According to industry experts, it was the first time in Massachusetts and also in the United States that an auction had been held for multiple condominiums located in one building. The event was handled by real estate guru Louise M. Sunshine who worked at the marketing department of Donald Trump before she established her company, Sunshine Group and focused on developing strategies to market high-end condominiums in Manhattan.

The 10 homes placed on Boston foreclosures for sale were part of the 50 units at Bryant Back Bay building and were sold in about 25 minutes. Also in the same event, Campion and Co. sold four additional luxury homes at nearly $1.4 million. Another six offers were made, with the highest bid reaching $2 million.

Sunshine said that she expected the Back Bay event to lead to as many as six auctions of luxury homes in New York City. Industry experts said that the speed at which luxury homes were sold at the Back Bay auction was a market-changing development. They added that it is not impossible to see more of this kind of auction as developers struggle to clean their inventory of unsold, distressed luxury properties.

Real estate company Vornado Realty Trust was the owner of the Bryant Back Bay property. Vornado has various property holdings across the country, including a 22 million-square-foot in New York City.

Six months before the auction, only 53 condominiums had been sold in the Bryant Back Bay for more than $1 million. The auction was closely monitored by national banks and lenders that foreclosed properties from developers who failed to continue paying their mortgage loans because of the sharp decline in sales.

According to industry experts, the condominium market has been severely affected by the economic slump and the increasing number of cheap foreclosure properties. They said that in the current market, many buyers prefer to buy low-priced foreclosure properties in good condition instead of spending large amount of money to purchase luxury homes.

Landlords and tenants have been trying to figure out what would be the impact of the ruling issued by the state high court on Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town on apartment owners who have been struggling for some time now. Industry experts are worried that the ruling would cripple the real estate industry while tenants are concerned about their rent.

Many apartments in the area are going into Brooklyn foreclosures for sale because of lack of tenants and adjustments in mortgage rates. The ruling is another setback for financially struggling landlords like Stellar Management of Riverton Houses and Tishman Speyer Properties of Stuyvesant Town which paid exorbitant prices for their residential properties during the peak of the housing market.

They turned rent-regulated apartments into market-rate units on the assumption that rents would further rise. Instead, rents dropped drastically since 2008 and property values declined as landlords tried to pay their mortgage loans.

Industry experts said that many lenders are reluctant to restructure troubled loans by landlords, such as the case of Tishman Speyer that acquired Stuyvesant Town. Experts said that lenders would want a fresh cash infusion before they would agree to restructure any troubled loans. This problem is being experienced by other apartment buildings in Queens, Bronx and Brooklyn.

Industry experts also pointed out that the ruling would affect landlords who are planning to buy distressed apartments across New York City. With the ruling, they would think twice before pursuing their plans to buy distressed apartments.

Some groups have estimated that as many as 70,000 apartments are affected by the ruling. According to recent market data, there are nearly one million apartments that are rent-stabilized in the city.

Meanwhile, the Department of Housing and Community Renewal is expecting a flood of petitions from thousands of renters who will claim that they have been overcharged by their landlords who are receiving tax breaks.

Driving around Detroit, Michigan, one could see abandoned and vacant houses, with boarded-up windows. On blocks dotted with blighted houses, one could see overflowing garbage, knee high grass and broken doors and windows.

On the east side of the city, about 80 percent of houses are vacant and foreclosed. But what has alarmed many industry experts are the growing number of Detroit foreclosures for sale in historically vibrant neighborhoods of North Rosedale Park, Boston Edison, Palmer Woods and East English Village.

Recent market data showed that one out of five houses in Detroit is vacant. Along with the rising unemployment rate, foreclosure has been a major challenge to city officials. Their most immediate problem is how to prevent foreclosure properties in healthy neighborhoods from becoming blights.

Industry experts suggest that the city should work closely with nonprofit organizations, neighborhood groups and block clubs that have been on the forefront in the fight to prevent blights from destroying communities.

They also suggested that city leaders must start to plan for a smaller city, streamlining the population to just about 750,000 by 2010 census. According to data released by the Office of Foreclosure Prevention, 17 percent of city residents lost their properties to foreclosure in 2008 or one in every five households.

