Foreclosure help knocks in Minneapolis

Taking it to the streets

Braving cold and dark, volunteers are combing Minneapolis' North Side in search of homeowners who may be nearing trouble with their mortgages.

Related Content

• Graphic: Door-knockers target troublesome mortgages
• Need to prevent foreclosure? Follow that snow plow!

• See more related items

• Special project: Mortgage Meltdown
• Photo

More from this series:

• Mediation: Relief for the 'little guy’
  Under the plan proposed by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, like one for farmers in the '80s, troubled borrowers could get a chance to renegotiate mortgage terms.
• Minneapolis to put foreclosure aid to work
  The City Council will begin financing, purchasing, rehabbing or demolishing more than 600 properties.
• Nonprofits can buy foreclosed homes
  Developers in Minneapolis and St. Paul will get first crack at bargain prices, which will help revamp neighborhoods.
• Bits of good news surface for Twin Cities housing market
  A report to be issued today is expected to show sales rising and inventories falling.
• Minnesota gets cash boost to help housing crisis
  The nearly $60 million in federal money is aimed at selling and rehabbing abandoned and foreclosed homes.
• Foreclosures might have peaked in Minneapolis
  The numbers are dropping, possibly because foreclosures started here earlier. Problems with the glut of empty houses continue.
• Mortgages: No relief in sight
  Mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates hit records last quarter. And more prime borrowers are being affected.
• Get ready for a mortgage maze
  Changes resulting from the credit crisis may make getting a mortgage more time-consuming and costly for many.
• Sheriff's sales are gauge of mortgage defaults
  Sheriff’s sales — a key indicator of the mortgage crisis — have ballooned more than sixfold since 2003 in 10 metro counties, and another wave is expected.
• Foreclosures have officials in Scott, Dakota pondering how to help
  A grim rise in foreclosures creates challenges for south-metro counties: What to do and at what cost?
• Fraud charges hit Minneapolis mortgage firm
  The Minnesota Department of Commerce charged International Mortgage Solutions and its owner, Sylvester Luellen, with multiple counts of civil mortgage fraud.
• FBI says Twin Cities area is hotbed for mortgage fraud
  The FBI has identified the Twin Cities as one of the 10 worst areas of the United States for mortgage fraud, and said it has literally dozens of criminal investigations underway here as part of a national crackdown on the problem.
• Nation's mortgage crisis is taking a toll on the kids, too
  East St. Paul teen knows firsthand. She's rooting for a foreclosure measure, OK'd last week by the U.S. House, to pass.
• Small cities rate high in foreclosures
  Looking for the highest foreclosure rates in Hennepin County? Look outside Minneapolis.
• Distressed properties dragging metro area home values down
  A Realtor group's report shows the huge effect of foreclosed homes and other distressed properties on the area's median home price.
• State on track for 39% hike in foreclosures
  Minnesota is headed toward a record number of foreclosures again this year, and while most of the homes are concentrated in Hennepin and Ramsey counties, outstate counties posted the highest foreclosure rates.
• Foreclosure 'help' ended up bringing more debt
  Homeowners tell of dealings with companies that promised to prevent foreclosure but did nothing to help -- but charged them anyway.
• 2 plead guilty in $35M mortgage scheme
  Thomas J. Balko and Jonathan E. Helgason, co-owners of TJ Waconia, pleaded guilty to a three-year scheme that involved 162 properties and $35 million in mortgages, most in north Minneapolis.
• Minneapolis takes charge of T.J. Waconia homes in fraud case
  TJ Waconia, sued by Minneapolis, was ordered to turn over 141 properties. The city wants to gain ownership, and may sell or rent them.
• St. Paul looks hard at fallout of foreclosure
  The city announced strategies to get owners of foreclosed and vacant properties to take responsibility for them.
• Housing slump prompts cities to toughen rental rules
  As New Prague and other cities see more single-family homes changing over to renters because of the national housing market meltdown, many are enacting tougher rental policies. Since February, Minneapolis has decided to collect a $1,000 fee when a home is converted to rental.
