Georgia's Foreclosure Rollercoaster Not Over Yet

Georgia foreclosures have been on a rollercoaster ride over the past two years says Daren Blomquist, Realty Trac Vice President. Recently he presented his analysis supporting this statement at the 2013 Inaugural Meeting of the Georgia Association of Realtors.

He was approached by two realtors from Walton County, which has the highest foreclosure rate in the state. Both told him his analysis was exactly what they had been experiencing.

Below is his presentation outlining Georgia's situation.

Georgia Foreclosure Situation & Outlook from RealtyTrac

Georgia is among the non-judicial foreclosure states — most of which have been less susceptible to being tossed to and fro by the storm waves generated by the robo-signing settlement, however, it has most definitley seen it's "ebbs and flows" directly correlated with the major highlights of the robo-signing settlement case.

Blomquist's Slide 7 above most clearly demonstrates this. After trending higher through most of 2010 and during early months of 2011, Georgia foreclosure activity decreased on an annual basis for 13 straight months starting in March 2011. This trend began just a few months after the robo-signing controversy came to light in October 2011 and after the 49 state attorneys general investigation into foreclosure practices by the nation’s five leading lenders had gotten into full swing.

In April 2012 the settlement was finalized and Georgia foreclosure spiked for three straight months in April, May and June 2012. Starting in July 2012 there have now been six straight months of annual decreases in Georgia foreclosures, which would correlate direclty with a Georgia Court of Appeals ruling in July 2012 that held lenders to a higher standard in providing information about the entity that actually owns the mortgage to homeowners on foreclosure notices.

Blomquist believes this rollercoaster ride over the past two years in Georgia isn't over yet. He states that it actually foreshadows more bumps in the state’s foreclosure trends before its housing market can return to smooth sailing.

The three-month surge in foreclosure notices in mid-2012 — not to mention the 32 percent of Georgia homeowners who are seriously underwater (see slide 16) — indicates there are still many homeowners in danger of foreclosure in the state.

2013 is expected to be an important year in which these idle foreclosures will push through the pipeline, along with the huge foreclosure inventory that already exists in the state (see slide 11) ensures that the lingering foreclosure problem will continue burden Georgia home prices. Georgia's saturated market provides inventory for Realtors to sell and buyers and investors to buy.


Source: David Blomquist, RealtyTrac.com February 14, 2013

Savannah Foreclosure Statistics for December 2012

RealtyTrac, a leading marketplace for foreclosures properties including plentiful data for trending statistics used by real estate professionals and economists, has released figures for December 2012.

The latest trends indicate that 1 in 810 housing units in the U.S. received a foreclosure filing during December 2012. The chart below shows National statistics.





In the Savannah area alone, 1 in 1,718 homes received a foreclosure filing during the last month of 2012. Fifty-six new foreclosures were filed in the following zip codes: 31419/31410/31406/31405/31407/31401/31408. Chatham County reports 82 foreclosures in November 2012, and 73 in December.

Broken down by Savannah zip codes, the below chart shows the number of foreclosures in December 2012:

The average sales price of homes in Savannah area December 2012, accoridng to RealtyTrac,is $234,348.00 and the average price of sold foreclosures was about $150,000 in November 2012, and is projected to remain so for December 2012 as sales decline typically during the holiday season.

CNN Money's Lists Hardest Hit Foreclosure Neighborhoods in America

From CNN Money.com Published January 17, 2013

The foreclosure crisis is slowly easing, but in some of the nation's neighborhoods it feels like it has just begun.

Total foreclosure filings, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, were down 3% in 2012 compared with a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac's year-end foreclosure report.

100 hardest hit zip codes

Does your town make the list? Check our map to find out. 