Data provided by the U.S. Postal Service showed that about 17 percent of addresses in Detroit are vacant. The figures do not include the thousands of abandoned and empty lots.

Meanwhile, the demolition efforts of the city fell further behind. In the past five years, Detroit was able to demolish only not more than 5,000 structures. So far, Detroit has about 32,000 structures listed as dangerous buildings. However, only about 2,700 have demolition orders. The annual demolition budget of the city could hardly cover the expenses of demolishing several large downtown buildings.

And the problem of vacant, foreclosed properties is expected to grow more with the rising unemployment rate in Detroit. Currently, the city’s unemployment rate is nearly 30 percent while vacant properties are estimated to be around 78,000.

According to market data, problem loans have been mounting in numbers, led by home construction loans. Seriously delinquent loans increased by 3 percent in 15 biggest publicly traded banks in Philadelphia in September. The figures are a significant increase from the 0.89 percentage point the previous year.

The September increase in problem loans added about $1.1 billion debts that banks need to collect through foreclosure, restructuring or other measures. And unless the economy improves which would allow borrowers to recover and pay their debts, banks have no choice but to find ways to collect on these debts.

Meanwhile, taking into consideration the problem of banks with the growing bad loans, the Federal Reserve provided some relief by maintaining a record low federal funds rate of not more than 0.25 percent. This helps banks keep their borrowing costs at a low level and allow them to generate more profits on their new loans, thus reducing the possibility of incurring more bank foreclosure properties.

However, some banks continue to experience problems even if they hold the strongest mortgage loan portfolios. Industry experts said that many banks will think twice before they will boost their reserves because the market is still too vulnerable and unstable.

But some banks are lucky enough not to be sucked into the current mortgage crisis, as in the case of Third Federal Savings Bank. The bank continued to offer the lowest nonperforming asset rate among area banks. Officials said that the bank decided to stick with its conservative lending measures during the peak of the housing market. This helped them avoid the trouble with bad loans that many banks are experiencing right now.

By contrast, the Abington Bancorp Inc. has the highest nonperforming asset rate of 5.03 percent. In 2004, it raised about $71 million from a stock offering. Today, its construction loan portfolio is in a really bad shape, with delinquency rate of 35.2 percent.

The average delinquency rate on home construction loans in New Jersey and Pennsylvania banks rose by 15.5 percent as of end of September. This prompted many industry experts to anticipate more bank foreclosure properties in the region in the coming months.

Nationally, home prices declined by 10.1 percent on a year-to-year basis. HPI covers condominiums, townhouses and single-family homes. Similarly, Denver foreclosures for sale also pulled down July home prices by 2.64 percent compared with the same month last year. June home prices also dropped by 3.21 percent from the same month the previous year.

Excluding distressed property sales, home prices in July dropped by 1.26 percent and 1.68 percent in June. Industry experts predicted that home prices in Denver area will drop further by 2.63 percentage point from August this year through the same month in 2010.

Statewide, the August HPI showed that the average home price declined by 3.44 percent compared with the same month last year. The home prices exclude sales of distressed properties which dropped by 2.83 percent.
Industry experts predicted that Colorado home prices will drop by 1.87 from this year’s August to the same month next year. Excluding distressed properties, prices dropped by 3.07 percent.

Experts said that Colorado is better off compared with other housing markets. In Nevada, home prices dropped by 24.4 percent and 19.5 percent in Arizona. They said that states leading the drop in home prices are also topping the list for highest foreclosure rates.

Nevada continued to post the highest foreclosure rate in the country for the third quarter of this year. One in every 23 homeowners in the state has received at least one foreclosure filing, six times higher than the national average. For the quarter, foreclosure filings were made on 47,925 houses from July to September, representing a 10 percent increase compared with figures the previous quarter and a 59 percent rise from the same period last year.

On the other hand, Arizona has the second highest foreclosure rate for the third quarter, representing one in every 53 houses receiving a foreclosure filing. Other states included in the top 10 states with high foreclosure rates are Idaho, Utah, Florida, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan and Illinois.

