The law applies exclusively to foreclosing lenders and prohibits banks and mortgage lenders from issuing wholesale eviction notices to tenants in foreclosed buildings.  Specifically, it states that the foreclosing lender/mortgagee of residential rental property (any number of units) may not evict an existing legal tenant except on one of the following two conditions: (1) the foreclosing owner has signed a binding Purchase & Sale Agreement with a bona fide, arm’s length buyer; or (2) the tenant has given “just cause” to be evicted (i.e. failure to pay rent, nuisance, illegal use of premise, locking out the owner, etc.).

Importantly, foreclosing lenders must give notice (posted in the building, via US mail AND “slid under the door of each unit”) of the foreclosure, with contact/rent payment information and disclosure of the right to a court hearing before eviction.  Also, a foreclosing lender must allow 30 days following this notice to evict, even if for “just cause,” unless that “just cause” is nuisance, illegal use of premise, or owner lock-out, in which case eviction is available immediately following notice.

The main reason for this drop may be the increase in banks renegotiating loans, as well as a foreclosure freeze last spring. The foreclosure crisis that traumatized the nation is far from over. In fact, nearly 28,000 state homeowners were slammed with foreclosure petitions last year, a 28.1 percent increase from the year before, Warren Group said. We are also seeing an increase in luxury foreclosures and short-sales, a market segment that was practically untouched by the Boston real estate downturn until recently. Bank owned properties are popping up from Back Bay to Weston, something almost unheard  of.

Call Bushari Group today for more information about Boston real estate, Boston condos and Boston lofts.

If you are looking for an amazing real estate steal in the heart of Boston, don’t miss the auction at The Bryant Back Bay next week where ten spectacular, luxurious homes will be on the auction block for one day only! Call us today to schedule a preview before it is too late.

The Auction will be held on Sunday, October 4th and previews will be held from September 9 – October 9. There are 42 luxury residences on the auction block, with minimum bids starting at $160,000. Now you can get luxury living at a fraction of the price. Call us today for more information.

Rising foreclosures will further depress home values, says Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com, who calculates that 15.4 million home owners—one in five of those with first mortgages—will be underwater.

Seth Wheeler, a senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, says the government is “unlikely to implement another moratorium.”

But Wheeler says the government plans to put in place some programs that encourage lenders to try some alternatives to foreclosure.

The auction was lots of fun to watch and i wasn’t surprised to see all 35 units sell. I suspected to see the units sell for about 75% of asking and i was almost right. The average went from 61% all the way up to almost 80% of asking with the majority of units selling for around 74% of asking price. Many of the smaller sized units around 700sqft had the lowest priced bids starting at $175k and they went for the closest to asking.

What surprised me the most was the sale of unit 508, my personal favorite, at only $361k. This unit was a corner with city and highway views it had a large brick area for a bedroom and another nook for a second bedroom. The unit had 1,058 sqft with an origional listing priace at $585k, that means it sold for 61% of the asking price. It was good to see over 300 people came out for the auction and there was alot of competition between bidders. 35 lucky buyers along with their friends and family went home happy that night and a lot more went home disappointed. Don’t worry though there are more deals to come this year and next. If anybody wants a complete list of all the sales prices please let me know.

Federal Housing Administration mortgages, also known as FHA Loans, are flooding the marketplace. The FHA lost significant ground during the past several years when private sector sub-prime mortgages became popular and dangerously unregulated. In fact, FHA-insured mortgages had an 11 percent share of the American home market as recently as 1995, but that number plunged to 4.3 percent in 2003, and 3.3 percent in 2004. The main reason was that the booming sub-prime market targeted FHA’s traditional core of customers – first-time home buyers with minimal down-payment and unimpressive credit-scores. The sub-prime market also offered fewer hassles and faster approval than FHA.  Sub-prime lenders accounted for one-fourth of the mortgage market in 2004.

Compare that to Freddic Mac’s estimates that FHA loans accounted for 19.5 percent of the market in 2008, and projects an increase to 28.2 percent in 2009. The government seems to be taking a lot of risk with what the free market considers “under qualified” buyers. The private sector has learned its lesson….will our government?

That said, FHA loans are different than many of the sub-prime projects sold to buyers over the past few years. FHA offers “Hybrid” five-year adjustable rate programs with 2 percent annual rate-increase limits and 6 percent live-of-the-loan limits. So, a borrower’s rate will not skyrocket from 4 percent to 12 percent in one year, which was one of the practical death sentences issued by many sub-prime loans. Also, FHA has no pre-payment fees, and borrowers who fall behind on their loan have the piece of mind that FHA-approved mortgage lenders will bend over backward to help them stay in their home….including modifying the basic terms of the loan.

It is scary to think that by 2009, almost 30 percent of home buyers will still be purchasing homes with less than 5 percent down and with flimsy credit scores. If they can’t pay their loans back, it will very quickly become a national crisis.

May foreclosure activity was the third highest on record, and it marked the third straight month that foreclosure filings exceeded 300,000, says RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio. “While defaults and scheduled foreclosure auctions were both down from the previous month, bank repossessions, or REOs, were up 2 percent thanks largely to substantial increases in several states, including Michigan, Arizona, Washington, Nevada, Oregon and New York,” Saccacio says.

Nevada again had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, with one in every 64 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during May, more than six times the national average, followed by California, Florida, Arizona and Utah.