The Virginian-Pilot
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Showing no signs of letting up, foreclosure activity in Hampton Roads jumped to a record high in April as lenders stepped up efforts to auction off homes, a report to be released today found.
The number of local foreclosure-related notices last month reached 1,738, up 31 percent from March and 49 percent higher than a year ago, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure-monitoring service based in Irvine, Calif.
The number of home repossessions and foreclosure auctions last month topped the earlier high of 1,329 in March and marks the third consecutive month of record highs. Foreclosure notices rose in nearly every city in the region, with much of the spike because of rising numbers of auctions.
Foreclosures rose 60 percent in Portsmouth, 51 percent in Hampton, 45 percent in Norfolk, 40 percent in Chesapeake and 29 percent in Virginia Beach, while foreclosure activity in Suffolk fell about 7 percent.
The region was out of step with national trends in April. Foreclosure activity nationwide last month slid 9 percent from March and was down 2 percent from April 2009. It was the first time since RealtyTrac began collecting foreclosure data in 2005 that the number has declined from the previous year, suggesting that the foreclosure problem across the country might be peaking.
The national figures include notices of default, the first stage of the foreclosure process after a homeowner has missed mortgage payments.
"Foreclosure activity has begun to plateau, but at a very high level that will not drop off in the near future," RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio said in a news release. "We expect a similar pattern to continue for most of this year, with the overall numbers staying at a high level... as lenders systematically work through the backlog of distressed properties."
Despite national efforts to stem foreclosures, lenders in recent months have grown more reluctant to offer loan modifications to struggling homeowners, representatives from local foreclosure prevention groups said Wednesday.
"It just seems they're not resolving as many cases as they were," said John Allen, vice president for housing and financial counseling at The Up Center in Norfolk. "It does seem like really good progress was being made in the first quarter of this calendar year, but we seem to be getting less approvals in the past month or two."
Allen said several clients had been placed in trial modifications, under which home-owners are given a lower monthly payment for a period of three to six months with the anticipation that it eventually will become a permanent reduction. Several of those clients had been removed from their trials without explanation, he said.
Other foreclosure-prevention counselors have similar stories, said Yvette Young, vice president of programs and operations for Urban League of Hampton Roads.
"It is still an issue working with the servicers, even with the revamp of the Making Home Affordable plan," she said. "It's taking a long time to get a final approval. Even with people on trial modifications, a lot of times they're getting denied. Sometimes the client doesn't even know why."
Some lenders have streamlined the loan-modification process, she said, but, for others, it's still hard to get someone on the phone.
"So, the clients a lot of times are afraid because they don't know what's going to happen," she said. "It's kind of discouraging for some, but others who get a good deal are exhilarated to be keeping their home."
Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com
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Have a good time in your tent city
"If the American people ever allow private banks
to control the issue of their money,
first by inflation and then by deflation,
the banks and corporations that will
grow up around them (around the banks),
will deprive the people of their property
until their children will wake up homeless
on the continent their fathers conquered."
-Thomas Jefferson
Welcome to modern "amerika"
Please report on where all the money went and why
The Pilot runs this story once a month like clock work. Please do your community a public service and write an article that explains what happened during the mortgage loan meltdown. On a national level you had major players like Countrywide Home Loans, and locally almost every bank in town, committing financial fraud on an unprecedented scale. Once home loans became a retail item, i.e. something to be bought and sold freely without regulation, massive fraud set in. Local banks made loans they knew were fraudulent and unfair, but because they could collect their origination fees and sell the loans to Wall Street (Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch etc.) they didn't care that these borrowers did not honestly qualify for the loans. Mortgage Bankers acted deceptively, illegally and made billions of dollars doing so. No documentation loans, Adjustable Rate loans, interest only loans, you name it and virtually every bank here in Hampton Roads robbed local consumers with usorious fees on loans they knew would go bad. The Pilot should let its readers know who made these bad loans, why the terms were so one sided and just how much these pillars of our community made ripping off consumers. The fact
Still a house of cards
You can study all the markets including real estate,stocks,commodities,etc. over the last 100 years......no market can sustain but a certain line of appreciation without creating a bubble.Real Estate has done well at 3% to 7 % a year for a long time.Allot of very smart and wealthy people around here got caught up in the allure and greed of the 2003-2006 market and lost, so all the non wealthy and non savvy real estate investors didn't have a chance either.This market will never recover until the trend line becomes back into balance with real incomes,savings and other market pressures such as pending higher taxes and inflation.All these buyers with tax credits who now have paid again too much will suffer from negative equity for years.Unless you are finding properties 32%-40% off their highs you are still negative,mark my words and we will see in 2011.I will continue to short the market.
There's no place like home?
How quaint! People will bend over to pay the banks to stay in Their Homes. What most seem to not see is the fact that there is no such thing as Home. It is a house, a business decision no different than the one you made when you got a job. No one works for the same company for thirty years, they learn what they can and move on. The global economy has created a nation of migrants, all seeking out the next urban gold rush. Those who choose to enslave themselves to the banks sacrifice past accomplishments and future opportunities in a delusional effort to maintain something that no longer exists. Better to cut your losses than become the last family in a ghost town.
underwater
since when does something losing value give someone a license to just leave it? a bank gives you a large amount of money to purchase something you could never afford without a loan and you feel like you don't have to pay it back? what if you made a profit on the house? are you going to give it back to the bank?
the banks are at fault for part of this but the other portion is people being unresponsible and then thinking they can just walk away. i understand that some people have lost jobs, have health issues, etc. and legitimately could not afford the house but this has always been an issue. what has happened now is that too many people want to sign for a lot of money and not assume any of the risk with it.
with people like this its no wonder banks don't want to give loans? if it were your money would you want to give loans out if you think people will just walk away if it is too hard on them? on top of that rates are so low that you won't make much money on the loan?
this is not for those that have legitimate reasons for losing a house but to others who just walked away i want to personally thank you for destroying the american dream. there are millions of hardworking peop
Foreclosure:
The last shall be first,and the first shall be last.
IN DUE SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!!
military effect
There's nothing wrong with active duty who live in base housing or rent.
But exiting military people who remain here after their time is up are driving down wages by flooding the local job market. No one wants to talk about the negative effects of having almost the entire Atlantic Fleet in one port. This place is unique in that aspect.
Excuse Me??
Exiting military people flooding the local job market and driving down wages? You make it sound like we should all live in a colony like the lepers once we've retired! Are retired military not entitled to live, pay taxes, and contribute to the economy, or just not in your backyard??? Please, think before you post!
move
You can move away. Why do you want to hang around Navy bases when you exit the Navy?
not enough information
This article is incomplete. There's no indication of what segment of society the foreclosures are coming from. I will say this, most of the military here are not originally from here. If they're home owners and are unable to sell when they're getting out, why not walk away from the mortgage? I don't see where they have much of choice. Stay somewhere they don't want to because a house doesn't sell?