But life is starting to stir in the construction market in Massachusetts. One notable market activity is the 19-acre local residential project in Cohasset. The project involves the construction of 27 luxury houses.

At the start, developers are hesitant of starting major construction projects because of the almost 40,000 unsold and foreclosed homes on the market. But they were encouraged by the recent increase in home prices, and so small development projects have started to spring up across the state.

Industry experts said that the construction market is stronger now than it was three months ago. However, they noted that the market is geared towards first-time homebuyers because of the federal tax credit, and some affluent areas where availability of houses is short.

Helping the revival of the construction market is a loan program that involves the transfer of banks’ risk from real estate developers to homeowners. Some construction companies said that demand for modular house addition and construction projects has increased by 30 percent compared with last year.

Some of these companies are using a loan program by Salem Five Bank. The loan program involves the bank’s granting of loans to homeowners and not to developers in order to offset the cost of construction. After the projects are completed, the loans are converted into permanent mortgage.

Industry experts said that there is still a lot of cheap foreclosed property that need to be absorbed before the real estate market could really recover. Because of this, they are expecting to have unusual activities as the market is trying to stand up.

The large number of unsold and foreclosed houses on the market is making it impossible for the building construction industry to revive itself. For example, a single-family house remains unsold for as long as five months.

Additionally, builders are also hesitant to look for financing for any speculative project until the market stabilizes and strengthens and the inventory of cheap foreclosed property starts have been reduced.

The federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) is designed to help neighborhoods that have been devastated by the foreclosure crisis and prevent foreclosure homes from becoming blights.

According to industry experts, the NSP’s title addresses neighborhoods has given the program a broader reach since it covers both city and rural areas across several ZIP codes. Some areas in the state that are eligible under the NSP are the counties of Sussex, New Castle and Kent and portions of Wilmington.

Industry experts said that buying foreclosure homes for sale is an effective way of helping local neighborhoods recover from the devastating effects of foreclosure, including declining home prices and values and increasing crime rate. They said that developing some abandoned and vacant properties will have a spiral effect and spread to other areas in need of help.

Experts said that there are other programs designed to help troubled homeowners remain in their homes. But they believed that the NSP initiative is the best one to give low income and moderate income buyers a chance to own their homes and for neighborhoods to reduce, if not totally eliminate, foreclosure properties.

Each area recipient in Delaware will administer their own funding and buying program. The funds will be distributed by the state housing agency. Income requirement of not over the area median income should be met by potential buyers to be able to qualify for the program.

Some neighborhoods in the state will provide interest-free loans amounting to $50,000, rehabilitation cost, down payment and closing cost assistance. Also, eligible buyers should work with housing counselors who will help them develop financial plans and explain several credit-related issues.

Furthermore, the housing counselors will make sure that the homeowners could afford to pay for their home purchases to avoid future foreclosures. The first wave of foreclosures in the state, as well as in other parts of the country, was initiated by homeowners who made bad loan decisions. Experts are hoping that the program of buying foreclosure homes for sale by first-time homebuyers would serve as the catalyst to help the housing market recover immediately.

With the economy still unstable and unemployment rising, many prospective homebuyers were bidding their time to become homeowners, preferring to wait out for the housing and economy to stabilize. But many of them have changed their minds and decided to buy foreclosure properties. The change is driven by the federal government’s $8,000 tax credit offered to first-time homebuyers.

The federal program gives first-time homebuyers a credit of $8,000 on their income taxes provided that they purchase a foreclosure property for sale and closed on the deal before the initiative expires on November 30.

Many first-time homebuyers said that they would not have purchased houses this year, preferring to wait for the economy and housing market to stabilize. However, they said that they changed their mind and decided to buy houses to take advantage of the tax credit program.

The tax credit is not the only program that helps first-time homebuyers in Missouri. The Home Ownership Assistance Program in Columbia also offers 5 percent or $5,000 of the total purchase price of a property to first-time homebuyers. Only first-time homebuyers who have met the income and location requirements could avail of the program. Under the program, eligible homebuyers can use the money to pay for deposit and closing costs.

