Foreclosure Statistics and Foreclosure Defense Links

Foreclosure news is getting tiring, but since I'm joining the ranks of people with their houses in foreclosure and I haven't written in a while, I thought I'd throw up a post on foreclosure statistics to help those who are looking to find the latest foreclosure statistics. Personally, I'm just sick of reading about and dealing with foreclosure news and information. On top of my own foreclosure, I've had a few assignments writing articles on foreclosure and bankruptcy. No pity for me though, I'm looking forward to moving, my house is falling apart, and the house is in my ex-husband's name whom I haven't seen in four years. It'll be a weather shock though - we're planning on moving from NY to the Tri-cities area in TN. I'll be positioned right in the middle of my kids in PA, VA and NC. I'm tired of fighting winter and I have a low-tolerance for the cold, so I'll appreciate the above-zero no-shoveling-or-getting-stuck-in-the-driveway winters.

If you're looking for NY courts, forms and regulations, try the New York State Unified Court System website, and their page with a couple new 2008 foreclosure regulations. You can also find lots of court forms needed for foreclosure proceedings at the NY Bar Association website. A NY Times May 2009 article stated foreclosures are happening now more than ever in NY, so I don't feel all alone. The article has some easy to refer to charts and statistics as well. CNN reported that California is suffering from the most foreclosures, and also brought to light that the children suffer as a result of unexpected and financially difficult moves. Even as a mother of six, I hadn't given thought to the great impact foreclosure has on young children. Perhaps because my kids are going off to college anyhow (4 down, 2 to go), and the remaining two and I are looking forward to moving. I do think the effects of foreclosure on children is a topic that definitely deserves more attention, and likely more study.

Statehealth.org has foreclosure ranks and percentage changes by state. Virginia University has a 2009 report ccomparing foreclosure and housing statistics between states and metro areas. The Center for Housing Policy, a partner of the National Housing Conference, has a comprehensive state and metro comparison, drop down search option for statistics by metro area on their "Paycheck to Paycheck" analysis, and a list of housing and foreclosure reports.

If you need Federal data and statistics on foreclosure, the Federal Reserve Board has foreclosure maps and foreclosure trends, as well as a dedicated area for foreclosure resources. Docuticker is a "ticker" website of updated government news, and has updates of the latest foreclosure news from government agencies. You can always review the latest foreclosure search results from the White House website, or US Treasury search results on foreclosure,. The FDIC has some random foreclosure statistics, and if you want to browse through some 2009 foreclosure statistics in pdf files you can take a look at the FDIC's foreclosure search results. If you're looking for information on the banking industry, the FDIC also has links to banking data and statistics (obviously). The FDIC has a quarterly report in pdf form that you can view for 2009 statistics.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) gets quoted a lot in the news, but they don't have a lot of free statistics on their website. However, the Research Institute of Housing America (RIHA) is a trust 501(c) under the Mortgage Bankers Association, and is a good source for mortgage and housing data. You can also find the latest foreclosure statistics in news articles from websites like Market Watch.

Having a blog post on foreclosure statistics would be incomplete without mentioning HUD. First of all, they have datasets from the oft-referred to yearly American Housing Survey. HUD also has a research link with some housing data and statistics, and an "online library" to pursue HUD related topics a little further.

If you've gone to Realty Trac, take a look at this recent article examining the accuracy of foreclosure statistics reported by Realty Trac. I just found the Foreclosure Industry website, and it looks like it's keeping up with current foreclosure statistics, and the "Loan Audit" blog that is keeping up with mortgage and housing news.

You'll also find more data and recent news on foreclosure from a search result at the search engine in my blog.

For anyone wanting some legal resources on affirmative defenses to foreclosure, or just general legal information on foreclosure, I found the "Foreclosure Defense Group" website helpful, and I believe I used information from the Patriot's War website (although it was on their old website, they have a lot of info on their new one). NOLO is a publisher of legal books and their website is to promote their products, but they have a lot of links to free information, and I've often found their website very helpful in the beginning stages of research. They also have a useful page dedicated to foreclosure information and proceedings. You can also take a look at Kenneth M DeLashmutt's very nice article which includes easy to understand steps and defenses as well as a few case citations and useful foreclosure links. The Preventing Foreclosure blog has useful information, foreclosure defenses, and forms. If you haven't paid a visit to Scribd, they have tons of documents that people have uploaded to search. Try the search results for foreclosure or foreclosure affirmative defenses. There's also the Foreclosure Defense Nationwide blog with case citations and quotes from court foreclosure filings.

Above all, if you know someone who has received a Summons and Complaint for a foreclosure, make sure they serve their legal Answer within 20 days, even if it's "pro se." It will stall the foreclosure for months, and they'll have time to either get an attorney, look into loan modification, arbitration and settlement opportunities, deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, short sales, bankruptcy, and other prevention strategies and foreclosure options, or even wait for upcoming help for homeowners. There's a lot out there, and if you serve an Answer in time, you'll have time to review those options. Shoot me an email at getanswerserved at gmail dot com if you need some help typing up an answer to serve "pro se" and can't afford an attorney.