• Minneapolis OKs pilot loan program
  Minneapolis City Council authorized a pilot loan program Friday to try to prop up foreclosure-sapped neighborhoods. Here's the scoop on Minneapolis Advantage, set to be ready in May.
• April 3: Minneapolis sues firm over mortgages: 'It's personal'
  Minneapolis and three of its neighborhoods say Roseville-based TJ Waconia drove up prices, then cashed in.
• Firm linked to North Side foreclosures faces lawsuit
  Several Minneapolis neighborhoods, joined by the city, plan to announce a civil fraud lawsuit today against a real-estate firm implicated in North Side home foreclosures.
• Minneapolis foreclosure program's focus turns to repairs
  A program for neighborhoods hit by foreclosure seems like a popular idea, but the Minneapolis council has had trouble defining it.
• Foreclosure scourge hitting the suburbs
  Hennepin County suburbs now have more repossessions than Minneapolis. It is an event that is not class specific, an analyst says.
• First, a wave of foreclosures; next, the wrecking ball?
  One-third of the foreclosed houses inspected so far in north Minneapolis are candidates for demolition, according to the agency trying to rehab the state's largest concentration of empty housing.
• Big surprise behind some city foreclosures
  A study has revealed that many foreclosures in the North Side, the area hardest hit in Minneapolis, occurred before interest rates jumped.
• Credit mess means Twin Cities homes selling for less
  The median price of homes sold in the Twin Cities metro area during February dropped 12.5 percent, falling below $200,000 for the first time in at least four years.
• Homeowners seeing big drops in values
  The declines in assessments -- drops of $20,000 to $30,000 are not uncommon -- are coming in middle-class neighborhoods away from foreclosure pockets in Minneapolis.
• Victims of investment in Otsego
  Would-be investors in an Otsego development became trapped in a fraud case with mortgages that totaled more than $40 million.
• Foreclosures putting pets, livestock out of homes
  As more Minnesotans lose their homes to foreclosure, many are finding they're also forced to give up their pets and livestock.
• Jan. 12: Eroding home appraisals latest blow to buyers, sellers
  With house prices falling and the mortgage markets in disarray, more consumers are feeling the effects of a crackdown on appraisals by lenders and regulators.
• Audio slide show: Living on the financial edge
  Paul and Tracie Christopherson are living on the financial edge while trying to care for daughter Abi, who has had a dozen brain surgeries.
• Will rate freeze buy enough time?
  Bush outlined a plan to buy time for subprime borrowers about to face higher rates; critics say it delays the inevitable.
• Foreclosure Auction
  This weekend over 300 homes will be auctioned off during a foreclosure auction at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Troy Hoffman of Minnetonka, Mn. purchased a home during the auction..
• Dec. 11: Mortgage foreclosures ripple into rural Minnesota
  The Twin Cities has been hit hard by the mortgage crisis, but the effects have been even worse in some rural counties, where rising land values drew many into refinancing and subprime mortgages.
• Dec. 5: Housing slump echoes at City Halls
  Shakopee is ground zero for fallout from the housing slump not only because it was once the region’s fastest-growing city, but because it also relied on revenue from building permits to sweeten its finances and keep taxes down.
• Dec. 2: Interest rates fall, but that may not be enough
  Home-buying money is relatively cheap, but it's scarce for some because of the credit crunch.
• Nov. 6: Wave of foreclosures cost cities time and money
  Unpaid water bills, tracking down landlords, chasing more people out of more boarded buildings: When so many property owners have problems, city governments have problems.
• Oct. 29: Wave of foreclosures hits renters
  When landlords face foreclosures, tenants often lose their housing. Rights and leases can extend for months after a sale, but many families are scrambling and some are finding themselves homeless.
• Oct. 28: Struggling to escape the subprime swamp
  The Christophersons had a conventional loan when two medical crises hit. They refinanced, but the hole just got deeper.