Foreclosure activity in Hampton Roads jumped in December despite some of the nation's lenders suspending home repossessions, a report to be released today found.
The number of foreclosure-related notices filed in December in Hampton Roads was 1,321, up 22 percent from November and 258 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.
The pace of foreclosure activity in Hampton Roads and across the country had slowed in November after lenders across the country adopted a moratorium on foreclosures during the holidays, first imposed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, called the December increase "surprising," given the moratorium as well as programs developed by major lenders to slow down foreclosures across the country.
"Clearly the foreclosure prevention programs implemented to date have not had any real success in slowing down this foreclosure tsunami," Saccacio said in a news release.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently announced that they would extend the moratorium to the end of this month, but that may make little difference when it comes to the pace of foreclosure, said James Koch, an economist at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
"None of this changes my viewpoint that we're still headed for lots of grief," he said. "There are lots of potential problems out there. These problems are going to be exacerbated by the economy and people losing their jobs."
Koch predicts local home prices will continue to fall in 2009, pushing home-owners who bought near the peak of the local housing boom to the brink of foreclosure.
In the past year, foreclosure activity in Hampton Roads has risen faster than it has nationwide. In December, foreclosures across the country were up 41 percent from year-ago levels.
One out of every 513 homes in the region was in some state of foreclosure last month. Nationwide that number is one of every 416 homes.
Locally, foreclosures were most prevalent in Portsmouth, where the figure was one in 182 homes. The city also saw the region's largest spike in the past year. In December, Portsmouth had 235 foreclosure-related filings, up more than ten fold from the 21 filings it had a year before.
For all of 2008, foreclosures were up 81 percent nationwide. Virginia ranked 16th among the 50 states with 1.52 percent of all homes receiving some sort of foreclosure-related notice last year.
Northern Virginia pushed the state higher on that list. The Washington, D.C., metropolitan area - comprising the district as well as Virginia and Maryland suburbs - saw notices filed on 2.97 percent of its homes. The D.C. area ranked 23rd among the nation's top 100 metro areas.
Richmond ranked 73rd, with 1.03 percent of homes receiving a foreclosure notice, while the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News metro area was 78th, with 0.95 percent of homes receiving notices.
Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com
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Leveling off...
It seems to me this real estate market is just begining to get back to where it should be...probably another 20% reduction should do it... Now that we can assume there will be no increase in value (in at least the next 2 years) the investment angle is gone....we're left with those buying from there income. There is a boatload of people in our area whom do not make over 40K per year....What will that get them? Pretty much an apartment. There has to be a drastic correction. The 40K folks can only afford about a 700-900 a mo. mortgage payment comfortably. That will get you ghetto around here. This area needs working class housing that is 100K-150K as well as a huge correction in the 200-350K range. As for foreclosures....there are a ton of them out there! Many of my contractor friends have went from building homes during the boom to fixing foreclosures. There are a few steals from time to time....don't hesitate to lowball 20 offers until you find someone willing to budge...and always be willing to walk away from the closing table if an unscrupulous banker tries to bait and switch you!!! It is do-able with enough perserverance. Best of luck...
ccvabeach - it probably
ccvabeach - it probably depends on how much is owed on a property. If the borrower owes more money than the property is worth then the lender is going to want to get them to continue paying. If the lender could take over the property and sell it at a profit, then they might try to make that move. As I understand it, the lenders have loads of properties that they aren't even listing on the market. Backed up or not ready to show the losses. Quite the mess, but it was SO BLATANTLY obvious that all of this would happen, if anyone bothered to look. In many cases people could be better off walking. I've read that in other markets people quit paying over a year ago and their lenders haven't even started to take action.
Foreclosure-Mortgage Companies not helping
Yup....go ahead and try to get your mortgage company to help you stay out of forclosure..won't happen!!! Not here!! Either you have to come up with a hughe sum of money to refinance, or you had better have very good credit and make lots of money! Now, would you be asking for help if you had the money or a job???? NO! And what about bankruptcy courts helping?? Not going to happen either, now those filing have no money and no jobs, why else would they file? So who's telling us lies?? Did our tax money just go to these mortgate companies so they could help anyone?? Think about it!! Do the math...you know where that money went..surely not to the people who need it the most. Such a GREAT country we live in????
Housing ..
The housing bubble has been a HUGE mis-investment of money. Imagine if instead of home prices running up where the majority of young people have to take out 100 year loans, that the capital was put into new industries? Elevated high speed maglev rail throughout America that could compete with air travel? New energy generation and management systems. Something other than pressboard boxes wrapped n vinyl and war. Housing was a bubble, the prices were grossly inflated, now they will come down. End of story. You bought during the bubble time, you paid more than the place will be worth in the future. This bubble made the economy look good for a while as people racked up debt. You can't escape what incomes will pay, and you can't escape the real productivity of what people do for the incomes.