As such, many distressed homeowners complained of the difficulty of reaching lenders to alter their loans into affordable rates. The Maine Legislature stepped in and offered mediation for parties involved. The mediation program will officially start on January 2010. But a trial run is set at Sanford’s York County District Court where foreclosure rate is at the highest.

York County Community Action Program home financing counselors helped explain to distressed homeowners about how to use the mediation program to save their houses from becoming bank foreclosure homes. Counselors said that homeowners have the right to demand a mediation if they think that, given reasonable amount of time, they can make their mortgage payments.

So far, the mediation program in Maine has five judges who volunteered to act as mediators. Many homeowners liked the program, especially of having a third party join in negotiations with lenders. They said that they were having difficulty negotiating with banks and mortgage lenders on their own that having someone to mediate for them is a relief.

Some homeowners said that they were trying to make arrangements with their lenders to pay partial amounts. But their lenders rejected their offer, saying that if homeowners want to make their accounts current, they have to pay the whole overdue amount, plus interest and fees.

Under the mediation program, troubled homeowners and their lawyers have a half-day time, face-to-face discussion with their lenders. This is a welcome change to many homeowners who have given up hope of ever meeting with their lenders.

One of the groups involve in the program is the Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project. Its members have been providing free legal services to homeowners at risk of foreclosure. They said that many distressed homeowners have heard about government programs that could help them save their properties from foreclosures. The problem is, they could not find someone that would help them go through the process.

Maine law requires all lenders filing foreclosures in the state to join the mediation program or face sanctions, including case dismissal and barring.

Industry experts said that it is in the best interest of lenders to work out solutions with homeowners because having too many bank foreclosure homes on their inventory could be more costly for them.

But despite deep discounts on the costs of properties, home sales remained lackluster. Industry experts said that the growing number of job losses in North Texas, which totaled 65,000 so far, is severely affecting the housing market. They explained that when people do not have jobs, they do not buy houses. Furthermore, the lack of employment opportunities in one area means fewer people coming in which would not result to a housing demand.

But what is causing great concerns to industry experts is the growing number of Dallas foreclosures for sale. They predicted that over 60,000 households will receive foreclosure filings in 2009. The numbers are significantly higher than the total home sales for this year and five times higher than new-home starts.

Statewide, foreclosure filings rose by 11 percent in the third quarter compared with the previous quarter and 9 percent higher from July to September of 2008. In September alone, foreclosures jumped by 17 percent to 13,216 from August and 44 percent higher compared with September last year.

And relative to the foreclosure problem of the state is its escalating unemployment rate which hit 8.2 percent in September.

However, industry analysts are optimistic that home prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth region are about to make a turnaround in the summer of 2010. They predicted that home prices not just in the region but in the whole country, would start to bottom out by next spring.

Analysts predict that in the region, prices would be higher by 0.21 percent August of 2010. This is an achievement considering that home prices dropped by 0.12 percent for a year-to-year basis ending August of this year.

Analysts said that the turnaround in North Texas’s residential values, which is expected to happen next year, coincides with other forecasts by economists. Many of them are expecting that home prices will bounce first on the market before it would really take off for a sustained recovery.

They said that even if the area were able to stabilize and strengthen home prices, some institutional and economic factors will work against the housing market’s aim to achieve sustain recovery.

According to the study, many homeowners have lost their jobs or reduced their income, resulting to difficulty in meeting their mortgage payments, even if they have been reduced into affordable terms in order to help homeowners save their properties from bank foreclosure list. The study noted that the HAMP is not ideal for homeowners who have suffered a significant decline in their incomes as a result of unemployment or other mitigating circumstances.

The modification program involves reducing the payment ratio to income of borrowers based on present income level. In the event that the income would return to the old level, the reduction could not be reversed, making the required loan modification costly.

Additionally, the modification program will work if the value of the troubled property is less than the total mortgage owed by the homeowner. Many homeowners who feel that home prices and values would not improve soon, prefer to walk away and leave the troubled properties for lenders to foreclose.

