MostlyForeclosures Articles: Online Foreclosure Homes Database And Foreclosure Information

Data compiled by RealtyTrac Inc. showed that October 2008 foreclosures in Illinois rose by 24 percent from September. This means that one filing is made for every 410 households.

An estimated 12,681 properties in the state are undergoing foreclosure filings that include bank repossessions, default notices and auction sales notices. The numbers represent a 31 percent rise from the 2007 period.

Illinois is the ninth state in the U.S. with the highest number of abandoned homes.

The hardest hit area in Illinois is Cook County with 6,885 foreclosure filings in October. The numbers are more than 50 percent of the overall filings in the state.

Will County received 990 filings while 807 properties were filed in DuPage County.

RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James Saccacio said that a drastic drop in new filings has been noted after a law has been passed requiring lenders to delay foreclosure process.

He said that while the goal of the legislation, which is to abate foreclosures, is admirable, an integrated approach such as loan modification is still needed to fully address the problem.

Meanwhile, some realtors in Chicago are dealing with homeowners on short sales. This is the stage when owners are forced to put their homes on the market for less than the total value of the property.

Realtors help homeowners who are already behind their mortgage payments negotiate with banks for the sale of the property. After the agreement to sell the property has been made with banks, realtors will list the said property. This approach gives homeowners a better chance to buy a new home.

Brian Ortiz, a RE/MAX realtor, said that banks have been open and responsive to short sales. He adds that banks are hiring additional employees to address the turnaround problem of short sales.

On the other hand, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will be investing $68 million in low-interest loans and grants to help alleviate foreclosure problem in Chicago.

In October, California’s median home prices dropped by 34 percent to $278,000, compared with last year’s $424,000, due to the unabated flow of foreclosures in the state.

According to MDA DataQuick, a real estate monitoring firm, median home prices in the state in September declined by 1.8 percent.

Data showed that nearly half of the decline in the home median price was attributed to depreciation and the other 50 percent by a change in sales and the way distressed properties are financed.

California is seeing a high foreclosure rate in counties of Merced, Modesto, San Bernardino, Riverside and Stockton.

Meanwhile, the surge in foreclosures has encouraged Californians to take advantage of the situation by purchasing forfeited properties at bargain prices. October home sales increased by almost 64 percent to 42,293 from last year.

In San Francisco Bay, about 45 percent of preowned houses sold in October had been in some form of foreclosure proceedings. Home sales activity in the county increased by 39 percent from last year’s 7,613 and about 5 percent from last month.

Median home prices declined by 12.1 percent from last year to $699,000. and home sales dived by 21 percent. Furthermore, the October median price dropped 41 percent from the $631, 000 value in the same month a year ago.

The median home price in San Francisco Bay dropped by 6.3 percent in September from the peak value of $665,000, for the same period last year. Contra Costa County, on the other hand, experienced a dropped in median prices by over 46 percent from last year to $285,000. Home sales in Contra Costa increased by almost 87 percent.

Southern California reported a dropped in median price by 33 percent in October and a drastic increased in home sales by 67 percent. About 51 percent of the total transactions in Southern California’s six counties are foreclosure resales.

Another foreclosure bill is being debated upon by government officials while homeowners continue losing their homes to the housing crisis. Sen. Richard K. Durbin’s Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act was placed before the Senate Judiciary Committee for another perusal. The Illinois Democrat’s bill failed to garner support from Congress last year.

During the hearing, witnesses Sheriff Thomas J. Dart of Cook County in Illinois and Mortgage Bankers Association Chairman David G. Kittle exchanged arguments on whether to change bankruptcy laws as the bill suggests. If approved, judges would have the right to adjust mortgage rates of troubled homes as a solution to foreclosures.

Dart described the stunned expressions of homeowners when they learned of their eviction. Others would even go home after work just to see their belongings on the sidewalks and their children with nowhere to stay.

Houses which once lined neighborhoods are now boarded up or scheduled to be demolished. According to Dart, he had evicted 1,771 because of the foreclosure problem, and had 4,500 families more for this year.

Meanwhile, Kittle argued that helping homeowners run away from bad debts would affect everyone else. Homebuyers would be made to pay more fees and interest rates, and bigger down payments by lenders if Durbin’s proposal is approved. He estimated that a $295 monthly tax on homeowners if lenders would be made to absorb more mortgage debt.

This would also lead to more foreclosures as homeowners file for bankruptcy. He cited the same reasons for opposing the federal government’s $700 billion budget to bailout financial institutions. For Kittle, it is inevitable that some people and businesses would have to fail.

If the crisis continues, 6.5 million Americans, or one out of 8 homeowners, are estimated to lose their homes to foreclosure in the next five years.

Among the few supporters of Durbin’s anti-foreclosure bill has been Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman.