A leading information portal, Foreclosures.com has recently claimed that the foreclosure tide may have finally started turning.

Specialising in foreclosure related information the company supports its claims with figures that show that the rate of foreclosures appears to be dropping over April and May of this year. The data shows that not only has the number of foreclosures declined by 11.98 % from April but the number of pre-foreclosures too has dropped by 8.89 % in May this year.

Over the past 20 years ForeclosureS.com has collected and analysed foreclosure information and amassed a huge database of more than 5.5 million property listings. The information on the foreclosures is sourced from formal notices filed against a property. These include notices of default, foreclosure auctions and REO foreclosure. The accuracy of the information provided has made ForeclosureS.com a reliable reference point for many professionals.

President of ForeclosureS.com, Alexis McGee emphasises that the numbers reflect her own estimation that the housing market is in a better situation than it would otherwise appear. She points out that buyers are resorting to purchasing foreclosed homes as the number of new houses being constructed has fallen. Thus supply is once again catching up with demand and the housing market is finally reaching rock bottom.

McGee also attributes the turnabout in part to efforts by the government and industry to help homeowners sort out their problems with mortgage and defaulting payments. Today, much is being done by all the concerned parties to ensure that defaulting homeowners avoid foreclosure by working out alternative options.

As an expert and educator in foreclosures, McGee herself has authored The ForeclosureS.com Guide to Advanced Investing Techniques You Won’t Learn Anywhere Else (Wiley) and The ForeclosureS.com Guide to Investing in Pre-foreclosures Without Selling Your Soul (Wiley).

While emphasizing that the monthly figures were cause for optimism, McGee is also careful to point out that the year to date (YTD) figures show that there is still a long way to go before the current foreclosure crisis can be termed over. The YTD data reflects increases in foreclosures since last year. According to ForeclosureS.com, the number of REOs rose by 68.36 % since last year and out of every 1000 households, 117 faced pre-foreclosure. However the monthly REO numbers have started falling recently, which is being seen as a positive sign.

More detailed data and statistics regarding foreclosure filings at various stages can be accessed on the ForeclosureS.com website.

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Usually, when distressed homeowners abandon a property when they are unable to keep up with mortgage payments, the lender takes over possession. The home is then rapidly disposed of through foreclosure auctions so that the losses are minimised and unpaid dues recovered.

Recently however, more and more abandoned houses are being shunned by the lenders too and foreclosure on them is being deliberately delayed. Experts are intrigued by this situation and are trying to find plausible explanations for it.

While city officials feel that lenders are avoiding taxes and upkeep, legal aid lawyers are of the view that this may be a way of hiding steep losses. The real estate industry puts it down to lenders being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of foreclosures.

Experts however are narrowing down the cause to complex mortgages taken out during the housing boom a few years ago. Many loans taken at that time were broken down and repackaged into securities. These were then sold to investors both within the country and internationally. Quite often the investors would have little knowledge about the house itself, preferring to treat it as just one more figure.

Several large banks too invested in these securities and took on the role of trustees with no legal title of ownership.

In Kansas City, the European Deutche Bank is recorded as the lender in over 360 properties that have undergone foreclosure. John Gallagher, spokesperson for the bank, points out that it is not the responsibility of the bank to foreclose and subsequently dispose of the properties. Instead, this duty lies with the initial lender or a service company which has been hired for the purpose.

The complexity of the situation has made it very difficult to determine which party is responsible for what as regards the foreclosed property. Experts estimate that sometimes it can take several months to figure out who the real lender is …and that name may not even feature in the official court or county records!

Kim Tucker, president of the Mid-America Association of Real Estate Investors, illustrates this point saying, “Sometimes there are so many layers to go through, the house gets lost….I bought a house last summer. There was a foreclosure, and it took six months to find the owner.”

