Walking Away From a Mortgage?

After several years of struggles surrounding real estate, with foreclosures and short sales nationwide, many people these days consider it socially acceptable to strategically walk out on a mortgage. The local Jacksonville movers learned that 32% of people polled for ID Analytics, which represent 68 million people, say homeowners should be able to strategically default on their mortgages without facing any consequences. The All My Sons of Jacksonville learned that 13%, 28 million Americans, say hey would like to strategically default. And 17% know people who already have walked away from their mortgages. This mindset wasn't there when foreclosures and underwater mortgages first started popping up across America. But the real estate situation hasn't drastically changed for several years now and it seems like people have just gotten used to the environment.


It looks like the attitude towards credit scores have changed too, with 36% of people polled saying it's acceptable to have a poor credit score these days which represents 77 million people. And speaking about credit score, 35% of respondents felt they were more afraid these days about identity theft compared to five years ago which of course can damage a credit score.

What are your views regarding walking away on your mortgage?

Homeownership Rate in the U.S.

The local Jacksonville moving specialists learned that the national rate of homeownership is at 65.5%. This number represents the lowest rate since 1996 and becomes even lower when pending foreclosures are thrown in the mix. The homeownership rate was at about 68% during the real estate boom and started to deflate by 2008. When foreclosures and serious delinquencies are factored in, the rate is more lime 61.2% which in more like the rate the U.S. had in 1965. The All My Sons of Jacksonville learned the Midwest had the most homeowners with a rate of 69.9% compared with 67.4 in the South, 63.7% in the Northeast and 59.7% in the West. According to the Business Journals, in 98.5% of American counties there are more homeowners than renters. In 30 states, all the counties have more than 50% homeowners. The local Jacksonville moving specialists also learned that in 46 of the nations 3,141 counties that the majority of the residents rent their homes including New York, Kansas, Georgia and San Francisco.


In Florida, the All My Sons of Jacksonville discovered that Sumter County has one of the highest homeownership rate at 89.66% only topped by Keweenaw County in Michigan which is at 89.33%. The Bronx County in New York has the highest percentage of renters.

So what's your situation? Are you a renter or homeowner?

Mortgage Scams

With so many foreclosures nationwide, it's no surprise that people con artists are getting creative with mortgage scams. Nonprofit organizations and government agencies are now getting together to advertise some of these mortgage relief scams and teach homeowners how to avoid them. The local Jacksonville movers learned several Florida men were just arrested last year and charged with defrauding homeowners under the company name of Home Owners Protection Economics or H.O.P.E. This fraudulent company was trying to copy the public-private alliance of lenders, Hope Now, which is actually a group of nonprofit housing counselors and other mortgage industry participants. The H.O.P.E. scammers were telling desperate homeowners that they were approved for a loan modification and asked for upfront fees. These can be anywhere from $1000 to $5000, with an average of $3000.


The All My Sons of Jacksonville movers learned that many scammers use names that are very similar to the government programs and even add logos to their marketing material to give credibility to their fraudulent activity. If you're looking for mortgage relief help, you should try to contact the free Department of Housing and Urban Development approved housing counselors on Hud.gov. The local Jacksonville moving specialists remind you that any legal help will be free, you shouldn't pay any fees.

Fannie Mae Has New Guidelines

All My Sons of Jacksonville learned that Fannie Mae will be having tighter underwriting guidelines as of October 20th of this year. It will make it harder for people to refinance or even purchase a condo. These new guidelines are meant to reduce risk for Fannie Mae and encourage potential homeowners to shop around for their mortgages. One of the new guidelines suggests condominium unit buyers will have to fill out a 2-page condo when they're putting less than 20% down for their down payment. The old rule used to be documentation with 10% down. This questionnaire is in addition to other documents such as insurance policy and homeowner's association financials.


There will also be no more discretionary approvals except for Fannie Mae's Home Affordable Refinance Program. These used to help people with a less than perfect mix f loan to value or debt to income ratio, but with these new guidelines borrowers that are borderline so to speak are out of luck. The local Jacksonville movers learned that self-employed potential homeowners looking for a mortgage will have to provide two consecutive years of federal tax returns instead of just one. Borrowers also have to prove they're in the same business for at least two years. This means one bad year could derail the chance of getting a loan.

What do you think of the new guidelines? Would you be eligible if you were looking for condo mortgage?