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Now that the Kwame Gravy Train is over, Kilpatrick’s sister faces foreclosure

June 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News

Ayanna Kilpatrick could go to bank auction on July 1 over nonpayment

Ayanna Kilpatrick faces foreclosure of the house where her brother, ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, infamously pushed a court officer trying to serve a subpoena in 2008 during his text message scandal.

She owes $218,782.57 to National City Mortgage Co. on the house in the 7400 block of La Salle and it’s scheduled for auction July 1 if she doesn’t pay, according to a Thursday notice in the Detroit Legal News. The 3,500 square-foot house is next door to the home of her mother, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit.

The foreclosure is the latest problem for the former mayor’s family. Kwame Kilpatrick went to prison last month for concealing funds that could have gone toward $1 million in restitution he owes the city. Bernard Kilpatrick, who is Ayanna and Kwame’s father, lost his riverfront condo to foreclosure this year.

Ayanna Kilpatrick couldn’t be reached for comment, but the Rev. Horace Sheffield III said he’s praying for her.

“There is collateral damage,” said Sheffield, a supporter of the former mayor. “Everyone is affected.”

“It’s probably a lot to bear but they’ll get through it.”

Ayanna Kilpatrick bought the house in 2003 for $250,000 and took out a $225,000 mortgage, according to Wayne County records. She took out a second $40,000 mortgage in 2004. She has six months after the auction to pay.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100604/METRO01/6040370/Kilpatrick-s-sister-faces-foreclosure#ixzz0pszSJc71

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Loan Mod Problems Finally Hit Homeowners in Michigan

May 23, 2010 By 1 Comment

Greta Guest, Detroit Free Press

The federal government’s loan modification program, intended to help people save their homes by lowering payments, remains mired in long waits, denials of permanent modifications and shockingly large bills at the end of failed trial modifications.

One homeowner owed more than $21,000 after his lender denied him a permanent modification, even though his income was the same as when it approved a temporary modification.

“They string me along for nine months. These are nine months I’m getting further behind,” said Patrick Dinunzio, 61, of Romeo.

In Michigan, 30,625 loan modifications were completed in April, down 9% from March. There are roughly 90,727 Michigan homeowners eligible for loan modification, according to Free Press calculations.

“Our focus now is on improving the homeowner experience and holding servicers accountable for their performance,” Phyllis Caldwell, chief of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Homeownership Preservation Office, said last week. By July, the eight largest loan servicers will need to report more information to the government, including homeowner experience.

“The story is always the same,” said Adam Taub, a consumer attorney based in Southfield. “They are stringing people along by telling them not to make payments or having them make reduced payments and then denying the home loan mod. Then people are even closer to foreclosure.”

Lenders, for their part, say they are trying to help distressed borrowers.

Is a deal with the bank the best way to go?

Past a pheasant ranch, assorted McMansions, crop fields and 2 miles of bumpy dirt roads, Dinunzio anxiously awaits the fate of his 1901 farmhouse in Romeo.

Dinunzio, 61, an artist and laid-off machinist, has lived with his wife, Ilene, in the 109-year-old white house on 24 acres for 17 years. Two refinances and a job loss pushed him toward a loan modification.

The temporary modification cut his $1,720 monthly payment to $697, based on his income. It lasted nine months, even though government guidelines call for a three-month trial period.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100523/BUSINESS04/5230457/1318/Long-waits-denials-plague-efforts-to-modify-mortgage

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Metro Detroit churches go on sales block as values fall

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Oralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit News

Metro Detroit’s real-estate crunch has hit the last bastion of community stability: churches.

Across Michigan, the same forces depressing the housing and commercial market — falling values, depopulation and lack of financing — make it a buyers’ market for houses of worship. And like other property owners, the clergy is praying for a rebound.

On Detroit’s east side, the Jamison Temple Missionary Baptist Church has languished on the market for two years. The 500-member congregation left its old facility on Frankfort Street for a bigger church on Mack near Connor, and has reduced the asking price of the former church from $675,000 to $495,000.

“We’ve had people look at the building, but they can’t get a bank loan. The banks aren’t loaning money,” said Royal Jamison, the pastor’s wife and co-founder of the church.

From Wyandotte to White Lake Township, the Metro area market is glutted. Some churches have prices as low as $60,000. Others can be higher, like the Agape Christian Center in Canton Township, which is listed for $2.9 million and includes amenities such as gyms, schools, acres of parking, baptismal pools and office space galore.

Statistics for the number of churches on the market in Michigan aren’t available, but one firm — Real Estate Professional Services in Southfield — has listings for more than 50 in Metro Detroit alone and another 20 elsewhere in Michigan. The market has changed considerably in just two years, said Kevin Messier, co-owner of the firm. “Banks were lending money and the appraisals were coming in high,” he said.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100521/METRO/5210386/Metro-Detroit-churches-go-on-sales-block-as-values-fall#ixzz0oZ7zI2iu

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Owners walk from homes, values erode

March 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Greta Guest, Detroit Free Press

With more than 500,000 households in Michigan owing more on their mortgages than the homes are worth, thousands of Michigan residents are choosing to abandon their homes and walk away, even if they can afford to continue making payments.

The number of people who have engaged in such strategic defaults more than tripled between 2005 and 2008 — from 5,100 to 17,250, according to a report by Experian-Oliver Wyman, a credit reporting and consulting firm.

Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com, said he expects the problem to get worse this year and next. “As people struggle to make ends meet, they will say this just doesn’t make sense” about continuing to make payments, he said.

The trend is being fueled by the large number of underwater mortgages — those where the bank is owed more than what a sale might net a homeowner. Michigan is fourth in the nation in underwater mortgages, with 38.5% of homes — or 532,774 — underwater.

Those who walk away often do so after failing to negotiate a loan modification or a short sale. Sometimes they need to move out of state for a better-paying job, but they can’t sell their house.

“The good, straight people of the world will feel, ‘How can I walk away?’ ” said Southfield real estate attorney John E. Jacobs. But with an economy still struggling, he and other experts said, the stigma of defaulting on a mortgage even if one can still pay is disappearing.

“When things are that bad, your moral compass, and the obligation to make payments that most people feel, has to give,” Jacobs said.

Walking Away

Sondra Malone, 35, bought a house in Eastpointe in 2005 with an adjustable-rate mortgage. The $1,200-a-month payment on the house, along with high heating bills, an expensive SUV payment and other family expenses, quickly buried her in debt.

At the same time, the bottom was falling out of the housing market with record foreclosures dragging down home values. Malone was soon underwater on her mortgage. She owed $116,000 on a house she listed for $99,000 in 2007.

After trying to work out a lower payment with her bank, and trying to sell her house, Malone rented a condo in Sterling Heights and walked away from her house in 2007.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” said Malone, a social worker. “I’m embarrassed.”

Malone said she has been through too much to worry about the lender coming after her. Soon after walking away, she had to deal with major health issues. And she lost her mother last year.

“They’d better go after a whole lot of other people,” said Malone, adding that the foreclosure is now on her credit report. “When you have 10,000 or 20,000, what’s one?”

Read more here: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100307/BUSINESS04/3070529/1318/A-flood-of-underwater-homeowners-walk-away&template=fullarticle

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