Foreclosures At Hawaii Go Up

May 29th, 2008

The number of foreclosures in Hawaii has increased dramatically, with the state having climbed up to reach rank 36, as revealed by a nationwide survey. This is an increase of over 300% more than the recorded rate that is usual for Hawaii. At least a couple of years back, Hawaii was much lower in the foreclosure ranking than it is now. The state reported a 218% increase in foreclosure rates since April 2007. With a 75% increase since March this year, there have been a total of 210 foreclosure cases filed in the last month. One out of every 2,381 households has been on the record as having been foreclosed.

According to RealtyTrac, these are quite alarming reports for Hawaii. The University of Hawaii never had a good way to put a positive spin to the total number of foreclosures on the increase. Research economist, Harvey Sharpiro, had foreclosures trailing massively with a minimal of three to six months. Bonham has also repeated that the acceleration in Hawaii’s foreclosure rates could just suggest that residents got overextended with the rising cost of living in that area. This also resulted in a rise of mortgage interest rates. Hawaii had reported that there had been 22 notices of default altogether with about 181 notices and bank repossessions. The increase in mortgage payments also doesn’t go with the average adjustable-rate loans.

Hawaii has noted 22 notices that have resulted out of default as well as 181 notices that occurred due to trustee’s sales and repossession of properties by the bank. In a nationwide approach, the auction sales made for bank’s repossessions crossed a walloping figure of 243,353 homes in a single month early this year. Also, out of every 519 households, at least one has seen a 4% increase since the last month. Thus nearly 65% of the total property value has gone up since April last year.

Nevada, California and Arizona are the states among other’s which reached some of the highest rates in foreclosure with one out of every 146 Nevada households in foreclosure. This was 3.6 times more than the national average. Hawaii’s foreclosures may have jumped greatly, but it still remains pretty low compared to some of the states heading the highest rates of foreclosures in the country.

Bonham has been reported to have commented, “The sky is not falling,” in regards to the rise in Hawaii’s foreclosures. But, he says that it is getting a bit darker in Hawaii.