Last week was quite a week. I left Cambridge, MA, after visiting my daughter for the weekend and enjoying a little family rivalry at the Harvard – Princeton football game.
Roy Oppenheim on Randi Rhodes
After a meeting in New York, I found out the nationally syndicated Randi Rhodes Show wanted me to make an appearance at 5 p.m. to discuss foreclosures and Oppenheim Law’s defense strategies. They would not let me use my cell phone for the interview, so I was expecting to have to talk from a pay phone in the middle of LaGuardia before my flight back to South Florida. Luckily, I found a quiet place and the interview was great.
We’ve included audio of the entire interview on the Oppenheim Law Facebook Fan Page for your listening pleasure, but here is a summary of my thoughts on the social stigma of foreclosure and how you can fashion your own bailout:
I believe the foreclosure epidemic has become so widespread and far-reaching that the stigma surrounding the issue is greatly reduced across the country.
“In FL alone we now have 26-28% who are behind or in foreclosure,” I said. “I think if you study social networks, you’ll see that foreclosures work like social networks. When you have someone who’s in foreclosure, the moral stigma is reduced because you have a sense of kinship.”
So in response to the enormity of the problem in South Florida, I explained that foreclosure defense needs to be looked at holistically, and homeowners need to take charge of understanding their legal rights and defending themselves.
My good friend, Julie Kay, recently wrote a South Florida Business Journal story on the mixed reviews for the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, as legislators like to call it.
