Home foreclosures jump in previously untouched cities
Filed under: Economy, Investing
Many of the cities that have been hit hardest in the mortgage crisis are seeing a slowdown in the rate of foreclosures, but other metropolitan areas are just starting to feel the sting of foreclosures. Of the 50 metropolitan areas with the worst foreclosure rates, the three biggest year-over-year increases were in Boise City-Nampa, Idaho (up 141.55 percent), Provo-Orem, Utah (up 119.94 percent), and Salt Lake City, Utah (up 105.19 percent), according to RealtyTrac's Q3 2009 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report.Two of the three areas that have been hardest hit since the crisis began actually saw drops in the number of properties receiving foreclosures in the third quarter. Foreclosure activity in Merced, Calif., decreased by 13 percent from the previous quarter, though even with that drop, it had the nation's second-highest foreclosure rate, at 3.72 percent or one in 27 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the third quarter. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., also saw a decrease in foreclosure activity of 5 percent from the previous quarter. It has the third-highest foreclosure rate nationwide at 3.67 percent.
"Rising unemployment and a new variety of mortgage resets continued to gradually shift the nation's foreclosure epicenters in the third quarter away from the hot spots of the last two years and toward some metro areas that had avoided the brunt of the first foreclosure wave," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, in a press release. "While toxic subprime mortgages drove much of that first wave of foreclosures, high unemployment and exotic Alt-A Option ARMs are spreading the foreclosure flood to more metro areas in 2009."
Other metro areas that saw dramatic spikes in their foreclosures rates include Reno-Sparks, Nev., with an 80 percent year-over-year increase in foreclosure activity; Prescott, Ariz., with a 77 percent increase; Jacksonville, Fla., with a 64 percent increase; Rockford, Ill., with a 64 percent increase; and Lansing-East Lansing, Mich., with a 41 percent increase.
Ground zero of the foreclosure crisis is still Las Vegas, with the highest rate in the nation: Its foreclosure rate of 5.13 percent means that about one in 20 housing units there received a foreclosure filing during the third quarter -- nearly seven times the national average. A total of 40,408 Las Vegas area properties received foreclosure filings during the quarter, up 9 percent from the previous quarter and an increase of 54 percent over the third quarter of 2008.
We may finally be seeing some success from the Obama administration's mortgage modification program now that the banks have ramped up their staffing. But clearly the foreclosure problem is spreading and moving up-market. Hopefully, banks will go even further than they have, committing even more resources to mortgage modification efforts in order to stem the ever-rising tide of foreclosures.
Lita Epstein has written more than 25 books, including The 250 Questions You Should Ask to Avoid Foreclosure.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
10-28-2009 @ 9:53AM
clem said...
there is nothing better for the economy than low price housing leaves money left over for spending. all the recent bailouts, tax credits and resets have been doing is protecting the crooked banks. Remember you can have a NEW up scale house built for $75 a sqft on your lot
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10-28-2009 @ 12:51PM
sukibenson said...
Only problem is here in Detroit you can buy a NEW custom forclosed home for less than $75/sf INCLUDING the lot.
10-29-2009 @ 11:44AM
Dirk said...
You say that "there is nothing better for the economy than low-priced housing..." Are you nuts? (answer: YES). You need to tell this to all the millions of people whose mortgages are "under water" (that is, the mortgage principle is much greater than the value of their home). And to all the people trying to sell their homes (have you noticed that there are gazillions of them on the market and going nowhere) and having to take losses on them. And then there are all the people without work (millions of them) who would like to buy a cheap home, but can't -- not without a job. Methinks your shortsighted idea is pretty dumb. It's the way GW Bush would have thought (goofy).
10-28-2009 @ 9:30AM
gere said...
Hey folks its just more of that change you were wanting when you voted fo our present. Oops, I meant President. . Get used to it. The idiot in Washington DC does not have a clue, but that's normally the case when you have no experience in managing anything. Community organizers obviously are a bit over rated.
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10-28-2009 @ 9:36AM
clem said...
what paulson snow and the rest of the bush bunch your hero?
the obama boys are about if not the same owned and bought by the banks
10-28-2009 @ 1:13PM
Russ B said...
You are and idiot! Your cronies got us into this! What did they do to stop it? The resession started in 2006! All they did was hide it till the next guy came along!!!!! Get over it!
10-28-2009 @ 4:26PM
kenny said...
Posters like yourself, with your lame posts are really getting old.
10-28-2009 @ 5:20PM
vaughnvdg said...
The FORECLOSURE CRISIS is the RESULT OF THE FAILED POLICIES OF DUMBYA BUSH my friend. Take the HISTORY course soon as it becomes available!!!! THE PEOPLE KNOW THE TRUTH.