On a national level this trend of home ownership lying in limbo is not a cause for undue worry. But in regions where this is actually taking place, financial observers are concerned. They see the trend slowly spreading and fear that this will lead to official foreclosure figures not really reflecting the situation on the ground.

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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.

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According to preliminary totals, more than 400 homes have gone into foreclosure in the seventh successive month. The rate of home foreclosure is steadily on a rise but still it is better in comparison to the national and state rates. Foreclosure Listing Service has compiled preliminary statistics and they show that Collin County will have 400 foreclosure postings next month and this happens to be the seventh month in a row.

According to the report, for the foreclosure auction scheduled in May, the numbers of notices filed were 510, in the county. This shows an increase of 32 percent as the notices filed in May 2997 were 386. Year 2008 has witnessed 2,198 foreclosure postings till now. Bernard Weinstein, director, Centre for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas, commented that though the numbers were pretty large, they did not come across as any huge surprise. He says that first they were facing a recession. Secondly, people who had bought property recently might have reset their subprime mortgages or the neighborhoods they live in might have been reset and so they were squeezed and thus not able to pay their monthly dues.

Bonnie Brown from Foreclosure Listing Service said that there were more expenses than mortgages that the homeowners were concerned about. Apart from being an indication of a lagging economy, there were also divorce, unemployment as well as medical issues that added to the problem. So a number of factors lead to foreclosure and the principle dominating factor according to him is the increase in the cost and the standard of living. Food, gas and other utilities have become terribly expensive and their adverse effect is seen on foreclosure rates.

Brown feels that a family cannot stretch their household budgets any more as they have already been extended to the most. Weinstein also says that mortgage payments are not the first priority to most families. Most people who live on a tight budget think about buying their food and filling up their car with gas before mortgage payments. They skip paying their mortgage for some months and hope to make up for it somehow.

According to Weinstein, the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex real estate market is not as badly hit as the rest of the country. There has been a slight drop in median prices in the Metroplex of around 1 to 4 percent but in the other parts of the country it is as much as 12 to 13 percent. The economy here has been comparatively stable as there was no overbuilding in this area.

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The foreclosure situation in central Texas, around Austin continues to be very grim. Federal efforts were being made to help homeowners facing distress, but inspite of this, the rate of foreclosure is continuing to rise alarmingly in Austin. The records maintained by Foreclosure Listing Service show that the number of postings made for the 6^th of May auction have made a jump of 32 percent since those of May 2007. Other areas in Texas are facing the same kind of problems.

Foreclosure postings in Dallas-FortWorth had jumped up by 40 percent since last May. Comal County witnessed a jump of 126 percent in the foreclosure postings. At the auction scheduled on the 6^th of May, a total number of 795 houses would be sold in Travis, Hays, Williamson and Bastrop counties, according to Foreclosure Listing Service. The highest level of increase in the rate of foreclosure was witnessed in Williamson County as well as in Travis County, where the rates had jumped by 35 percent and 33 percent respectively. However, all the properties that have been scheduled for foreclosure will not be sold. There are situations where the borrowers and lenders come to some new settlement and besides these, there are also cases where there are delays in forced sales.

According to George Roddy Sr., the President as the chief executive of Foreclosure Listing Service, the month of May is turning out to be the fourth successive month where foreclosure postings in Travis County have topped 300. He goes on to say that a similar situation like this had happened in Travis County last, in early 2004. Even though the rising foreclosure crisis in Central Texas is a matter of concern, the overall real estate market is still in a better condition than in the rest of the country, especially California and Florida.

In the states of Florida and California, a housing bubble had developed due to speculative purchases and subprime lending. However, due to the credit troubles that have broken out recently, this housing bubble has collapsed. According to the records kept by the Mortgage Bankers Association, there were around 4.2 million properties that were in foreclosure, in the end of 2007. The group has declared that there might be an additional number of borrowers amounting to 3 million who will be in default sometime soon. Therefore no actual improvement in the situation is being expected in the near future.

