Archive for the 'Home Auctions' Category

Only a small number of upstate homes are getting included in New York foreclosure auctions because certain factors that drove defaults and foreclosures in other areas did not occur at significant rates in the Capital Region, according to a study released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

During the housing boom from 2000 to 2006, home prices in the Albany area did not shoot up as high and as rapidly as in other cities. The percentage of subprime loans made by banks in the Capital Region was also very low.

Despite being cited by the report as the one with the highest foreclosure rate in the Capital Region, subprime lending and foreclosure activity in Albany is low compared to other metro areas.

In 2009, Albany had 2.7 mortgage foreclosures for every 1,000 residential units, much lower than the national rate of 5 mortgage foreclosures for every 1,000 housing units. Also, Albany posted only 31 subprime mortgage loans for every 1,000 mortgage loans during the boom, again much lower than the national rate of 56 nonprime loans for every 1,000 mortgage loans taken out.

Another reason why only a few Albany-area homes are entering New York foreclosure auctions is the strength of home prices in the region. The reserve bank reported that Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse are among metro areas in the U.S. which registered the highest rate of price increases in 2009 despite population loss and weak economic growth. Buffalo and Rochester posted home price increase rates of 4.8 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.

House prices in Glens Falls and in Albany also outpaced the average national price increase rate in 2009. Home prices in Glens Falls and Albany increased by 10.8 percent and 10.1 percent, respectively.

The reserve bank analysts said that Albany foreclosed home auction prices did not put a downward pressure on average or median home sales prices because the numbers of foreclosures were not so large.

In 2009, the Albany-Troy-Schenectady area was among the 14 metro areas with the lowest foreclosure rates in the nation, as it ranked 190th among the 203 metro areas listed based on foreclosure activity.

Throughout the entire year of 2009, only 1,220 housing units in the Albany area became delinquent or entered New York foreclosure auctions. The number even marked a 50-percent decrease from foreclosure postings in 2008 and represented only 0.32 percent of all residential units in the metro area.

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Atlanta foreclosure auctions have been sustaining the city as a strong buyer’s market for homes, based on sales data from SmartNumbers and other research firms.

Residential properties continue to enter public auctions as more homeowners fail to rescue their delinquent mortgages. Homeowners no longer exert effort to find remedies to make their monthly payments as the values of their homes continue to fall.

According to a research firm, underwater borrowers in metro Atlanta are expected to remain underwater until 2016 when home prices are predicted to recover. Across the country, underwater borrowers are expected to recover starting in the latter part of 2015 or the early part of 2016.

In other housing markets, positive equity will be reached within five to ten years, depending on the strength of their economy and their pace of foreclosure home auctions. In Detroit, where the economy is extremely depressed, positive equity is not expected to be reached within ten years.

The research firm reported that 24 percent of all residential mortgages in the country or over 11.3 million mortgages had negative equity in December 2009. Analysts contended that the only remedy to attain positive equity quickly is to pay down principal loan balances, which is a difficult thing to do, particularly in Atlanta where properties continue to enter Atlanta foreclosure auctions because of continued job losses.

However, a report from the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Index showed that the Atlanta housing market is showing signs of leveling off and showing strength in resisting the price pressures of foreclosures. In other cities, low-priced foreclosure properties continue to drag down prices, like foreclosure auctions in Miami, which continue to cut down the sales prices of condos even in prime development areas.

According to the S&P home price index, home prices in metro Atlanta, fell by 1.5 percent in January this year from December last year, in addition to the 0.6-percent price decline between November and December. The nationwide home price index fell by 0.4 percent in January from December, after dropping by 0.2 percent between November and December. The year-over-year drop was 0.7 percent.

David Blitzer, chairperson of the home price index committee, said that there were year-over-year price improvements for all the 20 cities tracked by the S&P index in January. It is hoped that properties entering Atlanta foreclosure auctions in the coming months will no longer pull down prices sharply.

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Online Miami foreclosure auctions are getting wildly popular both within Florida and outside of the state.

As of the first week of March, the Miami-Dade County auction website Miamidade.realforeclose.com has registered almost 4,500 bidders from within Florida and nearly 750 bidders from other states and other countries. The website is run by Realauction.com, which is handling the home foreclosure auction websites of ten Florida counties, including Miami-Dade.

As of the first online foreclosure auction in Miami in January, Miami-Dade is now auctioning off about 7,000 foreclosure properties a month, up from the only 750 foreclosures a week the county has been handling at the courthouse.

In the past, auctions can only be done three times a week because of lack of staff. Now, the online auctions are done every day from Monday to Friday. Anyone interested can just visit the Miami website and look at the online auction schedules and look at the addresses of the properties, the assessed values, judgment amounts and the maximum bids. They can also check if the auctions have been canceled or rescheduled.

According to Harvey Ruvin, the Miami-Dade County Court Clerk, the online Miami foreclosure auctions are set to cut about $250,000 per year from the county budget, just in time because Ruvin had to cut the court budget by 18 percent and terminate 150 court employees.

Ruvin explained that he really pushed for the online auctions because foreclosure cases have been overwhelming the county court at a time when many judges have retired without replacements. In the years preceding the foreclosure crisis, the county was processing only about 6,000 foreclosures per year.

Now, foreclosure postings have increased many times over. Just for the first two months of this year, more than 9,000 foreclosure cases have already been filed, in addition to the thousands that have not yet been processed.

The online foreclosure auctions in Florida have made Florida the pioneer state in holding judicial foreclosure auctions online. Realauction.com, which was first hired to auction off tax certificates, is now auctioning off property foreclosures online in ten counties in Florida.

Three of the other Florida counties running online public auctions are Polk County, Palm Beach County and Broward County.

In addition to cutting workload and employee work hours, the online Miami foreclosure auctions also eliminate common courthouse auction problems such as the bullying of newcomers by veteran bidders and the broadening of access to all interested home buyers.

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• Foreclosure Auctions in Tampa
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More homes have been listed for the foreclosed house auction in Denton County, Texas in April.

Foreclosed properties auction in Broward County, Florida finally goes online starting March 30, weeks after neighboring counties launched their online auctions.

The record $71-million foreclosed auction results posted by a real estate auction firm over the weekend showed the still grim situation of the U.S. housing market.

Foreclosed auctions are increasingly reflecting financial difficulties in the multifamily sector. Across the country, condo complexes, apartment buildings and affordable housing properties are being foreclosed upon by lenders.

The number of properties entering foreclosure homes auction in Stanislaus County in California is still rising, bucking the statewide decline in foreclosure activity.

Public foreclosure auctions scheduled for the coming months in metro Atlanta are expected to sell off more homes, as shown in the sharp increase in number of properties listed for the February auction.

Challenges faced by bidders at every foreclosure properties auction in Albany, New York show the reality that it is not easy for newbies and most investors to win a property at public auctions.