Florida To Auction 700 Foreclosed Homes [Housing Tracker]

Quote Of The Day 

“A lot of them can't hold out much longer.” - Bob Schwartz, who runs the brokerforyou.com Web site, referring to debt-laden homeowners who have been waiting for the market to improve before selling their homes. (Sign on San Diego, Aug. 3^rd)

Foreclosure Data

Suit Blames Loan Servicer For Pending Foreclosure. “A Boston-area couple who are in foreclosure, despite their herculean attempts to prevent it, have filed a lawsuit against Washington Mutual (WM), one of the nation's largest mortgage servicing firms. In the suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Lori and Mark Pestana of Westford allege the loan servicer was unresponsive to their repeated phone calls and to their applications to negotiate an arrangement that would have allowed them keep their house out of foreclosure. The suit is seeking class-action status on behalf of thousands of Washington Mutual borrowers in Massachusetts.” (Boston Globe, Aug. 5^th)

Auction of Nearly 700 Florida Foreclosures Allow Buyers to Grab Deals on Homes. “Hudson & Marshall, the country's most experienced foreclosure auction firm, will auction nearly 700 bank-owned homes in cities throughout Florida on August 12th -17th. Nearly 100 homes will be auctioned in Tampa on August 13th and over 200 homes will be auctioned in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area on August 16th. On August 17th over 100 homes will be auctioned in Orlando. All the properties come with title insurance paid for by the sellers. Winning bidders will be required to make a $2500 deposit in the form of cash or certified funds for each property on which they are the successful bidder.”  (MarketWatch, Aug. 4^th)

LA Foreclosures Spread To Malibu, Santa Monica. “PropertyShark.com: New foreclosures more than tripled in Los Angeles and more than doubled in Miami in July from a year ago, with more than $2 billion of mortgages turning sour in Los Angeles alone. The number of newly scheduled auctions of foreclosed properties in Los Angeles County rose 249% to 5,982 from July 2007. One in every 526 Los Angeles homes was scheduled for a first-time foreclosure auction in July, while in New York, only one in 10,000 homes was scheduled for auction. Los Angeles saw foreclosure activity start to spread to wealthier areas, such as Malibu, Santa Monica, and Manhattan Beach.” (Reuters, Aug. 4^th)

Fairfax Board Finalizes Details Of Foreclosure Plan. Virginia: “The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors… purchase of foreclosed homes is the most controversial part of its three-pronged plan to deal with the foreclosure crisis. The county will also spend up to $10 million over the next two years to help first-time homebuyers purchase foreclosed homes… The homes bought by the county must be in such bad condition that they negatively affect the surrounding neighborhood. The county will fix up the homes and help first-time homebuyers move into the houses with special financing. Nearly $3M in affordable housing funds are being diverted to cover the plan.” (NBC4, Aug. 4^th)

Milwaukee Mayor Steps In On Foreclosure. “Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said Monday he plans to help a man who lost his house due to foreclosure for failing to pay a $50 city parking ticket. Peter Tubic, 62, got the ticket for failing to have a license plate on a van he had parked in his driveway in 2004, and ignored a number of follow up notices over the year. It finally led to the city foreclosing on Tubic's house last week after the fine amounted to $2,645 over the years.” (Chicago Tribune, Aug. 4^th)

Foreclosure Filings Continue At Record Pace. “Wisconsin: Foreclosure tracking company ForeclosuresWI.com: Nearly 14,300 filings in the first seven months of the year. That's a 31% increase over the same period last year. ForeclosuresWI.com president Robert Jensen says between 2003 and 2005, foreclosures averaged about 11,700 a year. By last year, filings had reached nearly 21,000. Statewide, there were 1,762 foreclosure filings in July -- or nearly 77 filings each business day. Eighty-eight percent of Wisconsin's 72 counties have had more foreclosure filings through July than the same period last year, 8% had fewer filings, and 4% had the same.” (Chicago Tribune, Aug. 4^th) 

Embattled Lithonia Mayor Also Faces Foreclosure. “Georgia: “[There’s] a contentious power struggle between Lithonia Mayor Joyce McKibben and the city council… Meanwhile, McKibben's opponents have another week to gather just 39 more signatures to force a recall election. And, legal notices show that McKibben is losing her $123,000 home to foreclosure.” (Atlanta Journal Constitution, Aug. 4^th)

In Mortgage Crisis, Look For The Signs Of Recovery. “In Q2, 4,807 San Diego County homes were foreclosed upon, compared with 1,417 in Q2’07. Greg Brooks, a regional manager for the San Diego Mortgage Network: A large number of “teaser” mortgages… will adjust sharply upward between 2009-2011, peaking in 2010... Right now, the median price of a home is about what it was in May 2003, suggesting that many people who bought their homes in the past five years are currently underwater… Bob Schwartz, of Brokerforyou.com: The housing bill “won't stem the tide. Only about one in four (defaulting homeowners) will qualify for the loans the government is backing.” (Sign on San Diego, Aug. 3^rd)

Extreme Makeover Home Saved From Foreclosure. “The dream home built by the TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and Beazer Homes for the Harper family of Georgia has been saved from foreclosure. Patricia Harper told reporters that she and her husband have worked out an agreement with Chase Home Financial to keep their massive home that was built by the generosity of others. The Harpers took out a second mortgage 15 months ago to finance a construction business that failed… Beazer Homes also helped raise cash for the family to cover expenses such as maintenance and taxes.” (Times of the Internet, Aug. 1^st)

Report: Distressed RE Nears 20 Percent of Nationwide Sales. “Radar Logic Inc.: Motivated sales made up 18.9% of all home sales transactions in 25 key metropolitan statistical areas during May… that total compares to 5.1% of transactions just one year ago. Distressed sales jumped 18.1% between April and May alone in hard-hit Phoenix, while in Miami, distressed sales rose 13%.” (Housing Wire, Aug. 1^st)

 

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Comments

[CLH:]

Judy--good information. The loss of a few is the gain of all who need a house. Sue? Are these people making payments on time? Of course not. They should be sued not the bank.

2008 Aug 06 09:20 AM

[notsosmart:]

this country is getting nuttier & nuttier.

2008 Aug 06 10:26 AM