Archive for the ‘Foreclosed Homes’ Category

In only three months time Round Rock, the home of the Stony Point Tigers registered 248 foreclosures. This makes it the 182nd most foreclosed in the country. In Texas it ranks 6th. Pflugerville ranks 450th in the country.

Mortgage experts of the locality pin down the cause to the usual disasters that grips the populace from time to time – divorce, death and unemployment. The situation gets aggravated with natural calamities. Unfortunately this reasoning is not holding water this time.

McCoy, President of Mission Mortgage points her experienced finger at the investors who speculated in Austin. Based on promises investors would walk in and buy up units. But reality did not live up to their dreams. These investors are now having problems tackling their mortgage payments in their home territory. So they want to get rid of units here in Austin, which is having to shoulder other people’s crosses.

Mortgage broker Bray of Lone Star Lending warns borrowers never to sit idle on default notices. Communication lines between lender and borrower must be kept open at all times. The lender doesn’t want the house but wants the money coming from it. It is to their interest to see that the borrower is doing the utmost to keep the home fires burning.

There are five clear instructions. Take the initiative and contact lender for discussion. Secondly arrange for debt counselling with the object of refinancing the deal. Thirdly if the house has equity then the monthly payments may be lowered for a short term with high interest loan to tide over the immediate crisis. Fourthly grace periods are not impossible to get. Lastly directly sell the house. This option is much better than slipping into the foreclosure coma. A foreclosure victim has rights. Know it.

There are agencies of renown that buy these loans and do whatever is feasible to help people keep the roof above their heads.

Many Americans are losing hearth and home because of defaults in the sub-prime market but that is not happening in Texas. Of 7,000 loans here not a single one is ARM. It is not saleable here in Austin, Texas. This means that the people here are not those who cannot afford the readjustment in instalments. It is good news for the market. Texas is standing out as an island in the turbulent sea all around.

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It was no easy matter for Coconut Grove Playhouse to extricate itself from a jumbo financial mire by raising more than $470,000 to calm down a creditor and plug a scheduled foreclosure aimed to slice away a part of its property. The portion of the Playhouse property is a vacant plot next to a theatre – The Bike Shop. It was scheduled to go in for auction on Wednesday morning.

Playhouse is South Florida’s oldest theatre set to celebrate its half-century when it was closed down in April 2006. As a fallout of this imbroglio the employees were let off with a big question mark on their dues. The long-standing controversial art director, Mittelman, resigned in May. Other board members have followed suit.

The legal representatives of the principal creditor James F. Perry & Co confirmed that Playhouse had taken a loan of $350,000 on November 2004 but by last Tuesday night they had repaid the loan together with interest and incidental fees in its entirety. It was settled with the payment of $471,705.51 involving a lot of hard work, grit and determination.

Playhouse chairperson Spivack was not available for commenting on how the money was raised. Former board members of Playhouse who had a stake in the Perry loan, Wiener, Steinberg, Mitchell and Ruwitch, were also silent on that point.

Miami-Dade County’s department for cultural affairs actively came forward to sort out the knot. Most of the dues of the former employees have been cleared. The sanction of a grant for improvement of the building from Florida Department of Sate amounting to $125,000 went towards clearing some salary dues. But since some are still pending the theatre as well as Mittelman remains on the default list of unions. No actor or manager can work here until debts are cleared. The county came forward with a budget of $500,000 to help managers, lawyers and accountants who had worked on the salvage operations. Theatre lovers had bought advance subscriptions for 2006 – 20007 but to their dismay the theatre closed down without refunding their money. However the cultural affairs department of the County has come up with a plan why which these subscribers will be able to see play at other theatres for the specified season, in the region without paying further money. The hope is that if Playhouse reopens the subscribers will be again offered vouchers.

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One out of every 47 houses is popping into the foreclosure oven making it one of the hottest cities in the grips of the reigning real estate crisis. It ranks 8th among the leading 100 cities buzzing with foreclosure activity during the first half of this year. The figures have been released by one of the premier tracking groups online, based in Irvine.

The apprehension is that things are going to get worse. 82 of this group of 100 consisting of the prime metro cities in USA are reporting a year-over-year escalation in the number of foreclosures. The numbers are taking everyone by surprise. Things were bad but nobody thought it was that bad. Kern County stood 8th in the first quarter of this year.

According to reliable figures the foreclosure pot continues to boil in California. Stockton, Sacramento and the combined Riverside and San Bernardino region having the dubious distinction of being including among the top 10 rankers. The tracking group makes use of records given out by the counties. The figures are inclusive of default notices, pending lists, sales by trustees and real estate owners. Stockton ranked first. Here one out of every 27 units came under the foreclosure cloud. Among the prime ten defaulters were Las Vegas, Detroit, Denver, Miami, Memphis, Tenn. and Cleveland. The least foreclosure activity was noticeable in Richmond and Va.

