Working the Foreclosure Help Center it sure is hard to tell when the media states that the number of foreclosures is going down. This time when I volunteered, it was busier than I had ever seen it before. This week they are opening a second branch downtown San Jose. With the looming layoffs due to budget cuts at all levels, city, county and state, they are anticipating needing even more people to help more people in crisis. Thus the California real estate housing crisis continues.

According to Washington research group Center on Budget & Policy Priorities who just did a research study, 43 states are in trouble with their budgets. Of course in order to close those budget gaps, the states starts cutting funding to the counties which in turn starts cutting funding to the cities. Along the way everyone starts cutting programs. At this point it turns into a rather vicious cycle. As the different levels cut programs, they cut jobs and people, making the housing crisis even worse.

This along with the fact that the banks are still rather uncooperative when it comes to dealing with their customers regarding lowering loan balances or loan modifications, it sure makes it tough to get a recovery on sure footing. I had a lady in the office the other day had been working for months on a loan mod with her bank. She had been paying the agreed upon payments for 9 months on time, only for the bank to come back and tell her she didn’t qualify for the loan modification. Now mind you, this lady has been making these payments for 9 months already! I swear, I would love to understand the logic.

If you have your own horror story about trying to work with your lender, or if you feel the foreclosures will continue in record amounts, please feel free to share in the comments below. If I may be of any assistance to you, please don’t hesitate to contact me.