The financial condition of the churches of America is bad – they are caught up in the foreclosure wave. But it is difficult to obtain a comprehensive picture. According to Thomson Reuters Westlaw the foreclosures against churches have gone up three times since 2007 December. It was when the recession took off.
Court records show that over one hundred churches are in bankruptcy during the last one year – it being a last attempt to avoid the sale of the property by the sheriff. The numbers are increasing fast. A television station in Memphis carried a survey and noted that innumerable churches numbering hundreds in the city are battling foreclosure. Rev. Jesse Jackson contends that thousands of Black churches across the country are threatened with foreclosure. There are 200 such churches only in Atlanta.
The Ebenezer AME church faced trouble when the reserve of cash fell to less than $750,000; a condition of the loan was thus transgressed and foreclosure proceedings were initiated. The lender BofA in the beginning wanted the church to engage a consultant but that would have cost the church $5,000 daily. It also wanted pastoral benefits like allowance for car to be trimmed. After some time these demands were dropped by the bank and it now plans to increase the rate of interest on loan the church has taken amounting to $8.5 million. It is waiting for Ebenezer AME to find and transfer the loan to a second lender. Fortunately due to the efforts of God and man this church at least has been able to slip out of the trouble.
But not all lenders are accommodating. According to court records, JP Morgan Chase depended on private detectives to compile proof damaging to Hopewell Baptist Church that operates from a previous synagogue in Newark, B’nai Jeshurun. It is center of Kosher Gospel music. The investigation led to the taking of photographs of license plates of all who drove in and out. The idea was to prove that the church was collecting rent. It led to the cessation of bankruptcy protection given to the bank by the court and now it is scheduled for foreclosure auction.
From the other previous economic reversals the churches had come out without being scarred. But the recent bout of foreclosures had been preceded by a wave of over building among the churches. It increased sharply from 1990s.
Kevin Simpson, has been working on USRepos.com studying the foreclosure market, helping buyers on the finer points of California repo homes. Try to visit USRepos.com and find all related information about Repo Homes.
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