Additionally, the Missouri Neighborhood Stabilization Down Payment Assistance Program provides down payment assistance of as much as $15,000 to buyers of foreclosure houses. This program is so popular that the almost $4.2 million received by the state from the federal government has been used in just three months upon receipt by the state.

Industry experts are advising homebuyers to take advantage of the assistance program by buying foreclosure homes. According to market data, nearly 320 first-time buyers purchased properties in Columbia, as of September 29.

Meanwhile, low interest rates and the federal tax credit have helped boost the home ownership program in Columbia. The city council has allotted a portion of the local budget to the program since 1990. Last year, the city council’s budget for the program to help buyers purchased foreclosure property for sale was $79, 800.

The judge questioned the legal right or equity stake of a surrogate in the bankruptcy proceedings. As a result of the ruling, it is quite conceivable that homeowners who are filing for bankruptcy protection may save their properties from distressed home listing.

Nevada homeowners, who are planning to file a class action lawsuit, have learned about the argument that a lender’s representative could not trigger foreclosure. They are now seeking a preliminary injunction to stop lenders from foreclosing their distressed homes.

Law and custom dictate that property deals be recorded with county clerks, together with necessary information about individuals who hold the mortgage. In the case of multiple mortgages, information about each creditor is required.

For major lenders, tracking the information in various jurisdictions across the United States was burdensome. This led the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp, and Federal National Mortgage Association to establish a company tasked to do the tracking electronically. This electronic tracking is called Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems or MERS.

The MERS produced millions of mortgages, with over 987,000 loans in Nevada. This means that once homeowners started missing their loan payments, the system would announce the defaults on behalf of bank clients. Lawyers of distressed homeowners and consumer activists have questioned whether the system, which represents lenders but do not have direct financial interest on loans could legally set off foreclosure. However, many judges do not fully accept the argument.

Some industry experts questioned the existence of MERS and the legitimacy of loans recorded under its name. They argued that MERS do not have the ownership interest, adding that MERS name is used instead that of the lenders.

A class action lawsuit has been filed by several distressed homeowners who are seeking to invalidate MERS’ right to trigger foreclosure. The case of homeowners will rely on a recent Kansas Supreme Court decision that MERS does not have the right to underlie repayment of debts secured by the mortgage.

The report showed that the federal $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit has prompted 357,000 first time home buyers to make their home purchases within the period February 17 to September 15.

Campbell Surveys analysts said they examined real estate transactions before and after the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which included the federal tax credit incentive program.

They said that before the February 17 enactment, home purchases made by first time home buyers comprised 32 percent of all home sales. After the enactment, home sales made to first time homebuyers sharply increased, accounting for 42 to 43 percent of total home sales.

Robert Dietz, economist of the National Association of Home Builders, said the association is pushing for another year of extension, until November 30, 2010, and the inclusion of all buyers of primary homes.

Legislation to extend the credit is pending in the U.S. House and Senate. Supporters of the tax credit extension, such as IHS Global Insight economist Patrick Newport, argued that the extension would contain foreclosed house inventories arising from the continued rise in unemployment and the resetting of ARMs.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, 1.4 million Americans have already claimed the home buyer tax credit incentive.

Thomas Popik, research director at Campbell Surveys, said that his team’s 357,000 estimate for March through September is nearly equal to the estimates made by the National Association of Realtors and Moody’s Economy.com.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s, said that 175,000 homes were sold to first time home buyers through July and he expected 400,000 more home sales to be completed for the same group of buyers. He reiterated that the sales would have not occurred if the first time home buyer tax credit was not offered.

Similarly, Walt Molony of NAR, said that his group estimated an additional 350,000 sales of previously-owned homes this year and that sales will drop by 6 percent if the tax credit is not extended.

Molony explained that a bigger foreclosed house inventory is expected over the coming year and that the tax credit incentive is needed to absorb the inventory and stabilize house prices.

Under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), eligible homebuyers will be able to receive a maximum of $20,000 as deferred forgivable loan. The funds will be used by the eligible buyer as down payment for buying foreclosure houses, provided that the mortgage holders are willing to sell the properties for less than their assessed value.

