|
[ avoid mortgage foreclosure ] [ foreclosure pictures ]
foreclosure listings
 Stop
Home Foreclosure - If you are facing foreclosure its essential to get
someone in your corner right away who understands the laws of your state. An
expert who knows your rights and the assistance programs to save your home |
Housing defaults, foreclosures listings rise in Fresno
Market downturn, wide use of alternative loans blamed. |
By Sanford Nax / The Fresno Bee01/25/07 04:53:16
found at http://www.fresnobee.com
|
|
Foreclosures in Fresno County more than quadrupled in the
fourth quarter from last year — a sign, analysts say, that a day of
reckoning is coming for thousands of home buyers who used unconventional
loans.
Rising interest rates and lagging appreciation are conspiring to cause
financial fits for thousands of homeowners in the central San Joaquin Valley
and California, many of whom used adjustable-rate and 100% financing for
their purchases. |
Statewide, the number of default notices — the first step in
the foreclosure process — climbed a whopping 145% in the fourth quarter of
2006 from a year earlier to the highest level in eight years, according to
DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate tracking service.
About a third of homeowners headed into foreclosure actually lost their houses.
That compared with 8% last year, when the market was hotter and homeowners could
more easily get out of trouble by selling.
No region was immune, and many real estate agents who specialize in distressed
properties expect the numbers to grow.
"This is just the first wave," said Shannon Martin of Mid-State Realty
in Fresno. "Within the next few years, you'll see more foreclosures
coming."
The increase in default notices ranged from 63.2% in San Francisco to 471.7% in
Stanislaus County. In Tulare County, the increase in default notices was 138.5%,
while the actual number of properties returning to the lender totaled 57, a 470%
hike.
Real estate agent Mike Schuil of Visalia said foreclosures are definitely on the
upswing in Tulare County.
In Fresno County, the increase of defaults was 104.4%, while the number of
houses going back to the lender was 110, up 450%, DataQuick reported.
Still, the numbers remain modest by historical standards. The average number of
foreclosures in Fresno County since 1998 is 142.
DataQuick spokesman Andrew LePage said inland California often has higher
foreclosure rates because the lower home prices attract more first-time buyers
and those with modest incomes.
"Folks with modest means are always closer to the financial edge" and
are more vulnerable to market changes, he said. DataQuick officials say they
need more time before coming to any conclusions, in part because a robust real
estate market last year kept numbers down.
"We're in the midst of an adjusting market right now, and we won't know
until spring or summer if this is ominous or not," said Marshall Prentice,
DataQuick's president.
Most of the loans that went into default originated between January 2005 and
February 2006. Their average age was 15 months, and the typical borrower was
five months behind on payments.
Locally, real estate agents and credit counselors have seen huge jumps in
foreclosure-related activity. Martin, who specializes in selling foreclosed
properties for lenders, said such listings he handles climbed from 10 to 70 in
the past six months.
"People who bought their houses within the last year or two with zero down
are at the high-water mark," he said. "As the values have decreased,
they owe more than the house is worth."
Martin said he has foreclosure listings in all price ranges and geographic
areas. "I've got them from $640,000 to $120,000. They are all over,"
he said.
That's because many of the families bought the houses with adjustable-rate or
subprime loans.
"It's no surprise," said Martha Lucey, executive vice president of
ByDesign Financial Solutions, a nonprofit credit counseling organization in
Fresno. "Over 60% of the loans nationally have been the nonfixed-rate type,
and we've anticipated consumers running into trouble when rates adjust."
The number of phone calls to her housing credit counselors has increased
threefold over the past six months.
Many of those families are first-time home buyers who have little or no equity
in their houses. Many should have thought twice about buying the house they did,
she said.
"It is wishful thinking," she said. "They believe they will be
earning more later or will be able to refinance into a different loan product in
a few years."
The story is the same throughout California and the nation. More than 1.2
million foreclosure filings were reported in the United States in 2006, up 42%
from 2005. That's a rate of one foreclosure filing per every 92 households,
according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties.
Those families who bought their houses within the past few years are at the
greatest risk. Many can't sell them for enough to pay off principal, or are
unable to refinance the loans, analysts say.
As a result, the number of "short sales," where the bank allows the
sellers to lower the price enough to find a buyer, has increased, said Gary
Kittredge of Realty Concepts.
Martin said many of the buyers obtained loans they shouldn't have.
"From what I'm seeing, people were put into 100% financing loans that
weren't properly underwritten," he said.
Lucey said the lenders and borrowers are equally at fault.
"In some cases, the consumers didn't understand their financial position or
the family budget. And in other cases, the issues are with lenders who didn't
help buyers understand the implications of the loan they were getting
into," she said.
Lucey said borrowers should call the lender when they run into financial
trouble. Often, they can work out a plan where the payments are restructured
until the deficit is cured.
The reporter can be reached at snax @fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6495.
Foreclosure data
| |
Business Foreclosure
Share the love:
Last Foreclosure ARTICLES:
gold prices
gold spot
gold bullion
houses in
foreclosure Canada
wealth insider alliance
with Mad Hedge Fund Trader John Thomas
Home Refinance
buying
foreclosures
economic
crisis hyperinflation nation
Home Refinance With Bad
Credit Under Obama’s Stimulus plan: Few Crucial Guidelines
------------------------
Find
Foreclosures
Poor-Average-Excellent
Credit score?
------------------------
Most Shared :
foreclosure
laws
What
is Quantitative
Easing ?
foreclosure
process
Find out ...
share with friends:
.
Future REAL ESTATE AGENTS
sites roll :
Insult to
Injury
p8t
credit cards
how to get
real
estate
mens health magazine
|
