C'mon Menifee; we've all seen it. That empty home on our street. If not your street, than the next block over. That foreclosure in your neighborhood. It has hit this area even harder than many of the rest of the nation. But what can we do?
When you purchased your home, you made an investment not just within your property lines, but an investment in your neighborhood, in Menifee itself. You said to the rest of the world, "I believe Menifee is an up and coming area. I believe it will grow! I believe it will be a wonderful place to raise my children." Now you are disappointed and disheartened to see the heartless home in your neighborhood; heartless because it's residents couldn't meet up to their end of the deal. But don't dismay.
Real estate has a certain ebb and flow, a ying and yang, that will never falter. The tide goes out, sure, and we are all upside down in our equity right now. But just as certain as the tide went out, the tide will return. You can bank on it. You already have.
What can you do? Make another investment in your home, your street, your neighborhood, in Menifee. Keep that foreclosure from looking like a foreclosure. Pick up the newspapers, flyers and handbills the solicitors drop. Keep trash out of the yard. If your hose can reach, water the lawn, maybe even mow the yard if you can. How is this your investment? Because we all want to attract the best neighbor possible. When your new neighbors move in, (and they will) don't you want them to be just like you? Someone who cares about their home, their neighborhood and Menifee? I know I do.

Labels: Foreclosures, homes, neighborhood

Even if you received no money from a foreclosure sale, you may have to pay capital-gains taxes on the phantom income. And that's not all.By Kay Bell, Bankrate.com
More from Bankrate.com
If you thought a foreclosure ended the financial miseries associated with your former home, think again. You soon could be hearing from the IRS about taxes due in connection with the residence you no longer own.
"You can walk away from the big house payment, but not from the potential tax implications," says John W. Roth, senior tax analyst at CCH in Riverwoods, Ill. "And if you couldn't afford the mortgage, you probably can't afford the taxes."
As the lending crisis continues to shake out, more homeowners, particularly those who used creative mortgages to buy their houses, could be in this predicament. Even longtime homeowners who refinanced their properties based on increased value when the real-estate market was hot could find themselves in tax trouble if they lose their properties to the bank.
Forgiven but not forgotten.
Read more of this article at http://realestate.msn.com/selling/Article_bankrate.aspx?cp-documentid=5427263

Labels: Foreclosures, Taxes

John Occhi, a Realtor in Hemet, writes a blog on the ActiveRain blog network and this week he published a list of the top 500 zip codes in the United States with the most foreclosure filings.

Menifee (92584) came in ranked at #253, with 217 filings in 2006.

You can see the full chart he prepared at this link...
http://activerain.com/blogsview/132444/Hemet-two-of-138

Being at #253 put's our town right in the middle of the pack. But before you consider that average, keep in mind this is a list of the top 500 worst zip codes. There are approximately 43,000 zip codes total in the USA. That puts Menifee in the top 1% of the country in foreclosures.

Among all the South West Riverside County zip codes, Murrieta's 92563 ranks #22, the worst in SW County, with 465 filings.

That's followed by Murrieta's 92562, ranking at #55, with 358 filings, and Temecula's 92592, at #70.

Perris (92571) at #97, then Menifee (92584) at #253, then Lake Elsinore (92530) at #258, Hemet (92544) at #313, and Hemet (92545) at #396, rounds out the rest of SW County's top 500 representatives.

One observation I have to add is that Murrieta and Temecula's zip codes rank much higher than other SW County cities in foreclosures. Why is that? First of all, people buying homes in SW County come here for the affordable housing, so right off the bat they have tight finances to begin with. But instead of buying a home in Menifee, Hemet, Lake Elsinore, or Perris, they opted to spend a little more in buying a home in Murrieta and Temecula.

I presume they were attracted by the abundance of shopping and dining, as well as the higher quality schools, and probably the slightly shorter commutes into San Diego County. But as the foreclosure data shows, taking on a higher mortgage payment to get a little bit of luxury was a bad decision.

How does this foreclosure data affect our home values?

I'm not a real estate expert, so I can't really speak from knowledge. But I do know that banks tend to sell foreclosed properties at prices much lower than typical home sellers. If you're selling your home at $400,000, and a bank is selling a foreclosed home just like yours, on the same block, for $375,000, it's going to drag the market value down.

Any real estate professionals out there care to comment?

Labels: Foreclosures, Real-Estate

The timeline
30 days: Your troubles actually start as soon as you miss a single payment. Lenders may not contact you until you've skipped a second payment, but most will report the first late payment and every subsequent delinquency to the credit bureaus. Even a single late payment can devastate your credit score, the three-digit number that lenders use to help gauge your creditworthiness. Each subsequent "late" further decreases your score, making it more difficult and expensive to get a loan or a refinance that might help your situation. In addition, lenders typically tack on late fees of 5% or so for each missed payment.
90 days to one year: Eventually, if the payments aren't made, the lender will file a d"notice of default" with a local courthouse and send you a letter saying that the foreclosure process will start unless you make good the missing payments.
How quickly the notice is filed depends on the individual lender. Some hold off if you contact them to work out a payment plan or otherwise explain your situation. Others are more aggressive and start the process as soon as possible to try to protect their investment.
"They may do it as early as 90 days, or as late as a year," explained Anthony Hsieh, president of LendingTree.com. "It really depends on the lender's temperament."
Usually, this notice means that the amount you owe has shot up as well, since the lender typically adds substantial fees to cover its legal costs.
The notice of default "is a big threshold," Hsieh said. "Once you get into that state, it's a whole different world. Your options are fewer."
The notice of default is generally picked up by the credit bureaus, further depressing your credit score and making refinancing the loan extremely difficult.
(In addition, the notice tips off scam artists that you're in trouble and may be vulnerable to various "equity skimming" schemes. One common ploy: The scam artist promises to take over your payments, but instead rents out your house and keeps the rent payments as pure profit. The home goes into foreclosure, your credit is trashed and you've lost any equity you had in the home.)
90 days more: Borrowers typically have 90 days from the notice of default to make up the deficit before the lender sends out a "notice of sale," which sets a sale date for the house (typically within the next 15 to 30 days).
Some lenders will allow you to keep your original loan if you can make up the missing payments plus any late fees and legal charges. Others will insist you refinance with another lender. You can also halt the foreclosure, at least temporarily, by filing a lawsuit or filing for bankruptcy. For either legal option to work, you'll have to be able to come up with a payment plan to fix the deficit.
By Liz Pulliam Weston
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/HomeFinancing/FacingForeclosure9Options.aspx?page=all

Labels: Foreclosures, Mortgages

Financial institutions, too, have a lot of money at stake when people lose their homes. That pressure on the bottom line -- and political pressure -- will bring relief to some borrowers.
By Christian Science Monitor
The home-loan industry, facing the worst housing downturn since the early 1990s, is ramping up efforts to help strapped borrowers stay in their homes.
The goal is to restrain a gathering wave of foreclosures that carries big costs for both lenders and borrowers.
These rescue efforts aren't expected to save every at-risk homeowner. But they promise to reduce monthly payments for many who have fallen behind on mortgages. In the process, they could help to stabilize a struggling real estate market.
So far the housing slump, precipitated in part by overzealous borrowing and subprime lending, continues its downward slope.

Finish reading this article at http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/HomeFinancing/LendersMoveToStemForeclosures.aspx?page=all

Labels: Foreclosures, Mortgages