she could help homeowners try to get their loans restructured, Nielson had been through that, as well. In fact, it was Hall who helped put him on the right track, he said.

According to the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds, in the first six months of 2009, 28 properties in Marshfield received foreclosure notices. In Scituate, where, according to Hall, property values have not dropped as far, the number was 13. Countywide, the number of foreclosure notices was 1,106, up 37 percent from 701 in the same period last year.

Nielsen is a self-employed construction worker – he owns Seacoast Construction. He said he received his foreclosure notice after the interest rate on his adjustable rate mortgage increased at the same time the construction business slowed down.

It got so bad that the bank actually named a foreclosure date. Nielsen’s home was scheduled to go up for auction this July. Notices ran in the newspaper.

At a loss for what to do, Nielsen attended a seminar foreclosure prevention seminar hosted by State Rep. Jim Cantwell, who represents Marshfield and five of Scituate’s six precincts. That meeting was one in a series of similar meetings hosted by Cantwell.

“It wasn’t pretty, people were upset,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen attended the tail end of the July 27 meeting to offer his support to the program that he said had helped put his situation back on track. Because Hall knew the system, he said, she was able to get Nielsen’s foreclosure held off.

“What little (work) it was, it was a lot of help,” Nielsen said. “She knows what to do.”

Nielsen said he was glad to see that the most recent meeting was well attended, meaning that people were getting help. He estimated that the meeting months ago had only been attended by six other people. The July 27 meeting had at least 21.

“If two of us get help because of this, it was well worth it,” Nielsen said, looking around at the group of visitors who were asking advice from the night’s speakers.

There was Joan Dowd of the Marshfield charity, Sowing Seeds, getting information to use when helping residents with housing troubles.

There was the Bridgewater woman, who was in the process of reorganizing her mortgage after her husband had lost his job.

“I wanted to know what my options were,” she said. “This was very helpful, at least we have a contact person we know is on our side.”

There was a Brockton couple that had signed up for a loan they never could have afforded. The loan, they said, was based on an inaccurate valuation of the property.

Both the Bridgewater woman and the Brockton couple asked not to be identified.

Cantwell said the goal of the night was to provide people with information and contacts to avoid trouble. He had invited Nielsen to show his story of relative success to others.

“I’m pleased to learn that we’re helping to keep people in their homes, here in Marshfield and Scituate,” Cantwell said.

Source: WickedLocal

The “Foreclosure Prevention Seminar,” the second program in a series, will start at 6 p.m. in the second-floor conference room of Marshfield Town Hall, off Snow Street. The event will feature representatives from the Massachusetts Division of Banks and Attorney General’s office, as well as foreclosure prevention counselors.  The program is open to all Scituate and Marshfield residents.   Invited guests include Deidre Hall, a HUD-certified home ownership counselor with Quincy Community Action Corp.; John Stephan, an assistant attorney general from the Consumer Protection Division; and Joseph Leonard, counsel for the Massachusetts Division of Banks.

The first part of the free seminar will include talks from officials and experts, and attendees can solicit advice and help afterward.

All are invited to attend the seminar, which is expected to last more than an hour. Those looking for more information can contact state Rep. Jim Cantwellby e-mail at james.cantwell@state.ma.us, or at 617-722-2014.

That’s my reaction to the news that some in Congress are starting to get ornery about the absurdly slow pace of the nation’s foreclosure rescue programs.

Members of the Senate Banking Committee took aim last week at the Obama Administration, angered over the painfully slow progress of the president’s much touted, $50 billion foreclosure prevention drive.

The money, as you may recall, goes to lenders in various incentives to prod them into modifying mortgages and prevent yet more foreclosures.

But after months of efforts, just 160,000 homeowners have had their mortgages modified – hardly enough to start putting a dent into the nation’s foreclosure rate, which continues to skyrocket.

“Pathetic’’ was the word used by Sen. Christopher Dodd, (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, to describe the lack of results in the government’s battle to stem the rising tide of foreclosures.

Too bad lawmakers weren’t asking the tough questions two years ago, back when the federal government and various states, including Massachusetts, starting launching various foreclosure rescue programs. (The Bay State’s $250 million “Homesaver” program, for example, has refinanced just 40 troubled mortgages, totaling $9 million, in two years.)

Back then there was a real chance of at least saving a significant percentage of the millions of homeowners who signed onto crazy subprime loans during the boom.

At this point, many of those homeowners have already lost everything.

The economy, not bad loans, is fast becoming the primary driver now of the seemingly never ending foreclosure crisis.

And what’s even more pathetic is that Congress is just now waking up to this debacle.

