What is foreclosure? Foreclosure.com Director of Education, Linda Yates, talks about the foreclosure process in the video above, as well as how it’s different everywhere, depending on in which state you live and the laws (non-judicial or judicial) in place. From start to finish, Linda provides a high-level overview of the foreclosure process and the various stages included in it. She also explains the terms Lis Pendens, Real Estate-Owned (REO), Sheriff’s sale and other key words that are common in the foreclosure process.

The length of the foreclosure process depends on several factors, including the lender, government programs, state in which the distressed home is located and individual circumstances, among others. Foreclosures, if ever, are rarely the same.

However, there are state-by-state averages, which Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS) tracks each month. Nationwide, homeowners facing foreclosure are collectively 611 days late paying their respective mortgages.

The top places where foreclosures on average take the longest include:

• New York (767 days)
• Florida (757 days)
• New Jersey (708 days)
• Hawaii (681 days)
• Washington D.C. (676 days)

The top places where foreclosures on average take the shortest include:

• Wyoming (398 days)
• Nebraska (407 days)
• Alaska (411 days)
• Idaho (416 days)
• Arizona (418 days)

Homes in states that follow the judicial foreclosure process typically take longer to get through the system because the courts are so overburdened. Non-judicial states, therefore, are going to typically recover faster, according to Herb Blecher, a senior vice president for analytics at LPS, in a recent interview with BusinessWeek. com.

For more on the foreclosure laws in your state click here. To search foreclosed homes for sales in your area click here.

It’s April 18.

Typically, the date doesn’t strike fear in the hearts of ordinary Americans. Today is different, however, because it (not April 15) is the deadline to file individual tax returns.

And for many, 2010 could have been financially difficult, including defaulting on a mortgage loan and losing a home to foreclosure and/or short sale.

The good news is that the  Mortgage Debt Relief Act, passed in 2007 and expiring in 2012, protects most distressed homeowners from being responsible for additional liabilities.

Most, but not all.

CNN.com lays out the exceptions to the rule. Read about them after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »

That’s the assessment from Jamie Dimon, who is the CEO behind one of the largest money-lending financial institutions in the nation, J.P. Morgan Chase

He explains via MarketWatch.com:

“It is a big mess, it has cost us a lot of money. Unfortunately, the only way to do it right is name by name by name…. We will do as many as we can. There is a lot of paperwork. The paperwork is different in every single state…. There were multiple checks and balances and there may be mistakes made in the foreclosure process, but they are very few and boy, when we find them, we try to make up for them right away.”

It’s nice to hear that big banks area learning from their mistakes revealed through the recent robo-signing scandal and are still working feverishly to correct them sooner rather than later. And fix them the right way … even if it means it may cost more.

Each foreclosure case needs to be scrutinized and airtight before heading to the auction block — there’s just too much at stake. That’s the way it should have always been and should remain indefinitely.

But Dimon cautions that because each case needs to be scoured with a fine-toothed comb, and because foreclosure laws are different (and changing) state-by-state, it could take “years before this plays out.” No more cutting corners.

If nothing else that gives distressed homeowners and their families more time to figure out their next moves, perhaps literally, which isn’t a bad thing, at all, considering the difficult circumstances.