Mortgage Archives - Page 5 of 15 - Bankruptcy Attorney in Brooklyn, New York

Study: Unemployment Bigger Cause of Mortgage Default Than Previously Thought

Bankruptcy, Foreclosure, Loan modification, Mortgage / By Matt Leichter

Many mortgage lenders probably believe that homeowners default on their mortgages because they have negative equity, i.e. they’re underwater. In other words, these homeowners can afford to repay their mortgages but simply choose not to, and there’s a surprising amount of academic literature to that effect. Why “strategic default” is a bad idea for debtors …

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What Is a Mortgage Forbearance Agreement?

Bankruptcy, Foreclosure, Loan modification, Mortgage / By Matt Leichter

Now that it’s 2017, the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) has expired. Maybe that’s a bad thing for struggling homeowners, but investigative reporting found that HAMP was a dismal failure. It rejected millions of applications, and only several hundred thousand made it past that stage. Thus homeowners might want to know about other …

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How Does Association Foreclosure Differ From Typical Mortgage Foreclosure?

Bankruptcy, Foreclosure, Mortgage / By Matt Leichter

The upfront short answer is: not a whole lot. A while ago I posed the question of what happens to homeowners or condominium fees in New York bankruptcy. This post is sort of a sequel. Many New Yorkers live in common-interest housing that charge either homeowner association (HOA) or condominium association (COA) fees. These fees …

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What Happens to ‘Abandoned’ Personal Property After Foreclosure?

Bankruptcy, Foreclosure, Mortgage / By Matt Leichter

New York bankruptcy helps homeowners most when they are nearing foreclosure, not afterwards. The primary reason is that the automatic stay protects homeowners from debt collection and foreclosure efforts. Chapter 7 can buy debtors substantial time to sell their homes on their terms, like a short sale, or exempt its equity from the bankruptcy estate …

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NYT Discusses Program for Swapping Student Debt for Mortgage Debt

Bankruptcy, Debt, Mortgage / By Matt Leichter

One might think that The New York Times‘ “Your Money” article on a company that offers to swap student debt for mortgage debt is an advertisement, but it’s an alternative to New York bankruptcy worth considering. SoFi, a nonbank lender, with the help of the government mortgage entity Fannie Mae promises student debtors the opportunity …

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Is That Second Mortgage Really Underwater?

Bankruptcy, Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, Debt, Mortgage / By Matt Leichter

That’s a question a New York bankruptcy lawyer should ask whenever a debtor seeks to strip a lien off an (allegedly) underwater junior mortgage in a chapter 13 bankruptcy. I’ve discussed this before, but as a quick review, debtors who owe multiple mortgages can strip the liens off junior mortgages that have no equity in …

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New York City Homeowners Struggling More Than National Average

Debt, Foreclosure, Mortgage / By Matt Leichter

More than two years ago, I raised the question of whether another mortgage crash would strike New York homeowners. It’s a provocative discussion because New York City wasn’t seen as representative of the mortgage crash like Las Vegas or Miami. At the time, many homeowners in the New York City metropolitan area had been served …

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What Is the ‘Election of Remedies’ Rule in New York Foreclosure?

Debt, Foreclosure, Mortgage / By Matt Leichter

I wrote recently about “non-recourse” debts after New York bankruptcy, commenting that the terms “recourse” and “non-recourse” loans usually refer to deficiency judgments after foreclosure. Specifically, state laws differ on allowing plaintiff-creditors to sue defendant-debtors for amounts owed beyond either the fair-market value of the properties or the auction prices at foreclosure sales. Some states …

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When Are Post-Bankruptcy Non-Recourse Debts a Good Idea?

Bankruptcy, Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, Creditors, Debt, Mortgage / By Matt Leichter

The terms “recourse” or “non-recourse” usually relate to whether lenders can sue debtors for mortgage deficiencies after foreclosure. The state’s “election of remedies” rule complicates things somewhat, but the issue in New York bankruptcy is really what happens to secured debts that debtors continue to pay even after their personal obligation has been discharged. The …

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Mortgage Modifications Can Stymie Chapter 7 Bankruptcies Too

Bankruptcy, Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, Debt, Loan modification, Mortgage / By Matt Leichter

I recently explained why a mortgage modification might be an inferior choice to a chapter 13 bankruptcy. As it turns out, mortgage modifications can stymie a chapter 7 New York bankruptcy as well. Why? Two reasons: the means test and exemptions. I’ve discussed the chapter 7 means test in detail before, but debtors whose household …

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