 

Yet while overall filings have plunged some 36% since the peak foreclosure year of 2010, some states are now seeing their foreclosure rates climb.
                                        
Florida, Illinois and Georgia were home to the largest number of zip codes with the highest foreclosure rates of 2012, displacing former title holders California, Nevada and Arizona, which accounted for 81 of the top 100 zip codes in 2011.
                                        
Much of the shift has to do with the way these states handle foreclosures, said Daren Blomquist, a spokesman for RealtyTrac. In judicial states like Florida and Illinois, foreclosures are processed through the courts and take longer to go through the system than in non-judicial states.
                                        
Hardest hit neighborhoods: Does your town make the list?

Last year, the average foreclosure in Florida took 853 days, according to RealtyTrac. Meanwhile, in a non-judicial state like California, it took less than half that time.
                                        
Unclogging the foreclosure pipeline more quickly has meant an earlier recovery for housing markets in non-judicial states, with rising prices, more stable sales and fewer new foreclosures, he said.
                                         
Meanwhile, states that delayed the process are just now feeling the pain. Foreclosure activity climbed in 25 states last year, 20 of which were judicial states.
                                        
"It's ripping the Band-Aid off versus pulling it off slowly," said Blomquist.
Related: Logjam in foreclosures breaking up

The hardest hit neighborhoods:
In Lawrenceville, Ga. (zip code 30045), nearly 13% of homes -- 1 out of every 8 -- received some kind of foreclosure notice last year making it the hardest hit zip code in the country. This suburb of Atlanta has seen home prices plunge by more than 40% from the early 2006 peak, according to real estate site Zillow.
                                        
A high percentage of homeowners in Lawrenceville bought near the top of the market, when home prices topped out at a median of about $193,000. When prices plunged during the recession, many of those homeowners owed more than their homes were worth and many wound up in default.
                                        
A similar dynamic played out in the second hardest hit zip code, 33032 in Homestead, Fla., south of Miami. Its foreclosure rate hit nearly 10% last year, up from 5.4% in 2011. The bust depressed prices by nearly two-thirds in the area, according to Zillow. Three other nearby zip codes in Homestead and Miami finished in the top 10, Florida had 33 zip codes among the 100 hardest hit, more than any other state.
               
Illinois was home to three of the top 10 hardest hit neighborhoods and 24 of the top 100, led by Carpentersville's 60110, which came in third with a foreclosure rate of nearly 9%. This small city west of Chicago suffered economically as heavy industry left town.
                                        
Meanwhile, some of the last year's biggest placeholders had less of a presence in the top 100 in 2012. California had 16, down from 38 in 2011, and Arizona claimed four, down from 15.           

Published January 17, 2013 from CNNMoney.com
                                     

Underwater Homeowners Breathe a Sigh of Relief as Congress Renews Mortgage Debt Relief Act!

On January 1, 2013, Congress passed an extension of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act. This extension of this act, which has saved homeowners more than $1 billion dollars in taxes^[1], is great news for struggling homeowners nationwide. 

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act was originally passed in 2007 to aid the millions of homeowners who suddenly found themselves in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure following the housing market crash. 

Under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, any debt forgiven in a short sale, foreclosure, or loan modification, is exempt from federal taxes on primary residences. For homeowners facing foreclosure, this exemption saves them from paying thousands, or even tens of thousands, in taxes on top of losing their homes.

Now for another year, homeowners can take advantage of this exemption and avoid foreclosure without the fear of an impossible tax liability.

As a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) agent, I am specially trained to help homeowners escape the threat of foreclosure. If you or someone you know is facing foreclosure, contact me for a private consultation. I can help find a solution.

Rob Sales

Smart Short Sales-Providing Dignified Solutions
Prudential Southeast Coastal Properties
Associate Broker, CDPE Advance,
DPP, REO Specialist, CIAS
912-655-7674

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Short Sale Incentives

 

 

 

 

Get cash to sell the home you can’t afford

Since the beginning of the housing crisis, millions of homeowners have found themselves pinned in by their financial circumstances and chained to a mortgage on which they owe more than their home is worth. In the past, homeowners enduring these challenges had very few options, and most would be forced to lose their home to foreclosure.

 

Today, however, there are more options. The government and the banks have created a multitude of programs and foreclosure alternatives that can help people in these circumstances find a dignified solution for their problems without crippling their financial future. These options include loan modifications, refinancing, or short sales.

