California has been one of the hardest hit states by the mortgage crisis. California has the second highest foreclosure rate in October with 85,420 California properties receiving a foreclosure notice which represents a 1 per cent improvement from September.

Nationwide foreclosure filings have dropped by 3 percent in October, a slight improvement but still 19 percent higher than last year.

This has caused a financial crisis devastating families and whole communities. The thousands of troubled homeowners could have some extra help going their way. New legislation is being proposed by a Democratic candidate for state attorney general.

The plan is backed by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, who wants to allow homeowners who have been served a foreclosure notice the chance of employing a state appointed monitor to help them lower their monthly payments.

When preparing for the bill, the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee headed by Nava heard testimony about loan modifications and the housing crisis as a whole. The results indicated that loan modifications have been ineffective and the families benefiting from them are very few.

One of the principle features of the Assembly Bill 1588, the loan modification under study, is that lenders would not be able to foreclose on homes that were undergoing loan modification procedures.

Nevada, which has the highest rate of foreclosure notices in the U.S, worked through a similar program to that proposed in California and the bill was enacted in May.

Barabara Buckley, Nevada Assembly Speaker gave her testimony in Sacramento, California when providing information on the results reaped by the program in Nevada: “Our program in Nevada has shown initial success in stemming foreclosures. While I understand the obstacles California faces as a non-judicial foreclosure state, I look forward to working with the California Legislature to find ways that a similar program could be implemented”, she commented.

Nevada’s results although far from a quick fix are encouraging. In just one month 3,330 homeowners have requested mediation, 1514 were processed, 888 cases assigned to mediators and 106 completed in that same month.

It is hard to see how this bill will help with the larger problem of homeowners that have good loans but are unemployed so any mortgage payment is too expensive. However if the only feature that is kept of this bill is that lenders can’t continue with foreclosure measures during the loan modification it will provide a much needed respite to troubled homeowners who just want a chance to pay their mortgage at an affordable rate.

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1. Loan Modifications Scrutinized, 1340 Loan Modifications Investigated in California
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