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Rob Shapiro: The Housing Crisis And Our National Attitudes Towards Saving (HuffingtonPost)
The Great Depression deeply affected the attitudes of the generation that came of age in the 1920s and 1930s. For example, it made the country...
Mississippi Foreclosures Buck National Trend (Jackson Free Press)
New foreclosures in the Magnolia State remain relatively low despite other states reporting rates as high as one in every 55 homes.
G.M. Hopes To Make Deadline But Is Preparing For Bankruptcy (New York Times)
The chief executive said the automaker was developing a restructuring plan while simultaneously readying itself for a potential bankruptcy filing.
GM CEO Warns Bankruptcy More Probable (Reuters Via Yahoo! News)
General Motors Corp Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said on Friday the automaker could still restructure out of court, but warned it was more probable GM may need to seek bankruptcy protection to complete that process.
Scammers Prey On Home Foreclosures (The Paris News)
With home foreclosures on the increase, so are scam artists.
Confessions Of A Money Manager: One Reason Housing Is Weak - Fannie Mae (The Capital Times)
We hear this constant refrain that the banks aren't lending money, particularly money to buy homes. So I did a little snooping -- actually I started by going to the bank that holds my home mortgage, seeking to re-finance -- and lo and behold, I found out some very interesting things.
GM CEO Says Bankruptcy 'Probable' (Washington Post)
General Motors chief executive Fritz Henderson said the automaker still intends to restructure its business outside of bankruptcy, but a filing is still "probable" given all the concessions it must achieve with such a short deadline.
The Housing Pox: Is It Nearing An End? (KiplingerForecasts.com)
The long and painful bloodletting in the U.S. housing industry is finally starting to rebalance the market. But good health is still a long way off.
New Laws Help Reduce Foreclosures (Modesto Bee)
Let's call this positive news about foreclosures: The number of Northern San Joaquin Valley homes repossessed by banks during March was the lowest for any month during the past year.
GM CEO Says Bankruptcy Probable But Not Preferred (AP Via Yahoo! News)
General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said Friday that a bankruptcy filing is "probable" because of the restructuring goals GM must meet to get more government loans, but that isn't the company's preferred option.
Las Vegas Braces For Commercial Foreclosures (Las Vegas Sun)
A tsunami of commercial real estate foreclosures is on the horizon and is threatening banks and undermining developers who are already struggling with high vacancy rates. It’s another looming blow for many banks that are sweeping up after the financial wave of the residential real estate bust. Since the first of the year, a growing number of developers of offices, industrial space and retail ...
Icahn And Oaktree Said To Push For MGM Mirage Bankruptcy (New York Times)
Will it be pistols at dawn in Vegas for Carl C. Icahn and Kirk Kerkorian? The activist investor and private equity fund Oaktree Capital Management have amassed hundreds of millions of dollars of MGM Mirage bonds and have told the troubled casino firm it should quickly overhaul its massive debts in bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Immigrants Can Help Fix The Housing Bubble (Immigration Portal)
The Obama administration should seriously consider granting resident status to foreigners who buy surplus houses in this country. This makes more sense than the president's $275 billion housing bailout plan, which Americans greeted with a Bronx cheer.
Foreclosures In March Hit Record Locally (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Lenders opened the floodgates by lifting a moratorium on foreclosures in March, resulting in a record number both in Clark County and nationally, a foreclosure expert said Thursday.
Foreclosures Rise In Morgan County (The Fort Morgan Times)
Home foreclosures are up again in Morgan County.
U.S. Foreclosures Up 24 Pct In 1Q (The Newton Kansan)
The number of American households threatened with losing their homes grew 24 percent in the first three months of this year and is poised to rise further as major lenders restart foreclosures after a temporary break, according to data released Thursday.
G.M. Hopes To Make Deadline But Is Preparing For Bankruptcy (New York Times)
The chief executive of General Motors , Fritz Henderson, said Friday that “it is still feasible” for G.M. to meet the administration’s demands by June 1 without filing for bankruptcy, but he acknowledged that executives were preparing to seek court protection if necessary, The New York Times’s Nick Bunkley reported.
Yellen Says No End To Recession In Sight (Nasdaq)
(RTTNews) - San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen says the Fed's monetary policy may have played a role in the U.S. credit boom and the resulting housing price bubble. But he added they were by no means the only factor.
Foreclosures Continue To Rise In South Florida (Miami Herald)
The number of foreclosures in Miami-Dade and Broward continued rising last month, as mounting job losses crippled borrowers' ability to make mortgage payments. Lenders lifted previous foreclosure moratoriums and resumed legal action against delinquent accounts.
Chamber Will Hold Housing Summit (The Oak Ridger)
The Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a "Summit on Housing" from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday.
Housing Starts Resume Decline (Zacks.com Via Yahoo! Finance)
We need to get rid of the huge inventory overhang -- which was at a near record 12.2 months in February -- before the housing market can really stabilize.
GM Readies Plans For Bankruptcy It Hopes To Avoid (Reuters Via Yahoo! News)
General Motors Corp Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said on Friday the automaker was readying detailed plans for a bankruptcy filing that now appears more likely even as it races to complete a business plan under federal oversight.
Des Plaines Seeks Grants To Help With Rising Foreclosures (Daily Herald)
With home foreclosures rising, Des Plaines city officials say they will try for federal housing grants to help address the problem.
GM CEO: Bankruptcy 'Probable' (Washington Post)
Automaker's chief says company still intends to restructure its business outside of bankruptcy.
Housing Market Cooling - Comment On This Story (The Sudbury Star)
The worldwide recession and nickel industry woes have combined to prick the local housing market bubble. According to the Sudbury Real Estate Board, a total of 350 homes changed hands locally through the Multiple Listings System in the first three months of 2009, down from 636 a year ago.[...]
A Quick Bankruptcy For G.M.? Not So Fast (New York Times)
Any hope of a high-speed bankruptcy by General Motors faces a serious obstacle: a judge — not the Obama administration, not G.M. management and not the company’s creditors — would reign in court, The New York Times’s Jonathan D. Glater writes.
Group Calls For More Federal Funding To Fight Foreclosures (KYW News Radio 1060)
Members of a coalition called "Save Our Homes"  were among those on Friday calling for HUD or Congress to provide funding to help the unemployed avoid foreclosures.
Pa. Woman Forges Bankruptcy Seal To Save Electric (AP Via Yahoo! News)
A Pittsburgh woman made a fake federal bankruptcy court seal on a document in hopes a utility company wouldn't cut off her electric service. Dorothy Hunt, 41, pleaded guilty to the counterfeiting charge Thursday and faces up to five years in prison when she's sentenced Aug. 6.
High Volume Gets Blame In Theft Case (Arizona Daily Star)
The sheer volume of mortgages generated at the height of the housing bubble made it difficult to quickly discover acts of fraud and theft committed by employees at Title Security Agency of Arizona, the company's president said Thursday.
Rolex: The Best Post-Bubble Rolex Watch Values By Melrose Jewelers (Marketwire)
Melrose Jewelers, USA's #1 Online Rolex Retailer, Today Announced the Top 10 Best Values for Rolex Watches, Post the Housing Bubble-Burst

