Foreclosure Recap – Week #29
Let’s start off the recap this time with some good news, that’s something we can all use in this market. This comes from the Miami Herald. New home foreclosures in south Florida have dropped by over fifty percent between May and June of this year and statewide the numbers are down just over nineteen percentage points fir that same period. Now as with all good news you have to duck so the other punch doesn’t catch you off guard. The unemployment numbers are up so the numbers, while impressive still mean that due to unemployment being so high there is still a long way to go before the state is out of the proverbial woods in this crisis.
Another area of the country that is seeing a turn around and shift in numbers this week is the San Francisco bay area where prices of homes are a full fifty percent lower than they were three short years ago. This has spurred a sales spurt that has number in the bay area up a significant amount where sales are up 20.4 percent and in Solano the sales were up 66.5 percent. These numbers are encouraging and if the trend continues it could bring some of the consumer confidence back which could spur farther growth and buying making things even better.
And just because I like good news in a series of threes, the state of New Jersey says that home foreclosures were down thirty percent in the fist six months of 2009, which is a far cry from the last six months of 2008. That means that only one home out of 146 were in foreclosure during the first six months as opposed to the national average of one home in 84. Isn’t good news nice to hear from time to time? Sort of makes you want to smile. You can research this here including other links to associated stories from New Jersey:
If you were a child of the sixties then this story might be particularly poignant to you. Watergate is now going into foreclosure. For those of you that might not remember Watergate is the famous hotel that was in the news during the Nixon administration where there were some less that scrupulous things going on that eventually caused the downfall if a United States president. That’s all the background I am giving on that one, you can research the details yourself if you don’t remember it.
Fox News reports that the states that seem to be the hardest hit in this crisis oddly enough also seem to be the states getting the least amount of help. Back on the 17th of February when the stimulus bill was signed into law President Obama said that the stimulus bill "includes help for those hardest hit by our economic crisis," President Obama went on to say that "As a whole, this plan will help poor and working Americans." The analyzing of the latest data by Fox News shows that the exact opposite has been true and found that States with higher bankruptcy, foreclosure and unemployment rates got less money. And higher income states received more.
This is an interesting article on using the loan modification process to help stop foreclosure and the impending financial disaster that can follow you for a long time after that legality happens. It gives some details that most of us already know but it never hurts to review those details and refresh our thought patterns. We all hope that it never happens to us but in the event that we get in dire straights it is better to have the knowledge and a cool head to make the decisions that are best for the situation than to wait until that time to research and end up making the wrong decision that can haunt us for a long time.
Long Island in New York has long been known for being the opposite with some counties being populated some not, some rich and some poor. This story shows that even in this real estate crisis things remain much like the yin and yang. In comparison to the same quarter in 2008 it seems that Nassau County saw a decline of foreclosures to the tune of 33 percent, which is huge considering the population on the island. However Suffolk Country saw an increase over that same period of time in the amount of just over 62 percent.
Do you have a thousand bucks lying around and ready to buy a house free and clear? Ordinarily I would say good luck with that but this is a strange little story about a guy who lives and works in Fort Meyers Florida just recently won a house at auction free and clear for one thousand dollars. It was a 1,300 square foot home, which he kept just under three weeks and sold for 18,000 and the actual market value of the home is $88,500. This sounds too crazy to be anything but true and it shows how far off the markets are these days. Most people are spending more than that every month on mortgage payments and he got it free and clear.
The state of Oregon is nowhere close to being out of trouble in this crisis. In the first six months of 2009 the foreclosure rate in the state rose a staggering one hundred and twenty two percent and the average or median sales price for the foreclosed homes dropped over 26,000 dollars. These numbers foretell the misfortune that seems to be just unwilling to stop in this west coast state.
If you were perhaps thinking about buying a foreclosed property and flipping it to gain some great profit potentials, I would recommend checking this story from Atlanta’s Fox News. It is a very well written and to the point story about the upsides and downside of doing this and it points out potential issues and pitfalls that can happen. If you are considering it and have money that you can afford to invest that won’t strap you financially it is worth reading.
The Miami Herald gives us yet another thought provoking story of how some lenders appear to be holding on to foreclosed property and slowing the sales of them to help shore up until the prices go back up. This is basically an attempt to keep the prices higher than they would normally be under the same situation if they were doing things the approved and standard ways. The article is worth a quick look over, especially if you are a resident of Florida but it won’t have more than a minimal impact on people in other parts of the country other than as an informational article.
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