Well, I'm still sick of reading about foreclosure but they're not going away any time soon. I know there are thousands of other resources out there, unfortunately I wasn't able to pinpoint them all. I'll keep updating my blog's search engine so you can always check for more foreclosure statistics.

It's time for me to pack up now (pathetic pun intended)...happy statistics hunting or happy house hunting!

P.S. How could I forget my dear friend Swivel? Don't forget to check out foreclosure statistics, graphs and charts created by the Swivel community!

Eat, Sleep, and Read Statistics on International Social Progress

I'm back from my four week hiatus away from civilization. My satellite contract had to be renewed, and to make a long story short, I evaluated other Internet options, none of which were financially feasible, then the satellite dish had to be repositioned to find reception amongst towering trees. It took a few days on the phone (being transferred a zillion times) to a tech person in India (who didn't quite understand how tall the trees actually were) to get the job done. (I thought my addiction to coffee was bad...try not having information at your fingertips for a month!) Well now that I've vented...how about that 2009 OECD report?

Couldn't help but click on the Yahoo news feature comparing the eating and sleeping habits between US and France. Live Science had their take on the international OECD report as well, and included a chart with comparisons of sleeping habits between the 18 countries included in the report.

This not-talked-about-enough report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had a lot more information than just sleeping and eating habits. It stated some common knowledge, like the fact that men have more leisure time than women. (Women certainly don't need statistics to prove it!) But aside from eating, sleeping and leisure time, you'll find data on unemployment, poverty, social and health issues, inequality, demographics and work and life.

These sleeping, eating, and men-have-more-fun-than women statistics came from the OECD's "Society at a Glance 2009 - OECD Social Indicators" report. They have a link for the data and indicators included in this report, but they do indicate there is some privileged information for accredited journalists. (C'mon hackers - help us bloggers out!) I don't know why us lowly bloggers aren't good enough to accumulate a little extra knowledge ($$ comes to mind), but I have to admit there are a lot of nice free statistics in this progress report. They do come in the awkward form of .pdf and .xls files for separate chapters, but the data is useful nonetheless. The data and indicators included are divided into data groups as follows:

1. Headline Social Indicators

2. Measuring Leisure in OECD Countries

3. Interpreting OECD Social Indicators

4. General Context Indicators

Net national income per capita
Fertility rates
Migration
Marriage and divorce

5. Self-sufficiency Indicators

Employment
Unemployment
Childcare
Student performance
Not in employment, education or training
Age of labour force exit
Spending on education

6. Equity Indicators:

Income inequality
Poverty
Poverty among children
Adequacy of benefits of last resort
Public social spending
Total social spending

7. Health Indicators

Life expectancy
Perceived health status
Infant health
Obesity
Height
Mental health
Long-term care recipients
Health care expenditure

8. Social Cohesion Indicators

Life satisfaction
Work satisfaction
Crime victimisation
Suicides
Bullying
Risky behaviour

The OECD website has some great international statistics in other reports as well. Their 2008 annual report is a full free pdf download of 118 pages that covers the world economy and is full of quotable statistics. Elsewhere on the site, you'll find data and statistics on international employment, wages and benefits, and international social expenditures data for the past few years as well. I enjoyed reading this page on world educational statistics. There's also statistics available on their Source Data page, but I believe these are a combination of free statistics and priced statistic resources.

There is also a very nice page of links to other social policy websites that I'm sure are rich with useful (and free) international data and statistics. (If you're interested in more websites with international statistics, there's a lot of links to reputable international statistics in my post on International Relief and Humanitarian Aide statistics.)

This OECD website is great. Pay a visit and browse around if you're looking for international data and statistics. I have to make sure it's included in the statistics search engine I have on this blog, (which, by the way, I've updated recently), so I'm going to post this. Then I'll try and eat and sleep like the French, and steal some of that leisure time from men!

Post Script: While I was testing my search for OECD during my fight with Google Custom Engine (which has made changes not to my liking and my search engine is now likely not to my liking also), I saw that Mr. Warner posted some great links from their website a month ago! Mr. Warner has some OECD regional links and more information on the valuable data at OECD. Now I have to continue hitting my computer with an axe...

Links to Federal Statistics on Economics from the US Government

The economy is a hot topic in the US - although for me it's more like the country song that sings "Wall Street fell but we were so poor we couldn't tell..." - so I'm really not stressing over the avalanche of crumbling corporations that are filling the avenues of Wall Street.

