Listings Foreclosures - Read the Latest Foreclosure Listings News.

More and more homes priced between $4 million and $7 million are being sold at foreclosed homes auctions because they are not getting sold through regular channels, according to Jim Gall, head of Auction Company of America.

During the boom years, high-end homes were also sold at auctions, but the prices remained close to their original purchase prices, unlike these days when auctioned homes are getting sold at bargain prices. Also, in the boom years, publicity strategies were effective in bringing moneyed buyers to auctions.

In 2007, Sky Sotheby’s International auctioned off at the same time 20 luxury homes in Sarasota with an average price of $3.5 million. Chad Roffers, then the head of Sky Sotheby’s, said the auction of large numbers of luxury homes was not usually done.

The collapse of the housing market and the continued decline in home prices have forced owners of high-end homes to turn to auctions to sell their homes as they are pressured by the courts or their creditors.

In July, Concierge Auctions auctioned off 4 high-end distressed homes in Florida, including a $5.9 million eight-bedroom Ponte Vedra waterfront home which had been languishing in the market for two years.

Alan Kravets, head of auction company Sheldon Good, said he has been getting a lot of calls from residents of affluent communities such as Palm Beach, Aspen and the Hamptons. He added he has sold homes priced between $2 million and $5 million through auctions for owners who were not able to sell them.

To increase the chances of high-end homes getting sold at auctions, some auction firms market their auction as absolute auction, which means minimum bids are not set and the sellers agree to accept the highest bid, even if it is extremely low.

Auction Company of America applied the absolute auction strategy when it auctioned off the multimillion-dollar home of businessman Jack Warner on Little Torch Key.

Warner, now 61, bought the home in 1993. With a pool and clear views of Florida Bay, it was appraised in 2007 for almost $14 million. When his Indiana construction business closed and his Florida property investment firm became bankrupt, he was forced to ask help from the auction company to sell his home after failing to sell it at $5.9 million.

Warner hoped the selling price would exceed $3 million so he could pay all his remaining mortgage loans, but he silently accepted his fate when the final bid was only $2.5 million.

Both Pasco County and Pinellas County in Florida have jointly applied for a total of $50 million federal grant for the second round of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Pasco originally plans to use the federal money to buy and rehabilitate properties on foreclosure listing.

In the first round of the federal funding program, Pasco applied and received a total of $19.5 million which it had difficulty in using to purchase properties on repo foreclosure listing. However, this did not stop the county from taking another shot for the federal funding under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2.

The federal funding is based on an area’s vacancies, foreclosures and subprime loans. The number of foreclosed homes in Pasco is increasing faster than how the community development office spends the money.

Community development director George Romagnoli said that the county had spent almost $1.5 million, which is more than the amount spent by any local government in Florida. He said that the county has 10 nonprofit organizations that are purchasing properties on foreclosure listing.

He added that except for three, the rest of the counties in Florida are qualified for the federal funding, with Pinellas posting nearly 50 percent in foreclosure rate increase.

Pasco had difficulty in how to spend the first round of federal funding it received. Last October, county commissioners revised their spending plan by allocating about $6.5 million for homebuyer assistance, an increase from the original proposal of $4 million.

Under the original proposal, the county would spend the funding to purchase and rehabilitate foreclosure homes and then sell them. Commissioner Michael Cox decided to restructure the spending plan, giving emphasis on providing down payment assistance.

In restructuring the plan, Cox explained that the original amount of $16 million intended for purchasing and renovating distressed properties could grow to $436 million if it will be used to help potential buyers acquire properties.

However, Romagnoli noted that the effort of the local government to direct the funding to down payment assistance had been unsuccessful because banks refused to approve loans to at-risk borrowers eligible for the county’s grant.

A review of the program is in the offing but for the meantime, Romagnoli wants a portion of the funds to be allocated to purchase foreclosure houses. So far, Pasco County and its partners have purchased nearly 35 properties on foreclosure listing.

Because legislators in Florida have not passed significant laws to help facilitate the implementation of the Obama administration’s government foreclosures program, judges in several circuit courts in the state have taken the initiative to decongest the courts of foreclosure cases and at the same time help distressed homeowners.

Burton Conner, circuit judge of Treasure Coast, said that he is frustrated that nothing significant is being done to facilitate the federal government foreclosures program to cut down the number of foreclosure cases clogging the courts. Instead, he said, what was done was the reduction of court staff members and cutbacks on court budgets.

To help reduce foreclosure cases, Judge Conner has started requiring mortgage lenders and borrowers to meet and work out affordable payment schemes before lenders make their foreclosure filings. Conner said the effort has led to the settlement of many foreclosure cases and in effect, led to the implementation of the goals of the federal government foreclosures program.

Even with the top ranking of Florida in nationwide charts of foreclosure rates and foreclosure filings month after month and quarter after quarter, state legislators have not crafted a significant legislation that could have helped carry out the federal government foreclosures program.

In May this year, the total number of foreclosure filings across Florida is still more than 50 percent of foreclosure filings in May last year. Eleven percent of all mortgage loans in the state are in foreclosure, based on data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

But the state legislature whose spring session ended last month approved only two bills related to foreclosure. Of the 15 bills introduced to help carry out the federal government foreclosures program, ten bills never reached the state of discussion, including several bills that proposed mandatory mediation between borrowers and lenders.

The Center for Responsible Lending said that one out of three distressed borrowers can save their homes from foreclosure if they are able to participate in mandatory mediation processes.

Instead, state legislators approved only the bill that would increase court filing fees and the bill aimed at complying with a federal regulation.

In Treasure Coast, where mediation was ordered by Judge Conner, 22 of the foreclosure cases initially processed through mediation were successfully renegotiated.

In Palm Beach, Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Kroll required lenders to revise homeowners’ loans. Amy Borman, court general counsel of Palm Beach County, said that the courts want to help homeowners through mediation and other options under the government foreclosures program.

Pre-foreclosure listings provider Default Research’s data showed that the total count of homeowners who received foreclosure filings in counties of Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade increased by just below one percent in February 2009.

Troubled homeowners in Florida who are having problems with their mortgages received an early holiday present in the form of a 45-day moratorium on foreclosures for the length of the holiday season. Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced the news after banks and credit unions gave their support for the moratorium.

Closely following the state of Nevada in terms of foreclosure rate, Florida is certainly getting pummeled and beaten by the crisis in the housing industry. According to reports released by RealtyTrac, the Sunshine State leapfrogged ahead of California and Arizona based on its month-over-month foreclosure activity, placing it at the #2 spot. Compared to last August, Florida foreclosure listings has increased by 9 percent.

With home rates in Florida plummeting, thanks to the increasing number of Florida foreclosure listings, people wanting to but their first homes and investors alike, see this as a good time to get good deals on properties. Auctions on properties that have been foreclosed by banks are known to provide the buyers with opportunities to buy at well below the market price; this is mainly because lenders are not very keen on hanging on to the foreclosed properties.