The economic gloom has attracted opportunists of many shades – as is usual. The investors are snapping up foreclosed properties, repairing them and then letting them out on rent. Following them are potential nest builders who want to stay in the houses they buy as occupants. They are concerned about the difficulties in picking up an affordable unit and make it habitable.

Jennifer Kuzara (32) works for a non-profit body. Since the beginning of 2009 till the start of 2010 she has given nearly 1,000 hours on a foreclosure related project. Among those who helped her were two realtors, a banker, a contractor, an architect as well as her parents. To give her project a chance to work in the locality where she wants to live she required $100,000 – all in cash. At the end of it Kuzara and her parents came to be exposed to a good amount of risk for the sake of a bungalow situated in the centre of a middle-class locality.

Although the particulars may vary, many shopping in the foreclosure dominated markets of Arizona, Florida, Nevada etc would be looking for a house similar to hers. There may be a hue and cry about the legitimacy of foreclosures but there will always be clients who want to buy when prices are really cheap and are willing to go ahead taking the risk and the challenges that come on the way.

In 2006 Kuzara was burdened with a six figure student loan. At that time the housing market was really hot. She had resigned herself to the fact that she would never be able to own a house – the end of her American dream. By 2008 she had completed her Ph.D. on anthropology and taken on a full time job with a non-profit body. Meanwhile the housing sector had begun to cool. She soon came to hear of friends buying foreclosed houses as investments.

Her shopping trips were laced with experiences. In one instance she heard gunshots – people loudly airing their views about entry of white residents. In another case the house had been taken over by squatters.

Finally the house she purchased had been cut up into apartments and perhaps this was the reason why she did not face much competition from other buyers. But finance was a problem after the bank accepted her initial offer of $39,000; then there were repair costs. The bank wanted cash payment. She however got help from her parents who borrowed against their life insurance and from 401(K) to make the dream a reality.

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The Federal Government had come up with a program under which loans of homeowners are being modified, first on an experimental basis of three months and then permanently. It was thought that the program would address the needs of four million homeowners but the numbers have fallen far below the target.

Now many attorneys of states have sent notices that foreclosures be stalled because the lenders have not verified documents properly. The paperwork has been shoddy. So it can be said that the crisis has entered another phase. Already three major lenders have halted foreclosures in almost 24 states. Foreclosure sales have been halted nationwide.

The situation has raised many questions in the minds of homeowners. The first is the reason behind stalling of foreclosures. It may be pointed out that banks are reviewing the allegation. While they are doing it, they are putting a freeze on foreclosures. For instance, Ally Financial, stopped foreclosures while admitting that many of the documents have not been signed properly by the reviewer.

Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have also stalled foreclosures saying that they are reviewing their paperwork.

It is not known however, how many loans are affected. While Chase put the figure at 56,000 loans, Ally and Bank of America have not given any. Many foreclosures are in a state of limbo. The number of foreclosures could increase if more banks decide to freeze foreclosures. Attorneys General and politicians are asking FIs to review the situation. At present, five million mortgages are delinquent.

Chase, Ally, BofA have stopped sales in 23 states. It has come to light that paperwork was shoddy here. Even bank officials admitted that they had not verified documents properly. They did not review the information properly.

BofA said that it was putting a stop to all sales of foreclosed properties. However, it will not stop the sales in 27 regions. The chief executive of BofA, Brian Moynihan, said that it will take sometime for the review.

Experts said that in most cases people will not lose homes. However, the situation will not improve till the employment situation improves. As of now, most do not have jobs and subsequently they cannot make mortgage payments.

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Foreclosed land management company peers into the future with confidence. On 23rd July an announcement was made by a firm dealing with land management that a judge of Lee County had inked a final foreclosure judgment regarding a plot of land in the county. Ginn-La Naples Ltd had purchased it from Alico-Agri Ltd of Alico.

As per the foreclosure terms an auction date has been set for 18th August. Alico-Agri has the alternative to keep the property until the bid amount reaches $52.2 million before allowing the sale to another outside party; alternatively it can offer bids more than the loan amount.

If any bid is higher than the latter then the property would be given to the one who bid the highest. Alico-Agri has an extra lien of $1.7 million as tax dues on the party. It has to be cleared by the winner.

If Alico-Agri retains the unit the mortgage note would be cancelled, accrued commissions due would get reduced and tax dues erased. The net balance would be reclassified.

The property in the centre of the storm stands on 4,157 acres situated beside Florida Gulf Coast University in Lee County. Two development orders had been issued – for a residential community comprising of 336 units and secondly for a golf course (27-hole). A part of the property is a mine that is working. As per the contract and foreclosure terms Alico-Agri released property lying outside land allotted for the two orders regarding development) covering 399 acres as admittance of previous principal payments to Ginn-La Naples.

