Is The Real Estate Market in Montclair and Nationally Finally Bottoming Out? Post 1

Published Courtesy of Kamau Austin (Copyright 2006)

The US real estate market has been in an overdrive for the last couple of years. The boom has lasted quite a while. Some experts suggest that because of this ceaseless activity, the market is exhausted and needs to cool down. However, when it comes to the issue of whether the market is about to bottom out, the opinion is divided.

Some experts believe that the boom has lasted for quite a while, and we are definitely headed towards a cooling off period in the near future. They believe that the real estate market in the US is headed towards a recuperative phrase and that this phase is likely to spread over several months, right into the year 2006. These experts point to the Morgan Stanley REIT index (or RMS)—a highly respectable trend tracker in the industry.

During the last year, RMS shows that the thirty week moving average has been broken twice. Experts believe this to be a very significant development, and for them, it indicates a smoothing out of the market at hand. For them, this constitutes almost a warning that the sprinter’s run (which the real estate market has been imitating for the last two years) is about to slow to a snail’s crawl.

In our next post we will speculate further into whether Real Estate in Montclair and Nationally will slow down.

Stopping Unfair African American Foreclosures

LAWSUIT IN THE FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT OF MARYLAND SEEKS TO ERADICATE WRONGFUL FORECLOSURE AND AGGRESSIVE MORTGAGE SERVICING TARGETING THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY

Attorney William C. Johnson, Jr. exposes fraudulent, deceptive and aggressive foreclosure practices targeted toward the African-American community

Washington, DC (BlackNews.com) - A lawsuit filed in the Federal District Court of Maryland is asking the Court to address the common foreclosure practices that has undermined the American Dream for African-American families in areas heavily populated by minorities. The action is denouncing the practice of "reverse redlining" whereby mortgage servicers have specifically targeted the African-American community in regard to certain services, practices and policies. The implementation of these acts has caused a substantial increase in the number of foreclosures in the African-American community as compared to non-minority communities.

The mortgage servicer is typically an intermediary which engages in the collection of mortgage debt. Rarely originating the loan, the mortgage servicer is often assigned the loan or purchases the loan from the secondary market.

What is most interesting about the lawsuit is its attempt to draw a distinction between predatory lending and predatory mortgage servicing. Recognizing the inability of minorities to obtain conventional financing, the lawsuit notes that aggressive foreclosure practices innately attaches itself to those individuals and households with sub-prime loans. Sub-prime loans, due to its costliness and high interest rates, are inherently harder to maintain by the homeowners and has become quite common in the African-American community. Considering the fact the minority community has been the target of sub-prime loans in years past, it goes without saying they are predisposed to foreclosure when unfair and deceptive trade practices are implemented by the mortgage servicer.

While addressing the predatory lending dilemma garners the attention of the press and legislature, the failure to address predatory mortgage servicing will allow this problem to persist. With the family home often being the largest investment of the vast majority of people, it is time certain protections are in place to prevent mortgage servicers from stealing the African-American dream.

About William C. Johnson, Jr. & Associates, PLLC
William C. Johnson, Jr. & Associates, PLLC is a Civil Rights and Consumer Protection firm practicing in the jurisdictions of Maryland and Washington, D.C. The firm typically provides litigation and transactional advice to businesses and individuals.


CONTACT:
William C. Johnson, Jr., Esq., MBA, LL.M
Phone 202-347-8833 or 202-431-2650
Fax: 301-890-8594

Achieving Academic Excellence - Blueprint for African American Youth

Montclair Branch NAACP Education Committee Features...
Educator - Motivator - Author

Baruti K. Kafele

Place: United Way 60 S. Fullerton Ave. Montclair

When: Friday March 3 6pm - 9pm

Reason: Our Children Deserve the Best

For more info. Call Kelly Sweatt - 973-277-0058

Parenting for Achieving Academic Excellence (for parents) - An empowering series of workshops or keynote address providing strategies for parents to utilize towards motivation and inspiring their children to strive for academic excellence. Topics include: Defining a purpose for learning, culturally-based, goal setting, developing effective study skills and test-taking strategies, communication in the home, collaboration with the school, and handling distractions to success including obstacles, challenges, music, the media and peer pressure.