The Biggest Untold Mortgage Crisis: Help For Families Facing Military Foreclosures

[allan]

The Biggest Untold Mortgage Crisis: Help for Families Facing Military Foreclosures

by Carla Douglin , October 08, 2008http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/76821 More and more military families are finding themselves in the middle of a mortgage nightmare. Soldiers are returning after several tours of duty, only to find they are on the verge of losing their homes. While trying to rebuild their lives, they face the additional pressure and stress of a looming foreclosure.

According to one recent study, the number of foreclosures in military towns are four times the national average. Why? Because military families were targeted as customers during the boom in subprime lending. Their frequent moves, overseas stints, and low pay meant they were likely to have weak credit ratings. The initial low rates and easy terms of these loans made them more attractive than the traditional route of taking out a Veterans Administration (VA) loan. In fact, at the peak of the U.S. subprime lending, the number of new VA loans fell to their lowest level in 12 years.

With that in mind, it is not surprising that a large number of military families are being caught in the subprime mortgage collapse. Fortunately, there is some help in the form of the Servicemembers´ Civil Relief Act (SCRA). The SCRA was created to protect soldiers and sailors from losing their homes for nonpayment of mortgages while they are on active duty and for 90 days after they return home.

Those who qualify for the SCRA include members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp and Coast Guard. Also included are members of the public health service, commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Guard members who were called to active service during a national emergency and authorized by the President or Secretary of Defense for more than 30 consecutive days. In addition, citizens ordered to report for induction under the Military Service Act, and those serving with the Allied Forces are also covered under the bill.

If you are covered under the SCRA, a court ruling must be made before a foreclosure sale or seizure can occur to your property. Military personnel can ask for a court delay and be issued a 90-day adjournment. If the court denies the delay request, an attorney must be appointed to represent the service member in absentia.

If the lender forecloses without a court order, the sale is invalid. If a foreclosure sale was conducted lawfully, there is still some recourse. Foreclosed property cannot be seized until the service member completes active duty. In addition, the SCRA grants military personnel the right to revisit a default foreclosure judgment that was issued during active duty and also gives them the right to ask that it be overturned.

For veterans facing foreclosure, it is critical they understand the process and take action. There are two types of foreclosures – judicial and non-judicial. Judicial procedures are followed by states that use mortgages as the security instrument for property loans. Non-judicial procedures are used by states that use deeds of trust as the security instrument. For veterans who live in non-judicial foreclosure jurisdictions, lenders can foreclose on a property very quickly and without court proceedings.

For questions about the SCRA contact the Judge Advocate General´s office at your local military base or the local Veterans Administration regional office.

"Keep on, Keepin' on"

Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL "Colonel Dan"

See my web site at:

http://www.angelfire.com/il2/VeteranIssues/

[purple]

My response to this might upset many....but whether it's a military family or not folks need to buy only what they can afford!!! They are making it sound like these folks are "victims"...in fact they actually used that exact term.

No. You know what your income is....you know what you can and cannot afford...it's that simple. If I would have taken the offer I had of over a $200K loan would I be a "victim"? No. I'd call myself a few other names. On a little over an E-6 salary....a $200K mortgage?? Please.

[yoggie2]

Purple, I'm on board with you on this, I turn down a mortgage because I look past just having a home, i.e would I have money for constant repairs? could I afford yearly insurance that seems to keep going up? is my job so secure that I will not have to worry about loosing my home? Now that being said am I willing to stretch my self so financially thin just to own my own home and live from check to check and not have any money on hand to take care of any of the above..........There is a lot to owning your own home and when the folks jumped in with with both feet with out giving it a second thought, it was "I really hope I can get this home and I will do everything to keep it" but in the real world one economic down turn just a small one, not aloan the one we face today and you could be screwed no matter how you slice it......

As a side note what is happening to there money? they sure not spending it there. you make more $$ in the combat zone than you do at home..

Edited October 14, 2008 by yoggie2

[Pete53]

Many of the people who could not afford some of these loans were sold or pressured into them. Although I see your point I have a much bigger problem with the feather merchants and lenders who should not have qualified them in first place.

Course the poor people learned theur lesson they are back living with relatives or in cheap apartments or public housing and the people who got rich off them have moved on to figuring out how to get into the bailout money.

As far as the people who got sick like me I feel that the government should help much more than it does.

[purple]

I understand becoming ill; that is beyond anyone's control and that isn't the focus of this current mortgage crisis.

I don't see how anyone could be pressured into spending far more money than they can possibly afford on a house...just makes no sense.

[Jim MAC]

I live 13 miles from one of the largest Navy bases in the World and 5 miles from Langley AfB. The problem with the military is even if they did everything right and bought a home the could afford what happens now. We are in the 2nd or 3rd year (depending on who you ask) of housing prices decline. Sgt Joe or Chief Mary buy a house then can afford. Then get orderd to move overseas. Can't sell there home because they owe more then its worth. Its a bad cycle. I know when I bought my house and they told me I could have a 300000 dollar house I said thats nice how would I eat. If you deploy to a war zone at least you come home to your house but If you PCS and own a home your screwd