Seminar on Foreclosure Helps Owners to Study Their Options

A seminar on foreclosure and its prevention lasting for 6 hours at Sultana High School, Hesperia, helped owner to study their options. It also led to hopes as lenders, real estate agents and counselors participated and were available to interact directly with the home owners.

Sandy Allen (60) was one of the many afraid of losing her home. She was underwater with her house being worth less than her loans. She bemoaned, “I’m way upside down on my mortgage. There’s no way I’ll be able to afford it in the next few years. I just don’t want to lose it. I’m willing to do without everything else to keep my house. I did it in the 1990s and I’ll do it now if I have the chance.”

The seminar was attended by about 200 people. It was hosted by Inland Empire Economic Recovery Corporation (IEERC). The latter is a non-profit body that buys repairs and sells again foreclosed units in the Inland Empire. It also held similar events in the counties of San Bernardino and Riverside. Allen remarked that there seems to be hope for her as Wells Fargo is keen to help. She would have to provide her income and bill statements.

Allen had lost her job at Fidelity National Title three years previously and was now surviving on a $12 per hour job in a modest firm. She refinanced her loan so as to make her payments more affordable choosing a NegAm plan (Negative Amortization). It meant that her loan payments were less than the interest levied. Ultimately it led to increase in the loan principal.

Allen is unhappy about refinancing and said, “On top of it, I’m 60 years old, and with the job market the way it is now, it looks pretty bleak that I’ll be able to make much more money.”

In 2008 there has been a 200% increase in foreclosures in San Bernardino County since the previous year. 2007 witnessed the peak of the sub-prime catastrophe. In 2009 the first three quarters have noted a drop of 22% since the first three quarters of the previous year.

But the experts remain gloomy and opine that the worse is yet to come. Inland Empire should be geared for the worst until there is an improvement in the employment scenario. Only then will the housing market start to inch upwards.