The foreclosure fall out is the result of many factors – mismanagement of sub-prime mortgages combined with general economic ill health of the country leading to unemployment. If the reasons are multifarious the results too are many pronged. With too many houses up for sale the real estate prices are plummeting. This is touching those units that are not directly under the foreclosure hammer. The mortgage industry has tightened its belt with the result that there are not enough buyers for houses. The banks are sitting with idle properties and empty coffers. This is sending alarm signals to brokers in Wall Street. The Wall Street sneeze is making international stock markets catch a cold. Closer home vacant houses are happy hunting grounds for vagrants and addicts leading to law and order problems. A new group of advisers have cropped up trying to help foreclosure victims. Politicians take this as an opportune moment to fish in troubled waters and make loud noises about cooling the heat and switching off the oven.

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Stockton was once a haven for house hunters. The Bay Area had become too hot to touch – overcrowded and costly. So people opted for Stockton. But today the picture is desolate with ‘For Sale’ signs dotting the scene. Foreclosures waves are lashing the country and Stockton has the dubious distinction of leading the bandwagon with the highest numbers of foreclosures nationwide.

Stockton is a city kissed by the Sun with 285,000 residents. It lies 90 miles to the east of San Francisco. Over the last ten years the number or residents have gone up as more people turned away from the Bay area hunting for affordable housing units. Then why has the milk suddenly turned sour? It is mainly because of houses bought with loans taken from the sub-prime category. These were teaser loans. Sometimes for a negligible down payment most of the initial financing was waived. But within a year or two the lender began to demand higher monthly instalments, which the borrower just could not afford.

Alma Neri, mother of three is one of the householders caught in this vicious net. The Neris lived in one house and invested in another planning to sell the first one and move on to the second. But now both the houses are sitting idle and the family finding it impossible to meet mortgage commitments for both. Debt is piling up while equity is falling. It is the same grim picture within a half-mile radius of their residence.

Six cities in California are leading in this number game. California, with 54,000 default notices in the second quarter of this year, ranks third after Nevada and Colorado in the foreclosure race. A non-profit organization is trying to do some rescue work by writing to lenders asking them for a stay.

The worst affected are the seniors and coloured citizens. But the infection is now spreading vertically and horizontally cutting across all line differences.

In June state leaders made a hue and cry about forming a forum but in most of the cases help was coming in too late. The damage had been done. The lender should have been approached much earlier.

Stockton brokers are now opting for short sales wherein the owner directly sells the property at a low rate hoping to clear at least a major part of the mortgage. Even then buyers are not available.

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There seems to be no second opinion that aggressive mortgage lending during the time of the recent property boom is responsible for the bubble burst. Some seasoned experts see similarities between today and what happened 35 years ago due to a government programme. Flipping is one such practice in which one quickly re-sells a home for a huge profit. In 1970 Congress investigated one such deal in which an investor pocketed $95,000 from one deal. In another instance a speculator got involved in a lawsuit for purchasing 184 duplexes in a run down Indianapolis neighbourhood and by re-selling them quickly raking in $70,000 per home. There is a difference between government and private programmes in the housing sector but in both cases the obvious soft targets have been the borrowers. The immediate neighbourhood has suffered being dotted by abandoned houses, which has become haunts of drug and crime addicts. The worst home sufferers are those living in Detroit, Cleveland, Brooklyn, Baltimore and Atlanta.

Shock waves are now touching the global financial markets. Calvin Bradford, a real estate researcher says that the actors have changed but the same drama with cosmetic changes here and there continues to be played out. In the sixties the housing issue was a big one due to the race riots. Till then the black and Hispanic localities had been sharply defined. But in 1968 an ambitious housing project brought about radical changes. President Johnson surveying the damage had remarked that in black localities those who owned houses had not been overly destructive. During the last decade the number of Hispanic and Black owners have risen although the gap between the white majority and the minority had not shrunk. During both the periods the lenders as well as the government had fundamentally altered lending rules to rule out any possibility of default. Or so they thought. Reality turned out to be different.

But by the end of the first quarter of this year about 20% of loans to sub-prime borrowers had gone into delinquency. Mortgage bankers cite optimistic figures saying that 80% loans are still running and 68% Americans are house owners. But others despair that one out of five houses is abandoned. Other suggestions are that the mortgage brokers be paid monthly as a reward for good performance of loans. The opinion in favour and against down payments swings.

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Thursday16th August is the scheduled auction day for the former fish camp in Estero near Coconut Road. The bell will ring at 11 am on the upper floor at Lee County Court House, Monroe Street, downtown Fort Myers. The court has given this information. As per ruling of the Judge Paskay of the US Bankruptcy Court in May this year, the owner Michelle Pessin, residing at Bonita Springs, was given time up to the end of July to sell the marina. Failure to do so will result in the creditor, First Integrity Bank of Minnesota to proceed with foreclosure sale. The attorney of Pessin, Foster was not available for comments.