The program also offers additional financial assistance for renovation of the foreclosed homes. The foreclose houses covered by the NSP program must be located in neighborhoods that have incurred or are projected to post high foreclosure rates.

Furthermore, the home buying assistance initiative is open to first time property buyers and families or individuals who have not purchased or owned a house for three years.

Eligible borrowers will not be required to pay back the loan under the NSP program if they opt to stay and live in the property for not less than 20 years. Additionally, homebuyers should have the properties under sales contract on or before July 18, 2010 in order to become eligible for the program.

Prospective buyers should have household earnings of equal to or not more than Forsyth County’s 120 percent median income which for a four-member family is $71,640. The median income restriction varies with the family size.

Forsyth County and Winston-Salem received a total of $2.625 million for their program. The NSP is made possible through the funds provided by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development to the North Carolina Department of Commerce. The program was initiated in 2008 with the purpose of helping communities and neighborhoods with high foreclosure rates.

An NSP hotline and Web site were set up to help those who want to participate in the program. In 2007, 834 houses in Forsyth County and Winston-Salem were foreclosed. The number of foreclosed houses went up to 1,012 the following year. And in the first seven months of this year, 452 foreclosure actions were already posted in the area.

Both Forsyth County and Winston-Salem were the first areas in North Carolina authorized by the Department of Commerce to start initiating the NSP.

Requests for mediation came from homeowners of Clark County and Carson City. Under the state and Supreme Court rules, mediations will be scheduled within 80 days after the filing of notices of foreclosure. The first mediation to help homeowners save their homes from becoming foreclosure properties will occur in August.

The mediation program was implemented July 1 under the Assembly Bill 149. Since its launched, about 2,400 notices of foreclosures have been filed in the state, with over 2,000 originating in Clark County. Notices of default included non-owned occupied homes, commercial properties and owner-occupied houses, all eligible for the state’s mediation program.

Supreme Court Settlement Judges or Senior District Judges will conduct the initial mediation process, in addition to expert mediators and lawyers. Those who will take part in the mediation process will join in initial training sessions scheduled in Reno on August 5 and Las Vegas on August 6 to 7.

Over 400 lawyers have volunteered to become mediators but they still have to undergo training on the process of helping homeowners save their homes from becoming foreclosure properties.

Under the law, the Nevada Supreme Court has the responsibility to adopt the rules for the foreclosure mediation program. The Administrative Office of the Courts, which handles the operation of the program, is hiring staff, setting up training programs and findings facilities.

Meanwhile, Verise Campbell has been appointed the Nevada Foreclosure Mediation Program Administrator. Additionally, Kathryn Ely has been named Mediation Supervisor and she will be responsible in coordinating the selection of mediators and of training them.

On the other hand, the average monthly foreclosures in Nevada has been 7,600. Under the mediation program, lenders are required to pay foreclosure filing fees which will be used to fund the program’s administrative costs. Also, lenders and homeowners will both shoulder the $400 payment for mediators.

According to Chief Justice James W. Hardesty, many state residents are losing their properties to foreclosure. He believes that with the mediation program, many homeowners will be able to save their properties from foreclosures and at the same time, ease the burden brought about by a large volume of foreclosure properties on lenders.

But others, such as some judges, lenders and lawyers, insist that the rocket docket system is a service to society because it helps the courts accomplish their work, helps clear the status of residential properties and helps make the housing market more stable.

But housing advocates claim that the rocket docket system facilitates the rise in foreclosure properties because there are foreclosure filings that could have been saved if the properties in question were not rushed through the system. Consumer advocates state that mediation between borrowers and lenders can still be achieved even if the foreclosure filings are already in the courts as long as they are not in rocket docket files.

Judges in Lee County said they have cut down their foreclosure case backlog by more than 6,000 cases since December 2008. Under the rocket docket system, judges hold marathon morning and afternoon sessions to decide on foreclosure filings. If there are no homeowners present to object to the foreclosure, the foreclosures proceed to the next processes until the foreclosure properties are sold in a public auction.

