HousingLink Blog

• Foreclosure Prevention Workshop For Unemployed

  2/12/2010 9:37:09 AM

  Our friends over at The Minnesota Home Ownership Center, the Community Action Partnership of Suburban Hennepin County and the Minnesota WorkForce Centers are working together to offer free workshops for homeowners who are worried about making upcoming mortgage payments, are already facing foreclosure or for anyone interested in learning more about the foreclosure process in Minnesota.
  
  The workshop will provide information on what happens during foreclosures, homeowners’ rights, and solutions for long-term housing needs. Participants will be able to ask questions and get free advice – confidentially - from local, non-profit foreclosure counselors.
  
  The first workshop in the series will be held on Thursday, February 18th at the Hennepin South WorkForce Center (Bloomington) from 10:30am to 12:00noon.
  
  For a map to the Hennepin South WorkForce Center, click here.
  
  For a press release of the upcoming workshop, click here.
  
  For a flyer you can freely distribute to help promote the workshop, click here.
  
  

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  Foreclosure MN Home Ownership Center Training

• How Do You Calculate Home Foreclosures?

  2/11/2010 11:47:22 AM

  An important question is being discussed in the media lately: "When you say a home is in foreclosure, what does that mean?" Minnesota Public Radio has been exploring this question. MPR recently reported that there seems to be a discrepancy between the foreclosure data that RealtyTrac produces and reports that are released by HousingLink and the MN Home Ownership Center.

  RealtyTrac has stated that foreclosures in Minnesota were up nearly 50% in 2009 while HousingLink and the MN Home Ownership Center claim that foreclosures took a slight decline in 2009, rather than a huge increase.

  Where's the difference?

  The discrepancies comes down to what you actually count as a "foreclosure". At HousingLink, we believe the most accurate way to calculate foreclosures is to look at sheriff's sales--the point at which a homeowner loses their home to the lender or third party real estate organization. RealtyTrac tally's up all the properties that are anywhere in the foreclosure process--from the first pre-foreclosure notice a homeowner receives to the actual sheriff's sale. Given that there are numerous ways for people to avoid a sheriff's sale along the path to foreclosure, we feel that calculating actual sheriff's sales give the most accurate picture of homes that have been foreclosed on. RealtyTrac feels otherwise.
  
  This debate will continue into the future. What do you think? Which method of calculating foreclosures seems to make the most sense to you?

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  Foreclosure MN Home Ownership Center RealtyTrac MPR