Suffolk County foreclosures, however, increased at a greater rate than Nassau County.  Suffolk County foreclosure rates were 102% higher than the same quarter last year, vs. Nassau County’s 14% increase over the same time period.  Overall, Long Island’s foreclosure rate per household twice as large as New York City.

The hardest hit?  Hempstead had the highest rate of foreclosures per household in Long Island with one in every 833 households was scheduled for a foreclosure auction in the second quarter of 2008, double the previous quarter.

The full Long Island Q2 08 Foreclosure Report can be downloaded here.

“New Yorkers are losing their homes in record numbers,” the judge said at a Manhattan news conference announcing the program. “Some neighborhoods are being ravaged by foreclosures. Can we be part of an influence for the good?”

This is good news for consumers who are going into, or are already in, foreclosure.  The judges hearing there cases will be more attuned to the subtle nuances of foreclosure defense, including the complex securitization aspects of how mortgages are transferred, packaged and sold.  This will give homeowners a better chance at defending foreclosures and ensuring a more just result.

So how do you choose a foreclosure lawyer?  Very carefully.

A good foreclosure lawyer will have knowledge not only of the Truth-In-Lending Act, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, and state law, but will also be an active member of the foreclosure defense bar.  The most active of these groups is the National Association of Consumer Advocates, a national group of lawyers working to increase the quality of consumer protection.

With this constantly evolving field, it’s easy to be left in the dust and miss out on new developments in the law.  Just a few years ago nobody had thought of the issue of standing in foreclosure defense cases, but now the best-educated lawers out there know full well why this is important and how to use it to a consumer’s advantage.

So, too, with the issue of securitization.  Though a common means of packaging and selling mortgage loans for a deade or more, this convoluted scheme has come to the forefront only recently.  Lawyers who have studied securitization and understand it completely will be best equipped to defend a foreclosure case.

Remember, this is your home - don’t take a shortcut when hiring a foreclosure lawyer to protect your interests.

This is not, however, the end of the world.  If your time to answer has expired, you will need to get the court’s permission to file and serve a late answer.  Many courts will allow you to do so if you have a good defense in the case, as well as a good reason why you didn’t file an answer in a timely manner.  It’s also smart to call the bank’s lawyer to get their consent, in which case you wouldn’t need to get the court’s permission at all - but if they don’t consent, letting the court know in your request will show that you’ve done your best to solve the problem on your own.

If you are served with a foreclosure and file for bankruptcy during the time to answer, then that time clock stops running while you’re in bankruptcy.  So if you’re served with the Complaint and then file for bankruptcy on Day Ten, you will still have at least ten days to file an Answer once the bankruptcy ends (or if the bank gets relief from the automatic stay).

What Indymac got was a denial not only of the judgment, but a denial of the entire foreclosure case.

The original lender of the subject October 4, 2006 mortgage was Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) as nominee for Mortgageit, Inc. MERS then assigned the loan to Indymac. But that assignment was not dated until July 11, 2007 - five full days AFTER the foreclosure was filed.

Though the assignment states that “[tjhis assignment is effective on or before June 1, 2007,” the court found such retroactive assignment to be ineffective.

The court stated as follows:

. . . such an attempt to retroactively assign the mortgage is insufficient to establish plaintiff’s ownership interest at the time the action was commenced. See Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. v. Taylor, 17 Misc3d 595 (Sup. Ct. Suffolk Co. 2007). Plaintiffs attempt to foreclose upon a mortgage in which it had no “legal or equitable interest was without foundation in law or fact…” Katz v. East- Ville Realty Co., 249 AD2d 243 (1st Dept 1998). See US Bank Nat. Ass’n v. Merino, 16 Misc3d 209, 212 (Sup. Ct. Suffolk Co. 2007). Moreover, “foreclosure of a mortgage may not be brought by on who has no title to it….” Kluge v. Fugazy, 145 AD2d 537, 538 (2d Dept 1998). See RCR Services Inc. v. Herbil Holding Co., 229 AD2d 379 (2d Dept 1996). Finally, plaintiffs standing to bring the within action goes to the basis of a court’s authority to adjudicate a dispute. See Stark v. Goldberg, 297 AD2 203 (1st Dept 2002) (wherein the court held that sua sponte dismissal of the action was warranted despite the lack of any assertion by defendants of an objection to plaintiffs’ standing) .

So what does this all mean for you, the person going into foreclosure? It means that it’s important for you to fight back and to defend the foreclosure. Don’t think that there’s no hope for you, that an inability to pay the mortgage means you automatically lose. You have powerful rights, and need to be sure to use them.

The part that bugs me is the fact that so many of these foreclosures could be fought if only the homeowners knew there were lawyers out there to help them. Instead, they sit idly by and wait for the gavel to fall. Their homes gone, their dreams dashed, and their equity stripped away by hyper-inflated foreclosure costs and legal fees to the lender’s attorneys.

