Foreclosures in Atlanta Will Increase
The US is going through one of its most challenging phases. Unemployment is at its peak and people are faltering on mortgage payments. Subsequently banks are taking over the properties and foreclosures have become common. According to Equity Depot report, foreclosures in Atlanta will increase. About 116,905 will come up for foreclosure by 2009, which is a 47 per cent jump from the previous year’s figure.
It is true that most homes will not be sold at auctions. Their owners may negotiate with lenders and work out some formula. However, the increasing number of foreclosures is an indicator of the economic crisis plaguing the nation. It also shows that the real estate industry is far from recovering from the slump.
The tide of foreclosures sweeping the nation had started when the subprime lenders had started defaulting on the loans. Now the mortgage problem has spread to prime lenders too as unemployment becomes rampant.
Barry Bramlett, a vice president at Equity Depot, says sale of foreclosed homes are happening on a very slow scale. The market is yet to bounce back to normal. Equity Depot has studied foreclosure rates in 13 counties. Of these, only DeKalb will not race past last year’s foreclosure. Still at the rate it is going, there will be a 30 per cent increase in foreclosures in this county.
There are certain counties like Gwinnett, Cherokee, Cobb, and Forsyth where foreclosures are increasing by leaps and bounds. This is a reflection of the poor job market since 2008. It also shows that foreclosures are not merely the problem of the poor but the rich and unemployed too. Condominiums and apartments in the upscale neighborhoods are increasingly falling prey to foreclosures.
With 18,631 filings, Fulton is witnessing the region’s highest foreclosure notices. If the pace continues unabated, then it would see a 35 per cent increase in foreclosures this year as compared to 2008. Gwinnett, too, will see a huge increase of 71 per cent this year.
President of Marietta-based SmartNumbers, Steve Palm, said of the 201,000 homes in Cobb, above 6 per cent will come up for foreclosure. Many people in the county are not current on mortgage payments. In comparison, in 2000, merely 15,253 houses had recorded foreclosure filings. Palm says that only one-third of the homes will come up in foreclosure. These homes belong to the prime mortgage holders.