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The recent rise in foreclosures are not only making homeowners lose their homes, but is causing losses to neighbor’s as well. For example, let us take the case of Valerie Guerra’s home in Liverpool. The value of her home as depreciated by more than $100,000 due to falling real estate prices, even though her husband and her have been clearing all their mortgage payments on time. Even though she had nothing to do with it, she suddenly finds herself $100,000 poorer, with a large chunk of her home value gone.

Valerie says “I certainly believe my house is worth less than what we paid, but we’re here for the long haul.” The Guerras are hardly alone. They are lucky that they are not looking to sell their home in a hurry. Even people who want to get out of neighborhoods where there have been a lot of foreclosures, are stuck because they are facing a massive drop in the price of their homes. As it is, lenders have taken over hundreds of lots in many neighborhoods in East Bay that were foreclosed, and this is now taking its toll on the rest of the neighborhood that continues to live in the same vicinity.

Though buyers tend to get some good deals from foreclosed homes being auctioned, the hard reality is that falling property prices have erased years of gains for many people who had bought homes many years back just because they live next to a bank-possessed property.

A Fremont citizen, Mary Ann McFadden, who has two foreclosures on her block adds “I’m sure the foreclosures have affected our property values. I feel sorry for the people who lost their homes.”

The McFaddens and the Guerras form a dwindling circle of homeowners that are suffering in the aftermath of a crashing real estate market that was in the middle of a so-called ‘boom’ till the middle of last year in East Bay.

A resident of Brentwood, Kareen Bell says “Our values have dropped dramatically,” Having bought their home for around $865,000 a couple of years ago, they have seen their house drop in value to roughly $600,000. There are those in Brentwood who have seen their property values fall by $250,000 in a short period of time.

You can tell from overgrown weeds, and unkempt gardens that you are in the midst of a neighborhood overridden with foreclosure. Homes all around are empty, many vandalized and used for parties, most featuring auction notices.

Kareen Bells adds “It’s scary to see people moving out all the time. The house across the street from us is foreclosed. So is the one behind our home. So is the one down the street. At least six houses near us have been foreclosed.” Things have taken a turn for the worse for these people who have religiously paid all their mortgage payments.

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As new filings come to take place in Frederick County, it has been observed that they have fallen throughout this January rapidly. However, during the same time, there has been a continual rise of foreclosures in the rest of the country. After months, the country’s ranking has dropped to 12^th, while the rest of the state’s 134 localities seem to be experiencing a rise in the foreclosure market all the same.

There were 54 new filings in January itself for Frederick County at the rate of one filing per 504 homes. This information had been supplied by RealtyTrac.com. The Frederick County always had a record of low rate of foreclosures until September. Though it has recently spiked higher at certain times in the past, it had only reached up to a rate of one filing every 151 households. Since October until December, the County has experienced a sudden decelerating in foreclosure rankings that came to either sixth or seventh in the whole of Northern Virginia, along with the areas surrounding Fredericksburg.

Again, new foreclosure filings in areas like Winchester and Clarke County remained on the lower end as compared to the other areas of the state. Winchester has nine filings altogether during January at the rate of one occurring for every 1,258 households. Clarke County had had nine filings too with the ongoing rate of 664 every household. Fredrick’s higher rate included the attributed number of new homes included in it. All of these were built and sold in the locality at a very striking rate in the last few years.

Most of these houses on auction have only had a few years’ of being owned. According to Andrew Witt of the Draper and Goldberg law firm in Leesburg, this is a vital aspect to consider in the real estate and foreclosure business. Witt handles the loss mitigation at the Draper and Goldberg.

As per Clarke County’s strict land use the ordinances to keep housing development at a low level is the minimum requirement. Among the other neighbouring localities, Warren County has been the only region that seemed to have surpassed Frederick’s foreclosure rate this January at the rate of one filling per 448 household.