J.D. Alexander the Chief Executive Officer of Alico said, “This will likely bring final resolution to this matter. The parcel is strategically positioned in an area which has historically seen high growth due to its proximity to the Southwest Florida Regional Airport and Florida Gulf Coast University. We continue to evaluate our options regarding the future use of this property”.

Alico is the owner of nearly 135,500 acres in the counties of Collier, Hendry, Glades, Lee and Polk. It deals with many agricultural projects and real estate operations. Its target is to increase the value of its assets by promoting these two angles of development. It has a long term vision that will bring good return to its shareholders with time. The statements are forward looking but unrelated to present or historical facts. The risks remain present.

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The common ground for playing in the present day U.S. real estate market is housing properties that are foreclosed, especially tax foreclosed properties. The term “tax foreclosed properties” denote that properties whose owners have not paid the taxes due to the authorities, County administration and government authorities and are disposed off to any one who comes forward to pay the entire tax dues readily. Tax foreclosed properties are listed in the media, news papers and websites for the information of the public. These tax foreclosed properties are made over to the buyer, who accepts the liability to clear the arrears as also continue to pay the future taxes. This is a source which is not known to many people and for a painstaking searcher these tax foreclosed properties can turn out to be virtual gold mines and that is not an exaggeration.

Every County in the U.S. country is entitled to collect taxes from real estate properties of assorted sizes, accommodations and values both commercial and residential. So far as the owner of the property pays the taxes regularly, the officials will not come near the property. But once the owner defaults in payment of these taxes for whatever reason, the authorities take immediate action to collect the dues and publicize the proposed action for confiscating the said property and selling it off through public auction. Thus the tax foreclosed properties carry on them a price only to the extent of the taxes due from them, which may be a small fraction of the appraised value of the property if otherwise sold. Sale of tax foreclosed properties takes place only according to the laws of the State in which they are situated and this legal action is carried out without any profit motive. In case of mortgage lenders taking foreclosure proceedings, the amount runs to thousands of dollars as outstanding loan amount. But in the case of tax foreclosed properties it is not so. The percentage of tax levied on the assessed value of the property as per rules (which itself will be very conservative as prescribed years before) payable every year per property may not be much. The tax foreclosed properties would have tax dues only in hundreds and not in thousands, even for consecutively not being paid for two years. The taxing entity will bear with non-payment of taxes up to this limit of two years at the most and take appropriate action as permitted under the law against this tax foreclosed properties. The recovery of the taxes due is the main objective of the sale of these tax foreclosed properties. So far as the buyer of these tax foreclosed properties through public auction accepts to clear the backlog of arrears, the taxing entities are satisfied and readily transfer the deed of the property in the name of the buyer legally.

Once bought the owner of these tax foreclosed properties can live in, rent out or resell it for any price as they deem fit, after incurring some expenses towards tidying up and face-lifting the whole appearance of the properties if at all necessary. If you want to gain a large amount by investing on such tax foreclosed properties in any area, county or region, all you have to do is make a search online and here is the website ForeclosureListings.com which brings all the relevant details to your finger-tip.

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There many banks across the nation that are burdened with foreclosed homes, foreclosed land and distressed homes. These properties were initially part of a prospering home mortgage loan program but have quickly taken center stage in lenders’ efforts to return these properties into interest earning mortgage accounts all over again.

Foreclosed homes and foreclosed land are acquired after banking customers default on their loans after not paying their monthly notes and honoring their commitments. There is also the possibility that the land belonged to someone that died, and never made his or her property tax payments.

You can find foreclosed land anywhere; from a corner lot in a metropolitan city to a piece of commercial property that, through foreclosure, was neglected over time. The land may have belonged to somebody but, unfortunately, the ownership will revert back to the lending institution if payments are not made. Besides ownership, homeowners have the responsibility of paying property taxes and property improvement costs. Fortunately, banks do not want to incur that amount of responsibility for a piece of real estate property.

Banks tend to look for foreclosed properties that would be suitable for the location of a new branch of the bank. This type of investment tactic is a sound business strategy done by businesses all over the world. Incurring a property that they cannot benefit from, and owning that property for an unknown length of time is not a business practice that is beneficial for any company or firm.

Banks are not concerned with improving properties to any stretch of the imagination. They want to lend money out to those who want to buy their houses and see a return on their investments. Foreclosed land is not of any use if it is not being used to promote a source of revenue. Foreclosed land can be sold, however, to recoup the losses that banking institutions accumulate over a period of time.

Foreclosed land can be purchased through real estate auctions. There are many ways to obtain the properties and, generally, the property will experience a foreclosure proceeding before any progress is made to improving the property for use in some other endeavor.

