New Hampshire Foreclosure Properties – Where Are They Now?
What are being done to millions of foreclosure properties across the country aside from being auctioned and resold?
In New Hampshire’s city of Nashua, building code officers have been condemning abandoned foreclosure properties that have become hazardous to nearby residents and the neighborhood.
Nelson Ortega, city code enforcement head for Nashua, said that banks that own foreclosure properties are obliged by law to employ a city-based property manager who will manage the foreclosed properties. Foreclosed properties that violate building codes need to be fixed before banks can allow people to occupy the properties.
According to code officers in Nashua, they have been monitoring 28 foreclosure properties with building code violations.
Meanwhile, based on a study by the New Hampshire Board of Realtors of 3,500 home sales transactions in 2008, almost half of all New Hampshire foreclosed properties in 2008 were sold during the first three months of 2009.
The foreclosure properties were assessed at an average price of $195,000 and sold at an average price of $157,000. Based on Real Data’s study, the foreclosed houses were sold at about 16 percent below the mortgage balances.
In New Hampshire, 9 in 10 foreclosure properties were sold to homebuyers who were going to occupy the properties and not to investors.
Meanwhile, across the state, half of all foreclosure properties recorded in 2008 are still in foreclosure listings. Many of these properties, originally held by bankrupt banks Countrywide, Ameriquest and Washington Mutual, are now in the books of the nation’s largest financial institutions which acquired the bankrupt banks and which received billions of government bailout money.
Most of these foreclosure properties are now in the books of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the mortgage companies taken over by the federal government in 2008. Between them, they hold 632 foreclosed homes valued at $122 million.
JP Morgan Chase, acquirer of Washington Mutual, also acquired 147 distressed loans. Citigroup, which acquired Ameriquest, holds 188 mortgages. Bank of America, which took over Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, holds 113. Wells Fargo, buyer of Wachovia, holds 112 loans.
Despite the federal government foreclosed houses programs, these large financial institutions have been continuing their foreclosure actions. Based on Real Data’s report, 833 housing units were served with foreclosure notices in March. The lenders foreclosing on the properties are the same big names – Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, US Bank and HSBC.