Homeowners across the country have fallen victim to the ruthless banking industry and their shell game of “moving mortgages.” The loan is sold, sliced and diced so many ways that in the end there is no single entity to whom you owe money. In fact, nobody can even prove they have the right to foreclose.

But do homeowners know this? Nope.

So the statistics mount on a daily basis, the carnage getting worse each quarter. It won’t be long until huge swaths of New York City are boarded up and abandoned, shadows of the 1970’s and urban decay.

As these homes are taken back by the lenders or purchased by new owners, renters are kicked to the curb.  Many had no idea their landlords weren’t paying the mortgages, so the news is a surprise.

When a bank forecloses on a landlord, the tenant has no guarantee of being allowed to stay in the property. In addition, neither the bank nor the landlord has any legal obligation to inform the tenant of the foreclosure. The renter first learns of the foreclosure when he or she is told to pack up and move out.

If the renter does not go peacefully, he or she faces an eviction proceeding in landlord-tenant court.  That can involve time lost from work or other obligations, legal fees, and sleepless nights.

Some lenders, mindful of the fact that renters can drag the process along for months, offer “key money” to help a renter move quickly.  Though some renters avail themselves of this offer, others cannot do so.  Their security deposits are gone, they have been paying rent faithfully rather than saving money for the move, and are left with few choices and not much time to make them.

The study released by the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, shows that only one in three homeowners were able to complete a workout scheme within 45 days.

The study looked at delinquent mortgages from 13 of the 20 top mortgage service providers from October to January, and comprised 58 percent of all subprime mortgage loans serviced.

Although the loan providers have revised their loan terms from the traditional forbearance and repayment schemes, critics claim that the bent remains on getting payments in the door rather than helping people who genuinely need the assistance.

The SFPWG is composed of 11 state Attorney Generals, two state banking departments and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.

A recent article focuses on this problem and reveals some (not so shocking) facts - the rich are headed into the same sinkhole as the rest of the nation.

According to Loan Performance, a unit of First American CoreLogic, a real estate information company based in Santa Ana, Calif., about 870,000 borrowers took jumbo ARMs — mortgages of $417,000 or more — from 2005 to 2007. In the fourth quarter of 2007, 8.10 percent were two or more payments late, it found, while 2.62 percent were in the foreclosure process and 1.35 percent had been foreclosed. All the numbers were up from the third quarter.

Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com, predicted that eventually 8 percent of these jumbo ARMs will be foreclosed. In the first quarter of 2008, “the delinquency and foreclosure rate will clearly be higher,” he said.

This shouldn’t come as any surprise to even the casual reader.  The wealthy are just as prone to a “keeping up with the Jonses” mentality, striving to outdo one another in the driveway and in social settings - who has the nicest car, the biggest house, the pool table in the finished basement, the home theater system . . . the list goes on and on.

These trappings of “success” come with a hefty price tag, one that cannot be easily be borne by most people regardless of their income level.

The only difference between the wealthy and the rest of the world is that when faced with foreclosure, those with money often find an experience lawyer to help them.  They are well-versed in the defenses available to them in a foreclosure proceeding, and can use this information to their advantage.

As the information playing field is leveled, however, more and more American consumers are standing up for their rights and keeping the pressure on the mortgage servicers.  And at the end of the day, the person in jeans will stand next to the one in the Armani suit.  Armed with the knowledge of their rights, they will both prevail against abusive mortgage servicers.

Reuters claims that rapid house price falls in many parts of the United States will soon leave as many as one in five borrowers owing more on their loan than the house will fetch, removing at a stroke the single most powerful incentive to keep up with payments.

Though mortgage lenders can go after borrowers for deficiencies after the house is sold at foreclosure auction, few lenders take this expensive and low-yielding option.

Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com estimates that 10.6 million homeowners will have zero or negative equity by the end of June, or 21 percent of first mortgage holders. That often leads to homeowners just walking away from the house - the thought being that there’s no sense in paying a $300,000 mortgage on a $200,000 property.

Data from real estate firm RealtyTrac not only shows a rapid rise in overall foreclosures, but also suggests a rising number of walk aways. Home foreclosure filings surged 57 percent in the 12 months to March and bank repossessions soared 129 percent from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac.

This information flies in the face of logic. If you were told that the entity looking to throw you out of your home may not have filed the foreclosure properly, and that you could stay in your home for up to a year or more without having to pay a dime towards the mortgage, why would you leave? The value of a year’s worth of rent payments is not insignificant after all.

In addition, defending the foreclosure often leads to significant alterations to your mortgage. Perhaps the bank will lower your interest rate. Maybe they’ll forgive some of the total balance due. So many options are available that it seems a waste to throw in the towel before the end.