April Data Shows New U.S. Residential Foreclosure Listings Neared 30,000

[UpInArms]

http://rismedia.com/index.php/article/articleview/6483/1/1/

RISMEDIA, May 5-There were 29,938 new foreclosed residential properties listed in the U.S. during April 2004, according to Foreclosure.com.

Overall, the total number of foreclosed properties in the United States in April was 75,490. Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio and Michigan reported the highest number of new and total foreclosures in the country during the past month.

"The continued high supply of foreclosed properties offers home buyers and real estate investors a solid opportunity to find properties at a discounted price," said Greg Sullivan, vice president and co-founder, Foreclosure.com. "The burden of foreclosed properties on lending institutions creates a buyer's market and presents an opportunity to enter into home ownership at an affordable cost."

...more...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. "The burden of foreclosed properties on lending institutions...?"

Forgive me if I don't cry.

[liberalhistorian]

3. I hear ya.

I was just laid off from my paralegal job and my boss, being a real estate attorney, dealt with this issue a lot on both sides. And we're in Ohio, which is one of the states with the highest number of foreclosures. Combine a sluggish economy and layoffs left and right with very few jobs available, and you have the perfect recipe for people being unable to afford their mortgages. To be fair, a lot of the problem is with the newer mortgage companies and not the banks. Banks will often work with customers if they fall on hard times; miss even one payment with the gouging mortgage companies and that's it, they're filing the foreclosure papers. And some people, frankly, just give up and let the house be taken in foreclosure.

A friend of mine with cancer is dealing with this now, because of the cost of the treatments and her inability to work due to being so ill she and her husband are really struggling. He's working as hard as he can, but it's just not enough. They shouldn't have to deal with that shit from the mortgage company while she's so ill, that should be the last thing on her mind. They've always paid the mortage on time for years, now. Guess that doesn't count for much anymore.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. Imo, this is nothing more than a visual manifestation of the

transference of wealth.

Sorry about your friend. That sucks. :(

[On the Road]

2. Strange -- Not in Baltimore

I've been looking for cheap foreclosures in Baltimore and there are only a fraction of the number a year ago. Prices are way up, too, but that's partly because the Baltimore market has been depressed for years.

But I think later this year, interest rates will rise and foreclosures will skyrocket. Prices are near the upper limit of affordability now, so if mortgages get more expensive, prices will have to drop to compensate. That leaves new buyers with negative equity, and other with a lack of confidence over future increases. And that precedes foreclosures. At least that's the theory.

[liberalhistorian]

4. Well, come to Northeast Ohio,

you'll find more than enough foreclosed property here. In fact, we know a couple whose business is buying houses at sheriff's sales, rehabbing them, then reselling them. My former boss had several clients who did that as well.

[54anickel]

5. Wow, some of the states are getting hit pretty hard. Looks like Texas

takes the prize.

TEXAS
Total Properties: 8137
New Foreclosures: 3812

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

7. Gee, it's wonderful

that after 25 plus years of home ownership I might be soon providing someone with an opportunity? WTF?
If this isn't a sign to the powers that be that something is wrong, nothing ever will be........

[liberalhistorian]

8. That's what disturbs me the most,

the focus on what a great "business opportunity" this is and the blase attitude toward how it's affecting PEOPLE, many of whom have worked hard for years and paid their mortgages on time for years, who aren't asking for any "handouts" and who don't deserve to be treated like this. It's not as if most of them just refused to pay their mortgage and expected a free place to live.

[Kool Kitty]

11. That's just what I thought-

what about the people that lived in those houses?

[Egalitarian]

9. It takes capital to capitalize on foreclosures

My understanding is that it is a buyers market if you can bid on foreclosures on the courthouse steps. You must have cash to bid, unless it's a government loan I think. My father does this and has 20+ properties. IMO he's living large on the pitfalls of others. I started to go in with him when he first started, but we had philosophical differences on how to proceed. Properties going into foreclosure are listed in the paper of the county seat. I had the idea to draft a letter stating an interest in helping he foreclosee out of their present situation, by buying directly from them before the property goes fully into foreclosure. This saves the new buyer from bidding against others and helps the present owner by preventing a foreclosure and the credit scar that comes with this. I wanted to put cash into the pockets of the former based on a percentage of the equity in the house so that they could downsize and hopefully have some money to stay on their feet. Then, I wanted to "polish" the house and resell it making a small profit off my work in repainting, recarpeting, roofing, etc. If it generally worked this way then it would be a nice way to enter home ownership at an affordable cost. Unfortunately, at least in GA, most of the buyers were not planning on reselling, but rather put minimal dollars into the property and opt for renting. Trickle up economics for the most part from my experience.

[liberalhistorian]

12. You do indeed have to have cash at the

sheriff's sales, if you're the winning bidder you have to put ten percent down in cash right at the time of the sale. Then you have thirty days to pay the balance. It's not something that you can just get into without much money in the first place, unless you can get a huge line of credit from the beginning and most people can't get that kind of credit.

It always bothered me how some of my former boss's clients would want us to prepare subpoenas to get some stubborn residents out of the home the client had purchased at a sheriff's sale. One woman had lost her house because her husband was dying and unable to work and, since they were unable to afford home care for him, she had to be his caregiver (they had two young boys as well). They simply did not have the mortgage money and she finally gave up and allowed the bank to take it back, since the payment arrangements the bank wanted to make were more than she could handle on her husband's employment disability pension. That has haunted me ever since, how eager our client was to get her out even though she and her sons didn't have any other place to go.

[Just Me]

10. Further PROOF that we are living in economic cannibalism,...

,...and no form of humanitarianism fits into THAT!!!

The elitists are eating us up, alive.

I feel sick at that "LOVE FOR MONEY" which is killing so many awesome people.

I am not religious,...but, there are so many lessons to be learned by all religions.

[LizW]

13. In the last three years, three houses close to mine

have been foreclosed, and those are just the ones I know of. Another family I know a block over was forced to sell because the husband had been out of real work for over three years. (He worked 2-3 part-time jobs the whole time, and the wife worked full time, but it wasn't enough to make ends meet with two sons in college.) They were able to sell their house before it was foreclosed, but they still had to move and find somewhere cheaper to live.

There had not been a foreclosure near me for the first 11 years we lived here.

Things are getting really scary.