Pessin owes the bank more than $11 million and has been trying to negotiate with a Florida developer for nearly a year but to no avail. Consequently a bankruptcy suit was filed y in April 2006 to delay a foreclosure that had been previously fixed. The idea was to give protection to four companies under its umbrella while reorganizing the dues.

The developers initially wanted to construct a condo hotel and public marina with dry dock facilities at the west corner of Coconut Road along the Bay of Estero. But the plans did not bear fruit. Pessin then took the help of chief restructuring officer McHale to fix a land deal with the developers. But the latter already had some land projects under contract with many other owners. They dido not want a marina and tried to work out a plan with the bank on a different programme. If the bank failed to be interested they will choose a different path. A new rescheduled plan for the property has been already chalked out. It can be made viable with the green signal from Pessin’s creditors and if Judge Paskay also approves on moving forward at a hearing set to be heard on 6th September.

The fish camp has a long history going back to 1900 when the Weeks family opened the fish camp, which is now near the Hyatt Regency Hotel. They lived off catching and selling fish. They also took people on boating trips showing them in and around sites of interest in the Bay of Estero. As such the fish camp is a historical spot with may years of memories linked with the history of the country.

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During the past years the few house owners have been losing familiar neighbours. The neighbourhood is beginning to lose its value together with its beauty and safety. A deserted look is taking over entire blocks.

It is a problem with neighbourhood associations. Nearly 10% houses have gone into foreclosure that results in overgrown gardens and creaking water pipes. Mission Viejo is just one of these areas. The situation is aggravated by the fact that it takes as long as nine months for the foreclosure process to go underway. There are about 50 to 100 complaints per week about overgrowths and garbage. In 2006 the city had to clean up 1,338 abandoned houses. Aurora had to suffer the same with 844 properties. This year the figures will be higher.

Aurora plans to place a lien against the unit and realize the expenses. The properties that have undergone a mopping up operation are only a fraction of the numbers caught in the foreclosure net. In the first half of this year 3,190 in Adams County was caught in the grip – 1,040 more than the previous year. In Arapahoe County last year’s June numbers were 2,354 while this year it is 3,031 according to official figures. In the Laredo Highline region property ratings have dropped on an average by $20,000 in the past three years.

The Council is worried about the vacant properties and the dismal appearance of northeast Aurora and wants state intervention to regulate lending practices. Another citizen is of the opinion that the cities should sit together and find out a viable solution. The problem does not relate to the issue of foreclosures only. It affects the neighbourhood, the tax collection base of the city together with the eerie silence inroads and schools.
Most of the banks are not interested in cosmetic repairs to the units to make it attractive. Vacant houses attract vandalism. Aggrieved evicted previous owners are often the avenging culprits as also the copper thief and vagrant. One agent recalls that she has seen houses with broken mirrors made slippery with maple syrup sans light and plumbing fixtures.

The police are not all that negative in their comments. Others say that banks are starting to brush up property appearances. Associations are being formed to help first time owners by pooling federal funds. A counselling hotline has been activated and the picture is beginning to brighten up.

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Ghosts have the run of 1600 houses shuttered down by foreclosures in a sprawling neighbourhood in Dallas County. That is the number for the forthcoming postings next month. Banks seem to be swallowing up not just houses but entire localities as well. It is having a grim effect on solitary survivors like Edward Hoffman in Desoto, where 125 units are waiting for the anvil in August.

If the prices of property around you continue to tumble then your equity too is affected by a downward fall of 50%. Donald McMillion is sandwiched by two foreclosed units whose dues continue to rise. The honour and integrity of the entire area is at stake. Good days three years ago became a distant memory for residents of Dallas County, Desoto, Duncanville, Garland, Irving, Lancaster and Mesquite with 560 foreclosures in August 2004. But that was nothing compared to what is happening recently. The numbers have gone up by leaps and bounds. In the same cities in August there are 862 foreclosure listings. This means an upswing by 65%.

Jim Baugh, the City Manager of Desoto is optimistic that this mix up will in the long run greatly benefit development. It is the time for investments to reap rich harvests later on. But foreclosures means lower tax revenues as house equity falls. Ultimately the government will be the loser. As yet the total grim picture has not yet sifted through. It is shocking to say the least with Desoto, Cedar Hill, Lancaster and other prime southwest regions being worst hit. In ground reality foreclosed houses mean shuttered doors and windows, with overgrown lawns, reeking with discarded piled up rubbish. The gloomy isolation infects the neighbors.

Many pool together (Home Owners Association) to see to the running of essentials like mowing the undergrowth and collecting neglected mails. But for how long? A contribution is made to the HOA’s for looking after the locality, its recreation and entry points and the like.

In Lancaster foreclosures are up by as much as 116%. Cordell Ballanshaw is planting the garden of his new house with hope in his heart although he is surrounded by the eerie silence of three houses behind him. For him it is a gamble and an act of faith. He hopes and has faith that the financial virus raging all around will improve his betting chances and spell prosperity for him.

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