Archive for the 'States' Category

Foreclosures for sale meant great deals for buyers in the Sun cities of Arizona in December last year as prices dropped from their price levels in 2008, based on data from the Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business.

In the Sun City area, the median price for pre-owned single-family homes sold, including bank repossessed homes, decreased to $83,500 in December last year, a drop from $95,000 the previous year.

In Sun City West, the single-family resale median price was $122,000, a decrease from $136,150 in December 2008.

The median price for all types of homes also declined, with the median price in Sun City dropping to $124,000 from the December 2008 median of $132,950 and with the median price in Sun City West dropping to $175,000 from the December 2008 median of $186,250.

Total house sales last December reached 115 homes in Sun City, including government foreclosures and other residential foreclosures. Sun City West posted a sales total of 75 homes. These sales figures marked an increase from the 70 units and 45 units sold off in Sun City and Sun City West, respectively, in December 2008.

Resales of condos and townhouses increased in Sun City West to 20 units from 10 units the prior year while resales of townhouse and condo units in Sun City stayed flat at 35 units.

According to the ASU research, the major cause for the record number of foreclosures for sale in Arizona in 2009 was job loss, just like in other states.

In Maricopa County, nearly 41,000 units of single family houses went into foreclosure in 2009, higher than the 34,960 units posted in 2008. Condo foreclosures reached a record number, with more than 5,000 condo units entering foreclosure.

Jay Butler, an ASU real estate professor who discusses foreclosures in his periodic real estate reports, said that over 35 percent of home resales in the county in 2009 were foreclosure sales.

In December last year, over 4,000 Valley houses entered foreclosure, up from about 3,000 in the previous month. Foreclosure sales accounted for 67 percent of all Valley home sales in December.

Foreclosures also comprised big portions of West Valley home sales in December. El Mirage had 54 percent of its home sales comprising foreclosures while Surprise posted a 42-percent foreclosure sale percentage.

According to ASU professor Butler, foreclosures for sale are expected to continue rising this year, as shown in the foreclosure trend in the last months of 2009.

Banks foreclosures in Winston-Salem and in other parts of Forsyth County, North Carolina are being saved by a partnership of private and public leaders in the area.

This week, about 70 bankers, state and local government officials, community advocates, state banking commissioner Joseph Smith Jr. and the neighborhood advocacy group CHANGE held a meeting to find and implement ways to cut down foreclosures and their impact on the community.

Banking commissioner Smith said that foreclosures can increase by 20 percent this year because of problems such as job loss, divorce or illness, but he added that Forsyth County will survive because residents receive great support from government officials and nonprofits.

Steven Scroggin of CHANGE, which means Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment, said the level of foreclosures is unacceptable. In the area, a lot of foreclosures arose from subprime mortgages and adjustable-rate loans.

Scroggin added that monitoring the number of foreclosure properties in a timely manner has been difficult. Recently, local housing officials discovered that there were 78 banks foreclosures which were not listed in the Triad Multiple Listing Service, which means that there are more foreclosures than being counted. A number of units are being counted as non distressed homes and homes for sale by owner.

While Scroggin focused on the need to sell foreclosed properties in order to rejuvenate the housing market, advocates stressed the need to help homeowners with lis pendens notices avoid foreclosure.

Hazel Mack Hillard, one of the leaders of Legal Aid of North Carolina, said that business and community leaders need to help homeowners stabilize their finances so they can stay in their homes.

Kathy Banks, counseling director at Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Forsyth County, also called on lenders to provide loans to people who lost their homes to foreclosure due to reasons beyond their control.

To help neighborhoods manage their foreclosures, Forsyth County, Winston-Salem City and the Habitat for Humanity will use the $4.5 million they received from the second funding round of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to help residents own foreclosed properties in struggling areas.

The county and city will offer about $20,000 in down payment assistance each to buyers of about 75 foreclosed houses while Habitat will fix and sell about 20 houses. Around 400 residents have already submitted their applications to own homes under the program.

According to banking commissioner Smith, the combined effort focuses on foreclosure prevention and on turning banks foreclosures into affordable homes for struggling families.

The number of bank homes for sale in Florida and in Georgia in 2009 was cut down by two major regional banks operating in these two states.

Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks and North Carolina-based BB&T Corp. reduced the number of mortgage defaults and foreclosures by restructuring a big portion of their loans in 2009.

According to BB&T, its total debt restructuring reached $500 million in the last quarter of 2009, a significant increase from $140 in the previous quarter.

SunTrust, meanwhile, reported a total restructuring of $2.55 billion in the fourth quarter, an increase of 26 percent from the third quarter.

Both banks reported that mortgage properties in Florida represent their biggest unpaid mortgage loans. Majority of restructured BB&T loans involved commercial mortgages while 97 percent of restructured SunTrust mortgages were done for residential borrowers.

BB&T reported that 88 percent of borrowers with restructured debts have been paying interest while SunTrust reported 70 percent.

Despite income declines and losses, both banks reported financial results in the fourth quarter that exceeded expectations by analysts interviewed by Bloomberg. Both their debt restructuring efforts played a significant role in reducing distressed house numbers and in slowing down the entry of bank homes for sale into the market during the last quarter.

The net income of BB&T dropped to $194 million or to 27 cents per share, a drop of 37 percent from the previous quarter. SunTrust, on the other hand, reported a loss of 64 cents per share or a total of $248.1 million, narrowing its previous quarter’s loss of $347.6 million.

Burned by record numbers of residential and commercial loans, banks are now extremely stringent in their lending activities. But legislators in Georgia believe that bankers and brokers need to be regulated further.

The Georgia General Assembly is now debating on additional legislation against risky lending, which has led to a lot of fixer upper homes in the state. According to Mortgage Bankers Association analysts, Georgia had the third highest default rate in the third quarter. During this quarter, one in every eight holder of mortgage loans was in default by more than one month.

Georgia legislators will also debate a bill aimed at slowing down the process of foreclosure in the state, which is the fastest in the country.

The Florida Supreme Court, meanwhile, stepped up efforts to cut down the number of bank homes for sale across the state starting last year. It launched a mediation program under which lenders must work out payment options with distressed borrowers before pursuing foreclosures on them.

The number of bank foreclosed hotels soared to 62 in California in 2009, an overwhelming 313-percent increase from only 15 in 2008, based on research done by Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group.

Bank owned homes for sale pulled down prices in Eastern Connecticut in 2009, particularly in New London and Norwich, according to data from the Eastern Connecticut Association of Realtors.

Buying a foreclosure house for sale in Florida has been made easier with the launching of another public online auction site in the state.

The sale of foreclosure homes will rise sharply in Arizona with the foreclosure of high profile high-rise residential projects – the Centerpoint condo towers in downtown Tempe and the High Street phase of the CityNorth mixed-use project in Phoenix.

Foreclosure home listings and short sale listings are still driving the housing market in Arizona, particularly in the communities of Verde Valley, according to local real estate brokers.

The pace of bank owned property listing in Wisconsin in 2009 marked another record for the state as job losses continued to clobber homeowners.

Foreclosure sales, cheap houses in Florida are turning into tourist attractions as innovative real estate brokers use tourist buses to take prospective home buyers and journalists around cheap foreclosure houses.