Alexis McGee, who rose to national fame for her foreclosure prevention website Foreclosure.com, which she founded 15 years ago, is now in need of some sound mortgage advice herself. McGee, also a successful author, is now counting herself among the many distressed homeowners nationwide, according to the Sacramento Bee, after going into default on her Fair Oaks, Calif. home in June. She and her husband now owe $1.7 million on the property, they say, as they try to arrange a short sale on their home. [Sacramento Bee]

Auctioneer Real Estate Disposition has scored a Hamptons beach house foreclosure auction. The 3,000-square-foot Montauk home will hit the block next week, according to the Wall Street Journal, in a region that has remained relatively immune from the foreclosure crisis. The three-bedroom, four-bathroom home was sold for $1.28 million in 2006 and has a starting bid of $379,000. This is the auction company’s first Hamptons-area foreclosure listing, according to a spokesperson, out of the more than 27,500 properties auctioned so far this year across the country. [WSJ]

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While the home foreclosure crisis has had a heavy influence on the nation’s economic recovery, industry experts have now turned their attention to how it might affect the political arena, according to the New York Times. Because voters must register a home address to vote, analysts are concerned that the growing number of people whose home situations are in limbo may result in a subsequent decline at the polls. Robert Brandon, president of the Fair Elections Legal Network, pointed out that the foreclosure crisis could ultimately disenfranchise many voters, while distracting those who could vote from getting out on election day. “Unfortunately, voting is probably not the number one thing that’s on their mind right now,” Brandon said. [NYT]

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The rate of foreclosures in New York City grew in the first quarter of the year, according to the Wall Street Journal, with new data from the New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate suggesting that the foreclosure crisis may still be taking its toll on the five boroughs. New York City saw 16.3 percent more foreclosures in the first quarter of the year than in the same quarter a year earlier, according to the Furman Center, with 4,226 foreclosures recorded. Foreclosure activity was largely localized in Queens and Brooklyn, with the two boroughs accounting for 70 percent of the foreclosures in the city. Queens saw 1,556 foreclosures during the first quarter, while Brooklyn saw 1,546. Manhattan saw the least amount of activity in the city, with just 164 foreclosures recorded during the quarter. [WSJ]

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Scores of homeowners have been foreclosed upon by mistake because of disorganization at banks and mortgage servicers, a ProPublica investigation found. In some cases, the communication structure is so broken that even while one arm of a company is foreclosing on a borrower, another is still offering that same borrower a loan modification. [more]

While Atlantic Yards opponent Daniel Goldstein held his ground against Bruce Ratner for a while, an Ohio man in this MSNBC video may put him to shame. After a bank recently foreclosed his home of 20 years, Keith Sadler barricaded his front door and pledged that he would not leave willingly. Sadler said that his move is a peaceful protest — there are no weapons involved — of how banks treat homeowners.

A package of state foreclosure legislation that will enforce broad protections for troubled homeowners is set to take effect April 15. The new laws aim to crack down on loan modification scams, extend the number of days banks are required to give notice before foreclosing on a home and demand that banks provide upkeep on foreclosed homes to avoid degradation of property values. The bills, which were signed into law last December, are also designed to help homeowners who did not take out subprime mortgages but, nonetheless, face foreclosure. “A lot of innocent bystanders were impacted by [the] subprime crisis,” State Senator Jeff Klein said. “These are people who played by the rules and paid their mortgages on time.”

The number of foreclosures filed in November hit 306,627, down 8 percent over the number filed in October, according to the most recent data from RealtyTrac. This was the fourth consecutive monthly decline, with the number of foreclosures filed declining 3 percent in October, 4 percent in September and 1 percent in August, month-over-month. James Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac, cited foreclosure prevention efforts and ramped up loan modification programs as key in the decreased number of filings. Even so, the number has yet to rebound from figures seen a year ago. November 2009’s filings were up 18 percent over the number seen during the same time period a year earlier.

As the country sits awash in foreclosures, one Brooklyn judge, Arthur Schack, has made a habit of rejecting incomplete and inaccurate foreclosure papers — in the last two years, he’s rejected 46 of the 102 requests he’s received from bankers, lawyers and other foreclosure-seekers of their ilk. His controversial pattern has garnered both praise and criticism. Some judicial experts feel he’s a worthy opponent to a mortgage industry in dire need of reform; others, such as an unnamed HSBC banker, say his sympathies set “dangerous precedent.” Regardless, Schack contends that all of the foreclosure motions he denies are based on factual inaccuracies and not Robin Hood tendencies. “If you are going to take away someone’s house, everything should be legal and correct,” Schack said. “I’m a strange guy — I don’t want to put a family on the street unless it’s legitimate.”