Prometheus 6

State laws give New Yorkers an advantage over homeowners elsewhere. According to PropertyShark’s chief executive, Ryan Slack, New York courts typically consider the buyer of the property to be the owner, while California treats the bank that holds that mortgage as the owner.

Banks in California can foreclose on a property and take it back in roughly seven months, but banks in New York have to go through a legal battle that can take more than two years.

That means that New Yorkers have more time to find ways to hold onto their homes.

Missed Mortgage Payments Rise 20% in Third Quarter
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

In the third quarter of this year, the number of city residents who had missed more than three months of mortgage payments jumped by 20 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago. Still, New Yorkers often have more time to try to hold onto their homes than homeowners in the rest of the country.