Archive for the 'States' Category

Colorado counties of Garfield and Mesa saw their bank foreclosed home listings jumped to record levels in the second quarter of 2009.

In Garfield County, the number of foreclosure filings for the first seven months of this year increased twice as much as the total figures for the whole 2008. From January to July, foreclosure filings reached 208, compared with last year’s total of 108.

For the first quarter, Garfield County registered 54 foreclosure properties, about 50 percent of the total figures for 2008.

Industry analysts are expecting the county to hit its highest level of foreclosure soon since it peaked in 1985 with 244 repossessions. Earlier this year, they expected foreclosures in Garfield County to reach about 209 by the end of 2009. But now, they have revised their prediction to as high as 344.

So far, out of the 208 filings, 48 were posted in Rifle, 41 in Carbondale, 33 in Glenwood Springs and 23 in New Castle. However, there are currently 165 pending sales with 24 withdrawn before completion.

But analysts pointed out that Garfield fared much better than other counties in Colorado, with a foreclosure ratio of 1 in every 1,451.

Its neighboring county of Mesa got the worst of the lot with a foreclosure rate not seen since after the oil shale collapse in western Colorado. Industry analysts are predicting that the county will end 2009 with 1,000 filings for foreclosure.

Mesa County’s total foreclosure filings from April to June of this year was the highest in the state with 264, an increase of almost 144 percent from the 108 reported in the same period the previous year. And analysts noted no sign that the foreclosure pace will soon slow down in the county.

In the first quarter, the number of foreclosure filings in Mesa County was 175, a jump of 51 percent. Industry analysts were hoping that the rise in the number of foreclosures was because lawyers were filing the paperwork in advance of August 1 which is the start of the implementation of changes on foreclosure laws.

Instead, they saw as many as 32 foreclosures filed in a week. Mesa County’s foreclosure ratio was one in every 544 houses. Analysts said that the flood of foreclosures in Mesa County reflected the downturn in the region’s oil and gas market and the rise in unemployment.

Foreclosure actions that have been sidelined because of an Illinois law that gives ample time to distressed homeowners to work out their troubled loans are starting to move in the forefront.

A report showed that the state law only provided a temporary relief to the housing market but did not offer a permanent solution to the foreclosure problem as it only delayed what is inevitable.

From April to May, initial default notices for bank foreclosed home declined significantly in six counties that covered the Chicago area. Default notices are the initial steps in the foreclosure proceedings.

The decline was attributed to the almost 70 percent reductions in foreclosure filings that started in April, according to Woodstock Institute. However, the institute noted that foreclosure actions are again on the rise.

In April, notices of defaults were made on 5,539 properties in Chicago. The numbers of default notices dropped dramatically to 1,694 in May. But it also rose dramatically to 3,468 filings in June. Woodstock researchers are expecting the number of default notices to continue to grow in the coming months.

Governor Pat Quinn signed the Homeowner Protection Act in April. The state law prohibits foreclosure to start within the first month of loan delinquency. The law requires banks to inform distressed homeowners that they are given a month to avail of foreclosure counseling. Also, distressed homeowners are given a grace period of one month if they coordinate and work with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-certified housing counselors.

Woodstock Vice President Geoff Smith said that the law which gives homeowners a 3-month window would work only for homeowners who received a better loan, which is being offered under the loan modification program of the federal government.

Industry analysts noted that the grace period only succeeded in delaying the foreclosure actions, with no clear result on whether it was able to help distressed homeowners.

Woodstock’s report stated that a high number of foreclosed homes could be found in low-income areas of the state. But it noted a spike in foreclosure activities in affluent areas.

In Austin, default notices reached 466 for the first six months of this year, an increase of 2 percent from the previous six months of 2008. And in the affluent area of Lincoln Park, 81 notices of defaults were posted, representing a 161 percent gain compared with the first half of the previous year.

A look at the foreclosure rate increases in Florida for the last three years would make one conclude that the crisis is not slowing down and will continue to bring more pain to homeowners in the area.

Foreclosure activity in Florida areas of Port Charlotte, Cape Coral and Fort Myers, which are under the jurisdiction of the 20th Judicial Circuit, rose by almost 788 percent from 2006 to last year.

The 12th Circuit Court-covered areas of Arcadia, Sarasota, North Port, Bradenton and Venice saw filings for bank foreclosure list grew by 631 percent for the same period.

These are the results of a study conducted by a task force that advises the Florida Supreme Court on how the state’s judicial system should deal with the foreclosure crisis that is wreaking havoc on the lives of thousands of residents. The report was based on clerk records from each judicial circuit in Florida.

The study noted that areas considered as hot spots during the peak of the housing market are where the foreclosure crisis hit the hardest. Overall, the number of foreclosed houses in these areas surged by almost 360 percent since the collapse of the housing market started in 2006.

The major factors that caused the number of foreclosure properties to rose were speculators who purchased properties in these areas hoping to quickly sell them at a higher price and homeowners who took out adjustable rate mortgages.

Speculators and homeowners who took out loans they could not afford were just a tip of the iceberg. Soon, the problem spread more quickly and with such force, fueled by recession and unemployment, that even creditworthy borrowers who took out fixed-rate loans were not spared.

Analysts said that the market is full of discouraged homeowners who are seeing values of their properties drop quickly every day. Many homeowners are starting to lose the equity on their homes that they prefer to walk away from their distressed properties rather than spend more money by continue paying their mortgages.

Nineteen out of the 20 judicial circuits in Florida experienced a triple increase in repossession filings. The Eighth Circuit counties of Alachua, Bradford, Baker, Levy, Union and Gilchrist experienced a 91 percent increase in foreclosure filings.

The effect of the foreclosure crisis is manageable in areas located in northern interior and the Florida Panhandle.

The site of the high-end waterfront residential development project located on Lake Travis, Texas has been listed for foreclosure. According to industry experts, the property is the second major foreclosed bank owned land that happened in Central Texas in less than a month.

Interests among foreign investors to buy bank foreclosures for sale in South Florida have intensified as investing in the area’s real estate market offers opportunity for them to become a U.S. citizen.

Just like the other islands of Hawaii, Kauai Island also depends largely on tourism to shore up its economy. Most of the island’s workers are employed by enterprises that cater to tourists and travelers that visit the island.

Banks are overwhelmed by the number of vacant lots and unfinished houses in subdivisions in Georgia. According to industry expert, the foreclosure crisis not only affected individual houses but entire subdivision developments.

Industry analysts are considering the possibility that the residential real estate industry in Tucson, Arizona has started to show signs that it hit bottom. They noted several signs of market improvements, such as reduced inventory, increased median sale price and home sales volumes.

The 428-unit W.D.M. apartment complex in West Des Moines, Iowa is under bank foreclosed threat for defaulting on a $43.8 million loan it took out from the limited partnership of New York Credit Funding.

Abandoned and vacant bank foreclosed homes for sale will have a chance to be renovated using federal funds from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA). In Midland County, the number of foreclosure properties continues to increase since last year, albeit in a slow pace.