Archive for the 'Michigan Articles' Category

The impact of foreclosures and distressed homes will be more evident once homeowners in Oakland County, Michigan, receive their property assessment notices. The assessment reports are used as basis for how much taxes will be levied on properties in July and December of 2011. According to local tax assessors, majority of cities and local areas in the county will see a drop in property values at their notices.

Although foreclosed home auctions in Southfield are not as massive as in other U.S. cities, the city is still expected to post more than 19% of property value decline this year. On average, the whole county is projected to post around 8% of decline in property values, a figure that is at least lower than the past two years, when double digit declines were recorded in the region.

Assessors have stated though, that value changes will differ from one neighborhood to another and from one parcel of land to another, with the number of foreclosed Michigan home auctions in particular areas likely to play a role in determining how much value an area's properties will lose. In 2009, property values in the whole county declined by 12%, while a 15% drop was posted last year.

Local officials stated that there have been signs that the massive supply of foreclosed and distressed homes is starting to ease and that property value declines are also starting to slow down. They stated that figures for this year are definitely better than the past two years, mainly because the local economy is showing signs of resurgence.

Officials also stated that the record number of properties offered at foreclosure house auctions for sale last year will start to decline this year. In 2010, around 9,600 foreclosures were recorded in the county. The worst impact of the foreclosure crisis though, was felt by the region in the fourth quarter of 2008, and local authorities have stated that things have slowly gotten better for the housing sector since then.

Because of the factor of foreclosures and distressed homes, the county received over 5,700 assessment appeals last year, while over 7,000 filed an appeal in 2009. This year, officials stated that it is unlikely that appeals will reach the same high numbers recorded in the past two years.

During a campaign stop in Lansing, Michigan, gubernatorial Democrat candidate Virg Bernero asked Army National Guard Captain Bill Krieger to talk about his foreclosure problem. The strategy emphasized the focus of Bernero's campaign, that of solving problems related to residential and commercial foreclosures in the state.

The number of properties being sold in foreclosure auctions in Detroit and in other areas of the state has been one of the highest in the whole country. To ease the burden on homeowners, Bernero has earlier called for a moratorium on foreclosures in Michigan for two years. He also stated that rules regarding foreclosures in the area should be changed.

According to Bernero, the rule of allowing banks to foreclose on properties without the need for a court appearance has resulted in huge number of homes in Michigan foreclosure auctions and such rule should be modified. He has also called on Mike Cox, Attorney General of the state, to investigate possible alleged faulty documents being used in processing foreclosures in the state.

Local reports have revealed that at first, Cox has refused to heed Bernero's call for an investigation. The AG has reportedly asserted that commercial foreclosures and residential foreclosures are handled differently in Michigan than in states where complaints about faulty paperwork first started to appear. Later though, Cox decided to join other attorneys general in the U.S. in a nationwide probe on foreclosure practices by lenders.

Proponents of the nationwide investigation have stated that there might be a number of homes being sold in a foreclosure properties auction that should not have ended as foreclosed if only lenders had given borrowers a chance to modify their loans or provided some other alternative course. Meanwhile, Bernero highlighted the foreclosure processing issue during his Lansing stop by asking Krieger to recount his story.

According to Krieger, two payments were taken out of his account by Chase bank in September instead of just one. He then requested the bank to reverse the other payment and although the bank did, he subsequently received three letters stating that his home is under foreclosure.

According to a number of mortgage industry critics, the case of Krieger is just one example of banks and lenders not being able to properly process mortgage payments which can sometimes lead to residential and commercial foreclosures.

The decline in Detroit home auctions for sale in April improved house prices, as buyers competed to purchase the remaining best-priced properties and beat the federal tax credit deadline.

The price median for homes in Detroit shot up to $9,000, a spike of 50 percent from the April 2009 median of $6,000. The price increase throughout Wayne County, where Detroit is situated, was even higher at 105 percent. The county median jumped up from $18,000 to $36,900.

The decline in foreclosure houses at auction also affected price levels in adjacent counties. The median price in Oakland increased in April by 30 percent from $84,500 to $110,000 and the median in Macomb climbed up by 29 percent from $59,000 to $76,000.

With more buyers beating the tax credit deadline, the number of pending contracts in the three counties increased to 6,883 signed agreements, a jump of 5 percent from the 6,575 pending contracts during the same month last year. Closed sales meanwhile dropped by 4 percent from 4,588 units in April 2009 to 4,422 units in April this year.

The surge in April home prices was a complete reversal of price drops in the Detroit area in March. The still high number of Detroit home auctions for sale dragged down home price levels in March to a total of 47 percent from the peak levels in 2005.

In March, home prices dropped to an average of $87,300 in the counties of Wayne, Macomb and Oakland. In the Detroit area, prices fell by nearly 19 percent during the month and more than 28 percent of total house sales were made to buyers who received huge discounts.

In contrast to the decline in Detroit home auctions for sale in April, the number of home auctions for sale in Michigan jumped up by 9.4 percent from 5,715 units in March to 6,252 in April. Total filings statewide also increased by more than 8 percent from 17,700 to 19,173 postings over the month.

Search Michigan home foreclosure auctions:

• Grand Rapids home foreclosure auctions
• Warren home foreclosure auctions
• Southfield home foreclosure auctions
• Flint home foreclosure auctions
• Muskegon home foreclosure auctions

Despite the continued increase in Detroit foreclosure auctions, high rate of unemployment and image problems, a big portion of Detroit residents still love living in the city.

There were more residential properties posted for Detroit foreclosure auctions in the first quarter compared to the same period one year ago, causing concern among Michigan officials and community advocates who expected improvements in the housing sector.

Average home prices in the Metro Detroit counties of Macomb and Oakland have fallen by 12 to 22 percent due to the continued unloading of foreclosed properties into the housing market and the soaring Michigan foreclosure rate. Median home prices in Macomb dropped by an average of 14 percent and Hazel Park and Lathrup Village [...]