The Occupy Wall Street movement that has rapidly spread across the nation has seemingly found a few new streets to occupy, all streets that have foreclosed residences or residences facing imminent foreclosure. All across the US, Occupy protestors have been "reclaiming" foreclosed homes and boarded up properties in what some are calling a "tactical shift" in the movement which has targeted the inequality in the distribution of wealth in the US.

Occupy protestors have held rallies on behalf of homeowners facing foreclosure evictions in more than 25 cities within the last month. Some observers are saying the shift of the Occupy movement has resulted out of necessity, as many Occupy groups are finding it increasingly difficult to camp in public spaces.

Jeff Ordower, one of the organizers of the "Occupy Homes" movement has stated "it is clear the fight is against the banks...so occupying space that should belong to homeowners but belongs to the banks seems like the next logical step for the Occupy movement." The events have been boisterous and echo the frustrations of the national housing crisis. Signs have popped up stating things such as "foreclose on banks, not people" and in Atlanta protestors used whistles and sirens to disrupt the auctions of foreclosed homes at the count courthouse.

If you are one of the thousands of Floridians facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for a complimentary case review in order to determine what foreclosure defense options may be available to you.

Courts in Florida cleared greater than 200,000 of the backlogged foreclosure cases that were plaguing the system in 2010. These numbers represent a nearly 43% decline in outstanding foreclosure cases. The $6 million allocated by the Florida Legislature to establish the foreclosure "rocket docket" courts and clear the backlog but the effectiveness of the special courts have been called into question and the 2010 numbers evidence they may not have been as effective as the total number of disposed cases initially leads Floridians to believe.

Almost half of the disposed cases due disposed of due to dismissals by Plaintiff banks. Dismissals can occur for several reasons, ranging from a mutual agreement via mediation to voluntary dismissals on the part of bank. A total of 104,126 were dismissed in this fashion in 2010. Many foreclosure observers are pointing to two primary reasons for the high number of dismissals: 1) the voluntary dismissals on the part of banks due to errors or fraud in the creation of foreclosure related documents and 2) the closing of giant "foreclosure mill" the Law Offices of David J. Stern without officially withdrawing from its cases, which put thousands of cases in limbo.

The unfortunate thing that is hidden by this seeming relief from the foreclosure backlog is that most of the dismissed cases will be refiled. if you are currently facing, or will be facing in the near future, a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a St. Augustine Foreclosure Lawyer today for a free consultation to determine what foreclosure defenses may be available to you.

In the great majority of foreclosure cases, the first mortgage holder is usually the one that brings the foreclosure action. But what about when there is a second mortgage involved? The second mortgage may file a foreclosure just to protect interest in the property, but this is a rare occurrence for several reasons.

While a second lien holder can file for foreclosure, due to the dramatic decline in home prices, only the first mortgage holder will usually get paid via any sale or auction that takes place. Since these home sales usually involve interested buyers looking for relatively cheap homes, the house usually sells for much more than is owed on the mortgage. Since there is likely not enough money to even pay off the property taxes, and potential homeowners association arrearages and first mortgage after the sale, it just doesn't usually make financial sense for the second mortgage company to initiate the foreclosure proceeding. But of course, that doesn't mean that second mortgage holders cannot or will not file a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit from the holder of the second mortgage on your home, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to determine what options are available in your particular case.

What is going on in with all of the Foreclosure craziness? This has been the question for millions of homeowners dealing with the potential loss of a home right now. People have heard the horror stories of predatory lending, and the other stories of unqualified homeowners working with brokers to deceive lenders to get financed. But many mortgages fall somewhere in between, leaving big question marks in place of answers the housing market desperately needs.

As a greater number of questions are pouring in, however, searching for answers has become a daunting task. MIllions of homeowners are in a struggle to hold onto their loans while batting off multiple lenders. The problem is many of the original brokers and lending companies have since gone out of business or been the subject of criminal charges stemming from their faulty practices. Often times, the loans in question have been securitized into a mortgage-backed trust. The issue underlying this confusion is that no one knows whom the owner of the note and mortgage actually is. This is largely because of one four-letter acronym, MERS.

MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration System), a service created to track mortgage transfers, was created in 1994. MERS replaced the old system of "walking" every important mortgage document to the County Clerk's office. With this shortcut in place, lenders were able to save millions of dollars in local recording fees and started transferring mortgages at a pace that, we would later learn, was far too much to handle. So grueling, in fact, MERS failed to properly follow state and local laws in documenting these transfers. Now when it comes time to foreclose instead of documenting each transfer, MERS allegedly signs the mortgage from the original lender to the most recent owner.Many courts are now deciding whether MERS has actual standing to foreclose.

There are things you can do to be prepared for or stave off a potential foreclosure. One of the most important is to communicate with your lender. If you are facing the prospect of foreclosure, contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to determine what foreclosure defenses may be available in your specific case.

Much of the recent foreclosure crisis news has centered on homeowners and investors and their fight to get compensation compensation from banks due to foreclosures. But in the coming months, mortgage servicers will be undergoing drastic changes that every interested homeowner should know about. Primarily, the changes will surround the addition of thousands of sub-servicers to what has become a busy foreclosure docket.

