Mortgage Relief for Medical Bills and Unemployment

I noticed an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about a new pool of Federal assistance money. This might be a good strategy for borrowers to bridge the gap while temporarily unemployed, or if hit with unexpected medical bills. It could also be part of a plan to best utilize a short sale on your principal residence, as the assistance money will “buy” some time for you and your family to resume payments on your mortgage, or will give us ample time to negotiate a short sale with your bank. Congress has just come up with an extra $1 billion to help people who can’t pay their mortgage because of unemployment or a medical problem. Under this new Emergency Mortgage Relief program, eligible homeowners who are at least three months delinquent can get up to $50,000 apiece in federal loans to pay their mortgages. The money for this program came in the financial regulation bill signed last week and will be made available to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development... [continued...]

Homebuyer Credit Will Be Extended!

This just in! The House of Representatives has approved, and President Obama is expected to sign, a bill that extends the $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit until September 30, 2010. Also available is for existing homeowners is a $6,500 credit on the purchase of their next home. These credits were previously due to expire on June 30th. The new deadline requires purchases to close their escrows by September 30th. Here’s a good article on CNN Money with more information about this important story.

Making an Offer on a Short Sale? What You Need to Know…

Are you looking to buy a new home? Are you thinking that now’s a great time to find bargains? That’s true, but it pays to know a little about the seller’s situation before you make an offer. If a home is being sold for below what the current seller owes on the property—and the seller does not have other funds to make up the difference at closing—the sale is considered a short sale. Many more home owners are finding themselves in this situation due to a number of factors, including job losses, aggressive borrowing against their home in the days of easy credit, and declining home values in a slower real estate market. A short sale is different from a foreclosure, which is when the seller’s lender has taken title of the home and is selling it directly. Homeowners often try to accomplish a short sale in order to avoid foreclosure. But a short sale holds many potential pitfalls for buyers. Know the risks before you pursue a short-sale purchase. You’re a good... [continued...]

Celebrity Foreclosures – Nicholas Cage

Even Academy Award winners are suffering from financial woes this recession. Actor Nicolas Cage lost two homes in New Orleans worth a total of $6.8 million in a foreclosure auction Thursday. Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Bank purchased Cage’s 1140 Royal Street property in the French Quarter appraised at $3.5 million for $2.3 million. The bank, which has about 1,900 branches throughout the South, Midwest and Texas, paid $2.2 million for Cage’s 2523 Prytania Street property appraised at $3.3 million in the Garden District. Read the rest of the story by Hibah Yousuf, CNNMoney.com staff reporter, on Yahoo.com