More and more homeowners in delinquency are finding they can stay in their own houses for years as long as they're willing to put up a fight. Borrowers are using several tactics in order to postpone the inevitable: disputing the bank or lending company's actions, postponing sending in paperwork until right before the deadline, asking lenders to produce the loan's original paperwork, and in some cases, declaring bankruptcy.
Four years ago, the national average time to process a foreclosure was 253 days; it now stands at 674 day, reports LPS Applied Analytics. Florida's average is around 1,027 days, which is almost three years; Washington, D.C.'s average is 1,053 days; and in New York, the foreclosure average is about 900 days, representing about two-and-a-half-years. According to LPS, almost half (40%) of delinquent borrowers haven't made any type of mortgage payment in at least two years. David Berenbaum of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition says the answer is simple -- we just need "lenders to work harder to find solutions that allow delinquent borrowers who can afford to make reasonable mortgage payments to keep their homes."
