By Alex Veiga, Associated Press LOS ANGELES — The number of foreclosure filings in the U.S. last month more than doubled from August 2006 and jumped 36% from July, a trend that signals many homeowners are increasingly unable to make timely payments on their mortgages or sell their homes. Once again, Ohio was among the states with the highest foreclosure rates. Nationwide, 243,947 foreclosure filings were reported in August, up 115% from 113,300 in the same month a year ago, RealtyTrac of Irvine, Calif., said Tuesday. There were 179,599 foreclosure filings reported in July. The filings include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. Some properties might have received more than one notice if the owners have multiple mortgages. August’s total represents the highest number of foreclosure filings in a single month since the company began tracking filings two years ago. The national foreclosure rate last month was one filing for every 510 households, the company said. “The jump in foreclosure filings this month might be the beginning of the next wave of increased foreclosure activity, as a large number of subprime adjustable rate loans are beginning to reset now,” RealtyTrac Chief Executive James J. Saccacio said. The mortgage industry has been rocked by a surge in defaults, particularly among borrowers with subprime loans and adjustable-rate mortgages that initially had attractive “teaser” interest rates but then adjust upward. Many of the loans, some of which adjust in as little as two years, were issued in 2005 and 2006, at the height of the housing boom. Lagging home sales and flat or falling home prices have also left homeowners hard-pressed to find buyers. The latest figures also reflect an increase in the number of homes going into foreclosure that are not being picked up in estate sales and are ending up going back to lenders. The number of bank repossessions jumped to 42,789 in August, compared with 20,116 a year earlier, the RealtyTrac said. In July, there were 26,842 bank repossessions. Nevada, California and Florida had the highest foreclosure rates in the country last month, the firm said. Nevada reported one foreclosure filing for every 165 households — more than three times the national average. The state had 6,197 filings in August, up 21% from July and more than triple the year-ago figure. California’s foreclosure rate was one filing for every 224 households. The state reported the most foreclosure filings of any single state, with 57,875, up 48% from July and more than 300% above August 2006. Florida had one foreclosure filing for every 243 households. The state reported 33,932 foreclosure filings, up 77% from July and more than twice the year-ago total. Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Indiana rounded out the 10 states with the highest foreclosure rates. |
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2007-09-18-foreclosures_N.htm?csp=34
View Image
sobriety is the root cause of dementia.
Edited 9/19/2007 9:09 am ET by rez
Replies
Last I heard my hometown here in the central valley is leading the pack - in the top 10, anyway. Work is very slow here - my phone isn't ringing!
“Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product†– Charles Greene
CaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
I'm in Ohio. If you have any money you can pick up houses at firesale prices all day.
Hmmm... headed to Carey (near Findlay) next week. Interesting. I'll ask.PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Last I heard my hometown here in the central valley is leading the pack - in the top 10, anyway
Yep, reading in Builder Magazine tonight, Bakersfield is at #8 in the nation with 1 in 47 households being filed against. Stockton, Cal is #1 at 1 in 27. Detroit is #2 at 1 in 28. Geez, California has 5 of the top 15.
Bowz
How many cities total were considered in the survey? Those are some sobering statistics, in view of the overall work slowdown here in a diverse cross-section of industries. Do you know if I can find that survey online anywhere?
View Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product†– Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
Huck, I don't know about the exact survey. But the article can be found at http://www.builderonline.com click the magazine tab, and look for the article called "Nobody's home: Midnight Run" in the September magazine.
There are some other related articles there too. Be warned though the one I mentioned doesn't appear to be dial up friendly.
The survey itself is from the same source as Rez's original article. A company called Realty Trac. The data is for Jan to June 2007, for the top 100 metro areas. (I assume it is for the top foreclosure metro areas)
Hope that helps some.
Bowz
Nobody's home: Midnight Run,
if that one doesn't work try this one.SamT
Edited 9/21/2007 11:12 pm by SamT
In my part of Texas it is still going strong so far. I think Austin is too though I would have to hear from that sector.
Why would the banks here keep loaning money on new houses if they are going to get it back soon. I wonder where they are getting their info?
Maybe the places with the biggest boom have more because of the law of averages.
When everthing is going your way, you're in the wrong lane
Why would the banks here keep loaning money on new houses if they are going to get it back soon.
