Homes located in New York State (172), New Jersey (154), Cook County, IL (100), Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin — where foreclosure rates remain high.
New Brunswick, NJ (February 9, 2018) – New Jersey Community Capital, a nonprofit dedicated to creating housing, jobs, and educational opportunities in low-income communities, has acquired 495 homes at risk of foreclosure from Fannie Mae’s latest Community Impact Pool of non-performing mortgages. The pool contains non-performing mortgages spread across nine states with an unpaid total mortgage debt balance of over $117 million. NJCC is the largest nonprofit purchaser of under-water mortgages in the US.
While the national foreclosure rate has been steadily decreasing, rates in many parts of the country remain persistently high. In New York, scheduled foreclosure auctions were up 9 percent in 2017, the highest level since 2006; bank repossessions were up 19 percent in New Jersey in 2017, the highest level since 2006 and the highest in the nation. Furthermore, Atlantic City and Trenton topped the list of cities with populations over 200,000 with highest foreclosure rates in the nation; Cook County saw the third largest foreclosure rates of counties in the nation.
In order to provide its enhanced loss mitigation and community stabilization platform across all the different geographies, NJCC and its asset management subsidiary, National Community Capital (NCC), have entered into a partnership with two other experienced national nonprofit organizations, National Community Stabilization Trust (NCST) and Hogar Hispano. Under this unique partnership, they will partner with local housing counseling agencies to work one-on-one with homeowners to reduce the principal owed and ensure payments represent no more than 35% of homeowners’ income. “In addition to the ‘micro’ effect of preventing families from being displaced by foreclosure and repurposing vacant homes as affordable housing, it also has the ‘macro’ impact of reducing neighborhood decline and stabilizing the value of surrounding homes,” states Wayne T. Meyer, President of NJCC. Rob Grossinger, President of NCST, feels similarly, “NCST is thrilled to be part of this groundbreaking partnership to help struggling homeowners and protect communities.”
NJCC will use its groundbreaking ReStart model that was created at the end of 2012 to combat the growing foreclosure crisis. The innovative program saved more than 600 homeowners from foreclosure in New Jersey, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Carolina. ReStart’s mortgage re-default rate is less than 2%, compared with an industry average of 30%, because of NJCC’s unique and comprehensive approach, which focuses on making loan modifications that make sense to the homeowner, providing significant debt forgiveness ($65 million to date) and working with nonprofit housing counselors who act as the homeowners’ representatives.
“The ReStart model is about keeping families in their homes and stabilizing communities, making this program beneficial to both homeowners and their neighbors in a way that is sustainable and scalable,” said Meyer. “We are excited to be able to reach homeowners across the country.”
About two-thirds of the properties in the pool are located in New York and New Jersey. The balance are in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. The properties in the pool average $236,585 in unpaid debt.
Home foreclosures remain at persistently high levels. More than 1.5 million homes in the United States were foreclosed or repossessed between 2015 and 2016. In addition to the emotional and financial toll it takes on the homeowners, FDIC estimates that a single foreclosure imposes $34,000 in direct costs on municipalities.
About New Jersey Community Capital
New Jersey Community Capital is a nonprofit community development financial institution (CDFI) that provides innovative financing and technical assistance to support the preservation and development of affordable housing and sustainable community development ventures that increase jobs, improve education, and strengthen neighborhoods. Founded in 1987, NJCC has invested over $630 million in New Jersey communities, resulting in over 8,800 housing units, 7,300 early care slots, 16,500 education seats, and 9,600 jobs. For more information, visit: www.newjerseycommunitycapital.org.