Archive for the 'Buying Foreclosed Properties' Category

Buy foreclosure properties in California where there are still thousands of foreclosed units in active listings.

According to a California real estate broker, the state is currently fifth in number of distressed and foreclosed units available for sale. More than 87,000 residential units are currently in lists of properties for scheduled county auctions.

In Riverside County, there are nearly 17,000 foreclosed houses for sale while in neighboring San Bernardino County, there are almost 15,000 foreclosures ready for sale.

San Diego County, meanwhile, has more than 12,000 foreclosed units for sale and Orange County has 10,573 units in foreclosure listings.

Last year, California again topped all other states in total number of foreclosure postings, with nearly 633,000 of its housing units getting hit with delinquency or foreclosure sale notices.

Foreclosure filings declined on a month-over-month basis in California from August to November, but filings resumed their upward direction in December, with an increase of almost nine percent from November.

While foreclosures in the state are concentrated in four battered counties of Southern California, with about 55,000 foreclosed units ready for sale, investors and occupant buyers can also buy foreclosure properties in Northern and Central California counties, where there are currently around 20,000 foreclosed houses for sale.

Total house sales in California slowed down in December compared to the previous month, but showed an increase of almost 2 percent compared to sales in December 2008, based on sales figures from the California Association of Realtors.

The median home sales price in December across the state was $306,820 and the median in Los Angeles County was $338,000, marking a 5.6-percent jump from the median in December 2008.

CAR officials said that the overall sales figures were positive, showing a continued interest in home buying and in taking advantage of the federal tax credit and lower mortgage rates.

However, not all analysts are optimistic. Jack Kyser, economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, said that housing market recovery is still far away. He said that major lenders are still regulating the release of their foreclosures into the market. He also has doubts about the continued demand for homes and whether Congress is called upon again to extend the federal tax credit for the second time.

Nevertheless, investors can still buy foreclosure properties from the thousands of units available for sale at price levels that are profitable. CAR analysts expect the median home price to hover around $300,000 this year.

While several people suffered from the adverse effect of foreclosures, others are benefitting from this situation through the fast growing sales of foreclosed homes. The properties available for sale in the market has been affected by repossessions as prices plummeted down when banks unloaded their inventories at bargain prices. A house previously worth more than $1.2 million and was reverted to bank ownership at $1 million is being sold in the market for only $699,000.

The expansion of the foreclosures market has given business to realtors who are now ferrying would-be homebuyers to locations of vacant houses and foreclosed properties on sale by banks and lending institutions. Prospective homebuyers are expecting a great deal in finding locations that are better than where they currently reside and houses that they would have no possibility of owning a few years back.

Some of the houses presented during real-estate tours include beautiful sprawling buildings with outhouses set in attractive landscapes at an expensive area in the neighborhood. Buyers just cannot help but feel bad for former residents who have lost their homes to foreclosures. With a little help coming on time, this people could have prevented the repossession and would probably afford what the homes are worth right now.

Some of these real-estate tours occur after work and at night. Since these foreclosed homes have been vacant for a while with no available utilities, realtors and buyers have no choice but to go in using flashlights. Prospective clients do not mind though, as they are expecting something good for them to come out from this misfortune of others.

While efforts to stop foreclosures are ongoing at the national level, local governments like New York are conducting seminars to educate people and help them stay at homes.

However, with no budget for advertising, only a few got news of the offers and were able to participate. Unless the government makes effective plans to end this crisis, people will still be in danger of losing their homes.

Nearly seven percent of houses in Augusta have been foreclosed, according to data compiled by the federal Department of Housing & Urban Development (See HUD Homes). As of the first week of November, 142 homes have been foreclosed and 95 of them are located in an area in south Augusta bounded by Spirit Creek and Gordon Highway.

According to Sammie Sias, president of the Richmond County Neighborhood Alliance, the area attracted a lot of first-time homebuyers, most of them young families who paid their amortizations on two incomes. He also said that among the foreclosed homes were units previously owned by military personnel who could not sell them when they were reassigned.

Because of the city’s high foreclosure rate, which is second only to Clayton County’s nearly ten percent foreclosure rate and above the state’s 5.2 percent, Augusta automatically qualified for federal funds granted under the housing rehabilitation and economic recovery law passed by President Bush’s administration last summer.

Georgia’s Assistant Housing Director Hawthorne Welcher Jr. said that eligible homeowners could get a second-mortgage loan up to the amount of $20,000 from the almost $2.5 million allocated for Augusta. Qualified developers can also get loans from the same funding to acquire and rehabilitate foreclosed properties and then rent them out to low-income families. For eligible homeowners, ten percent of the second-mortgage loans provided could be wiped off each year for ten years. The loans would be used to cover gaps between the cost of a house and the amount of loan extended by a bank.

The other Georgia cities which automatically qualified for the federal funding were Columbus, which received a little over $3 million, and the city of Savannah, which received $2 million. Columbus has a 6.3-percent foreclosure rate while Savannah has six percent.

Based on information compiled by Augusta’s Department of Housing & Community Development, the rapid-growth neighborhoods had high number of abandoned, deteriorating houses left by first-time homeowners who were living on tight budgets.

The 2009 Emerging Trends in Real Estate report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers LP and Urban Land Institute stated that the market value of commercial real estate is expected to bottom out in 2009, which could result in the increased flow of foreclosed properties into the market.

The county of Ventura and its cities have qualified to receive 3.8 million grants to help homeowners and communities in the area who were affected by the housing market crisis.

Fontana City Council officials will meet and vote to decide on a program to acquire foreclosed homes, rehabilitate and sell them in an effort to revive the housing market.

Deciding to buy foreclosed properties is indeed a smart choice considering that these homes offer so much more return potential than other properties. But making the decision to buy is the easy part. The actual purchase will involve some hard work and patience.

During the first quarter of 2008, home prices suffered a decline averaging 7.7 percent compared to that of 2007. This is probably the greatest decline since 1982 when the National Realtors Association began gathering data. Average median sale price nationwide also dropped by 4.8 percent to $196,300 for the same period.
According to NAR, the steep [...]

What was once considered a poor man’s disease, foreclosures have hit the wealthy also. The New York Times reports that the stereotype of only the poor, the subprime borrowers, the irresponsible feel the affect of repo homes and foreclosed properties has now been proven to be false. Greenwich Connecticut, with its 7 figure properties is feeling the pain also.

According to a poll conducted by the Associated Press-AOL Money and Finance, there is an overwhelming 60 percent increase in the number of people who are not entertaining the idea of buying a house anytime soon; up from 53 percent in September 2006. This is perhaps the latest sign that the housing crisis is yet [...]