Foreclosure Recap – Week #50

What a difference a year can make. Things can be drastically different from one twelve month period to the next. As this article illustrates, things in Oregon are indeed a lot worse than they were in October 2008. In fact, the foreclosure rate there has effectively doubled in that amount of time. The good news here for Oregon is that even at double the rate from a year ago, they are still considerably lower in the foreclosure rate than a good portion of the rest of the country.

If you are looking for some residential or commercial real estate to purchase at foreclosure prices and would like to attend an auction where there are more than a few from which to choose, you might want to review this article and get plane tickets to Birmingham, Alabama for this coming weekend. According to the Birmingham Business Journal, there are around 200 residential commercial properties due to go up for sale at a bank forced auction this coming Saturday the 19th. Even the local Ideal building, which is appraised at nearly $900,000 dollars, will be on the auction block in this bank ordered mega-sale.

The New York Times tells us this week that even though mortgage rates hove tumbled to a point lower than they have been since the 1940s due to help from the Federal Government Bail Out program, many banks are not terribly interested in helping people out by refinancing at the lower rates. The sad part about this is that if these homeowners were allowed to do a refinance on the mortgage, they would literally save hundreds of dollars per month, which could then be used to pay down debt or to purchase things that would in turn stimulate the economy and help everyone in the long run. The story is a well-written piece that will have you wondering why the banks don’t understand this theory.

In a complete case of mismanagement, the city of Cleveland is taking some heat for the methods they used in doling out money for the Federally sponsored Making Homes Affordable program. It seems that they gave money, sometimes up to $20,000 dollars from this fund to help low income families get the down payment for a home. The problem is that when they were passing out the money for the loans they didn’t bother to see if the people they were giving it to be actually financially able to repay the loans. As a result there are a lot of them that cannot do so and the result, as you might imagine, is a quagmire of bad loans that are now being defaulted on. You can read this sad story here “”

The story from Idaho tells us that upwards of 7.4 percent of the homes here are worth far less than is actually owed on them and the numbers here are expected to continue to get worse as 2010 begins. The state of Idaho is not in great shape and more often than not the foreclosures here are going to continue to rise at an alarming rate if you believe what is written in the article at the Idaho Statesman site. While this state has not been high on the numbers list when it comes to foreclosure totals that might well change if this story is indeed an accurate assessment.

Years after Katrina the folks in New Orleans as well as the rest of the country are weathering another king of storm. One that is causing many homes to be lost just as surely as the flood waters and the winds of Katrina swallowed up and destroyed homes and lives not so long ago. This article gives a rather in depth look at the specific challenges that are facing the people of the Louisiana and New Orleans area. While it might not be information that everyone wants to read it certainly is something that I believe everyone should read to help put the current crisis in more of a perspective.

A bright spot this week comes to us by way of the Los Angeles Times business section. It seems that in the month of November that the median price of a home in the state rose 1.8 percentage point to an average of $285,000 dollars and during that same period total sales of property was up 14.7 percent from the previous month. Certainly this is encouraging news for people living there and the eyes of the country are on those figures since the state of California is in very poor shape due to the foreclosure numbers. TO be sure, the market is far from in a full rebound but the unexpected rise between October and November is certainly a welcome relief.

In this week’s Fannie Mae related story, it seems that Fannie Mae and the newly formed Cuyahoga land bank have come to terms and forged a new agreement that may or may not be of interest to you. This is especially true if you live in the Cleveland Ohio area. The folks at Fannie Mae are going to be selling homes that are in foreclosure to the land bank entity for the sum of $1. They will also contribute a total of $3,500 towards the costs of demolition for each house that isn’t going to be salvageable. From these properties it appears that the first 25 are slated to change hands between Fannie Mae and the Land Bank this month and most of those properties will end up being torn down.

In the wake of the current crisis with foreclosures, governors across the country are scurrying to find answers and solutions to help the people in their state. The governor of the State of New York has just signed in to law a new and wide reaching bill that is geared to help homeowners, tenants and even entire neighborhoods to survive the current problems facing them. There is much too much to cover in this short amount of space but you should take a few moments and review it.

Yes, if you look at the numbers things appear to be on the rise in the market and that has many people hopeful. However, if you look at the overall numbers and compare them with those of a year ago you will find that they are still up about 20 percent. That means that this crisis is still a long way from being over. The article covers some whys and gives you food for thought while keeping a somewhat positive tone. It is definitely worth a couple of moments to review.