The bankruptcy code acknowledges the validity of the homestead exemption.

John E. Roush

Many times the subject of bankruptcy seems baffling in its complexity. Actually the basic principals of bankruptcy are fairly simple even though the federal statuses on bankruptcy are extensive. The reason that the statutes are so complex is because in as effort at social engineering, the lawmakers want to cover every possible contingency. The very complexity of the Bankruptcy Code gives the lawyers ample opportunity to try to obtain interpretation of the law which best serves their clients interest. This results in extensive litigation and occasionally in interpretations of the Code which were not what legislature intended. This on turn results in additional legislation, which results in additional litigation and on and on. Nevertheless, the underlying principals are not as complex as the Code makes them seem. Here we will discuss the personal nature of bankruptcy.

The concept of bankruptcy is an old one in the English common law. If a person could not pay his debts, his creditors hauled him into court, took all of his assets, and used those assets to satisfy their debts. If the assets were insufficient to satisfy the debts, the debtor was taken from the bankruptcy court to debtors' prison. Since this is a rather extreme remedy, Article 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives the Congress the right to establish "?.uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States."

As the popularity of debtors' prison declined, the concept of giving the debtor a fresh start became one of the primary purposes of the bankruptcy process. It is important to remember that a bankruptcy is a personal action which at time of discharge gives the petitioner (formerly the debtor) a fresh start. The property owned by the petitioner does not get the fresh start, the individual does.

The fact that bankruptcy is a personal action may shed some light on the effect of a homestead exemption in a bankruptcy proceeding. The bankruptcy code acknowledges the validity of homestead exemption. A homestead exemption is a personal exemption which, in an effort to preserve a person's home, protects a certain amount of an individual's equity in the homestead property. State law determines the extent and effect of a homestead exemption. Thus, if state law says that a person can declare a homestead up to $45,000 and if there is less than $45,000 equity in the property, that equity in the property is protected by the homestead exemption. This principal operates without regard to the Federal Bankruptcy Code.

 

By John E. Roush, Broker-Owner Atrium Real Estate Investments. John is a full-time real estate agent specializing in real estate investment and real estate investment education. To contact John send all correspondence to Johnr@investorloft.com © 2005 www.InvestorLoft.com

 

 

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