There may be additional costs incurred by real estate property investors, in addition to the amount of money a real estate investor may bid on a piece of foreclosed land. Property taxes will have to brought to the state and city tax boards. There may also be a debris removal charge, and many cities will do this in order to charge you for their service. The best feature about a foreclosed land property is that it can be purchased at a low cost and turned into a property that can be viewed and enjoyed by the community it is situated in.

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The US economy is on a tailspin what with unemployment at its peak. As people lose jobs, even those with sound credit history, are faltering on mortgage payments. Hence, foreclosures have become common. Now, an owner of a rental home has filed for bankruptcy. The house had already been foreclosed. After this, the next date for sale is May 7, 2010.

Sixty eight year old Catherine O’Kelly who lives in a cabin in the building measuring 649 square foot was shocked at the news. She listened to the announcement that there would postponement of 20 sales. The lady was aware that the landlord was not current on payments and she does not want to leave the home where she had lived for 12 years. She cribs that she has been regularly making rent payment of $825 and it is not really her fault that the house is going into foreclosure.

Now she wants to buy the house and when told that the bid will start at $175,000, she thought that friends would help her. Now she does not know what to do. She became disappointed to know that she would have to pay $1,700 every month. This was revealed by Ken Kulpa, a loan officer at Seacliff.

Kulpa said that he is trying to negotiate for short sale. He said that he is trying to persuade the mortgage lender to accept less than $433,183. It may be mentioned here that the owner of the property Loren Warwick is 71 years old and has been trying to negotiate for a while with the lender. The value of the property is now tagged at $110,000. The Warwick family has been the owner since 1949.

Kulpa said that Warwick had been treating the property as an automated teller machine (ATM). He had been drawing money from the lender in order to keep his business afloat. However, when the economy started floundering, Warwick downed shutters. He has since then been living on social security. He had expected that he would eventually be current on mortgage and be able to keep property.

Kulpa said that he is frustrated with lenders. The lenders should be more alert when dealing with distressed properties. He had faxed the required documents at least four times but still when he did not receive any response, he was compelled to connect Warwick with a bankruptcy attorney. He regrets that the government bailout money is not being put to right use.

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The US economy is going through one of its challenging phases. Unemployment is at its peak and people are faltering on their mortgage payments. Hence, foreclosures nowadays are common. Today, the value of  foreclosed properties have descended to an all-time low. Normally, home buyers buy a property with the notion that its value will appreciate over time. But in certain counties of the US, exactly the opposite has happened. Buying a home is no longer a long-term profitable investment.

In fact, in certain counties, home prices have crashed to previous 1999 levels. At this the time, the housing boom had not started to take effect yet. There are nine ZIP codes in Palm Beach and Broward counties where houses were sold, in July, at prices which were even lower than the ones in July 1999. Take, for instance, Michael Keigans, who resides in Deerfield Beach. The ZIP code of the area is 33441. Here the average price of a home was merely 6 percent of what it would be in 1999.

Keigans says that investing in homes is no longer worth the risk. Gone are the days when a person could increase his his net worth through a purchasing a property. Owners who bought homes a decade ago in the Hallandale Beach ZIP code area of 33023, on average, paid $120,000 for a home. Nowadays a home in the Hallandale Beach community would cost around $100,000. That means that the people who have been clinging on to their homes with the hope that their value would appreciate have lost money in the process. The Delray Beach residents also have a similar story to tell. Many of them have taken a 40 percent hit on their home values.

So what are the factors that are responsible for the plunging home values? Many of the people living in these areas belong to the low-income category. They are sub-prime borrowers with bad credit histories. Hence, when these people started defaulting on loans, foreclosures became a common phenomenon. As one house after the other became a foreclosed property, prices of homes dipped in the area.

It’s no wonder that these people have been taking a hit from the deflating housing market. It’s very sad that many of these people were not propelled by the housing boom. This was revealed by a housing analyst Mike Larson. Naturally, there are some big losers in the game. In the Deerfield Beach Zip code of 33441, the average sales price of homes is $135,000. This has climbed down from the figure of $144,000 in 1999.

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The real estate market in most regions in the US is in doldrums. As people falter on mortgage payments, foreclosures have become common. Hence property values in most areas have plummeted. But now according to new statistics available not all regions have suffered. Property values in Marin for instance, have remained stable.

There are many homeowners in Marin who ask developers about the values of their properties and how much they have depreciated in the recent past, but there is no answer to this. The answer actually should be zero but then property values differ across segments. For instance, Novato’s market is weak. In the first quarter of 2008, most homes sold for price of $706,250. But in the second quarter the price was lower at $625,000. In 2009, the prices had plunged further to $535,000.

Studies also suggest that 55 per cent of home sales were of foreclosed homes. Many of them were short sales too. Hence, the median values are skewed. However, when short sales or foreclosures are not considered, then the median price of homes becomes higher. In the first quarter of 2008, the price was $1,129,500; while in the second half of the previous year, it was $1,071,250. In 2009 so far it is $1,200,000.

