Foreclosure activity in Hampton Roads eased in January as some of the nation's lenders suspended home repossessions, a report to be released today found.
The number of foreclosure-related notices filed in January in Hampton Roads was 1,039, down 21 percent from December but up 174 percent from year-ago levels, according to RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure-monitoring
service based in Irvine, Calif. The service tracks the number of bank repossessions, auctions of foreclosed homes and notices of default, which mark the beginning of the foreclosure process.
In January, one in every 656 homes in Hampton Roads had a foreclosure-related filing.
The pace of foreclosure activity in Hampton Roads and across the country had picked up in December after slowing the previous month when many lenders adopted a moratorium on foreclosures during the holidays, first imposed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The moratorium expired at the end of January.
"The extensive foreclosure efforts on the part of lenders and government agencies appear to have impacted the January numbers," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.
Nationally, foreclosure activity fell 10 percent. While the local foreclosure numbers are not as stark as in some parts of the country hit hard by subprime lending, the RealtyTrac data suggest foreclosure activity is growing faster here than nationally. In January, foreclosures nationwide were up 18 percent from year-ago levels, compared with 174 percent in Hampton Roads.
James Koch, an economist at Old Dominion University, attributed the drop in foreclosures to banks holding off while Congress weighed a stimulus package.
"They've been waiting to see what the federal government is going to do," Koch said. "If the federal government is going to come in and rescue these people, then they don't need to foreclose."
He said lenders in general also are getting more hesitant to foreclose as properties begin to mount on their books.
The pace of foreclosures could continue to ease in the coming weeks. The U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision on Wednesday urged institutions under its oversight to suspend foreclosures on owner-occupied homes until the details are finalized for a home loan modification program announced this week by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Locally, most cities saw a decline in foreclosures with the exception of Suffolk, which last month saw related notices spike 65 percent and where one in 385 homes was in some stage of foreclosure.
Koch predicted foreclosure activity will eventually start to rise in the coming months, despite the stimulus bill and rescue packages being discussed in Washington.
"I think we're in a lull right now, but I think it'll break in the spring once the stimulus package is through and people realize it didn't have as much impact as they thought," he said.
Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com
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Hah!
I'd love to see that!!!!!!! About time, instead of behind closed doors on selective issues.
Wow, the ODU folks are
Wow, the ODU folks are starting to understand how things work! Kudos to them, they get a little sticker star on their paper. Let's give them a blue one to match the school colors. There is still trillions in losses to go. Don't get too excited yet. When the values of homes continues to revert to that which salaries conventionally support, more people will think about walking away. By foreclosure time, the people probably hate their houses anyway. It's like a shark pulling you down by the leg when you're trying to swim. Too bad the gov't is bent on trying to save unrealistic prices.
Stimulus
Hope the "stimulus package" works as well as they think it will, this time. The city was wrong to do what they did to tomjefforhisson & the rest of us. City Council it's time to help ALL the citizens of Va Bch not just those with a gross over 80k. The city needs to tighten it's belt like the rest of us until the economy gets better. Don't tax us to death (property or personal) to cover your dreams. Wonder what would happen if the issues were put to a taxpayers vote not a city council vote?
City appraisals Inflated out of Greed
Most of the homes in my neighborhood were worth about two hundred thousand dollars three years ago. A few people in the neighborhood remodeled their homes with all the finest new bells and whistles; copper gutters, marble floors, granite counter tops, jacuzzi baths, and then sold them for perhaps a little over the three hundred thousand dollar mark. This was during the height of the home value bubble and local realtors were telling us that soon they would be worth much more. A few of the remodels sold and the city said that since the tax appraisal for homes is based on recent home sales, that now all of the homes in the area were worth over three hundred thousand dollars whether they had been remodeled or not. This was done by the city out of sheer greed to collect exorbitant property taxes and now the disastrous result is obvious.
Get an attorney
On buying an abandoned house - I'd get a real estate attorney to research it for you. There could be a lot of people with legal interest in it from banks to ex-wives to children.
List of Foreclosures
Is there someplace to get a list of local foreclosures? I know of a home that was "abandoned" because the owner couldn't make the mortgage payments, and I'm interested in the property.
Good
Good, and along with the increase in retail spending, can we ditch this massive government deficit spending?
1 out of every 656 houses in foreclosure
Thank goodness the problem isn't as big here as in some places.