Wells Fargo, for example, has brought its loss mitigation team up from 6,000 to 16,000 members. The bank has also dedicated a mortgage specialist to manage each modification from beginning to end, a practice heralded in the mortgage service industry as award winning and the first of its kind. Wells Fargo's endeavors include the addition of 27 home preservation centers in the hardest-hit communities around the country.

Some companies have hired even more representatives. JP Morgan Chase hired 10,100 new employees to help mitigate its increased workload. The company also plans to have 82 "Chase Homeownership Centers" since the end of Summer 2011. Bank of America has expanded its homeowner assistance team from 3,900 in 2008 to a whopping 35,000 employees by the end of this year. Bank of America also opened 23 new customer assistance centers and promises to bring that number to 40 by the end of the summer.

Working with your servicer and attending any workshops they might offer is always a good idea when behind on mortgage payments. The fact that there are more servicers available to work with you might be a great help, but it may also accelerate the foreclosure process. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit and are interest in exploring your foreclosure options, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today.

Many homeowners who use foreclosure alternatives such as short sales or mortgage modifications in order to have a portion of their mortgage debt forgiven face the question "am I going to have to pay taxes on the amount of mortgage debt forgiven." In most instances that answer is no! The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 was enacted to help homeowners who were trying to escape toxic mortgages and the accompanying debt by not taxing the amounts forgiven as taxable income.

Homeowners who intend to claim the exemption must fill out Form 982 and attach it to their individual tax return in order to be eligible for the relief. Types of eligible debt are debts forgiven in connection with a foreclosure, debt forgiven due to a short sale as well as debt forgiven through a mortgage restructuring such as a HAMP modification. The Act was originally intended to only affect mortgage debt forgiven in 2007, 2008 and 2009 but was recently extended to include all forgiven mortgage debt through 2012!

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit and want to explore foreclosure alternatives that may reduce your mortgage debt and take advantage of the extension of the Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

Last week the Chief Executive Officers of MERS, R. K. Arnold, issued a statement to the Kansas City Star defending the organization's practices and clarifying its role in the current mortgage crisis. This statement comes as many people have begun to point a finger at MERS for further complicating the trail of ownership of mortgage loans. Mr. Arnold defends MERS practices by stating that MERS is just one cog in the complicated, overall housing finance process and that MERS efficiency in "technology designed to reduce paperwork" saves both money and time for the American homeowner and "keeps mortgage funds flowing to the consumers who need it."

When addressing the current problems in the foreclosure process, he states that the foreclosure process was simply not designed to handle the volume of foreclosures it is now seeing. Mr. Arnold also confidently states "MERS helps the mortgage finance process work better. The MERS process of tracking mortgages and holding title provides clarity, transparency and efficiency to the housing finance system. We are committed to continually ensuring that everyone who has responsibilities in the mortgage and foreclosure process follows local and state laws, as well as our own training and rules."

With more than 64 million loans registered in the MERS system and thousands of allegations of lost mortgage documents, purposeful circumvention of state and local mortgage recording statutes and even document fraud, MERS and its CEO appear to take no responsibility for the role it has played and continues to play in the nationwide foreclosure crisis. If you have a loan that purports to be owned by MERS and are facing foreclosure, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to schedule a no-cost review of your case.

With many state Attorneys General investigating mortgage lenders foreclosure paperwork, three of the nations largest mortgage lenders suspending some or all of their foreclosure activities and millions of American homeowners pleading for help, advisors within the Obama administration are indicating that President Obama is opposed to a national foreclosure moratorium. Senior advisor to President Obama, David Axelrod, stated on Face the Nation that while the administration acknowledges that the allegations of fraud in foreclosure documentation are a "serious problem," the administration does not support a national moratorium because "there are, in fact, valid foreclosures that probably should go forward and where the documentation and paperwork is proper."

Commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration, David Stevens, agreed with the White House stance stating he believed that a foreclosure moratorium "is simply not the prudent step to take in this fragile housing market." The prevailing fear that most opponents of a national foreclosure moratorium have is that a moratorium will not change the result of many foreclosure lawsuits but it will more than likely stifle any hope of a swift recovery of the national housing market.

To date, five companies have suspended some aspect of their foreclosure litigation but most have stated that the suspensions will only last a few weeks while they clear up any "procedural errors." If you are facing a Fernandina Beach foreclosure lawsuit, contact Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to explore what defenses could be available to you.

According to the numbers released last week by the HOPE NOW Alliance, mortgage servicers completed 149,000 loan modifications for U.S. homeowners in August. Broken down the numbers show that 33,000 modifications were completed through the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) while 116,000 homeowners were given a modification through proprietary loan modification programs. One of the most positive statistics from these numbers is the fact that 91% of the modification in August, 105,000, contained a decrease in monthly principle and interest payments for borrowers.

In the year to date 1.3 million homeowners have received some form of mortgage modification, bringing the total to 3.7 million modifications since the housing crisis began in 2007. In addition to the mortgage modification numbers, HOPE NOW released data that showed mortgages behind by 60 days or more fell by almost 43,000 mortgage, from 3,298,236 in July to 3.256,682 in August.

