Mansfield Helps Fight Foreclosures

Posted on October 8th, 2009 by saman

foreclosure

Advocates of foreclosure prevention are highly busy this particular year attempting to aid families in Richland County in keeping their houses. One Mansfield office is currently handling at least 250 cases. They have been slightly busy. They have recently met up with a judge in order to coordinate every effort in helping out homeowners.

ESOP staffers, who have their headquarters in Cleveland and opened a new branch at Park Street last year during the peak of the crisis of foreclosure, have been moving through some counties in Ohio in order to meet up with families that fear the loss of their houses.

Last year, almost nine hundred foreclosures had been filed and the same amount of sheriff’s sales was processed in the county of Richland. All throughout the year, these figures stood at around eight hundred for foreclosures and around six hundred for sheriff’s sales.

Court clerks stated that there would be crackdowns on predatory lending; however, the area has not been cleared. Since Mansfield comes with the state’s worst unemployment and GM closure, the foreclosures are going to continue within this area. Still, homeowners could get aid via local agencies such as Catholic charities and ESOP.

One couple reached breaking point during the summer when they turned towards ESOP. As with any other American family, this couple worked hard in order to offer a stable life and home for their son.

Several years ago, they purchased a house in the historic neighborhood of Sherman Estates and completely renovated it – outside and inside. Things seemed to looked promising as the husband got his promotion and the wife had work being a massage therapist.

One week after purchasing their first house, the husband lost his job. He had to struggle with unemployment and go from one job to the next. In several months, they could no longer keep up with their payments and they had to begin with the process of foreclosure.

The area of Sherman Estates happens to be part of the Census Tract 6, which is the neighborhood, which was hit the hardest by foreclosure. Settlement money from car accidents aided the couple along with their mortgage per month of almost a thousand dollars; however, the wife’s income could not make it too far. The couple came up to Wells Fargo for modifications of loan. With their lender, they kept going around in circles and lost a significant amount on income.

Although slightly discouraged, they would not leave their house. After three failed modifications, ESOP aided them in turning things around along with Wells Fargo via the federal program of making homes affordable.

By the end of the month of July, their lenders took off $4,400 from their interest and lowered their rate of interest to 5.62% from 7.5%, making their payment of mortgage fall to just over five hundred dollars per month. There is always hope, most of all with the program of ESOP. You simply have to have faith and truly believe. People are discouraged from leaving their houses after receiving foreclosure notices.

An increase in sales of real estate has come about. Local lenders ended up doing very well and aren’t affected in any way by bigger lenders. ESOP happens to be the greatest weapon today, next to Catholic charities when it comes to working with people who need to address such issues.