Because many of them sell the loans to Fannie Mae and simply act as the servicing agent.jt8
"Those who wish to sing always find a song." -- Swedish Proverb
I am a small builder in the greater Seattle area. I build 2-3 homes a year. I have one home that has been sitting for 6 months. I finally got an offer that I accepted but it is a contingent. Have not heard of any foreclosures here yet but our local economy is quite strong. Still,there are lots of houses for sale here but not many buyers. I was expecting a correction but not on this scale. I hope I can survive it. Making a 3K interest payment every month is draining us pretty fast since nothing else is selling.
I have been talking to other contractors that I know and they all say the same thing. Very few buyers and if they do get an offer it usually is about 15% below asking price with several add ons. If anyone can buy a home this winter is going to be the time to do it.
i just bought a foreclosure here in NY ..1200 sq ft 2 story, 1/2 acre lot, well treed, new roof, new windows, new siding, fenced yard, new pole barn ...$72,000 ... AMC was asking 80kgot some rot in some floor joist's ... that's it ..go shopping ... !!
rez,
Minnesota is among the affected states,, two years ago there were over 30,000 new homes sitting unsold in the metro area.. last year that number actually increased.. This fall I lost my job due to the lack of sales to new home builders.. Six months is not uncommon Heck more than a few new homes have had two birthdays without an owner..
Last year homes sales amounted to 5.8% of those listed.. Right close by two condo's have had a total of three units sold/leased.. one has a budget of 12 million the other has an 8 million dollar budget.. both are trying to sell units in the $500,000 range..
Couple weeks ago I had a conversation with a guy I have done a lot of work for. He retired in his mid-fifties, and seems to have all kinds of connections. We discussed a particular foreclosure that he would be interested in having me do some work on. That project is not going to happen, at this time, but while talking foreclosures in general, he said that some banks here have a 6 month backlog of repos to process before they will even get to the market.
His comment was solmething like, " ..a year from now, the lower end market will be a bloodbath. Houses that sold for $80K-$90K will be firesaled at $50K-$60K."
If there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon, in the last month I have read two adds in the paper looking for carpenters. Those are the first ones I have read in at least 4 years. Could be just looking to strengthen their stables, the one today requires 5 years experience, own tools, etc, but is a well established company that has been around for 30+ years. (Remodels, commercial, and new homes).
Bowz
His comment was solmething like, " ..a year from now, the lower end market will be a bloodbath. Houses that sold for $80K-$90K will be firesaled at $50K-$60K." That is what I am thinking is going to happen. The banks are holding on for now, they can stand to carry some inventory for a while. Give them another 6 mo. to a year and they will be looking to unload their losers."Poor is not the person who has too little, but the person who craves more."...Seneca
My gut feeling and observations are that the lower end is where the people who shouldn't own homes got suckered into an ARM or zero down deals. They bought the lower end which allowed the previous owners to move up. Now there are fewer people available in that market and it is going to get a wave of properties injected into it.
'course it cuts across all spectrums of income. The property that I had discussed with the retired guy was foreclosed on for over $500K.
Bowz
Bowz, Being Poor, Being Young, and Being Uneducated are not prerequisites for the lack of common sense or being greedy. Even the wealthy , old and educated get greedy and show a distinct lack of common sense at times."Poor is not the person who has too little, but the person who craves more."...Seneca
Dovetail.
buying repo'd property is a smart move as long as you remember the basic tenent of realestate.. location, location, location.. It's not the price or the rug or even condition .. It's what the property will sell for.
When you buy at the lower end you also limit your potential profit..
Years ago a real estate broker said that there were more people with $100,000.00 than $200,000.00.
Lots of profit is good provided you can sell. Each way works at different times.
roger
Rger g
Those at the lower end of the income spectrum tend to have a more precarious economic position, as the economy changes there will be added pressure at the lower end of the income spectrum compared to the middle and upper end.. Thus more sellers than buyers..
BUt if that's where you are comfortable then by all means remain at your comfort level. Now is not the time to be adventerous.
You are right but what I believe is that by having say a $100,000.00 house doesn't mean that ONLY people at the lower spectrum will buy it. People at the low end can only buy at the low end whereas people in the middle can buy at the low and middle prices and the high dollar people can of course buy in all three levels. Therefor more possible buyers:).
