Two non-profit housing organizations have teamed up to transform foreclosed and abandoned homes into affordable housing. Habitat for Humanity, which has built more than 350,000 houses for impoverished families worldwide since its founding in 1976, and National Community Stabilization Trust, a federally sponsored initiative that revitalizes neighborhoods badly damaged by the foreclosure crisis, will partner for two years to purchase and rehabilitate the “REOs” or real estate owned properties. The homes will be purchased from participating lenders, including Bank of America, Chase Bank, Citibank, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, through funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, [more]

From the February issue: Major residential brokerages may still snub their noses at the listings, but a growing number of firms, particularly in the outer boroughs, are fighting for a share of the foreclosed homes market. Lenders took back thousands of homes in New York State last year and thousands more face foreclosure this year. Take Staten Island-based Wonica Realtors and Appraisers. Last year, according to founder and president George Wonica, the firm’s REO division, which specializes in marketing and selling foreclosed residential properties in Staten Island and Brooklyn, accounted for almost 80 percent of his firm’s revenue. “It carried the office,” Wonica told The Real Deal. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” The marketplace for REOs — or “Real Estate Owned” by the bank because they did not successfully sell at a foreclosure auction — is thriving in places hit hard by the housing downturn. In New York City that usually means in the outer boroughs, although Manhattan is not impervious.  [more] [more]

Despite glimmers of a recovery in the housing sector, chaos theorists
argue that the worst is yet to come. The banks are holding back a
significant number of homes, in order not to overwhelm the market, but
the properties may eventually come up for auction anyway. There are
also reports that some people have stopped paying their mortgages,
contributing to a longer-lasting housing crisis. These homeowners have
stopped payments in the hope of qualifying for mortgage modifications
or out of fear of job losses, according to George W. Mantor, founder
and president of Associates Financial Group, a real estate consulting
firm. With banks and servicing companies already overwhelmed by the
increasing amounts of short sales and defaults, these non-payers are
able to get away with skipping a few mortgage payments. [more]