Posts Tagged ‘riverside’

The hunting instinct has not gone out of vogue – is very much there with outward cosmetic changes. Today busloads of hunters are on a foreclosure safari – trying to target sitting ducks. It is a common scene now – also in Prince William County.

Real estate companies chartered a bus carrying 25 prospective buyers to view the thousands of houses afflicted by foreclosures. This was the first tour of its kind in the region. Mortgage attorney Art Grace told the hunters that they have a great chance to snap up a deal. The public here are not even aware of the gold mine they are sitting on. The bus touched on nine foreclosed units in Gainesville and Haymarket within three hours. There were town-houses and stand-alone houses with price tags ranging from $200,000 to $600,000. One house was practically brand new.

The idea of bus tours is catching on across the country with similar buses rolling in California, Nevada, Michigan and Illinois. These states have been worst hit by the foreclosure crisis.
The spokesperson of the tour operator (Long & Foster Realtors) in Prince William, Eileen Durkan said that hearing about similar hunting parties in California she decided to set the wheels rolling here also. California ideas always run eastwards. She decided to pick it up fast. Compared to other areas in the D.C region Prince William has been severely mauled by foreclosures. In Washington, Arlington and Alexandria metro zone there were 28,455 foreclosure postings in 2007 making it rank 41 amongst the top 100 metros of US. The leading cities were Riverside, San Bernardino, California with 102,506 listings. Los Angeles, Long Beach recorded 93,696 foreclosures.

Amongst the hunter tourists were novices, investors and people who were just curious and interested. While on the bus the passengers were given information about foreclosure hunting by a house inspector, house warranty agent and a loan officer. Information brochures were distributed together with water bottles labeled ‘Foreclosure Tour’. One participant commented that the idea was great and would have been greater if it had started earlier.
Experts feel that if somehow the market is made to turn around things will improve. Right now there are too many units and too few buyers. With more foreclosures in the offing more houses are expected to roll in. Buyers are in a fix sans loan facilities. So it is a no go situation.

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California continues to reel under the foreclosure tornado. More foreclosed homes are being sold and the picture remains grim. The weather is showing no signs of improvement. A report has been issued about 9,477 foreclosed homes by one of the most reliable prime online data collecting sources focusing on August 2007. The total value of the loan was $3.86 billion. Auction sales picked up speed state wise by 10.4% as compared to the total sales in July of this same year.

4,199 of these foreclosed homes comprise of 44.35% of the total sales. The latter have been described as ‘spectacular owned’ units. Their total value is $1.71 billion. These spectacular owned units are generally not occupied by the owner but had been bought for investment and speculating purposes.

According to analysts it is these types of investment foreclosed homes that cause the greatest damage to the sub-prime mortgage market. The speculators have practically nothing to lose when they move out. These investments consist of 44.3% of the total sub-prime investments. The owners are just walking away with a casual shrug. They lose neither hearth and home nor memories. Even those with good credit history were not averse to this rampant speculation. This is the main reason for the foreclosure debacle.

The latest report on the August hones in on some important pointers. 90.3% of the total foreclosure sales in California belong to either homes purchased or refinanced during the two years of 2005 and 2006. Approximately 95% (9,015) of the units sold in the auctions reverted to only the lenders. The total value amounted to $3.7 billion.

During August the default notices to 16,563 foreclosed homes, shot up by 16.3%. In the foreclosure process this is the first step. But trustee sale notices were issued to 12,896 foreclosed homes – a decrease of 2.25%. The latter notice predetermines the date and time of the auction sale. The foreclosure process starts with delinquency when the borrower defaults for more than three months. Then notices are issued and these are followed by sales and repossession. It consumes time and money.

So far the data that has been released is comprehensive and includes complete figures of all the counties in California. Riverside County is the highest offender in foreclosures during August. San Bernardino County notched up one step to rank 8th by increasing 18.1% in the total number of foreclosure sales during August.

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It seemed as if a big party on. Cars rolled in on a foggy Sunday April morning in downtown Riverside. Men in tuxedos guided the traffic. Now that was unusual! People shopping for real estate bargains tumbled out in dockers, sandals and shorts. Don’t let the casual dress code divert your attention. These were all serious shoppers with pockets bursting with cash and checks – perhaps to the tune of millions of dollars.

Who were they? There were investors from San Diego on the look out for an inexpensive property to rent out. Some were novices from Fontana hoping to save a whopping $200,000 on a family unit. Many others came in droves for auction sales of foreclosed houses. California has not seen the likes of this type in decades. On this particular day, two lenders had put 100 properties on the dock. 93 had been sold off before the end of the day. Most of the properties were in fast growing ex-urban and desert areas on Riverside and San Bernardino Counties lying to the east of Los Angeles.

Till the other day the company holding the auction had been a nonentity in the field. Bu during the last few months when mortgages fell and foreclosures rose many lenders brought them back to business from hibernation. It was well worth it. They sold 265 properties in San Diego, Los Angeles and Riverside during only two May weekends. Upbeat, they are planning a repeat performance in Sacramento, Modesto, Atlanta and the Bay region, this summer. The spokesperson of this company described this as ‘counter-cyclical business’ but he refused to disclose the names of the banks involved. He admitted that in some cases the properties were sold for less than what were due in terms of loan. It was a gathering of rain and shine for what was one man’s meat was poison for another. The losers were none to happy but they would rather face losses quickly than linger on it with no hope in sight.

The tuxedo boys were not only outside conducting traffic but also inside the convention answering and guiding people around. In the opposite hall there were 41 loan and 25 escrow officers. Speakers were loud on the soundtrack. Extra chairs were wheeled in. From the bonhomie at the party it did not seem that the process of auctioning foreclosures in California is usually painstaking and time consuming.

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