Jam-Packed Foreclosure Auction Rooms In Bakersfield

Posted in Foreclosures, June 17th, 2008 |

The courtrooms in Bakersfield, California are jam-packed leaving standing space only. Auctioneer Sam Marshall says it is big business as the numbers roll in. Banks are desperate to reduce their inventory as they are weighed down with innumerable foreclosures. Foreclosure numbers are now breaking own records in the first quarter of the current year 2008, according Mortgage Bankers Association.

The house owners were initially hit by spiraling interest rates from sub-prim loans but now the menace is falling real estate prices that is making it impossible for either lenders or borrowers to sell the units and wiggle out of the foreclosure mess. For the borrowers there is no point in carrying on with a mortgage wherein the value of the house is less than the loan balance. So the latest tendency is to walk away leaving the keys with the lenders. Now these lenders are turning to auctions to relieve themselves of the load as vacant houses are creating problems and public as well as local government outrage.

The states that saw the highest number of new foreclosures are now seeing the greatest fall in the housing markets. Prices in Nevada, Florida and Arizona and California are down by 27%, 25% and 14% respectively.

The bust in the housing market is affecting many like Rick Boardman. When the housing sector was booming in 2000 Boardman took out his funds from stocks and put it into something real and solid like property. He was confident that this was good investment – something that would upbeat his lifestyle. He and his wife purchased 20 acres of invaluable property in Maryland, waterfront area. He constructed two units – he would sell one and with the profits build his own dream house to reside in. But with the sudden downturn in the market the dream has turned into the nightmare of not being able to pay for mortgage dues.

The real estate tumble down is now spreading its tentacles to the prime loan takers also. It is crossing economic frontiers to threaten fancy gated mansions and million dollar vacation houses. Foreclosures increased by an astronomical 90% from what it were the previous year. Foreclosures include all the stages of the judicial process from default notice to court auction and bank repossession. Some areas continue to be worse off than others. California foreclosure figures have jumped by 350% and it includes traditional loans as well and that too during the spring nest-building season.