Of New York City-based brokers working through the downturn, 85 percent report that the recession has affected their personal lives, a survey of 200 residential brokers released today by title insurance company Entitle Direct said. When talking to brokers nationally, that number jumps to 87 percent.
The survey shows the disproportionate affect the housing slump has had on the real estate community, impacting more than just brokers’ bottom lines. – Guelda Voien [more]
People living in the country’s priciest and glitziest zip codes haven’t escaped the foreclosure crisis, according to recent data cited by Forbes, with northern North Jersey and southern New York having the largest total number of pricey neighborhoods riddled by foreclosures in the nation. Among these pricey neighborhoods are Great Neck and Old Wesbury.
Loss of income may be the most common reason for foreclosures in pricey neighborhoods but experts say they’re seeing a rise in the number of strategic foreclosures on that end of the market.
The price lenders must pay to move past the federal investigation into their foreclosure practices went up by $5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. And it could rise higher.
The ongoing negotiations between government officials and banks, which appeared close to being finalized in September at a cost of $20 billion to the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers, have centered on a new number: $25 billion. The final cost could eventually reach $29 billion.
The lenders in question are Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo [more]
From the August issue: For all the unconventional housing arrangements people devise to afford living in New York City, the timeshare, historically, has not been one of them. There are just two timeshare-only buildings in all of Manhattan.
And, at first blush, the owners of those timeshares — at the 161-unit Hilton Grand Vacations Club on West 57th Street and the 300-unit Manhattan Club on West 56th Street — appear to be struggling.
Since opening in 2009, the Hilton Grand has seen 52 lis pendens, or pre-foreclosure filings, and six foreclosures among its timeshare owners. Meanwhile, the Manhattan Club has witnessed 17 lis pendens and 22 foreclosures since 2007, according to real estate data website PropertyShark. [more]
Developer Kent Swig is facing foreclosure on the 740 Park Avenue co-op where his wife is staying during their divorce, the New York Post reported. Bank of America has reportedly taken legal action against Swig and his wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of Harry Macklowe, and is seeking to repossess the apartment and evict Elizabeth since the former couple haven’t made payments on their loans in 22 months, according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.
The couple signed documents for a consolidated loan of $4.7 million on their apartment in 2007, but stopped paying by August 2009. They also ceased making monthly payments of more than $62,000 on a short-term, January 2009 loan for $12.8 million, the Post said. [more]
Foreclosure rates in New York-White Plains-Wayne jumped to 5.08 percent in March, according to a report by CoreLogic, up 1.47 percent from March 2010 when the rate was 3.61 percent. Foreclosure activity in the area remains higher than the national average which was 3.57 percent in March this year.
The mortgage delinquency rate in New York-White Plains-Wayne has also increased. According to CoreLogic data, 8.48 percent of mortgage loans were 90 days or more delinquent compared to 8.25 percent for the same period last year. TRD [more]
The foreclosure auction of a piece of defaulted mezzanine debt on the Flatiron District’s MAve Hotel at 62 Madison Avenue between 27th and 28th streets, was postponed today when the property’s developers filed for Chaper 11 bankruptcy, according to Crain’s.
Madison Hotel Owners, purportedly the public face of Joseph Ben Moha, the owner of Roxy Deli, and Benzion Suky, a principal at Livorno Properties, filed late last night, according to court documents. The developers have total liabilities of $9.3 million, the documents revealed. [more]
Funding has run dry for more than 120 legal aid agencies across New York state that provide counsel to distressed homeowners, the New York Times reported. A federal stimulus program has financed the agencies since 2009, but by the end of this year that money will be completely spent. Some Democrats tried to ensure the survival of these agencies by allocating $4 million of the state budget towards foreclosure-prevention spending for the three months between the end of the federal financing and the beginning of the state’s next fiscal year. But their proposal was unsuccessful, and so too was a $1.5 million budget earmark proposed by Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez that was vetoed by Governor Andrew Cuomo. [more]
So-called loan modification “specialists” are coming under fire for taking thousands of dollars from struggling borrowers in exchange for the promise of lower monthly mortgage payments and not following through. According to the Wall Street Journal, a group of pro bono foreclosure attorneys filed a lawsuit yesterday in state Supreme Court in Nassau County that named several loan modification companies operating out of Garden City, which have allegedly scammed homeowners into believing that they had better chances of getting their mortgage payments modified if they paid for the companies’ services. [more]
A new program to aid struggling homeowners with their property taxes and water and sewer bills is also expected to generate additional revenue for the city, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Lien Sale Reform and Authorization Act, approved by the City Council this week, allows the city to sell liens on two- and three-family homes with up to $2,000 in unpaid bills. The city has been making around $40 million per year off of lien sales since it began selling liens to investors in the 1990s, but until now, it has only been able to sell liens on debts of up to $1,000, and only on single-family homes. [more]
