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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Foreclosure notices being sent out at a rapid pace, in many places, has exceeded the number of homes sold in the particular month. The rate of foreclosures in Nevada is the worst hit with the highest across the nation. With the housing markets being hit continuously with falling prices and distress sales, worried government officials and voluntary service organizations are trying to bring about legislative proposals and other plans to delay foreclosures so that the homeowners can have some time to arrange for the payments. However, with no consensus yet with the legislative proposals, the foreclosures are still mounting.

With over 153,745 initial notices being sent out for foreclosure proceedings in January alone (as reported by RealtyTrac), even sales of 43,000 newly built single-family homes means nothing. This figure of initial notices amounts to more than half of the total home sales made. Moving West, the situation only worsens with the home sales being barely higher than the number of issued notices. It looks like the worst hit areas are behind in the home sales as compared to the notices issued.

Foreclosures in California topped the list with the highest number of foreclosure filings, however was ranked fourth on the number of houses affected by the foreclosure proceedings as many homeowners tried to make payments or sell their homes to clear off the loans. Nevada topped this set, with Michigan foreclosure homes being a close follower.

Foreclosed homes represent displaced homeowners on one hand but increase the number of homes available for sale on the other. This in effect creates competition to other sellers like those trying to sell newly built homes. Moreover, since the foreclosed homes fetch lower prices when the sale happens, they bring down the prices even for the newly built homes. As reported by the Census Bureau, the number of newly built homes lying vacant as of December last year was 197,000 and came down only to 195,000 homes in January.

It seems that the areas which grew rapidly with the housing boom are the areas worst affected by the mortgage crisis. States like South Dakota, Vermont, Maine, North Dakota and West Virginia were among those largely unaffected by the housing boom and today these states boast of having sound economies when the rest of the nation is under the foreclosure storm. Foreclosure rates reported in these states is well below 0.1 percent!

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Area loan officers of Southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia declared that as the banking there was more conservative and stuck to more traditional practices, the region was able to avoid the mounting rate of foreclosures that was breaking out all over the nation.

An increase in the adjustable interest rates on subprime mortgages in 2007, left the investors who were financing new homes under that scheme, in great trouble. According to loan officer, Mike Day, who is associated with MCNB Banks, the consumers had thought that they would always be paying $400 as monthly mortgage and had thus signed up for the loans, but to their utter dismay they found the monthly mortgage rising to $650, which put sufficient strain on family budgets and ultimately led to foreclosures. Day goes on to say that, over and above all this , the price of gasoline and natural gases are also rising and thus the financial conditions were quite tough. But Day, as well as representatives of various other banks from that region remarked that in spite of all these different problems they have not noticed any marked increase in the volume of home foreclosures.

Lawrence Reed, Collection’s Manager, Bank of Tazewell County says, that they haven’t seen any increase in the rate of foreclosures as the bank follows a pretty conservative policy. He adds that, conservative products help in going through tough times. According to the director of secondary mortgage lending, First Century Bank, Hal Absher, the act of abstaining from subprime loans had once seemed a dumb move but ultimately it proved to be a pretty smart move. Absher further says that they have been conservative lenders, so they have stayed away from subprime loans and as a result they did not witness the hike in foreclosures.

The area bankers always keep one vision in mind ; that is, on the 1^st of September, 1999, the National Bank of Keystone situated in McDowell County, which happened to be one of the most big financial failures ever since the Great Depression, collapsed. Lawrence Reed remarked that this incident was an example of what could happen if banks followed unquestionable practices. He also said that whenever local banks think that some scheme for getting rich quickly is developing, they tend to fall for that and in the process somebody or the other tends to get burned. Thus following a conservative policy is definitely a foolproof measure of preventing foreclosures.

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Move aims at aiding high cost funding in real estate and prevents foreclosures by investors. All those who always wanted to invest in real estate or were contemplating foreclosures, now have some great news to cheer about. The economic stimulus plan initiated by the government has many provisions to tackle the current slack in the housing market and avert the mortgage crisis. It provides many measures in order to ease and aid mortgage loans and reduce cost especially in high-cost housing markets.

For a start, the plan proposes the removal of the cap on the loan amount which can be purchased by these government funded enterprises - Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500) and Fannie Mae (FNM) insurable by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). There is also a change on the cap limit (now increased to $725,000) on these FHA loans; this limit serves as a protection to lenders against any loan defaulters.