Buying houses below your income level doesn't mean you are going to live there.
roger
Bowz,
That's also what I've heard from a number of bankers.. they have so many non performing losses on the books that if they declared them all the bank would go under, so they leave them in limbo and seek to make whatever they can wherever they can hoping to forestall the problem as long as possible.
If I'm not mistaken once they put a non performing loan on the books as non performing they have a year to clear it from their books. My own house was one of those.. purchased out of repossion by the bank they attempted to sell it for well over a year and eluded the issue internally. In the mean time the price was less than 2/3 of the original loan.. (that was 23 years ago)
Buying repo'd homes was a pretty smart move on my part. Last Dec. the bank appraised it in an extremely down market at 2.3 million.. I paid 107,000 for it..
When buying repo'd housing remeber the basic trenent of realestate, location, location,location. It isn't the curtins or rugs or even condition.. it's potential market value at time of sale..
We are taking a few days off to do some preliminary real estate shopping further north along the coast the first part of next week.
I said “preliminary shopping†because I do not plan to buy anything for the next year or so and am just doing some long-range missionary assessments.
My family member advisor suggests waiting until then when the market will be so bloated with inventory and extremely eager sellers (individuals, lending institutions, etc.), that offers in the area of 50%, or possibly less, of current asking prices will be wholeheartedly welcomed. The old saying, “Buy on maximum pessimism; . . . “ prevails.
In the meantime, the following may be of interest. It is somewhat of an academic read but contains a huge amount of neo-classical economic information about the current scene:
http://www.mises.org/story/2706
I knew I was going to enjoy reading the linked article the minute I finished this paragraph:
"It is now clear that the sense of invincibility displayed by so many players was singularly ill judged. Far from forming a "permanently high plateau," the early summer seems to have marked nothing less than the nose-bleedingly vertiginous pinnacle of what has arguably been the most spectacular mass hysteria in the whole sorry history of financial market manias — namely, the multi-trillion-dollar Ponzi scheme of credit we have created since the collapse of the technology frenzy."
(I swear it made me think of SPLINTERGROUPIE's writing style...)
Anyway Woodshopguy - you who posts only about once a year for the past 5 years...as special & sincere "thank you" for sharing that!
Only dead fish swim with the stream. Author Unknown
I live in Ohio and cannot believe the opportunities available! I just bought a two-family 2600 sq.ft., brick house with a huge yard that sold for $130,000 two year ago for $19,900! If you've got money to pay cash, you'll make out like a bandit!! After we fix it up, we'll rent it out for $1300 a month, will pay for itself in two years!! The only part that needs work is the missing copper from the entire house, some paint, and new carpet....three weeks, and it's back on the market for $80,000!
Where in Ohio? I'm in Dayton.
Cincinnati----west side----price hill. Not the best part of town, but I think I can rent the upstairs for $700 and the downstairs for $450.
If you can buy for $19K, why would anyone rent for $700/month?
Cause they don't know where to find those 19k deals! Everyone tells them that those kind of deals don't exist, so they don't look for them.
jimfka (formerly known as) blue
jim , One could always look here.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071007/us_nm/detroit_housing_dc ;-)
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
If you can buy for $19K, why would anyone rent for $700/month?
It happens. The near north side of town here had the big houses 100 years ago. The area went down hill and turned into semi-slums. You can pick up a 3k sq ft house (in need of some repair) for $30k. Some then turn the house into 2-6 apartments and rent each out for $300-700/mo. At least one unit in the house will be paying full mortgage payment for the slum lord...sometimes 2 units are making the full mortgage payment.
The flip side is that you're not dealing with the most reliable and wonderful tenants.
jt8
"Those who wish to sing always find a song." -- Swedish Proverb
That looks like great numbers John.
Are they legal apts, or are those numbers only good till someone turns you in and the locals shut you down?
Are there any decent property managers in that area?
jimfka (formerly known as) blue
The typical operating proceedure is for the slum lord to purchase the property, convert it into multiple properties. Rent it out, milking every penny they can get out of it until the house is suitable for nothing other than a dozer.
