Ecotality To Install Electric-Car Chargers in Public Places Soon

If you live or work near the downtown areas of Phoenix, Scottsdale, Glendale or other neighboring cities, you'll likely see electric-car chargers in public places within the next

year.

Ecotality Inc., which has operations in Phoenix, revealed maps Tuesday that show the most likely regions where it will install the chargers using $114.8 million in stimulus-act "We want to make it possible for somebody with a plug-in electric vehicle to use that vehicle without fear of running out of electricity," said Litchfield Park Mayor Thomas Schoaf, who serves as chairman of the Maricopa Association of Governments, a stimulus project.

Beginning this year, Ecotality will use the stimulus money to provide free chargers for 5,700 Nissan Leaf buyers, 2,600 Chevrolet Volt buyers, and installing additional chargers in public places where those buyers live.

Read the full article here: http://kathleeninarizona.com/archive_details.php?arch=947

Bank of America stops foreclsoures in Arizona

Bank of America, Arizona's largest home mortgage lender, said Friday that it has extended a 23-state moratorium on bank owned home sales to all 50 states while bank officials review the way they process foreclosures.

BofA and other big mortgage lenders are facing mounting pressure over how they handle foreclosure-related documents, with growing attention to reports of incomplete or inaccurate documents that aren't subject to rigorous verification before bank officials sign off on them. The moratorium gives the bank time to review and address concerns about whether foreclosures have been completed properly.

Some Phoenix-area homeowners, lawyers and real-estate professionals said the Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp.'s 60-word statement about the moratorium was confusing, vague and potentially hurtful to the battered local housing market.

"Bank of America has extended our review of foreclosure documents to all 50 states," the BofA statement said. "We will stop foreclosure sales until our assessment has been satisfactorily completed. Our ongoing assessment shows the basis for our past foreclosure decisions is accurate. . . . Providing solutions for distressed homeowners remains our primary focus."

After BofA's announcement, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called on major lenders to halt foreclosures nationwide. He joins a long list of homeowner advocates, lawmakers and state attorneys general who have called for greater scrutiny of the foreclosure process.

In Maricopa County, there are currently 39,042 single-family residences or condos with an active notice of trustee's sale, according to Information Market's analysis, of those, 12,198 pending foreclosures, or 31.2 percent, show Bank of America offices as the beneficiary and ReconTrust as the trustee.

Information Market determined that 4,551 of the 20,850 bank- and government-owned homes currently in its database were BofA foreclosures, which is about 22 percent.
Analysts believe that Bank of America will temporarily suspend foreclosures to prevent a backlog of bank-owned homes from accumulating. This could unintentionally help borrowers who have stopped making payments yet are still living in their homes. For many of these individuals, the payment free periods could extend even longer.

Mesa attorney James Portman Webster said he believes the moratoriums are primarily aimed at helping Bank of America and other lenders rather than homeowners
"It's going to push back foreclosure dates," Webster said. "It's going to put everything on pause temporarily." He said he has a few delinquent clients who have been living in their homes as long as three years while waiting for banks to seize their properties.

The bottom line is, another major delay for the housing market to rebound.
Read more: http://kathleeninarizona.com/archive_details.php?arch=931

Foreclosures due to come onto the market most likely will be delayed due to Flawed Foreclosure Documents

Many of us drive through our neighborhoods passing many vacant homes scheduled to be foreclosed on by the homeowner's lender soon. As a neighbor nearby, you are hopeful to have a new family move into the property soon to care for it and call it "Home".

Well, these properties may just stay empty a bit longer, some experts say as long as 12 months. Due to the volume of paperwork which had been rushed by the desks of the lenders foreclosure departments to help expedite the process to get these vacant homes on the market, has caused a slow down for any rebound in the near future for the housing market. Homes due to go through foreclosure or be purchased, are now being held in a "freeze" in order for a review of "flawed foreclosure documents".

If the homeowner was not paying their mortgage and moved out of the property and their paperwork was not processed correctly were they wrongly foreclosed on?

If they were, can they afford to move back in and catch up on past due payments?
Do they want the property back? What percentage of these foreclosures have homeowners wanting back the property?

If this delay helps those that were paying their mortgages on time and forced out of their homes because of a paperwork mistake, that is great. But I don't think that this is what this is about. It is just another headline to blame lenders for all their wrongdoings and try to hurt them more.

Unfortunately, it is hurting the Buyers purchasing these lender owned homes right now.

Read more: http://kathleeninarizona.com/archive_details.php?arch=930

Recession To Blame For Drop In Homeownership As Well As Marriage Rates

The recession seems to be socking Americans in the heart as well as the wallet: Marriages have hit an all-time low while pleas for food stamps have reached a record high and the gap between rich and poor has grown to its widest ever.

The economic "indicators say we're in recovery, but the impact on families and
children will linger on for years," he said. For example, in America, marriages fell to a record low in 2009, with just 52 percent of adults 18 and older saying they were joined in wedlock, compared with 57 percent in 2000.

Marriages have been declining for years because of rising divorce rates, more unmarried couples living together and increased job prospects for women. But sociologists say younger people are also now increasingly choosing to delay marriage as they struggle to find work and resist making long-term commitments.

Besides marriage, homeownership declined for the third year in a row, to 65.9 percent, after hitting a peakof 67.3 percent in 2006. Residents in crowded housing held steady at 1 percent, the highest since 2004, a sign that people continued to double up to save money.

Read the complete article on these and other effects of the recession here: http://bit.ly/bL8FaE