Archive for April, 2008

Market Watch: March Foreclosures Up by 57%

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

Compared to March 2007, the number of foreclosure listings rose by 57 percent last month. There was also a 5 percent increase from the number of filings in February 2008.

About 234,685 homes entered some stage of foreclosure, according to the online foreclosure realtor RealtyTrac. These homes included those that received default, auction and bank repossession notices. Out of these, 51,393 homes were actually foreclosed. This was 10 percent more than the number of homes that were lost to foreclosure last February. On the other hand, bank repo homes were up by 129 percent.

What is evident from the current statistics is that more and more homeowners are choosing to walk away after receiving default notices. Many experts are getting concerned that this seems to be a growing trend in the current foreclosure crisis.

In most instances, owners will try to work out a repayment or loan modification plan with their lenders to avoid ending up in foreclosure. But with the declining home prices, many found themselves with little or no equity left. As soon as the default notices are received, these owners pack and leave.

For the month of March, the state of Nevada posted the highest rate of foreclosure followed closely by California and Florida. These states were actually the places hit hardest considering that they were the favorites of speculative buyers during the most recent housing boom.

Although there are concerted efforts coming from the federal government and non-profit organizations to help the victims of the subprime mortgage meltdown, it will probably take awhile before any recovery can be seen.

The only ones who are actually benefiting from the present situation are the buyers and investors who are taking advantage of the wonderful investment opportunities that foreclosure properties offer. If you are also interested in making a good investment, you should check out the foreclosure listings from MostlyForeclosures.com.

Related Pages:

Irvine Suffers Worst of Mortgage Meltdown

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

All over the United States, you will observe the effects of the mortgage meltdown. But the worst possible impact can be seen in Irvine, California.

Once a thriving community located between San Diego and Los Angeles, Irvine housed 18 lenders who specialized in subprime mortgages. These lenders included industry leaders such as Option One and New Century Financial. But when subprime mortgages began defaulting, most of these lenders found themselves with a financial crisis on their hands. To cope, they had to cut overhead costs and even let go of some of their employees. Almost 4,100 employees lost their jobs overnight.

Even with the restructuring, some of the lenders operating in Irvine did not manage to go above their financial woes. In fact, New Century, which is the second biggest lender in the nation, has filed for bankruptcy.

The quick turn of events has left many local wondering about what happened to their community. Those who managed to keep their jobs are struggling to make ends meet especially with the weakening dollar and declining home values. To date, about 9,000 jobs were lost to the subprime mortgage fiasco. These included service providers and suppliers of the lenders who operated in the city.

The only silver lining in this otherwise unfortunate situation is the great investment opportunities that the large inventory of foreclosure homes offers. These repossessed properties have amazing return potential and taking advantage of these homes will be a smart investment decision. If you are in search of a California property but has a small budget, you would be delighted with the many foreclosed houses for sale.

For the hottest foreclosure deals, you should check out foreclosure listings offered by reliable realtors such as MostlyForeclosures.com.

Related Pages:

Hope Now: 1.2 Million and Counting

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

With the nation embattled in housing and credit problems, the government has launched a housing rescue campaign led by the Hope Now coalition. Since June 2007 to February 2008, the total number of troubled mortgages saved from foreclosure has reached 1.2 million.

Although this is good news, Hope Now has also released data for the same period that showed 419,000 troubled owners who lost their homes to foreclosure.

Hope Now coalition is a government-supported coalition of investors, community organizations and lenders whose objectives fall into two categories: loan modification and repayment plan. Out of the 1.2 million mortgages that Hope Now worked out, 848,000 fell under the repayment plan.

Hope Now coalition

For troubled owners, this is generally not helpful and only exacerbates the problem. The coalition should actually consider the fact that most of these borrowers can not really afford their mortgage payments in the first place. Even with loan modifications and repayment plans, majority of them will still struggle to make ends meet.

As a result, many of these borrowers eventually walk away especially since they no longer have any equity left on their homes. Critics of the Rescue effort believe that the administration is touting these data in order to have an excuse to launch a more aggressive rescue campaign.

The Bush administration has always been opposed to the idea of a foreclosure bailout, which will be shouldered by the taxpayers. But the risk of not taking a more aggressive stand is already affecting the national economy. There is much fear about a looming recession considering the weakening dollar and the numerous lenders filing for bankruptcy.

Many real estate experts believe that as many as 2 million foreclosure listings will be recorded for 2008 alone. Such number will surely affect the national economy in a negative manner.

If you are looking for more foreclosure news and information, you should visit MostlyForeclosures.com.