These enterprises currently have a provision to guarantee a loan of up to $417,000 in the secondary loans’ market. However, this amount has been increased to $625,000 for a ONE year period as an initiative for buyers to get mortgage loans and /or refinancing. This move surely would aid those buyers interested in investing in real estate in high-value areas like California.

With the existing situation (cap of $417,000) where there is no assured secondary market for loans, lenders assume higher risk in loaning huge amounts to investors in real estate. This in turn allows them to charge a higher rate of interest payable by the borrower – which means that loans are hard to come by and investors heavily opting for foreclosures.

The increase in this cap limit focuses on an assured secondary market thus making it easier for lenders by a reduced level of risk and making it easier for buyers to borrow at lower interest rates for investing in real estate.

This specifically helps those wanting to invest in high-cost areas and promotes real estate development and sales in slack markets. For example, according to Bankrate.com, the existing interest rate difference between loans within the cap limit and those exceeding the cap limit was more than 1 percent on Thursday - 6.39 percent versus 5.30 percent; which means that on a $500,000 mortgage, this difference is about $350/month.

Richard DeKaser, chief economist for National City Corp. indicated that it was about time that such a change was initiated as many analysts agreed that loans exceeding cap limits were hard to avail due to lender flight (situation where lenders refuse to lend funds).

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors said “This will have a big, immediate impact, especially in California where sales have been down most significantly,”. The 1 percent drop is a huge factor, in California, it could create a mini-boom”.

Analysts like Merrill Lynch indicated dire forecasts for housing markets in the next two years; however with this initiation of the Stimulus Plan things seem to look a lot brighter.

An analyst with Weiss Research also welcomed the move stating that this could bring a change in the real estate investor psychology as they are hoping for a price fall. Lawrence Yun also says that with the current situation, there is the existence of a pent up demand for investing in real estate and with this new provision coming in place, buyers who have not yet made up their mind now can definitely vouch for investing.

This move initiated by the Congress and Bush’s administration would bring in changes like a boom in the home sales market, making it easier for buyers to avail mortgage loans and refinancing, thus reducing the rate of foreclosures and also reducing the lead time –from property developers putting up houses for sale to the sale conversion by buyers.

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Midland County has achieved a lower rate of foreclosures in the year 2007 as compared to year 2006!! And the credit goes to Mr. Richard Enszer, Treasurer for Midland County.

With a goal to reduce rate of foreclosure and help people retain their real estate investments, Mr. Enszer has visited the poorest of families in Midland County, primarily to understand their issues and creating awareness among them on ways to retain their “parcels” (homes).

Quoting on some statistics for the county, he stated the following points:

1. Due to bank foreclosures, 157 owners lost their properties in year 2007 as compared to 180 owners in year 2006.
2. 2007 also saw 9 more owners having to face foreclosure as they defaulted in payments for over two years. It was the same in 2006.
3. Year 2008 would see 181 property owners having to face risk of foreclosure as they have yet to pay their property taxes due in 2005. Failure on their part to make the necessary arrangements for payment would mean that these owners will have to forfeit their right to ownership!

According to Mr. Enszer, the figure 181 can be brought down considerably by calling and visiting these owners to remind and put pressure on them to pay their dues. This in a way would enable the owners to find ways and means to repay their outstandings.

“My record is seven and, if I can beat that, that would be an awesome thing to do,” he said. Mr. Enszer states that the late payers are primarily those who are poor and those who have mismanaged their credit cards and other debt. He also claims that some people are living in completely run-down properties as the owners have no funds for maintenance. Also, some properties which are auctioned by the bank are oddly shaped and new buyers cannot do much with them, in turn they are foreclosed again.

Mr. Enszer believes that convincing neighbours of such odd shaped properties to buy the same would help bring down the foreclosure rate. In his effort, he has started to send an increasing number of reminder letters to late payers, many of who eventually find ways to retain their properties, by way of borrowing from extended family, friends and non-profit organizations. He is also creating awareness among such property holders, informing them about “hardship forms”, which enable them to get an extension for up to One year. This would give them sufficient time to arrange funds.

In order to increase the success rate of his endeavour, Mr. Enszer hopes that law makers also join him in this effort.

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