Other areas in Virginia with foreclosure filings that come in the top slot are Prince William County (with a filling rate of one every 84 houses), Manassas County (with a filling rate of one every 21 households) and Spotsylvania County (one filling out of every 212 homes).

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Homes in U.S. have increased by 57% in January as compared to last year. The pace with which the foreclosure rates had increased had got under control since the government intervened. According to RealtyTrac, these measures have helped to subside the rate of increase of foreclosures.

Mortgage companies as well as counsellors as endorsed by the Treasury have helped modify the intense risk-rates. The aim of these measures has been primarily to endure the affordability of these real estates as well as enable the homeowners to keep their homes with themselves.

The rate of foreclosure fillings in January had a rise of 8% compared to the month before that. The real estate market has reported on the last week of February that foreclosure rates had spring up to a 19% rise a year back. James J. Saccaccio, the main executive of RealtyTrac, had stated that January’s foreclosure trends had gone up from a substantially increasing rate as compared to last year in many of the states in the country.

During the month of January itself, foreclosure activities had gone down by a massive rate. However, it has remained substantially higher and sharper than what it was a year back.

Some of the efforts by the lenders and the government took place from a state as well as the federal level, working well, according to Saccacio. The primary question was on the efforts in the long-term basis. If only a temporary forestalling of the foreclosure crisis is being experienced then these measures are not worth the deal. Most of the borrowers have tended to be more than slightly edgy with the relative dicey state regarding the foreclosure matters.

Foreclosures in Nevada, California and Florida have been reported to incur some of the highest rates in the first month of the year. Nevada has reportedly maintained the hot notch with a foreclosure filling number of 6,087 properties. While it was just less than 45% in December, the rate had gone up to more than 95% in Jan. 2007, as stated by a survey by RealtyTrac.

The dwindling home prices has majored the problem extensive in the lax market of real estate. The reports by RealtyTrac has even stated a large number PF default notices, pairing with auction sales as well as bank repossessions taking its toll over 233,000 houses. Only time will tell if fed measures are able to stall more homes from falling prey to foreclosure.

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Hamilton County has witnessed an unforeseen number of foreclosures. Six friends of Sheriff Simon L. Lies Jr, utilized their political connections and made a huge profit as appraisers whom the Sheriff hired to calculate the worth of the properties that were foreclosed prior to being auctioned at the courthouse. Among the appraisers, only three are licensed, but again license is not an essential requirement. The sole requirement is that an inquest has to be held for the property owners. These appraisers have in common mainly three things – they are all between the age of 77-84 years , they all happen to be registered voters of the Republic and they are the Sheriff’s biggest and most consistent campaign contributors.

Daniel J. Berning, age 47, belonging to Springfield Township is an exception, who has taken over the job after his father’s death in 2005. In spite of being a registered voter of the Republic, he did not contribute to the Sheriff’s campaign. The Sheriff speaks in support of the appraisers and says that they are making a lot of money due to the galloping number of foreclosures in the last year. The number of foreclosure cases being filed has jumped by 50 percent in four years. However the critics claim that the payments are too high. According to Steve Driehaus, state Rep who’s a democrat running for the Congress feels that it’s a crazy situation. He talks about the role of ‘cronies’ and how bad the situation might be in the smaller counties in contrast to Hamilton County, where it was more of a casual relationship. He also pointed out that the appraisers get out of court settlements, paid at the Sheriff’s sale by the successful bidder.

However, he would not mind if the law was revised and any licensed appraiser would have to compete. There was also the feeling that because of a tremendous increase in work load, some appraisers were even having to do up to 50 appraisals per day. Appraisers driving from property to property say that some neighborhoods are pretty scary. However, the job of appraisals of foreclosed properties are probably the most easy assignment an appraiser can get and they love getting it during the time when the sale of homes are slow. The appraisers came up with mixed reactions when they were questioned about their job. However, most of them agreed that it was quite lucrative , although there were some who refused to comment.

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