Critics of the decision to put foreclosure cases through the rocket docket system said not all homeowners are properly informed about the process and not all cases are properly documented.

Charlie Green, Lee County Clerk of Court, said the courts are starting to clear their foreclosure backlog under the rocket docket system. He said they had nearly 30,000 foreclosure cases in December 2008.

Green said he is hoping the backlog will be wiped out sooner because of the slowdown in the filing of foreclosures. He reported that 1,830 cases were filed in June, a slight drop from the 1,896 cases filed in May and a big drop from the 2,390 cases filed in June 2008.

Green insisted that mediation can no longer remedy foreclosure cases that have been in the courts for more than six months or one year. He said that in these cases, homeowners have not shown any real effort to save their homes from becoming foreclosure properties.

Lawyers for lenders added that the housing market and communities are better helped when foreclosure cases are expeditiously cleared so that foreclosure properties can be sold to responsible buyers who can maintain the properties and protect communities from blight.

The council believes that the best way to get relief from financial problems is to talk to someone who understands and relates to the problems.

The support group meetings, entitled “A safe space in tough times”, will be held at the First Methodist Church of Whittier. Council vice president Bill Miller explained that the event is similar to AA support groups, only this will be for individuals who are going through financial and repo properties problems.

The support group started in New York in the 1980s. It was resumed late last year by the Progressive Christians Uniting which focuses on outreach projects through churches. The Progressive Christians started a support group in Whittier in partnership with Interfaith Council.

Independent consultant Glen Peterson said that the main goal of the support group is to bring hope to people who are in hopeless situations.
Members of the support group are encouraged to talk, offer advice and give support to one another on various issues, including repo properties crisis, depression, addiction, job loss or retirement.

Progressive Christians Uniting chapter organizer John Forney said that during tough times, desperation could result to dysfunctional behaviors. Aside from the conversation sessions, the support group would help look for job agencies and opportunities that could help members who are facing the threat of turning their homes into repo properties.

Terry Hammack of Whittier Area First Day Coalition said that the group hopes to have something available that they could offer when they found out who those people are who are in need of help.

He said that he is hoping to find part-time employment for members in order that financial relief could be offered while they are looking for employment in their fields of expertise.

Hammack, together with Peterson and Robert Ehlers of the East Whittier City School District board, will co-lead the support group.

Meanwhile, the support group is trying to attract members and urges anyone who is facing financial problems to come out in the open and join the group.

Aside from Whittier, other support groups to help individuals facing financial and repo properties problems are being set up in Claremont, San Fernando Valley and Downey.

Learn how to find foreclosures.

But the rights of buyers were also included in the new legislation, in addition to rights already protected in relation to home purchases and home ownership.

While new legislation protects renters from being evicted abruptly from repossession houses without any notice and without any consideration of the situation of families who have paid their deposits and have been paying their rent religiously, it does not protect renters who do not pay their rent on time.

The new law requires buyers or lenders to give a 90-day notification to renters of repossession houses before they are evicted. This notice will give enough time for renters to find another rental house and to make necessary adjustments related to their children’s schools.

While the law also protects renters who hold leases on repossession houses, allowing them to stay in the property until the expiration of the lease, the law also protects buyers who need to stay or who plan to occupy the properties. Buyers just have to comply with the 90-day notification order by giving tenants a three-month notice of lease contract termination.

If there are already state or local laws that provide longer notice periods or better protections for renters of foreclosed homes, these state or local laws take precedence. Information related to this issue can be obtained at the web site of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

In addition, renters with month-to-month rental deals with their landlords are not covered by the lease provision of the law. Renters cannot keep on extending their lease by continuously paying their rent to extend their lease. Nevertheless, they are still covered by the 90-day notice provision.

Buyers should not be discouraged in buying foreclosure houses because of this new law protecting renters of repossession houses. There are many repossessed properties that are not occupied by tenants. The new law was not in any way intended to block the recovery of the struggling foreclosure property market.

In cases where there are tenants in repossession houses, investors or prospective owner-occupants can negotiate with their sellers so that their closing will coincide with the expiration of the 90-day notice or with the time the tenants have already moved out of the foreclosed properties.