Foreclosures are rampant throughout the United States. As people have lost jobs, gotten laid off, or been downsized, foreclosures keep rising. Most people fight to the end with the bank to try and get a reduced payment approved in order to stay in the home. That tactic usually fails, eventually. What is staggering, is the average time that it takes a foreclosure to actually go through from first missed payment to final foreclosure is much longer than you think.

The national average is at 674 days! Wow, that’s a long time. That’s almost two years. In other places it is as high as 1,053 days. According to one study, 40% of those who are delinquent on their mortgage have not paid a dime in over two years. The new game is basically paper confusion. People are now challenging the paperwork during the “robo-signing” scandal of 2010. Banks are being delayed on foreclosures for months and months over this because it takes time to review and investigate.

Another tactic being used by folks in foreclosure is to request the paperwork showing that the bank they are battling is the legal holder of the mortgage. This is not as easy as it seems for the bank. Most mortgagees are transferred electronically, and the paperwork can be very difficult to find. This has actually caused foreclosures to cease because the bank indeed could not find the paperwork. The home dwellers now have another chunk of time until the bank decides to try again.

It’s almost like a game of cat and mouse. Paperwork and requests for legal papers have allowed many people to remain in their homes for years. Whether you agree with the tactics or not, a couple things are true. The bank owns the house and wants its money. People will find ways to avert the system in order to provide for themselves and their families.