State Gets $7M for Foreclosures

Wisconsin will receive almost $7 million in federal funds for efforts to reduce the neighborhood impact of foreclosed homes, nearly $2.7 million of which is targeted for Milwaukee. The money is intended to help state and local governments acquire, redevelop or demolish foreclosed properties, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article.

Loan Modification Co. Fined, Banned

Federal Loan Modification Center LLP, a California company that markets loan modification and foreclosure rescue services, has been ordered to pay $105,754 for deceptive marketing practices. The company has also been ordered to stop conducting business in Wisconsin. Read more in the Business Journal of Milwaukee.

Oshkosh Area Tallies Foreclosures

The Winnebago County Register of Deeds has recorded more than 300 property transactions in the Oshkosh area this year and almost one in 10 stems from a residential foreclosure, according to the Oshkosh Northwestern. Nationally, home foreclosures increased 9 percent from June to July 2010 and rose 6 percent compared to July 2009, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

Foreclosed Homes Cause Frustration

A Milwaukee homeowner believes that a sump pump in a vacant, foreclosed house next door is responsible for flood damage to her home. She has been increasingly frustrated in dealing with Bank of America, which has owned the vacant home since October 2008. A bank spokeswoman said the homeowner’s frustrations “were an unintentional result of the bank’s mortgage management process.” Read more in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Loan Modifications Help Many

More than 500 homeowners attended a recent Help for Homeowners Community Event in Milwaukee, one of dozens put on around the country by the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable Program, the Hope Now Alliance and NeighborWorks America. Not everyone leaves happy, but so far, almost 3.4 million homeowners have saved their homes through permanent loan modifications since July 2007, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Foreclosures Create Eyesore Properties

Property violations are increasing in Madison, due in large part to foreclosures that have risen 302 percent in the past five years. “The bank has no interest in the property until a certain time,” said Mark Werner, whose Oregon-based company, Inside Out Home Services, contracts with banks to clean up foreclosed properties for resale, in the Wisconsin State Journal. This summer, his crews are cutting 140 lawns in southeast Wisconsin, up from 80 last summer. Read the State Journal article.

Foreclosures Lower Prices by 32%

Wis. Foreclosure Filings Declining So Far in 2010

Firsthand Foreclosure Experience Shared

“The entire foreclosure experience is awful. I still don’t know where I stand after two years of trying to do the right thing. Just because you go through a foreclosure doesn’t make you a bad person,” wrote a reader in a letter to Ken King of Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Sheboygan, which detailed his experiences with his bank. Read more in the Sheboygan Press.

M&I Again Extends Foreclosure Moratorium

Marshall & Ilsley Corp. has again extended a moratorium on home foreclosures that has been in place since December 2008 – this time through Sept. 30, 2010, The Business Journal of Milwaukee reported.