The most amazing development in today’s market, however, is one simple fact: Banks are now willing to give cash to homeowners to sell the home they can’t afford.

 

Please contact me today if you or someone you know could use my help and wants the latest information about current incentives available to distressed homeowners.

Rob Sales

Prudential Southeast Coastal Properties

Associate Broker, CDPE Advance,
DPP, REO Specialist, CIAS
912-655-7674
www.smartshortsales.net

 

Short Sales to Overtake Foreclosures in 2013

Short sales are expected to overtake foreclosure in 2013 as the dominant workout solution for distressed homeowners.

Credit-rating agency DBRS attributed the change to “the record number of servicers that are using short sales as their primary loss-mitigation tool to prevent delinquent loans from entering foreclosure.”

HOPE NOW, an alliance of mortgage servicers, investors and non-profit counselors, reported this week that nearly 40,000 short sales were completed in August, bringing the total to more than 1 million since December 2009, when it began tracking statistics. Another 36,260 were completed in July.

“The increase of short sales has been significant and, for the first month since reporting on short sales, we estimate a high of 39,559,”

Short sales in recent years have lost their stigma as hundreds of thousands of homeowners have used it as the best solution to avoid foreclosure. Banks responded by creating massive departments and streamlinin g the process.

Why?

Because they net 12% to 25% more money in a short sale than a foreclosure. Is it any wonder why banks prefer a short sale over foreclosure? HOPE NOW Executive Director Faith Schwartz said in a release. “Short sales provide another tool to avoid the high cost of foreclosure for families, communities and investors.”

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reported earlier this year that 138,000 short sales were completed in the first half of 2012, and anecdotal evidence from the industry suggested that number would continue to increase in the second half of the year. HOPE NOW also reported foreclosure sales nationwide in August increased 12% to 71,149, up from 63,527 in July.

 And foreclosure starts increased 14% to 187,941, compared with 164,593 in July. In the West, foreclosure starts have been on the decline. California saw a 20.7% decrease in September from August, according to ForeclosureRadar, an online industry tracker. The number of starts dropped by as much as 40% in Nevada and Oregon. Regional foreclosure filings were down even more from the previous year. California dropped 48.1% from September 2011, while Nevada and Washington saw decreases of more than 70%.

Still, more than 14,000 foreclosure actions were filed last month in California. The recent foreclosure activity, along with the approximately 5 million homes in shadow inventory (homes 60-plus days behind or already owned by banks but not on the market), indicates the housing market has a long recovery ahead.

Short sales and loan modifications will play an integral role in putting the economy back on its feet.

Smart Real Estate Investing.com (800) 452-7627

WSJ- Courts Stall Housing Recovery

Even as the nation's foreclosure rate continues to fall, states with court oversight of the foreclosure process are lagging behind, potentially delaying their housing recoveries.

 The Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday that 4.1% of mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit homes—about 1.9 million households—were in the foreclosure process at the end of the third quarter, down from 4.4% a year earlier and the lowest level in 3½ years. The national average, however, masks big differences between the states. Among the 12 states with foreclosure rates that exceed the national average, 11 of them require banks to take back properties by going to court.

Foreclosure rates stood at 6.6% in those "judicial" states in September, while they have dropped sharply to 2.4% in the "nonjudicial" states where banks face fewer hurdles to foreclosure. Foreclosures have always taken longer in states with judicial review, but in recent years, the sheer volume of cases has overwh elmed courts, and the "robosigning scandal" that hit lenders added to the delays. Judicial review may give troubled homeowners more time to work out problems, but critics of the system say the delays are postponing states' housing recoveries.

"The distinction between the judicial and the nonjudicial states is, if anything, getting sharper," said Michael Fratantoni, the MBA's vice president of research. The upshot is the housing recovery is likely to be "muted" in judicial states, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "Some markets are still going to suffer more price declines," he said.

Smart Real Estate Investing.com (800) 452-7627