Michael Jackson is not the only celebrity facing a possible foreclosure.

Three-time National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star, Latrell Sprewell, is in danger of losing his half-million dollar home in River Hills, Wisconsin, according to USA Today. The report indicates that the former Golden State Warrior, New York Knick and Minnesota Timberwolve has not paid his $2,593 mortgage since September 2007.

Sprewell — who played 13 seasons in the league — earned an annual salary of $14.6 million in the final year of his career.

This is not the first time Sprewell is up against foreclosure. Last summer he defaulted on a $1.5 million yacht mortgage and lost the vessel at a public auction (it sold for $865,000).

It just goes to show once again that no one is immune to foreclosure — it can happen to anyone at anytime.

(Except for maybe Bill Gates and a handful of other zillionaires.)

Scott Burns from MSN Money thinks there is a connection:

“We were in the second year of a brutal three-year stock market decline when radical Islamic terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center. Even so, borrowed money wasn’t dirt cheap. The federal funds rate, down from nearly 6% during the Internet boom years, was 3.65% in August 2001. It fell to 1.75% within weeks of the terrorist attacks. Policymakers struggled to keep the economy from coming to a standstill. The federal funds rate continued to drop, hitting a low of 0.98% in December 2003. That was more than two years after the attacks. We were well into a powerful stock market recovery. The federal funds rate stayed around 1% long enough to set off a boom in low-cost mortgages and in home prices. Home buyers discovered that very ordinary paychecks could now buy extraordinary homes. People with cash to deposit learned their money earned virtually nothing. Interest rates on home mortgages dropped fast enough that the National Association of Realtors’ housing affordability index showed that almost anyone could buy a house somewhere in America…. During the same period, the Consumer Price Index rose only 2.9% annualized.”

He might be onto something … or he might not.

Distressed homeowners facing foreclosure and in jeopardy of losing their homes could receive a little extra time to cure the mortgage defaults thanks to an initiative proposed by United States President George Bush and his administration, according to Yahoo!News.com.

Six participating banks of the Hope Now Alliance — Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase and Co., Washington Mutual Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co — will delay the foreclosure process for their customers for an additional 30 days, using the extra time to try and make the mortgages more affordable.

Here’s the actual snip:

“Under the new program, six of the nation’s largest financial institutions said they will begin contacting homeowners who are 90 or more days overdue on their monthly mortgage payments. The homeowners will be given the opportunity to put the foreclosure process on pause for 30 days while the lenders look for a way to make the mortgage more affordable. The new program will be available to the holders of all types of mortgages from prime to subprime and represents a widening of an initiative announced by President Bush in December that offers a freeze on subprime mortgage rates that are scheduled to reset to sharply higher rates for borrowers who qualify for the assistance.”

Homeowners in foreclosure are encouraged to call 1-888-995-HOPE for assistance and more information about the 30-day moratorium.

However, please consider that homeowners will not qualify for the bail out program if they:

• are already in bankruptcy
• have a foreclosure sales date less than 30 days away, or
• if the home had been purchased as an investment property or was not occupied at the current time.

For more information and additional foreclosure assistance remember that professional consultants can be reached right here.

Google — perhaps the top Internet search engine on the planet — recently revealed that Web surfers from Miami, Florida, search for the term “foreclosure” more than any other city in the WORLD, according to Local10.com.

That’s right — we’re talking about the WORLD and not just the United States.

Here’s the snip:

“… when the search word is ‘foreclosure,’ Miami takes first place, looking for Web sites using the word “foreclosure” more than any other city on Earth.”

In addition, according to the article, “Miami Internet users are among world leaders Googling the word ‘condo,’ placing second only to web surfers in Singapore.”

Real estate in South Florida has always been a popular topic of discussion. However, it’s incredible to read hard evidence that so many people in one area are so interested in one term.

It indicates that perhaps real estate values are priced so high in the market that investors and future homeowners are looking for the best deals possible on distressed real estate.

Someone needs to let them know that their first stop should be Foreclosure.com. The names says it all.

To search the most accurate database of Miami foreclosure listings right now click here.

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