I've been involved in some articles and research on Internet Piracy and am now addicted to the topic. This blog post was going to be about Internet Piracy - but time is lacking and the research I've collected is overwhelming me now. (But I can't wait to start ranting on the manipulated statistics that the RIAA is putting out and the international bullying that the US Government has been rightly accused of.) As I was browsing this morning I came across some government links that might help someone looking for some offical data on US Economics, the Federal Reserve and all that fun stuff. So, in the spirit of sharing - I do now share:

The Economic Report of the President

"The Economic Report of the President is an annual report written by the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. It overviews the nation's economic progress using text and extensive data appendices."


Federal Reserve System Website

From their website: "...provides the nation with a safe, flexible and stable monetary and financial system." That's not what I hear on Wall Street. (Is anyone laughing as hard as I am?)


Federal Reserve Board - 12 Districts

"The Federal Reserve officially identifies Districts by number and Reserve Bank city. In the 12th District, the Seattle Branch serves Alaska, and the San Francisco Bank serves Hawaii. The System serves commonwealths and territories as follows: the New York Bank serves the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; the San Francisco Bank serves American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Board of Governors revised the branch boundaries of the System in February 1996." Click on the map to enter the website for the individual district.



Department of Energy Price Trends

Includes links to statistics and data on petroleum, gas, diesel, historical energy data and current gas price information.



List of Department of Energy Stakeholders

Includes links to State Energy Websites and Economic Dispatch Reports.


Federal Housing Administration

Mortgage and foreclosure information.


Budget of the United States Government

Ya. Right.


Search Engine Catalog for US Government Publications

You can search by keyword through federal depositories. I did a search for "statistics economics" and there were over 15,000 results.


Search for Economic Indicator Information by Year

"Available from April 1995 forward, this monthly compilation is prepared for the Joint Economic Committee by the Council of Economic Advisors and provides economic information on prices, wages, production, business activity, purchasing power, credit, money and Federal finance." I tested it out and there are plenty of government statistics available in handy dandy data sets.



Energy Information Administration

For official energy statistics from the US Government.


Search Engine and Statistics from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Fransisco

Looks like a decent search engine. Links to economic and banking data and statistics.


Louisiana State University Links on Economic Statistics and Websites

List of links to economic journals and government websites (some of which I've listed in this blog).


Economagic

I don't know where this website came from - but it has links to Federal Reserve, Census and Commerce Statistics. If you need some quick details..this might be worth a look. Some of the data is arranged in timelimes. A little congested, but could be valuable nonetheless.

Which reminds me, can't forget to post the US Department of Commerce Economics link.

Tons of national and international data and statistics on commerce, exporting, importing, employment and all that commerce-y kind of stuff. Links to other US Commerce departments too.

The weather has been in the news as much as government bailouts. How about the Economic and Social Benefits of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).


United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Okay, it's not a US website - but there are a slew of statistics...


United for a Fair Economy is a non-profit organzation that supplies interesting economic data in their Executive Excess 2008 Report that dried my (absent) tears for Wall Street.

The report also finds that S&P 500 CEOs averaged $10.5 million in pay in 2007, 344 times the pay of typical American workers. Compensation levels for private investment fund managers soared even further. The top 50 hedge and private equity fund managers averaged $588 million each, more than 19,000 times as much as typical U.S. workers earned.

This report was created in collaboration with the Institute for Policy Studies. The IPS has substantial data in pdf report form on their IPA Reports link such as Analysis: U.S. Department of Energy Budget FY 2009, Debt and Trade and Challenging Corporate Investor Rule.

The ten year old website Global Issues is a rich resource for data on poverty, economics, trade, health and thousands of other topics including these (approximately) 67 links on Poverty and Economics. Okay, I admit, I'm not that poor, especially by international standards. And as long as I can pay my internet bill I'll be happy. A steady supply of coffee and chocolate is a luxury/weakness I find hard to do without. (Yes, I do try to buy Fair Trade products - but I'm in the boonies here.)

Back to the rich executives. Need market information? Okay, there's a zillion or more websites with market statistics. The Wall Street Journal has their website Market Watch which pretty much reports everything you're likely to read anywhere else anyhow.

Hope these can be of some assistance to you. These websites (and other references for statistics) are included in this blog's "Search for Statistics" search engine at the top of the page. So if you're looking for some quick statistics, it probably wouldn't hurt to do a search in our search engine first. If you need more links on energy statistics, check out our post on Oil and the Russia Georgia War.

I just read there was a rebound in the stocks. So, while you're having fun letting visions of numbers run through your head, I'll be heading off to check my virtual stocks. (They're much safer.) Have fun with your search! (And always feel free to comment if you need help finding something and maybe I can help.)

Post script September 19th 2008: Just want to add this link I just read from a DIGG submission: Salaries of Today's Wall Street CEOs.

Post script September 27th 2008: Saw this government economic analysis website that is just stuffed with statistics! It's called "Shadow Government Statistics" by John Williams. If you're looking for heavy-duty economic analysis you want to follow John's shadow!