It is kinda odd to look at a 1600sq ft bungalow and notice it has 2 or 3 electric meters. Or in some cases the utilities are thrown into the rent price, but I'm not sure how that works. I assume the renter is paying a lot extra for that, but I'd be curious to find out if the landlord was actually paying the utilities or if the first floor tenant was paying for tenant #2's utilities and didn't even know it. Utilities included are typically an 'upstairs' or basement apartment.
This one is an 'east side', but is the typical profile. For the price, it must be ready for the dozer. Wish they had a pic.
http://homes.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?ctid=25081&ml=3&mxp=9&typ=7&sid=0dd85c9500874de2b7249de316bca647&lid=1085359157&lsn=6&srcnt=133#Detail
3640sq ft, 3 units, lot is 40x100, $9k (asking price).
Keep in mind that an empty .25 acre lot in an 'ok' neighborhood would be $20-40k. $30-100k for a good neighborhood lot.jt8
"Those who wish to sing always find a song." -- Swedish Proverb
Download Google Earth and cut-and-paste the address. Not exactly the picture you were asking for, but you can also see the surrounding area.
Kathleen
Because it's hard for people who live in this area of Cincinnati to get a loan for that amount. $700 is CHEAP for a three bedroom apartment in Cincinnati. I was in an average part of town, Norwood, and was paying $550 for a one-bedroom back in 2000-2001. A lot of people wouldn't be able to get a mortgage and have money left over to fix the place up. All the copper was pulled from the entire house! The interior was a disaster area (the upstairs refrigerator was filled with rotting food that is by far the grossest thing I have ever smelled--I threw up after smelling it!). If I had the patience, I'd hold on to it. It'll pay itself off in two years---after that, it's 1200 a month!
Three local NEOhio counties just received placement in the government program 'Appalachian Regional Commission' designating us as bobafide po' folk now complete with various funded 'community revitalization project' monies.
A drive down any street seems like half the houses in this podunk town have for sale signs and some pricings similar to that which you speak.
That's great, but in another sense can you imagine the hit this state is taking?....all the way down the line......if it don't stop soon you may have just boughten yourself a dead horse.
waiting on the revolution..............
jjwalters,
Maybe not!
At the price he paid it should be available to be rented out at an extremely modest price and still show a net gain..
Right now according to a realestate buddy of mine they are selling a lot of extremely low end places in Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakota's to people who are selling their pricey house. Putting most of it in the bank and buying modest priced housing as a replacement.. The money they put in the bank is drawing enough interest that they don't need to touch the principle while living the lifestyle they can afford in rural north central states.
One guy I went to High school with and was in the Navy with sold his home in Chula Vista California and bought 77 acres in Montana someplace. It was an old horse ranch that hadn't been profitable in decades and had no real market value but the house was nice and the barn was stout.. plus there was a nice creek flowing through it that didn't dry out during the summer. Pretty scernery according to the pictures he sent..
It sold for $96,000 leaving him nearly 1.3 million dollars from the sale of his home.
He plans on keeping a light plane around (Cessna 172 that he already owns) so he can fly to Billings or wherever rather than spend hours driving..
1.3 million is a lot and even if he just gets 5% interest that's $65,000 a year to live on.. without touching the principle..
Don't get me wrong...I would (if I was still in business) buy up all the stuff I could.....but buy and rent is a young mans business IMO.I'm more concerned with the economy that caused this trend in Ohio than anything else......For every guy who gets a big discount deal.....some poor slob is taking it on the chin.
waiting on the revolution..............
jjwalters,
That statement is absolutely true. Unless like in the case of my San Diego friend it was a estate deal.
What I found out was so worthwhile is how little a decent place could be acquired for once you broke out of the mold .. I just spoke to a vintage racing buddy who acquired a former Dairy farm for under $150,000 not 15 miles from here.. 42 acres, apple orchard, two major barns in great shape, a house last modernized in the 1940's and several out buildings.. He intends to use it at boat and car storage facility which will make the payments and leave him a profit.. Plus as the metro growth area makes land more and more valuable he can subdivide it and develope it into a nice little upscale development.. It's got a pond on it plus it's adjacent to a wetlands reserve.
The down turn in the market outlasted the former owners who are pushing up daises as we speak.. They expected numbers around 10 times what it actually sold for at auction..