The Virginian-Pilot
©
Foreclosure filings in Hampton Roads rose again last month, to the highest point on record, as many lenders continued to repossess and auction off homes in the area despite national efforts to stem foreclosures, a report to be released today found.
The number of local foreclosure-related notices was 1,164 in April, up 7.2 percent from March and more than three times year-ago levels, according to RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure-monitoring service based in Irvine, Calif.
The service tracks the number of bank repossessions and auctions of foreclosed homes nationwide and in Hampton Roads. RealtyTrac recently changed its methodology for tracking local foreclosure activity and no longer includes in its report the number of notices of default, the first stage of the foreclosure process.
The revised figures show that after foreclosures fell in February, the number of filings during the past two months rose to their highest levels since Realty-Trac began reporting on foreclosures in January 2005.
Earlier this year, many of the nation's lenders held off on repossessions to gauge the impact of federal programs aimed at rescuing troubled home-owners.
Foreclosure prevention specialists in the area said the majority of the clients they see facing foreclosure have been put into that position because of a job loss.
"Very few of the ones we're seeing now are people who were put into loans they couldn't afford," said John Allen, a vice president of The Up Center, a Norfolk organization that provides foreclosure prevention counseling. "It's almost always job loss, or reduction in hours, or something revolving around that."
Dotty Acampora, a foreclosure prevention counselor for the nonprofit Virginia Beach Community Development Corp., has seen a similar trend in recent months. More than half of her current clients have recently lost jobs or had their hours cut back.
"The problem is the lenders are just not going to work with someone who is unemployed," said Acampora, who spent nearly two decades as a mortgage banker and is a former president of the Tidewater Mortgage Bankers Association. "They're not going to do a typical forbearance, because unemployment is too widespread."
For the second consecutive month, foreclosure activity nationally was at the highest point RealtyTrac has recorded. More than 342,000 foreclosure filings were reported in April, an increase of less than 1 percent from the previous month and a 32 percent increase from a year ago. The national figures include notices of default, the first stage of the foreclosure process after a home-owner has missed mortgage payments.
In Hampton Roads, foreclosure filings rose in Virginia Beach, Newport News, Portsmouth and Hampton and fell in Norfolk, Chesapeake and Suffolk.
Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com
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Stimulus...
The only thing that should have been done as far as stimulus spending concerns the nation's infrastructure. A golden opportunity has passed to apply a true fix on a massive scale there. Throwing good money after bad in the way of bailouts because some entities are considered "too big to fail" has been a disaster, after all the money thrown at the car makers, they're still going to go under, that should have been allowed to happen months ago, instead of the attempts to postpone the obvious. Interesting that Bell Telephone some years ago was broken up via anti-trust actions, why didn't that happen with AIG, Fanny Mae, etc.? And Bush and Obama are on the same page as far as perceived fixes, the difference being Bush had no desires to actually take over companies and industries, while the Obama admin whole heartedly embraces that. But they both threw money away....
interesting convo's
I would consider myself a fiscal conservative, but my fiscal conservative values have not in the past 8 years, and continually, are not reflected in the current republican values...I see more of my values being reflected oddly, by the Obama administration. I agree that bailouts are a form of socialism, but so is medicare and farm subsidies, and subsidized college scholarships and many many things that are needed. So my point is they cannot be always lumped together, b/c I do not support the bailout theoretically. Now the stimulus I do support, it actually should have been passed in 2000 instead of giving tax cuts to the wealthiest americans, or providing for the biggest era of corporate welfare in history. I believe in middle class investment, like infrastructure...but I also want development to pay for itself, unlike suburban sprawl, which is the most subsidized form of housing in America. Taxes pay for so much more in the PUD's than in the inner city.
From Big Bad Wolf...
"So are you now making the assesment that the Republican party does not represent the majority of self described conservative Americans? And if so who does?"
That is an accurate assessment, that the GOP does not, and has not for some time now, represented true conserbvative values or voters. Anyone who claims that Bush was a conservative is flat out ignorant! The Republican Party is in danger of doing to conservatives what Reagan said of the Dem Party when he switched parties: "I didn't leave them, they left me"!
As to "who does now", good question. The opportunity is there for a real conservative to step up and lead the GOP. By getting away from true conservative principles, they became more like the Dems they supposedly opposed, and the results in recent elections speak for themselves. If a charismatic individual makes some headway within the Libertarian Party, there might be a choice there. Time will tell...
I won't argue parties since
I won't argue parties since they are about one in the same. Look at the people are supposed to be regulating wall street, all come from and go to the same firms they are supposed to be regulating. The president and parties just keep people busy bickering with each other while they are robbed.
Had the mal-investment that went to the housing mania gone to building new companies we'd be in a better situation.
A bigger portion of our GDP belongs to swapping money around (profits taken by wall street on things like your 401k) than from actual production of goods.
I've been harping about the housing bubble for years. It's not new. It was a scam, led by the banks and investors, that made off with trillions of dollars. They are now getting bailed out.
So then it would be a safe
So then it would be a safe assumption that you either don't vote in federal elections or you always vote for third party/independent candidates, which by the way does not include Ron Paul who is indeed a registered Republican?
Look as I have said many times both parties, all branches of government, and to the greatest degree, the ignorant public all contributed to the mess we're in. But when a ship goes down, even if the sailors made it happen, the Captain is ultimately held responsible. Republicans were at the helm for the last 8 years... they have to shoulder most of the responsibility for the state we are in.
Please explain
Welcome to the end of the Bush/Cheney reign. God! We all saw it coming for years!They literally drove this country into a ditch!
Please explain SPECIFICALLY how that was done. Note that repeating silly party rhetoric or making personal attacks doesn't count as a explanation. Now explain how a 1.8 trillion dollar single year deficit and massive government expansion helps. Was the problem there just wasn't enough power in the hands of a few hundred lawyers?
Not at the federal
There are basically no conservatives at the federal level. We have somewhat socialist Republicans and disastrously socialist Democrats.
So are you now making the
So are you now making the assesment that the Republican party does not represent the majority of self described conservative Americans? And if so who does? You are clearly an intelligent person, but if your honest feeling is that the Republican Party's grip on Washington for the past 8 years was not fueled by the overwhelming support of conservative voters then you are kidding yourself. The two go hand in hand, just as progressive Americans are synonomous with the Democratic party.
We all saw it coming!
Welcome to the end of the Bush/Cheney reign. God! We all saw it coming for years!They literally drove this country into a ditch! And when we landed in that ditch they wanted to blame every body all the way to the tooth fairy. Anybody but the Bush Boy's that were so full of corruption and deceit. Remember when Junior wanted to turn Social Security over to the thugs and carpetbaggers of Wall Street? Remember when Junior had come into office and made the disgusting remark "I have some money to spend and I'm going to spend it. (talking about our nations budget a surplus at the time)? Well folks, you put him in office and supported him all the way through. Now all you have is some drug addicted swine as your mouth piece. Thanks a lot!
JWB
Nope
The Republican model is to let the business go under eh? Is that what happened during...
I clearly said "Conservative" and not "Republican".