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A growing number of repossession properties in Portsmouth, Virginia have become fire hazards and magnets to vagrants and thieves.

Aside from becoming blights to the neighborhoods and communities in the area, these abandoned and vacant properties have become safety risks to firefighters and nearby residents.

To address the threat brought by these vacant repo properties to neighborhoods and residents and to protect them from further deterioration, the Fire Department has launched a program to go after the owners of these properties to require them to do basic maintenance.

Battalion Chief Michael Stockton said that the department is taking a hard stance because repossession properties are both neighborhood quality and safety issues.

Firefighters in Portsmouth will mark abandoned, unsecured and vacant properties with placards, color coded to warn everyone that they are dangerous properties. Green and yellow placards will indicate a less dangerous property.

Meanwhile, red placards will be placed on most dangerous properties indicating that there are major structural problems and whoever trespasses will be prosecuted.

The Fire Department will then notify owners of repossession properties of structural violations. They will be given a month to repair the structural problems and secure the properties. Owners who failed to comply will be charged with criminal misdemeanor.

The department explained that its decision to go after owners of abandoned and vacant foreclosed properties is a way to ensure the safety of residents and public personnel. The city’s building inspection and code enforcement departments have already taken safety measures on empty properties.

Portsmouth Fire Chief Don Horton pointed out that 3 out of 5 firefighters received injuries in abandoned and vacant properties. He explained before the city council that the placards that would be placed on vacant foreclosed properties would also serve as warning to firefighters not to enter unsafe buildings.

Aside from Portsmouth, the city of Norfolk also started securing abandoned and vacant properties in the area to discourage vagrants who will decide to take shelter in them in the winter.

Since 2007, Portsmouth registered about 1,000 abandoned and vacant properties in the area. Stockton said that with the increasing number of repossession properties, the figures are expected to go up to as many as 1,500.

California still leads other states in foreclosed home listings, based on foreclosure data released by California-based real estate research firm RealtyTrac.

In May, California had 92,249 housing units hit with foreclosure filings, the highest figure among state foreclosures. The number represented an almost 23 percent increase from filings in May 2008.

The number of bank repo homes declined by 1 percent compared to April while defaults dropped by 18 percent. However, the number of auctions scheduled to sell properties in foreclosed home listings increased by 18 percent.

Marty Rodriguez, founder of Glendora-based broker Century 21 Marty Rodriguez, said she and her fellow brokers are still waiting for bank owned foreclosed properties that were not released before the foreclosure moratoriums. She said brokers received insider information that there are more bank owned homes still to enter the market.

Rodriguez said many homeowners who applied for loan modification during the foreclosure moratoriums failed to qualify, causing more properties to be added to foreclosed home listings.

Rodriguez also added that she has been receiving multiple offers on bank owned real estate owned properties because banks have priced them aggressively to get more offers. She said many of the offers have been exceeding the asking price because of the competition.

The over 92,000 foreclosure filings in California as reported by RealtyTrac included all filings in different stages of foreclosure: default, auction and real estate owned. The notice of default is given when the initial foreclosure is filed. The notice of auction is given when a trustee or foreclosure sale is scheduled. Properties are considered REO when they are foreclosed and repurchased by the bank.

The second state with the biggest number of foreclosure notices is Florida. Despite a decline in default notices, foreclosure auctions and bank owned foreclosed home listings compared to April, foreclosure filings increased by 50 percent to 58,931 units compared to filings in May 2008.

With 17,157 in foreclosure filings, Nevada ranked third among the states, according to the RealtyTrac report.

Rodriguez related that first-time buyers have been joining the frenzy in looking for bargain-priced units in foreclosed home listings. They are trying to beat the deadline for the $8,000 tax credit which is offered only up to the end of November.

With first-time buyers and investors competing in many markets, the asking prices for some distressed properties in foreclosed home listings go up instead of going down. Rodriguez cited a Corona home which was offered at $507,000 and which was finally sold at $590,000, still a bargain when the original price of $860,000 is considered.

Money from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act is being used by the city of Aurora in Colorado to buy and rehabilitate houses on REO property listings and then re-sell them.

Already, contractor Steve Snow is rehabilitating five properties bought by the city from REO property listings. Work to rehabilitate the properties is estimated to last for about six months. Then after that, they will be sold to eligible low and middle income homebuyers.

Aurora is the first city in Colorado to use the federal funds allocated to stabilize neighborhoods across the country severely affected by the foreclosure crisis.

The city is set to receive about $4.47 million from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program of the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development. Additionally, the city will also receive $2.5 million funds from the total grant of $53 million given to Colorado.

Since March 3, Aurora has already spent over $1 million purchasing 21 houses on REO property listings. The city replaced the furnaces and sewer lines on foreclosed houses it bought before it puts out a bid for the renovation of the properties.

Community development manager of Aurora, Joseph Garcia explained that eligible homeowners are going to buy homes that are virtually new despite their being on REO property listings.

Furthermore, the federal program also helps improve and stabilize neighborhoods with high foreclosure property rates. However, several residents believed that even without the city doing its best to address foreclosures and stabilize neighborhoods, the communities in Aurora are capable of getting back on their feet without help.

Meanwhile, Snow explained that the system used to renovate the foreclosed properties is designed in such a way that rehabilitation of homes will be done in a fair and consistent way, providing a wide range of affordable, energy-efficient, low-maintenance and well-constructed homes.

On the other hand, Garcia explained that the city established a foreclosure prevention task force that is responsible to identify foreclosure properties that have become eyesores to communities. He said that Aurora’s efforts to curb foreclosures are expected to encourage other real estate developers to purchase and rehabilitate homes in neighborhoods severely affected by the foreclosure crisis.

Metro Home Finders Inc. has been hired by the city to market homes bought on REO property listings. And the homes will be priced based on the purchase and renovation costs or appraised value.

The growing number of properties on repo home listings in New Jersey is pulling down home prices in the state. According to market data, about 16,800 homeowners with properties on listings for sale have reduced their market prices. This represented discounts of about $730 million.

Foreclosures mean misfortune for thousands of homeowners. But some get creative and tried to make something positive out of the crisis.

Lake Las Vegas is now one of many deluxe Las Vegas communities being downed by falling foreclosed property prices.

In May, foreclosed home listing inventories across Wisconsin fell for the second straight month, based on data from foreclosure tracking service ForeclosureAlarm.com, led by Philip Crawford.

In an effort to help control the rising number of foreclosures homes statewide, California Attorney General Jerry Brown has released an order requiring all foreclosure prevention counselors and consultants to register with his state office starting July 1.

Arizona repo home listings continue to surge to an unprecedented high of 79 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period the previous year. This unabated spread of foreclosures ranked the state number two in the country in terms of foreclosure rate.

A free workshop for distressed homeowners who want to avoid repossession houses will be sponsored by the Lafayette Neighborhood Housing Services (LNHS) in Indiana.