Share this
Twitter
Myspace
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Facebook
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
TagsBY JOE TYRRELL
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
New Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and his wife Kara are among the latest New Jerseyans caught in the wave of foreclosures sweeping the country.
Mercer County Sheriff Kevin Larkin scheduled the Mack's Berkeley Avenue home for sheriff's sale on Aug. 25. Beneficial Mortgage Co. filed for foreclosure, citing $319,457 due on the home loan, an outstanding water bill, interest and costs.
The mayor's office did not respond to requests for comment on the pending foreclosure. It was first reported by the Trentonian from the sheriff's notice in its own legal ads.
In interviews with the newspaper, Mack initially said he was unfamiliar with the action. He later promised, "We will do whatever we need to do to resolve it."
A former Mercer County freeholder, Mack won a runoff election in June to replace long-time Mayor Doug Palmer, who stepped down after 20 years. The foreclosure action was not filed until after the election.
Mack is a former member of Laborers Local 595 and a former president of AFSCMA Local 2281. He has been active in numerous community and non-profit groups, establishing his own foundation to help students with academic achievement and career development.Sheriff's sales are often rescheduled, frequently reflecting negotiations among the parties. Even after a sheriff's sale, state law gives the displaced occupants a 10-day window to potentially pay off the claim.
But across the United States, foreclosures are racing ahead. In the first quarter of this year, foreclosed homes accounted for 31 percent of all residential property sales, according to RealtyTrac.
James Saccacacio, chief executive of the Irvine, Calif., company, said "lenders have begun repossessing homes at record levels over the first half of 2010." At current rates, banks and other lenders will seize more than 1 million properties this year.
Even locally, the Macks have plenty of company. The sheriff's website listed 60 Mercer County properties up for sheriff's sale today. RealtyTrac reported 7,778 new foreclosure filings in New Jersey in June alone.
For the first six months of 2010, the company found 38,333, including 2,742 in Mercer County.
Reflecting the problem, the state court system reported a growing backlog in foreclosures, as the number of contested cases doubled in a year.
Nationally, the effects of the housing bubble and fraudulent lending have been concentrated in the South and West, plus Michigan, a state victimized by the relocation of American manufacturing plants to foreign countries.
Even with its recent surge in foreclosures, New Jersey remains far behind California, with 69,114 foreclosures in June, and Nevada, whose foreclosure rate has led the country throughout the financial meltdown.
But other areas also are being hit as lenders move more aggressively. Soaring foreclosures could have been even higher without delays caused in part by an Obama Administration program introduced as a way to restructure mortgages and keep people in their homes.
Aside from causing the paperwork delays, that effort has failed. The President unveiled the Home Affordable Modification Program last year with a promise it would help "three to four million homeowners to modify the terms of their mortgages to avoid foreclosure."
Through June, however, HAMP has obtained five-year modifications for about 389,000 homeowners while rejecting another 529,000. The U.S. Department of the Treasury reports disbursing $247 million for mortgage modifications through June.
In contrast, the government pumped about $275 billion into financial institutions to save that sector from the self-induced meltdown that caused the current recession.
Meanwhile, the relative re-sale price on foreclosed properties continues to fall relative to the rest of the real-estate market. According to RealtyTrac data, they have been selling 27 percent below market rates this year.
In New Jersey, the discounts have been even steeper, 36 percent for the year, as many formerly high-priced homes have gone to foreclosure.
Nationally, as many as 15 million properties may be "underwater," worth less than the amounts due on their current mortgages, according to a recent presentation to Congress.
Despite that bleak outlook, some media outlets and analysts expressed surprise on Aug. 3, when the National Association of Realtors released its latest report showing sales of previously owned homes dropped 2.6 percent in June.
Joe Tyrrell may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
