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NEW JERSEY
Lawmakers Work Toward Statewide Foreclosure Database
With New Jersey facing high foreclosure rates, even amid over-
all low volumes across the country, state lawmakers and home-
owners continue to work to address challenges raised by the issue,
NJTV News reported.
"It is a multilayer problem that has a lot of actors that need
to be involved in this process to fix it," said Sen. Troy Singleton,
Chair of the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee.
Singleton is the sponsor of a package of bills currently mov-
ing through the state legislature that are designed to address the
alleged foreclosure issues, including bills which would create a
statewide database of foreclosed properties. New Jersey lawmakers
passed the bipartisan legislation in February consisting of a pack-
age of nine different bills aimed at streamlining pending foreclo-
sure cases in the state.
Sen. Steven Oroho, another of the bills' sponsors, said they
were designed to "give families the opportunity to start fresh while
helping towns reduce the number of vacant houses that create
public safety issues in our neighborhoods.
Singleton told NJTV, "We wanted to make sure there was also
a notification so folks know who is the responsible person for fore-
closed properties. [If] a local mayor, for instance, needs to know,
'I need to go back to such and such from mortgage company Y or
bank X,' they'll have the name and contact information for those
individuals."
Michael Affuso, EVP of New Jersey's Bankers Association,
called for better accountability for out-of-state mortgage compa-
nies.
"ink about urban areas where you have attached houses,"
Affuso said. "We want to know who is responsible for the main-
tenance of those homes. We've had laws on the books for years
that forces lenders to maintain the homes. However, the state or
the city cannot figure out who the lender is. Without this database
they never will."
