Archive for the 'States' Category

Economists and local realtors agree that now is the right time to buy a property in Texas to take advantage of its buyer’s market. The stabilizing number of bank foreclosure homes in Texas and the fair performance of the housing market have made the state an ideal buyer’s market.

Texas’ bank foreclosure homes rate for the first few months of this year declined by 14 percent from a year ago, a sharp contrast to the 32 percent gain nationwide.

Texas A&M University’s Real Estate Center’s research economist Jim Gaines said that the housing market in Texas has been doing fairly well compared to other housing markets across the country.

According to Gaines, Texas is being compared to big and high-growth states such as Illinois, California, New York and Florida. He said that Texas’ housing market is in a better shape than those in the other states because there was no major home price increases for the past five years now.

Additionally, Gaines explained that recession has a modest impact on Texas and the state had been creating jobs recently which stabilize the housing market. He also pointed out that Texas has refrained from overbuilding and there is no excess of housing inventory that could push down home values.

Furthermore, Gaines said that buying a land in Texas is relatively easy, including subdividing and building homes. He said that now is a very good time to purchase existing and bank foreclosure homes. However, he advised potential homebuyers to purchase houses they plan to live in for at least five years.

He also said that properties in the state are more affordable and the mortgage and interest rates have fallen below 6 percent.

On the other hand, Gaines noted that lending institutions have become stricter in their qualifications for loan recipients since the onset of the recession. He admitted that selling a property in Texas is much easier than buying one, but still, the housing market in the state is the best to buy into.

Meanwhile, first-time homebuyers can apply and qualify for the federal government’s $8,000 tax credit for those who have not owned a house since 2006.

Buyers who are eligible for the tax credit can buy any kind of houses, existing, new or bank foreclosure homes. To qualify for the federal tax credit, home buying and closing must be completed this year.

The biggest wholesale trading center in South Florida is facing the possibility of inclusion on bank foreclosure list.

A $7.6 million foreclosure proceeding was filed by the Republic Federal Bank against South Florida Hotel Inc., owner of the Miami International Merchandise Mart, a wholesale trading center.

According to records at the Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, the bank also named Banif Multi-Fund based in Cayman Islands in the lawsuit. In 2007, Banif Multi-Fund gave a $3 million mortgage to South Florida Hotels.

The Miami Merchandise Mart is a three-story, 286,000 square feet building located near the Miami International Airport. The building features 458 commercial condominium units. Under the foreclosure filing, Republic Federal wants to take over 327 units in the building and put them on bank foreclosure list.

Many of the units are showrooms leased to South Florida small business owners to sell their products to business people, mostly from the Caribbean Area and South America. The Miami Merchandise Mart also hosts various trade exhibitions throughout the year.

According to Florida records, the Miami Merchandise Mart is owned by Georgi Zaczac, a Pinecrest resident. Zaczac is also the owner of the Sheraton Miami Mart Hotel which, in July 2008, filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy under the name of SF Hotel.

Additionally, Zaczac also filed for personal Chapter 11 last December. State records showed that he is the manager of both the hotel and the Miami Merchandise Mart.

According to industry experts, the Republic Federal Bank is facing an enormous cost by pursuing its intent to place the Miami Merchandise Mart on bank foreclosure listing. The nearly $7.6 million repossession action could add a dent on its balance sheet which suffered a loss of almost $11.5 million in the first three months of this year.

Data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. showed that the first quarter loss put the Republic Federal Bank to an undercapitalized status.

Meanwhile, the Republic Federal Bank’s estimated $57.7 million noncurrent loans accounted for 15.5 percent of the financial institution’s total loans. Bank executives have been very vocal in saying that they are seeking investments to boost the bank’s capital levels.

On the other hand, more and more commercial properties are expected to be added on bank foreclosure list as Florida’s foreclosure filings rose in May, making the state the third highest in terms of foreclosure rate.

Arizona has received about $121 million in federal grants under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). The federal housing fund will be used to help people purchase bank owned homes sales in neighborhoods severely affected by foreclosure.

The state aims to help low and moderate income families purchase foreclosure houses and rehabilitate them. The program also targets to stop the rapid slide of home values in the state.

Since the grant was received by Arizona last April, hundreds of homebuyers have applied and qualified but the state has yet to close on bank owned homes sales.

The program started when several cities in Arizona submitted applications in which they explained where and how they would put into use the NSP grant. These cities are Phoenix, which received $39.5 million, the largest share among other cities, Mesa with $9.7 million, Avondale with $2.5 million, Glendale with $6.2 million and Chandler with $2.4 million.

Majority of Arizona’s grant is allocated in valley communities where about 65,000 foreclosures have been recorded since early last year. The state government is hoping that the NSP would help families buy thousands of bank owned homes sales in Phoenix.

New homeowners of foreclosed properties are expected to help in the immediate recovery of neighborhoods hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis.

Under the grant program, first-time homebuyers must live in the foreclosed homes they bought. Second homebuyers and investors are not allowed to join the state’s grant program. To avail of the grant, applicants are required to work with housing counselors and finish a course in homeownership and budgeting.

Meanwhile, housing advocates in Arizona said that some lending institutions are reluctant to sell foreclosed properties for less than the amount that they could get when they sell them to investors.

However, the Arizona cities and homebuyers are still hoping that the grants will be helpful in revitalizing neighborhoods severely affected by foreclosures. All recipients of the grant money are given until 2011 to spend all the funds.

The NSP funds of Arizona are targeted on homebuyers whose earnings are close to the median income in their respective cities.

Also, under the program, prospective homeowners must earn not less than $30,000 and not more than $80,000 annually to qualify for a grant to buy and rehabilitate bank owned homes sale.

The number of bank owned homes foreclosures and evictions in Rhode Island is on the rise. This is the conclusion made on the report “Move Out Rhode Island-An Analysis of 2008 Foreclosure Evictions” released by the Rhode Island Legal Services.

Bank foreclosure homes will get the attention of Monterey County supervisors and six cities in California. County supervisors have approved an agreement with six cities severely affected by the housing market crisis to purchase bank foreclosure homes, rehabilitate and re-sell them to low-income homebuyers.

The increase in the number of pending and completed sales in Florida brought new hope to the housing market in the state despite the fact that majority of closed sales were bank owned foreclosure.

Officials of the city of Danville in Illinois are dealing with problems of tall weeds and grass in Bank Owned Foreclosures Homes. According to Jim Meharry, Danville inspection and enforcement manager, the wet spring did not make mowing very desirable to many people.

Georgia has established a program that aims to reduce the number of bank owned homes sale in the state. The Georgia Dream Purchase Program offers a second mortgage of up to $14,000 to any qualified buyer of foreclosed homes in some counties in the state.

New York courts were able to settle a meager number of Bank Foreclosure Properties cases since last year. According to data released by Senator Jeff Klein and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, 96 percent of almost 2,756 foreclosure court conferences have yet to be settled.

The 36 percent increase in bank owned homes foreclosure filings in Florida in the first quarter of this year compared with figures for the same period last year ranked the state number 4 in terms of foreclosure rate.