Government and industry experts agree, consumer interest in buying homes is an essential element of a healthy real estate market, and absorption of today’s bloated housing supply is critical to recovery. These market fundamentals, though, are moving farther and farther out of reach as the American Dream of homeownership fades into the background for many.

A new study from real estate data provider Trulia found that one out of four renters do not plan on buying a home — ever. Of those renters who do see a home purchase in their future, 68 percent said it would be more than two years before they make that investment.

Trulia says this reluctance to buy could potentially drag out the real estate market’s recovery timeline further than many have predicted and the domino effect of such a delay could pose an enormous threat to the nation’s overall economic health.

Continue reading…DSNEWS

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DO NOT wait for the Government for as you can see you are the least of their concerns…Fight this, if you don’t know how? Get educated, hire an attorney, hire a forensic company, FIND HELP!

Don’t procrastinate or you will be homeless.

By Aaron Marshall, The Plain Dealer June 01, 2010, 5:35AM Cleveland.com

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Foreclosure legislation is headed back into the freezer until fall.

Senate Republicans had considered moving legislation designed to increase protections for renters and require registration for loan servicers as a watered-down substitute for a stronger foreclosure moratorium bill passed more than a year ago by House Democrats.

But Senate Finance Chairman John Carey, a southern Ohio Republican, said this week that the plug has been pulled on any foreclosure legislation because he didn’t get much support for his Plan B.

The GOP inaction on the issue has angered housing advocates and the House bill’s sponsor.

“I’m entirely frustrated. This has been a year these bills have been sitting over there, and now we are going to have to wait six more months,” said Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. “I don’t understand how you can see record levels of foreclosures month after month after month, year after year after year, and do nothing.”

The most recent statistics from the Ohio Supreme Court show that the first quarter of 2010 had 24,711 foreclosure filings, 9 percent above last year’s record-setting first-quarter figure. In Cuyahoga County, 3,722 foreclosures were filed, far above the 2,974 foreclosure actions filed in the first quarter of 2009.

Rep. Mike Foley, a Cleveland Democrat who sponsored the House bill, which included a six-month moratorium on home foreclosures, said he was “disgusted” by the plan to break for summer with no action by Republicans.

“They are ideologically in line with the big banks. They have a bunch of people who couldn’t care less. They are impractical. Take your pick,” said Foley. “I’m really angry. We had been sending messages that we wanted to sit down and talk, and they never even bothered to call.”

Maggie Ostrowski, spokeswoman for the Senate Republican caucus, led by Senate President Bill Harris, said that many in the GOP just don’t believe in government fixes to the problem.

“Fundamentally, Senate President Harris and other members of the caucus don’t believe that the government is going to solve the foreclosure crisis,” she said. “They believe a good economy and good-paying jobs is where we need to put our focus.” DinSFLA: YOU CAN’T EVEN SOLVE THE JOBLESS CRISIS…THERE GOES OUR ECONOMY! If you can’t do the job find a replacement! WE NEED COMPETENT LEADERS…NOT AMATEURS!

While the moratorium idea never had any legs among Senate Republicans, Carey said a House provision that would give notification to renters that an owner has filed for foreclosure has support among his caucus.

“They have not exactly bought into that language, but they have bought into the concept of notification of renters,” Carey said.

The substitute bill that Senate Republicans had considered gave renters the right to be notified only if landlords provided a list to the court of their tenants.

“It seemed unworkable — why would a landlord provide a list?” said Faith.

Carey said his caucus is also interested in some sort of registry for loan servicers, although probably not close to what House Democrats wanted, which raised fees on servicers to pay for increased regulation. He also said a Senate Republican bill that would steer foreclosure actions into court-ordered mediation is still a possibility for this fall.

“We haven’t closed the door on that,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor urged state lawmakers to study the foreclosure problem in urban neighborhoods with high rates of absentee landlords in an opinion released this week in a Cleveland court case.

If Dorthy was here today and reading this…

She would definitely click her heels and say there’s no place like NO home!

BY: CARRIE BAY DSNEWS.com

The foreclosure crisis in California has taken a toll on not only homeowners, but a large number of tenants in the state.

According to a new study from Tenants Together, California’s statewide organization for renters’ rights, at least 37 percent of residential units in foreclosure in the Golden State last year were rentals, directly affecting over 200,000 tenants – most of whom were displaced.

Tenant Together’s research is based on California property records for every foreclosure in 2009, and the organization says its estimates are “conservative.”

The report – California Tenants in the Foreclosure Crisis Report- California Renters in the Foreclosure Crisis- final.pdf – concludes that while the largest percentage of renter-occupied foreclosed properties were single-family homes, the percentage of renter-occupied, multi-unit buildings is growing at a faster pace.

The organization says this trend is likely to increase as more loan modification programs target owner-occupied properties, which are primarily single-family homes and condominiums, while multi-unit rental properties continue to fall by the wayside and into foreclosure.

Since Tenants Together’s previous annual report was issued, the most significant develop for renters in foreclosure situations has been the enactment of the federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act.

The new federal law increased the eviction notice period for tenants to 90 days, assured that existing leases survive foreclosure, and clarified that banks and other post-foreclosure owners of property step into the shoes of the pre-foreclosure owner and have the obligations of landlords.

Tenants Together says that while the new federal law is a step in the right direction, it comes short of providing long-term security for tenants and has been mired by implementation problems arising from banks’ non-compliance with the new law.

According to Gabe Treves, program coordinator at Tenants Together and author of the group’s latest report, “Tenants are innocent and hidden victims of a foreclosure crisis they did nothing to create. As this report shows, the unfair and unnecessary displacement at tenants at the hands of banks is affecting communities across the state at a devastating scale.”

Tenants Together concludes its annual report with a checklist of recommended actions to mitigate the impact of the foreclosure crisis on renters. Among the various proposals, the report notes that ‘just cause for eviction’ laws are a particularly effective and cost-free way to stop the displacement of tenants whose lenders have been foreclosed on and provide greater stability to California communities.