This could mean a lot. Regulators are constantly keeping lenders and banks under tight vigil. The problem is that these regulators are reading the same articles that an ordinary reader is reading that home values are plunging. It is sad that these regulators are not analyzing the data. They simply take it for granted that home values are down and apply this to every property.
That surely is depressing for a homeowner in Marin. He is huddled along with homeowners in other regions of Vallejo, Merced and Stockton. Developers are saying that the market is bad and although the figures in Marin do not support this, yet the general conception is that the market is indeed bad.

In other words, the home value depends not only on the location, but also the condition in which it is in comparison to the other homes in that market segment. The market in Marin has been more or less steady except for San Rafael and Novato where condominiums have depreciated in value. To protect a home from further depreciation, it is important to keep it in prim and proper shape. After all, the home is still the best investment.

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The US economy is going through one of its challenging phases. Unemployment is at its peak and people are faltering on mortgage payments. Subsequently, foreclosures are becoming common in various regions. In Fort Lauderdale, foreclosed properties are becoming an eyesore. In fact, the city looks more rundown because of the foreclosed properties.

At various foreclosed houses, the lawns are overgrown with weeds and swimming pools have turned green because of algae. Mosquitoes are breeding freely in some of the water bodies. In fact, many homes are below the 2004 standards, the enforcement records reveal this.

The record logbooks are replete with references to “trashy homes and overgrown lawns et al. Most Americans want to know how the city can be kept clean. South Florida, for instance, has been hit by a deluge of foreclosures. People are losing homes almost everyday. Mike Maloney of Fort Lauderbale says that there has been no respite from foreclosures. He also says that banks are better at keeping the properties clean.

Fifty six year old Thomas Petkevich had lost his home to foreclosure and he blames a city code financing for the state of his house. His fee was $250 per day and many like him were forced to cough up an extraordinary amount when they failed to pay for a few successive months. Petkevich laments that he did not even earn that amount and yet the enforcement agencies expect him to pay that. He says that they officials are harassing him.

These cases come up for hearing in the City Hall and Petkevich says he was not given the opportunity to present his case well. Petkevich now lives on rent and he says that it breaks his heart every time he thinks about the incident.

People like Maloney are trying hard to keep the city clean. They try not to fleece money from people. By June 2008, the enforcers had filed 8792 cases. The number of cases had dropped to 7,949 this year. Northwest Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Bobby DuBose says that individuals are not being able to maintain foreclosed properties. Rather banks are maintaining these homes better.
Experts agree that the housing market is in doldrums. The situation will be bad so long as

the economy is depressed. The need of the hour is to create more jobs. As more people find employment, they will be able to maintain their homes.

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In Hawaii the worst of the foreclosure crisis is not yet over. Filings increased by nearly 427% in June 2009 in comparison to 2008. In one year this is the second worst rate. Over 87% of the total foreclosure postings are in the initial stages of the process.

The housing market in Hawaii saw the total number of foreclosure filings spike to 706. It is only just starting to feel the pinch of the crisis that has battered the mainland markets said Darn Blomquist of RealtyTrac. In June of the total number of foreclosure postings (615) are yet to be repossessed by the lenders. Blomquist said, “Hawaii’s main increases are in default notices and auction notices, the first and second stages of foreclosure. That tells us that the full impact of foreclosures hasn’t hit the market.”

The foreclosures in Hawaii are not concentrated but spread out across diverse localities having different income zones. Some are harder hit than others said Gerogia Roerson of Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties. Condotels comprising of condo properties being part of a rental pool of hotels have been massacred by the fall in tourist numbers as well as the credit freeze. Roberson explained, “Nobody on the island will lend on a condotel, and there just aren’t that many cash buyers for them in this market. I’ve had several listings in the Ilikai and there are a few more coming up.”

The median selling price for houses in Oahu has fallen dramatically from what it was one year ago. Most of the drop is related to foreclosures said John Riggins of John Riggins Real Estate. He has estimated that nearly three fourths of his business in now concerned with properties that are in some stage of foreclosure.

Blomquist said, “You could already be experiencing price declines in neighborhoods, but you won’t feel the full brunt until the lenders take back their properties and put them on the market.” These states have kept up its lead in foreclosure activity in USA. Blomquist commented, “At a certain tipping point, REOs will pull down home prices more, and that creates a vicious cycle. Blomquist said. "Since foreclosures in Hawaii only began to increase in July of 2008, it’s safe to say that you are still early in a cycle that will last years rather than months.”

For this same reason, Riggins who has been dealing with property in Hawaii apprehends that foreclosures will be touching record high numbers in this cycle.

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