posted November 19, 2007 11:23 PM            

No Slowdown in Foreclosure Filings
Hardest-hit cities are on coasts and in Rust Belt, according to a new survey

By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

Nov. 14, 2007

NEW YORK - California, Florida, and Ohio continue to dominate new foreclosure filings, as most of the nation saw increases in the third quarter, according to a new survey.

During the period ended Sept. 30, 77 out of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas reported rises in delinquencies compared with the previous three months, according to the latest report from RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosure properties.

The three most affected states reveal the two main causes of mortgage payment problems: economic weakness, as exemplified by Ohio, and speculative excess that led to high home prices and unaffordable mortgages, as represented by California and Florida.

Making Good on a Bad Real Estate Bet

In the past few months, the foreclosure story has become a tale of two regions. Some of the hardest-hit states have traditionally been in the Midwest, where plant closings and job losses have hit the economy there hard.

The other region is the Sun Belt, which is showing even more significant foreclosure growth as out-sized price increases in the first half of the decade led to virtually unchecked real estate speculation.

According to the Center for Responsible Lending, 7.2 million households have subprime mortgages, and more than 14 percent of those are in default. It projects that one of every five of those loans issued in 2005 and 2006 will end in foreclosure, with 2.2 million families losing their homes.

Not every state has been clobbered, according to James Saccacio, RealtyTrac's CEO. "There continue to be pockets of the country - most noticeably metro areas in the Carolinas, Virginia, and Texas - that have thus far dodged the foreclosure bullet," he said in a statement.

But, nationally, foreclosure filings, which include all three main stages of foreclosure, default, or late payments, auction and real estate owned (properties reacquired by lenders and now being resold), were up 30 percent compared with the previous three months.

Among metro areas, the highest delinquency rate was in Stockton, Calif., which totaled 7,116 filings during the three-month period, one for every 31 households. Second was the Detroit area with one per 33 households and a total of 25,708. Half the cities in the top 10 were in California.

Several Massachusetts cities experienced huge delinquency jumps during the quarter. Boston filings soared 146 percent to one per every 220 households, Springfield's increased 151 percent (one per 172) and Worcester 122 percent (one per 150).

Filings in the Providence, R.I./ New Bedford, Mass. area climbed a whopping 295 percent, albeit from a low base, to one for every 549 households.

The metro areas least affected include Greenville, S.C. (one per 3,289), McAllen, Texas (one per 2,185) and Baton Rouge, La. (one per 2,074).

posted November 22, 2007 03:05 AM            

Many clients who were working in the Banks and Loan Companies were given huge incentive to ONLY do adjustable arms... I even had clients that had to hunt different banks and loaning companies to find someone who would give them a FIX rate... then after doing a bang up business.. .. those same clients once doing re-financing and getting home owners to only buy with adjustable arms... now are in the same companies/banks doing the foreclosures on the same properties... these folks hardly sleep at night.. for the same faces that asked them for security... are now coming back losing their homes because the adjustable have gone up $200-$700 a month!

I pleaded with my clients to get fixed.. the ones that listen.. thank me.. the ones that didn't ... well they are losing their homes.. or drastically cutting back on their life styles (one even asked me why I didn't take a bat and hit them in the head... I told that client.. It's my responsibility to deliver the guidance.. it's your responsibility to make your own free will choice and then take responsibility for standing by your own decisions!)

One client said.. I feel like my boss had me set these people like like boweling pins and now the rates are knocking them down.. and the banks are taking it all back!

Another client of mine left her work and went to work at another bank... still doing foreclosures... however, not having to stare the same folks in the eye that she had just done their adjustable loans/refinances on just months or one year ago!

posted November 27, 2007 05:42 PM            

By DAVID RUNK, Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 27, 5:06 AM ET

DETROIT - Rising foreclosures will lead to billions of dollars in lost economic activity next year in the nation's major metropolitan areas, but homeowners and financial institutions have the ability to work together to contain the effects, according to a report compiled for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
ADVERTISEMENT

The report was released Tuesday ahead of a meeting of mayors from across the country in Detroit, where they hope to create policy recommendations to help address the nation's housing crisis.

Prepared by forecasting and consulting firm Global Insight, the report said weak residential investment, lower spending and income in the construction industry and curtailed consumer spending because of falling home values will combine to hold back the nation's economic activity.

"The wave of foreclosures that has rippled across the U.S. has already battered some of our largest financial institutions, created ghost towns of once vibrant neighborhoods — and it's not over yet," the report said.

The biggest losses in economic activity are projected for some of the nation's largest metropolitan areas. New York is expected to lose $10.4 billion in economic activity in 2008, followed by Los Angeles at $8.3 billion, Dallas and Washington at $4 billion each, and Chicago at $3.9 billion.

The report estimates U.S. gross domestic product growth in 2008 will be 1.9 percent, coming in about $166 billion — or one percentage point — lower as a result of mortgage problems. GDP is the value of goods and services produced and is considered the best barometer of the country's economic fitness.

The report also projects property values will decline by $1.2 trillion in 2008, due in part to the foreclosure crisis, with drops in home prices across the U.S. averaging 7 percent. And it said the loss of property, sales and real estate transfer taxes will hurt local and state governments.

But homeowners, banks, holders of mortgage-backed securities and loan servicers can work together to ease the economic effects, the report said. Agreeing to new payment terms on some loans, for example, could make the difference between a family keeping a home and losing it in foreclosure.

"Such actions will help to lessen the number of foreclosures thereby avoiding the further negative effects on local housing markets and on the broader economy," according to the report, titled "The Mortgage Crisis: Economic and Fiscal Implications for Metro Areas."

The National Forum on Homeownership Preservation and Foreclosures, organized by the Conference of Mayors, includes discussions about the state of the mortgage industry, ways homeowners can avoid foreclosure, and strategies to keep foreclosed properties from dragging down the quality of life in neighborhoods.

Recommendations developed at Tuesday's forum, which is closed to the media, are to be presented at a Conference of Mayors meeting in January.

"We're coming to Detroit with a dogged determination to fight for the families in our cities, our cities and the national economy," said Douglas Palmer, mayor of Trenton, N.J., and president of the mayors group. "We're optimistic that we're going to come up with models that will work."

In addition to Palmer and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is hosting the gathering, mayors expected to attend include Jerry Abramson from Louisville, Ky.; Michael Coleman from Columbus, Ohio; Richard Kaplan of Lauderhill, Fla.; Brenda Lawrence of Southfield, Mich.; and Elaine Walker of Bowling Green, Ky.

The housing market slump has made it harder for financially strapped home buyers to sell their homes and avoid missing payments or losing their homes in foreclosure. Increasingly, many borrowers who took out adjustable-rate mortgages and other loans with monthly payments that increase after an initial period also are finding they can't afford the higher payments.

Jim Diffley, managing director of Global Insight's regional services group, wrote the report with his team and was to discuss the forecasts during the mayors' meeting. He said the goal was to provide a broad look at the effect of foreclosures, a problem mayors are keenly aware of locally.

posted February 04, 2008 03:30 PM            

Unfortunately he also fell into the same trap as many others all over the country. He contacted his congressman he even spoke with the FBI, and even though the government has finally caught up with what's going on and they are trying to rectify the problem by enacting legislation that will help some of the homeowners, it's not going to help everybody just yet.

On the other hand, I now have two clients in Real Estate, loaning money and building houses. They are also having great difficulties getting banks to give their clients loans so even if the clients want to buy a house and they are doing it in more of a sane and solvent manner, the banks are too afraid to give out these loans. It's crazy.

Geocosmic Valentine