David Bruce

October 23rd, 2008

Richmond Foreclosures on the Rise!

Foreclosures in the Richmond Metro area are on the rise again.  Over 1100 homes received foreclosure filings almost triple year over year. Bank repo’s, auction sales and defaults are included in this total. In Virginia as a whole, foreclosure notices are up 185% year over year. Notices did fall in September versus August, one bright spot, but nothing you could call trend. The Richmond area ranked 88th among metro areas in the country for foreclosures.

Nationwide there was a 71 percent increase in the number of homes which received at least one foreclosure-related notice in the third quarter of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007. Approximately 250,000 properties were repossessed nationwide in the third quarter. About 12 million U.S. Homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Like Virginia nationwide figures also dropped in September. These figures were reported by the Associated Press.

FACT: California, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan and Nevada accounted for more than 60 percent of all foreclosures in the quarter and California alone made up more than a 25% of all U.S. foreclosure filings.

What is Foreclosure? RealtyTrac, an online resource for foreclosures gives a straightforward definition below:

Foreclosure is a process that allows a lender to recover the amount owed on a defaulted loan by selling or taking ownership (repossession) of the property securing the loan. The foreclosure process begins when a borrower/owner defaults on loan payments (usually mortgage payments) and the lender files a public default notice, called a Notice of Default. The foreclosure process can end one of four ways:

1. The borrower/owner reinstates the loan by paying off the default amount during a grace period determined by state law. This grace period is also known as pre-foreclosure.
2. The borrower/owner sells the property to a third party during the pre-foreclosure period. The sale allows the borrower/owner to pay off the loan and avoid having a foreclosure on his or her credit history.
3. A third party buys the property at a public auction at the end of the pre-foreclosure period.
4. The lender takes ownership of the property, usually with the intent to re-sell it on the open market. The lender can take ownership either through an agreement with the borrower/owner during pre-foreclosure, via a short sale foreclosure or by buying back the property at the public auction. Properties repossessed by the lender are also known as bank-owned or REO properties (Real Estate Owned by the lender).

For those who can qualify for a loan, or have cash to invest, there are bargains to be had! If you have questions about foreclosures or about buying a home in the Richmond Metro area? Please contact us at RichmondHomeShopper.com!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 8:04 am and is filed under Real Estate News and Statistics, Short Sales and Foreclosures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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