Community Foreclosure Mitigation Toolkit: Step One

Toolkit Steps

Step One: Assess the Foreclosure Situation

Step Two: Reach Troubled Homeowners

Step Three: Establish Post-foreclosure Support Systems

Step Four: Stabilize Neighborhoods

The first step in any community effort is assessing the foreclosure situation in your community. This will also enable you to target limited resources to foreclosure hotspots.

U.S. Credit Conditions in the United States
The Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit is based on data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel and provides unique insight into the borrowing and repayment behavior of U.S. consumers, including debt and delinquencies by loan type, foreclosures, and bankruptcies for the U.S. and select states.

National Delinquency Survey
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) provides quarterly reports on delinquency and foreclosure rates of loans at the national, regional and state levels. The MBA’s National Delinquency Survey, conducted since 1953, covers 80 to 85 percent of all first-lien residential mortgage loans outstanding in the United States. Delinquency and foreclosure measures are broken out into various loan types (prime, subprime, VA and FHA) and fixed- and adjustable-rate products.

Regional and Local Data Resources
State laws require that notices of intent to foreclose real estate be posted for public view, although the exact posting process varies from state to state. These pre-foreclosure notices, along with actual foreclosure sales data, are compiled regularly by various companies who make the information available for sale. Some counties make maps and listings of property addresses available during the “publication” period prior to the foreclosure sale date. Contact a local title company in your community to get more information on the best local sources for pre-foreclosure and foreclosure sales reports.

Foreclosure Laws
Foreclosure laws and regulations are important to consider and can vary significantly across states. In some states with a judicial foreclosure process, the lender must take the borrower to court to seize the property. In other states, a nonjudicial foreclosure process requires no court action.
U.S. Foreclosure Laws
Foreclosure Laws and Procedures by State