Mortgage Foreclosure
This piece is written for Pennsylvania mortgage cases. If you reside in a different state, contact us, and we will refer you to an attorney near you who can be of help.
A Bit of History
During the first decade of the 21st century there was what has been called a “Sub-Prime Crisis.” Mortgage loans were being granted right and left, many to persons without a realistic and reliable means of repayment. These loans were bundled into trust funds, and peddled among the financial giants. There was a derivative security, called a “Credit Default Swaps” traded that supposedly insured the investor of a limited loss, if any. They provided that if the value of the trust went up, the party on the other end of the swap would pay you. If the value went down, you would pay them. All the trust values went down, and everyone owed everyone else. A number of large financial firms went bankrupt. In the last days of the Bush Administration and the early days of the Obama administration, there was some governmental lending to the big mortgage companies, and a mediation program was set up called the Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP). Under HAMP, the lender was supposed to negotiate with the homeowner who defaulted to reduce the loan payments to an “affordable level.” HAMP worked – a little. Only 25% of homeowners in default were strong enough to enter into HAMP. Of these, only 25% survived, and kept their homes. Do the math. That is a 6% “save rate” under HAMP, not very impressive. The HAMP program is gone, but most of the major lenders have adopted their own version of mortgage modification. Our office has a“save rate” on mortgage modifications well over 50%.
Mediation Today
Many counties have “mediation” programs, where the court orders a stay of the foreclosure case, to give the parties time to negotiate a modification. The financial formulas developed under the former HAMP program are still helpful to determine if the home loan is salvageable. From the inception of HAMP in 2009 to date, we have had a better than 60% success rate in getting modifications for our clients. Only 3 of our 30 or so clients who entered modification lost their homes, leaving us with 54% “save rate,” quite a bit better than the national average.
Foreclosure Defense
On the right is a slide show that explains the procedure, the sequence of events, and our approach to defending a foreclosure.
Questions?
Use the “Contact Us” utility on this website, or just give us a call or Email. Tel: 610-972-2494; E-Mail: AskDave@daviddunnlaw.com