As a real estate investor and former home builder myself, I can assure you that the foreclosure process in Indiana is neither transparent nor understandable to homeowners in distressed situations. Be careful though, Mr. Zoeller, this is no time for threats of retaliation (Spitzer style) against mortgage companies or real estate agents ... this is a time for solutions that save homes.
Follow the Governor's lead, go look at the crisis, look for emergency solutions ... then surround yourself with people that understand the problem and come up with long-term strategies to avert the problem in the future ... but keep in mind that the dream of homeownership is not to be trampled in this race to look like a savior!
Group Gives Indiana AG "B" Grade For Dealing With Foreclosures
A national community group for low-and-moderate income earners gives Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter a "B" for dealing with the foreclosure crisis. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has graded Attorneys General across the country on how they have handled the issue.
2 comments:
Be careful citing anything from ACORN. Aside from being a far-left pressure group, they contributed to the subprime problems through their unwavering support of the Community Reinvestment Act, which allowed people in low-income neighborhoods to get giant mortages they couldn't afford by forcing banks like Citigroup to do business there with lending guidelines that were lax even by the standards of 2006.
As far as I'm concerned, the foreclsure process should be as easy, quick, and simple as possible for both the lender and homeowner, which isn't exactly what ACORN or liberals propose. Banks must be able to take back their loan collateral. Allowing someone to stay in a house they can't afford does no good either for that person or the bank.
(P.S. CRA is also the reason that the Northern Trust has an office on 78th Street on the South Side of Chicago, which directly takes money from their shareholders by forcing them to do business with unprofitable customers.)
Cow, that's a good point, left wing liberals aren't a good indicator. But I know that our foreclosure process in Indiana is a mess too.
I don't need a liberal to tell me that.
Mortgage companies are doing a terrible job of working with customers who are willing to short sale or deed in lieu, to avert full foreclosure which merely clogs up the courts and costs everyone money.
Foreclosure should be a last resort, but the many other options aren't being used. I'd like to see Greg Zoeller step up to outline some concrete steps to get homes refinanced, get lower interest rate bonds funds, to get cities and towns to purchase homes, and to facilitate faster and more creative ways to save homes when possible.
I may not be toeing the litmus test on conservative on this one, conservatives made some quick money on slippery bond deals ... but frankly neither party provided any leadership during 2007 when the housing business got hammered by media and markets over-reacting.
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