Foreclosure Recap – Week #53
Not only is living in California a problem for folks that are trying to keep their heads above water and keep the family homes intact. Now it appears that for those of us that might be enticed to head there for vacation or other reasons, finding a place to lay your head is now getting more difficult as the foreclosure crisis comes down hard on the hotel industry there. According to the Orange County register, foreclosures on hotels and motels in the state have more than quadrupled making it a huge concern. The lack of selling rooms means less tourism dollars’ which is likely to affect the whole state and not just the relaxation industry.
The flipside of the above story comes from just up the coast from California in the state of Oregon. According to the Daily Journal of Commerce, the sales of larger properties there increased in the forth quarter of 2009 and that is expected to carry over into 2010. Granted these sales are actually being had for mere pennies on the dollar where buildings that originally sold for $66 million was just recently sold for a small $27 million. Not a bad deal for the buyer but still a large sum of money for most of us to fathom. This trend will help to boost the numbers in the state but the housing industry and sales of single family dwelling is still going to be sluggish even though the dollar value figures may not reflect this accurately.
Part of the issue in home pricing these days, according to the New York state Buffalo News is that the homes are appraising far below what is being asked for them. That is a shame and hurting sales and killing a lot of deals because in reality, no one in their right minds would pay tens of thousands of dollars more for a home than it is actually worth and start out in negative equity from day one. It is not what one would consider a sound investment strategy. The story is pretty good and shows valid point on both sides of the appraisal issue. For anyone that is looking to buy or sell, it is a piece worth reading.
Alabama has been in trouble just like the rest of the country. According to this article though it is due largely, at least here in this portion of the country, to some things that many people don’t often acknowledge as issues. According to this story it has a lot to do with the lifestyles that the people are living and the attitudes that they have on debt and management of that debt. This is a result of studies by two professors who studied the reasons that people get into trouble. This is the result of a year long study. What is interesting is that two similar subdivisions on miles apart, where folks had similar mortgage values and incomes had drastically different results with one have a high foreclosure rate.
This information comes from ABC news. Nothing earth shattering or unexpected here. It is just a restatement of the facts that tell us why the sun-belt area of the country is having such a tough time. We all knew that California, Nevada and Arizona were in precarious positions at best since the start of the foreclosure crisis. This story goes more into detail about the how and why of the reasons and does a fairly good job of explaining in straightforward English the facts that we all need to understand. Knowledge is power so the more we know and understand how and why this happened, the better prepared we are to stop it from happening to us.
It’s not something that we like to consider or even think about as being a possibility. But the truth is that most of the people in this country are not far from foreclosure. A car accident, a lay off at work or a medical emergency could well be all it would take to push you and your family into a state of foreclosure. There are options available to avoid this happening or even in softening the issue if it happens. The Bank Rate web site gives us some information on these options and explains them in simple and not terribly technical terms. It is worth taking a few moments out and reviewing the information. It never hurts to stay current so you know what the options are should the unforeseen happen to you and your family.
I won’t bore you with the details of which states happen to be the hardest hit as of this point in time. The foreclosure crisis is not being kind to any of the states. This article does list the top – or bottom – of the barrel depending on your point of view. You can see what parts of the country and which particular portions of those states have been hit the hardest. You can review the numbers and see the reasons and even see what is being done. It is always good to know where you stand in the countries ratings in this list. Not so much to surprise or to shock you but more to keep you informed.
According to Reuters, the year 2009 was a record-shattering year in foreclosures in spite of the actions and aids of the United States government. And according to the folks at RealTrac who gave Reuters the information, the coming year is going to offer no relief in those numbers. The unemployment rate is one of the major contributors to the problems and many people can’t even seem to make it even once a loan modification is applied to the loan. The pricing of the homes is down an average of 30 percent since 2006 according to the report.
As if the state of Michigan didn’t have enough bad news. The Mlive web site states that in and around the city of Flint, 6,600 properties are currently overdue on taxes and are heading into foreclosure. Of these properties at least 19 of them are values in excess of $1 million dollars. So the problem here is not only with the middle and lower class as you can see. The county is giving notice to these folks on January 21 of this year and the foreclosure proceedings are scheduled to begin on March 31. Foreclosures are up a shocking 46 percent over last year. This is going to cause a lot of problems for the county as well since they lose the tax revenue and they have to pay someone to maintain the property once it is foreclosed.