Source:  Boston Globe

Today, every homeowner is acutely aware of the rapid decline in property values. The real estate euphoria that took place during the “boom” years at the beginning of this decade has vanished. Prices have plummeted and home equity has simply evaporated. For many owners this loss of equity poses a grave threat. Owners who bought or refinanced a home during the boom, now find themselves “underwater” owing more on their mortgage than their house is worth. Those with adjustable mortgage rates may discover that their monthly payments have risen and are now out of reach. For others the steep economic decline and dramatic job losses have cut income, leaving them no longer able to afford their monthly payments

One in every eight Americans is now late on a payment or in foreclosure, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, (MBA) About half of the new foreclosures were in four states: California, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada. While 11 percent of all mortgages in Florida were in foreclosure, the Massachusetts foreclosure rate was 2.8 percent with 12,000 foreclosures in 2008

This foreclosure crisis though is more than a national crisis. It is a community problem that affects our town’s neighborhoods. Middlesex County leads Massachusetts with 1,741 foreclosure filings so far this year. In Billerica there have been 61 foreclosure filings since the beginning of the year, giving it the 23^rd highest foreclosure rate in Massachusetts ahead of 335 cities and towns across the state. Even though there are powerful market forces that are driving this, foreclosures can almost always be stopped.

Foreclosure can be stopped because property owners have a great deal more bargaining than they realize. Taking a property back through foreclosure is always the last resort for banks. The fact is banks do not want to own property. Rehabbing, managing and selling homes are not want banks do. In fact, foreclosure is very expensive for banks. Analysis from Freddie Mac and large banks show that the average cost of foreclosure is $60,000. That is in addition to the loss incurred on the sale which often amounts to 20 percent to 25 percent of the loan’s value. Because of this banks have a strong incentive to work out the problems with the loan and try to find an accommodation with the borrower.

In order to access their negotiating power, owners who are concerned about foreclosure must take two immediate steps, (1) understand and evaluate their options, and (2) take immediate action. The first step in this process is for the borrower to contact their lender. By simply notifying the bank, the borrower is opening a dialogue and beginning the negotiating process. It gives the bank the good news that like them, the borrower wants to do all they can to work out an alternative to foreclosure.

While there several strategies a borrower can use to avoid foreclosure, there are three that are primary, (1) refinance, (2) loan modification and (3) short sale. The new government Home Affordability and Stability plan offers incentives for all three. Borrowers who are current on their payments, but owe more than their house is worth may be eligible to refinance, lowering their monthly payments. Owners who are behind may seek to modify the terms of their loan be extending the length of the term, lowering the interest, or both.

Borrowers who owe more than their house is worth, want to move, or do not qualify for other options can sell their property through a “short sale.” A short sale enables an owner to sell their property for less than the amount they owe on their mortgage. In almost all cases this allows the owner to sell their property quickly, free themselves from mortgage debt completely and take advantage of the Mortgage Debt Relief act to not pay taxes on any forgiven debt.

Foreclosure has a direct, negative effect on both the borrower and the lender. More importantly though, foreclosures drive down property values for the entire community. Homes currently on the market become less sellable, more owners are put at risk and foreclosure becomes more likely, creating a negative, downward spiral in the housing market that effects us all. It does not have to be like this though. A property owner who arms themselves with information and takes action has the power to stop foreclosure in it’s tracks.

If you would like free information on what action you can take please visit or web site at www. ConcordRiverGroup.com or call us at 800 – 494 – 4971 ext 106.

Source – Michael Longo, President of Concord River Group.

So be warned: Foreclosure rescue scams are on the rise, taking thousands of dollars from desperate mortgage holders, or even tricking them into signing over the deed to their homes.

Federal and state officials have said they are cracking down on those scams. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has filed civil complaints against three different mortgage rescue schemes. And both Massachusetts and New Hampshire have laws that limit what any for-profit entity can do to “help” someone facing foreclosure. Still, an informed consumer is a better-protected consumer. And as is the case in any business transaction, extravagant promises are unlikely to be kept. First, those who approach you with an offer to protect you from foreclosure are likely to have their interests, not yours, as a priority. Second, the best and safest thing a mortgage holder can do is to try to negotiate directly with the bank. Given the state of the economy, many of them are willing to discuss ways to modify the payment schedule. Most of them don’t want to take your house any more than you want to lose it. Third, most communities or regions have nonprofit organizations that provide homeowner counseling for free, like Neighborhood Legal Services in Lawrence. But Coakley and other officials also offer reminders to stressed mortgage holders who might be approached by a firm offering to help keep them in their home

• Unless it is an attorney you have hired, don’t give anyone any money upfront. It is illegal to demand it.
• Never transfer the title of your home to another party.
• If you decide to hire a firm, it is required to state precisely how it will help you.
• Do not give personal or credit information to anyone you do not know.
• Remember that your lender must give you a default notice, and 90 days to “cure” it.  

Too many people are victims of the recession. Don’t be victimized again by unscrupulous scammers.