But what is worst is the growing number of borrowers who re-default, meaning that they defaulted again on their mortgage after entering the federal program and incurring costs associated with the modification process.

Also, the study discusses the cost of foreclosures. It stated that the costs associated with the increase in foreclosures are quite significant. Historically, almost 50 percent of foreclosure filings went on to become actual foreclosures. And given the current economic downturn, the probability is great that foreclosures would even be higher.

The study pointed out that communities and neighborhood residents are also severely affected by the foreclosure crisis. Abandoned and vacant houses are magnets to vandals and criminals. Aside from that, they tend to pull down prices of nearby houses, thus making it hard for some homeowners to sell their properties at reasonable prices.

Finally, the study said that an overflowing bank foreclosure list is clogging the housing market, thus reinforcing the weakness of the sector and hindering economic recovery.

Industry experts said that the North Carolina city was among the three cities across the United States that showed monthly price loss. The other two cities are Las Vegas in Nevada and Los Angeles in California.

The city’s annual price decline garnered it the sixth spot in the list of cities with smaller price declines. But industry experts pointed out that Charlotte’s 8.6 percent price drop in August was better compared with the same month last year’s figures.

Charlotte’s monthly price readings showed a slight gain in March, a drop in April, a three-month gain and a drop in August. According to industry analysts, the drop in August home price was an indication of the vulnerability of the housing market to Charlotte foreclosures for sale.

The abundance of cheap foreclosure houses on the market pulled down prices of other properties to a record low. Home sales took off with help from first-time homebuyers who took advantage of the federal tax credit.

Statewide, about 46,363 homeowners received at least one foreclosure filing in September. According to market data, North Carolina is on pace to surpass the total foreclosure filings in 2008.

A total of 873 foreclosure filings were posted in the counties of Durham, Wake, Johnston and Orange. An increase in foreclosure filings were reported in the counties of Durham and Wake in August.
Durham posted 187 foreclosure filings in September from 176 in August. Similarly, Wake County posted a total of 527 filings in September compared with 464 in August.

Meanwhile, industry experts are anticipating foreclosures to continue to dampen home prices in North Carolina. But on a good note, below market prices are attracting hordes of buyers to the area. Experts said that low-priced properties in Charlotte are mostly located in the east, west and north areas. They added that there is no significant improvement in the housing market in the coming months as unemployment rate continue to increase and the economy continues to remain sluggish.

The loan programs are provided to low-income families to help them buy bank homes. So far, about 200 families were helped by the loan programs to purchase foreclosure houses in Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis.

In Minneapolis, about 147 families have availed of the interest-free loans to buy properties in foreclosure-infested neighborhoods, mostly located in the northeast, north and south-central areas of the city.

In Brooklyn Center city, nearly 50 families purchased foreclosure properties since it started its interest-free loan program in March. After receiving positive feedback on the program, the city council of Brooklyn Center decided to extend it.

The Brooklyn Center loan program is funded by nearly $1 million in new taxes from the commercial tax increment. Mayor Tim Wilson said that other cities have shown interest on the program, particularly on the source of its funds. He said that the program is a good opportunity to attract homebuyers, especially first-time buyers.

Meanwhile, Minneapolis apportioned an additional half a million to its loan program after its initial $500,000 was distributed to 50 home buyers last year, during which, no income limit was set for participants.

The second installment of the Minneapolis fund requires home buyers to have 120 percent or less of the $81,000 median household income in the metropolitan area. An additional $1.5 million was added by the city from the Federal Home Loan Bank grant. Furthermore, eligible buyers may avail of the $8,000 funds per household provided by the Pohlad Family Foundation.

Meanwhile, in Brooklyn Center, a 2008 legislation allowed the city to fund the program using 15 percent of the new property taxes from a commercial tax increment. Only low-income, first-time buyers are eligible for the city’s ReNew Loan program.

Under the program, as much as $10,000 is given to buyers to use as down payments or closing costs for vacant houses that have been registered by the seller with the city. City officials noted that since the loan program to buy bank homes was launched, sale prices of foreclosed houses in the area increased by over $10,000.