Foreclosure sales are down in New Jersey, but short sales are up, according to a report by RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties.
Lenders would be required to maintain residential properties that have been foreclosed upon under a bill that's unanimously passed the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee.
New Jersey's HomeKeeper program, designed to help the unemployed and under-employed facing foreclosure in the Garden State, has had significant problems over the past year, but Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Richard Constable says things have been straightened out.
August was the nation's 23rd straight month of a year-over-year decrease in foreclosure activity. In New Jersey, it was the sixth straight month of a year-over-year increase.
Five of the biggest U.S. lenders have reduced struggling homeowners' mortgage balances by $1.3 billion and provided a total $10.6 billion in relief under a landmark settlement over foreclosure abuses.
There's good and bad news on the mortgage foreclosure front. Nationally, foreclosures dropped three percent in July, but they jumped way up in New Jersey compared to a year ago.