Banks Foreclosing on Churches in Record Numbers.

[elleng]

Banks are foreclosing on America's churches in record numbers as lenders increasingly lose patience with religious facilities that have defaulted on their mortgages, according to new data. . .

Since 2010, 270 churches have been sold after defaulting on their loans, with 90 percent of those sales coming after a lender-triggered foreclosure, according to the real estate information company CoStar Group.

In 2011, 138 churches were sold by banks, an annual record, with no sign that these religious foreclosures are abating, according to CoStar. That compares to just 24 sales in 2008 and only a handful in the decade before.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/03/08/business/08reuters-usa-housing-churches.html?_r=1&hp

[Lasher]

1. Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender .

Proverbs 22-7

[marasinghe]

2. :D

[xchrom]

8. +2

[RKP5637]

3. I think this verifies praying to avert a foreclosure just might not work!!! Only cash counts! n/t

[yortsed snacilbuper]

4. Where's all the money the sheep put in the collection plates?

They would be abe to pay off the banks with enough left over to build more churches!

[3waygeek]

10. Check the pastors' homes and driveways...

Some years back, I had a fully-loaded BMW 7-series that had been previously leased to a megachurch pastor. As I was told, the pastor would lease a different luxury car every year or two, and I'm sure his house was every bit as posh as his cars.

[fadedrose]

5. That's what they get for mixing politics and god

Render unto Caesar, etc. Specific instructions from the founder and the churches blew it.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. Looks like Repukes might have a little problem with their Christian base nt

[obxhead]

7. Their members are obviously not praying hard enough.

[greymattermom]

9. members are tithing

ten percent of zero is zero

[yortsed snacilbuper]

11. U.S. televangelist Robert Schuller leaves church board!

The resignation of Robert and Arvella Schuller from the Crystal Cathedral board follows the $57.5 million bankruptcy sale in February of the towering, glass-walled church in the Southern California community of Garden Grove to a Roman Catholic diocese.

http://news.yahoo.com/u-televangelist-robert-schuller-leaves-church-board-010126361.html

[yortsed snacilbuper]

12. Facing renovation debt, Peters church cedes building and moves

St. David's Anglican Church in Peters, which owes nearly $1 million to a bank for renovations, is turning its building over to the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh and will lease a former Catholic church building in Canonsburg.

The Episcopal diocese is now responsible for the $990,000 debt on the building.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/washington/facing-renovation-debt-peters-church-cedes-building-and-moves-628123/

[UnrepentantLiberal]

13. These Days, Even God Can't Get a Loan: Church Foreclosures Skyrocket

To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" - John 2:16

By Rich Smith
The Motley Fool
March 13, 2012

The Bible tells us that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Foreclosing on his pastor probably doesn't make the trick any easier.

According to a report from Reuters, 2011 was a record year for foreclosures on church buildings. Prior to the Great Recession, bank seizures of houses of worship were rarer than atheists in foxholes, with only a handful of foreclosures occurring in the decade prior to 2008.

Just as homeowners in the 1990s and early 2000s rushed to take advantage of rising house values and fatter wallets to spend lavishly on real estate, the real estate bubble encouraged irrational exuberance in the pews. Congregations took out loans to refurbish and enlarge their church buildings. Unfortunately, these loans were not the 30-year fixed mortgages that most of us are familiar with. Instead, churches took out commercial loans -- five-year loans with balloon payments at the end.

The usual procedure was to refinance loans when their balloon payments came due. Problem is, loans predicated on the inflated real estate assessments that prevailed before 2007, once reassessed for possible refis in 2010 and 2011, were found to lack sufficient principal. Banks began turning down refinancing applications, and churches were told to either pay off their loans (i.e., make the balloon payment) or go into foreclosure.

More: http://m.aol.com/dailyfinance/default/articleStory.do?category=main&url=http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/03/13/these-days-even-god-cant-get-a-loan-church-foreclosures-skyro/&icid=dsk_df_news