10-28-2009 @ 6:38PM
Ron Halpern said...
And I suppose your hero, Bush, had all sorts of experience before stealing the presidency from Gore. He was a failed businessman before daddy bought him the Texas Rangers. Of course, before that, he was a "soldier" who avoided going to "nam. And before that, he was (barely) a "C" student at Yale (where he got in solely as a "legacy) He applied, and was turned down, at the University of Texas law school. So daddy again "bought" him into Harvard. Think I don't know what I'm talking about? I was at Princeton during some of those same years (admitted from a public high school with no "suck" from anyone). I know how the ivy league system works. Obama got into Columbia and Harvard law without any "suck". He got in because he EARNED IT.
10-28-2009 @ 6:40PM
Terry said...
you are the idiot!
10-28-2009 @ 9:31AM
rahyder said...
Screw these banks. They should have been allowed to fail. They are hanging on to alot of forclosures and letting short sales go into forclosure in the hopes of selling them for a higher price when the market turns around.
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10-28-2009 @ 12:33PM
kay said...
You are so right! I have tried to sell short sales. Takes six months just for them to say "NO." They are not serious in fixing this problem. I think they WANT it to continue. I have had ready, willing, and able buyers with totally approved loans trying to buy these homes where the bank would not have lost much if any, and they won't even respond to a written offer. What a JOKE!
10-28-2009 @ 3:13PM
Ini said...
True rahyder, the zombie banks should have been closed. They were bailed out as a huge cover-up by our Senate. The mortgage backed securities were sold world-wide with AIG as the biggest insurer of loan defaults. By failure to regulate, the Senate is on the hot seat with the banksters (a world-wide hot seat) hense, the cover-up at the American taxpayer's expense. Even now, these banksters are allowed to operate in the same fashion that caused the crisis in the first place.
10-28-2009 @ 10:05AM
MrDoughnut said...
It's about time home prices fell to the levels of real incomes and buying power. Most people are struggling in low wages even after an education because of cheap labor outsourcing and illegal immigration.
Down with the greedy on with the needy! Crawl back in your holes brokers and carpet baggers your going down the toilet.
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10-28-2009 @ 10:04AM
ajgorm said...
Banks have done nothing major to help. Who can they help ? They need to get out there and stop the readjustment on all these loans from happening before they happen. Before they go into forclosure before they mature. They should automatically cap the loan at the going best rate. From there sink or swim. But no they want to prolong the agony by making you qualify out of your old loan into a new one. Fraudualent loans that wont readjust to conform to rates that are reasonable. Instead they would rather we sink than save our housing bu automatically caping all loans at lets say 5 % .
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10-28-2009 @ 12:40PM
Chuck said...
Truth of it is, back in 2007 when the writing was on the wall, banks could have cut every single mortgage payment in half by readjusting the interest rates. They would still have made a ton of money and home values would not have tanked like they have. States like Florida could have put a freeze on insurance hikes and Florida wouldn't be in the mess it's in. Instead, interest rates were rising in 2007, gas prices soared, insurance rates soared, and people with manageable debt became unable to manage their debt. There are some who tow the party line and believe that this whole mess was caused by people getting credit who didn't deserve it. If that were truly the case then the first 850B bail out would have solved the problem. Now prime loans are going bad.
10-28-2009 @ 1:09PM
JIM said...
AJ, Problem is the bank may NOT OWN the mortgage but are just the servicer. They may NOT be able to foreclose because they have to "Produce the ote" in court. Here is a link to some articles on producing the note. http://www.consumerwarningnetwork.com/2008/06/19/produce-the-note-how-to/
10-28-2009 @ 10:06AM
MrDoughnut said...
Shame prices couldn't of fell sooner saving people from suffering the need to grab these scam loans in a last ditch effort for a roof over their heads.
Down with the slum lords and stingy misers!Put them on the rack and stretch them like they stretched the truth when reporting their books!
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10-28-2009 @ 10:09AM
ajgorm said...
Besides if they cant find the note bearer how can they legally reset the loan at rates we may live with. So I guess it is one of those situations where liquidity comes in and who to resell the loan to if noone will buy them and the bank is stuck holding the note on a toxic refinance.
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10-28-2009 @ 3:42PM
lou said...
I agree. Now the question is whether or not a bank can sell by providing clear title to the new buyer. It appears that the sloppy appraisals and buyer qualification statements went hand in hand with sloppy paper work so that now, they can't produce the note. This could take years! Congress has not audited the banks and held them accountable for "claims" of mortgage holder interests held on their books that they cannot substantiate.