Anniston Housing

Bank of America Will Not Oppose New Consumer Agency – Birmingham Class Action Lawyer

According to reports on February 2, 2010, Bank of America will not oppose President Obama’s plan to create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.  B of A says that while not endorsing the agency, they do agree with the policy direction.  B of A spokesman James Mahoney says that the bank has made it clear to various organizations they are apart of that they will not lobby against the agency.  This stance puts Bank of America at odds with rival bankers who have spent millions of dollars lobbying against the agency. The bank does oppose proposals that would allow state regulators to overrule federal guideline.

President Obama calls the agency a “non-negotiable” part of his regulatory reform effort.  The House of Representatives has already passed a bill to overhaul bank regulations to protect consumers.  Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D. Conn) and ranking Republican Senator Richard Shelby (R. AL) are in discussions over alternatives to the House bill.  The proposed agency has the support of more than 200 consumer groups.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Bankers Association have organized television campaigns and encouraged the writing of letters to congressmen against the formation of the agency.  Rival bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, who like B of A was a beneficiary of the government bailout of troubled financial institutions, has stated that they are not in favor of the formation of a new agency to regulate risky or abusive banking practices.

Contact the Alabama class action lawyers of Hill Turner for help with your lawsuit.

The foreclosure statistics for the half year 2009 are out and Alabama stands at 30thplace in foreclosure activity. In the last six months Alabama State has turned out 9,657 properties for foreclosure filings. One in every 221 housing units received foreclosure impact by way of default notice; scheduled foreclosure action; and repossession after foreclosure sale public auction.

In comparison, the foreclosure activity in Alabama State during this half year in 2009 is 179.75% higher than January – June 2008 and 125.47% higher than the half year July to December 2008. The meaning of this statistical figure is the impact of foreclosure crisis in Alabama is getting worse gradually. More and more numbers of properties are being made available for distress sale.

As of today there are 5485 properties available in Mobile County, of which 1939 properties are Bank-owned; Jefferson County total 8076 and Bank-owned 2096; Madison County total 2034 and Bank-owned 968; Montgomery County total 2306 and Bank owned 927. These are the Counties where home buyers and investors are searching properties most popularly from the Real Estate sites.

Similarly there are major cities and towns where home buyers are searching for Alabama Bank foreclosures. The statistics for these cities are – Harvest in Madison County total properties 127 and Bank owned 59; Huntsville in Madison County total properties 1183 and Bank owned 576; Saraland of Mobile County has a total of 158 properties foreclosed, of which 42 properties are Bank-owned and repossessed; and Birmingham in Shelby County has 4890 properties in total and out of them 1635 properties are Bank-owned.

The above figures are only indicative of the foreclosure scenario obtaining in Alabama and properties are made available from all the Metropolitan Areas of Alabama. The total population of 4.66 millions in Alabama is spread over these Combined Statistical Areas.

Home buyers can search for the desired locations from out of the above major cities and towns of Alabama for Bank foreclosures. The foreclosure laws of Alabama permit both judicial Court foreclosure process and non-judicial out of Court foreclosure process. Mortgage lenders ensure a power-of-sale clause inserted in the Deed of Trust, whereby a Trustee Sale takes place to conduct the public auction. In Alabama Court proceedings are rare and almost all the foreclosure processes are routed through the non-judicial way to complete the process quickly. A typical foreclosure process ends within 2 to 3 months.

This is the reason why there are 10,798 Alabama Bank foreclosure properties presently. Attractive bargains are available considering the average price of these Alabama Bank foreclosures at $86,159, compared to median home prices of $169,900.