If you are one of the thousands of Floridians facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit and are interested potentially getting a loan modification, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune recently published a story detailing the new depths that banks are stooping in order to retake Florida homes. Allegations of breaking an entering and changing the locks, plundering personal possessions and theft are just a few of the allegations many homeowners are making regarding the banks behavior.

In one instance, a family of Canadian tourists returned to their rented beach house only to find their keys no longer worked, a half empty beer bottle sitting on the kitchen counter and their laptop computer, MP3 player and 6 bottles of wine were missing. The tourists were so alarmed by the turn of events they believed the home had been broken into by burglars and called the police. As it happened, the lender hired a Sarasota company to break in and change the locks in an effort to retake the property. Under Florida law it is illegal for a bank representative to enter a home if the bank has not yet taken the property through a foreclosure sale, especially if that property appears to be occupied.

In this case, the tourists decided that they no longer felt safe in their rental home and the homeowner was forced to return a portion of their money and pay for some of the missing property. This presents a problem for the homeowner because most police investigators categorize the break-ins at civil disputes because the banks and their hired contractors do not display the necessary criminal intent, making monetary recovery for the homeowner almost impossible.

Many foreclosure experts predict that as instances like this become more commonplace, law enforcement officials will be less and less inclined to help homeowners. If you have had an instance where you believe your mortgage company has broken into your home, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer and Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

Yesterday, Attorneys General from all 50 states announces the largest investigation into the foreclosure practices of the nations largest banks and mortgage firms to date. The organizational push was led by Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller who will continue to head the group, now called the Mortgage Foreclosure Multistate Group.

The first order of business for the new investigative body is to look further into allegations of "robo-signers" at several of the nations largest mortgage lenders and servicers. Many legal experts have predicted that if the practice of "robo-signing" was as prevalent as alleged, heavy civil and criminal penalties could be imposed. Prior to the group forming, seven states Attorneys General have announced probes based on recent allegations of "robo-signers" at many of the nations largest mortgage lenders and the Senate Banking Committee is set to hold hearings on November 16 to investigate these foreclosure practices.

A record 95,364 homes were repossessed by mortgage lenders in August and this investigation is the latest in a rising tide of bad news for those lenders pursuing foreclosures. If you are facing a foreclosure claim, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today for a consultation

With announcements from three of the nations largest mortgage lenders that they will halt foreclosure proceedings and sale in 23 states as a result of allegations of document fraud comes a new wrinkle: those seeking to buy foreclosed homes are having increasing difficulty doing so. In states with extremely an extremely high volume of foreclosed homes, such as Florida, consumers are finding that home purchase contracts, some already approved and on the verge of completion, are being suspended anywhere from 30-90 days to ensure that the homes were foreclosed and repossessed properly. This has left many of those potential homebuyers virtually homeless and scrambling for some place to stay.

Most of the homes that are being withdrawn from the market are owned and held by mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Many commercial mortgage lenders, such as Bank of American and Wells Fargo, sell their repossessed homes and accompanying mortgages back to Fannie Mae once the house has been repossessed and Fannie Maw has been busy in recent weeks sending emails to real estate agents to remove Fannie Mae properties from their listing and to freeze deals on existing Fannie Mae homes. In one instance, a South Florida realtor stated that half of his sale inventory has been wiped away by the freeze.

This is the latest in a series of unintended consequences of the foreclosure fraud fallout that continues to harm U.S. consumers. If you live in Ponte Vedra Beach or Jacksonville and you are facing a Florida Foreclosure lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today for a no cost consultation to review your case.

STOP THE PRESS

Without title insurance, the home is not able to be sold except to a cash buyer who would not be able to sell it later where financing would be required.

This means the foreclosed home is essentially worthless.

If you recently purchased a foreclosed home, you should check your title policy for exclusions which could limit your ability to sell your home in the future. Contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer to discuss your situation.

Today the Obama administration announced a broader mortgage relief program aimed at helping homeowners who are both current on their mortgage payments yet are at risk of default because they are "underwater" in their home values. The program, initially dubbed the "short refinance" program, lenders will write-down mortgage balances to 115% of the current market value of the home, then transfer the loans to the Federal Housing Authority. Official preliminary estimates are that 500,000 to 1.5 million homeowners could be benefited by the new program

According to the latest numbers from housing analysis firm CoreLogic, 23% of American homes, approximately 11 million, are "underwater" and at risk of default. One of the most persistent problems that has mired others modification programs is what do lenders do with second mortgages. The new program mandates that second liens be reduced so that the total mortgage debt is less than 115% of the home's current value. The government will make partial payments for banks to reduce those loans, but lenders have been unwilling to write down second mortgages that remain current.

Another potential stumbling block for the "short refinance" program is that lenders and mortgage servicers are still the ones in charge of the process and must be willing to write-down the values. Many mortgage servicers are already overwhelmed and an influx of new request for mortgage help, this time from homeowners who are current on their loans, may only exacerbate that problem.

If you are a Florida homeowner facing default or are considering a strategic default due to your home being underwater, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to discuss your options.