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Foreclosed home list properties dominated residential auctions in May in California’s Riverside County, according to foreclosure sales data released this week.

The number of foreclosure homes sold through auctions in May increased to 2,180, an increase of 29 percent from April sales, but represented a drop of 39 percent compared to May 2008.

Housing analysts said the level of foreclosed home list sales is extremely low compared to numbers representing mortgages in default, houses with negative equity and properties already in foreclosure.

Because of the decrease in foreclosed home list units as seen in recent monthly year-over-year comparisons, some people in the housing industry believe that more mortgage lenders are participating in the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable program.

While many homeowners complain that banks are not addressing their mediation requests and not modifying their loans, analysts cite data as evidence of the willingness of some lenders to work out affordable repayment schemes.

Nevertheless, since market data indicated that large numbers of trustee sale notices were posted in May, more foreclosed home list properties are expected to be auctioned off. In May, a total of 41,959 trustee sale notices were filed.

Another foreclosure study also reported that there were 10,784 home loan default notices, trustee sale notices and foreclosure notices filed in May, representing an increase of 17 percent from foreclosure filings in May 2008. Although the figure indicated a slight drop from filings in April, the May data included a large share of units which are already in bank-owned foreclosure inventories.

The Riverside-Bernardino metro area, which had one foreclosure filing for every 75 housing units, was also fourth in the nation in metro foreclosure rates.

Compared to other counties in California, Riverside County had the fourth highest ratio of foreclosed home sale per capita in May. According to foreclosure sales data, one foreclosed home for every 958 residents in Riverside was sold.

It was Merced County which topped the ratio chart, with one foreclosed home list unit sold for every 773 residents. Second and third in the chart were Stanislaus County, where one unit was sold for every 857 residents, and Yuba County, where one unit was sold for every 877 residents. The county with the lowest ratio was San Joaquin County, with one foreclosed home list unit sale for every 989 residents.

Prudential Prime Properties Wolfson Cutler, a real estate agency based in Medford, Oregon, has recently been approved to sell repo houses for sale owned by the department of Housing and Urban Development.

HUD repo houses for sale are properties acquired by the said government agency due to the homeowner’s failure to meet their obligation on the FHA-insured mortgage. Once the property completes the foreclosure process, it will end up as property of HUD and will be sold so that the government can recover the losses incurred from the mortgage default.

Initially, these HUD repo houses for sale can be bought by owner-occupant buyers only or individuals who would be buying the property as their first home. If the HUD property was not sold during this priority period, it can now be bought by anyone including real estate investors.

Listings of repo houses for sale by the HUD are usually available online. This is possible with the partnership or management contracts entered by the government and various HUD-registered real estate brokerages. These brokers will act as the buyer representative and will be the one to submit any offer for the foreclosure property. Depending on the contract, HUD usually pays for the broker’s commission.

In most cases, new HUD repo houses for sale listings are posted weekly. These repossesses properties are offered at a considerable discount and again, owner-purchaser buyers are prioritized. If no offers are made within 15 days, the HUD property will now be available to the general public.

If you are interested, you should keep in mind that your bid or offer should be submitted to any HUD-approved broker. These brokers have special access to the HUD website and are able to show these HUD repo houses for sale to interested buyers. If your offer is accepted, your broker will also be the one to take care of all the buying details.

Also, you should remember that these repo houses for sale by the HUD are sold as is and you should try to consider the repair costs before making an offer.

The country is being hit by a third ware of distressed foreclosure homes, caused by job losses and lack of overtime work, according to economists working with Moody’s Economy.com. They said the first wave of foreclosure homes was caused by the subprime lending collapse and the drastic fall in home prices while the second wave was caused by the adjustment of mortgage rates and the consequent rise in monthly mortgage payments.

The economists also said that homeowners whose houses are becoming foreclosure homes in 2009 are borrowers who really qualified for their loans and who have been able to pay their monthly payments for years. They just fell behind in their monthly payments in the last months because they have lost their jobs.

Economy.com analysts have estimated that about 60 percent of home loan delinquencies in 2009 will be caused by unemployment.

Moody’s Economy.com economist Mark Zandi said that the third wave of foreclosure auctions is getting worse nationwide because of the rising number of unemployed and underemployed Americans.

The case of Kay and Robert Richards are illustrative of the foreclosure effect of unemployment. Since 2006, they have been able to pay their $1,300 monthly loan payments for the $172,000 home loan that they took out to buy a prefab home in Minnesota. Their business of transporting timber from a mill enabled them to earn around $70,000 every year and pay their mortgage payments.

But when their trucking business failed last year because of the downturn, their income was slashed as Mr. Richards was forced to accept whatever occasional assignment he can get from a local trucking company.

They have already accumulated a total of $10,000 in arrears. They have been trying to negotiate with their lender to lower their monthly payments to prevent their house from being added to inventories of repo homes.

Based on real estate research firm First American CoreLogic, the number of delinquent mortgage loans classified as prime has increased in a four-month period by over 473,000 in February, putting the total number to more than 1.5 million. The value of total prime loans in default has surpassed 224 billion.

In states with high jobless rates, like California, the number of foreclosure homes has been rising at a fast pace. The jobless rate in California increased from 6.4 percent in March 2008 to 11.2 percent in March. Its rate of foreclosure for prime mortgage loans also increased almost three-fold to 1.81 percent.

More and more renters and younger first-time homebuyers are doing foreclosed home search for their home purchases. There are also more of them who prefer buying foreclosed homes than older homebuyers or current homeowners, based on a study released by RealtyTrac and Trulia.com.

Potential homebuyers seeking low-priced foreclose homes for sale flocked to Las Vegas, Nevada where they try to have a part of the over 1 million properties in the city’s foreclosure inventory. In 2008, foreclosed properties in the city reportedly peak over 1 million and the figures are expected to reach 1.2 million in 2009.

Housing starts climbed by 2 percent to a yearly pace of 520,000 in April despite a 32-percent rise in number of houses at risk of becoming forclosure properties, according to a survey of economists by Bloomberg News.
In April, RealtyTrac’s report showed that over 342,000 houses were hit with default notices, auction sale notices and foreclosure [...]

The latest resolution of the Treasury Department regarding the housing crisis is believed to be more of a short-term relief rather than a permanent solution. Economists argue that reducing interest rate to 4.5 percent is not enough to improve home sales and decrease foreclosure incidences. Even worse, the proposition could cost $25 billion dollars yearly.

Since decreasing mortgage duties, approving incentive packages, purchasing toxic loan-supported securities and restricting foreclosure have not been effective in evening out the housing markets, a new intervention is in need.
Fractional homeownership works the same way as having a business partner or an investor. The homebuyer now does not have to pay for the heavy [...]

The residents of mobile homes in the Pine Meadows Community got alarmed after learning about the scheduled foreclosure auction of their place on November 4.

Law and college students from several Boston colleges and universities intend to take part in walking the streets of Hyde Park, Dorchester, and South Boston to inform tenants of their rights to their homes. This campaign aims to focus on the 28 zones in Chelsea and Boston, which have the most number of foreclosures. It is also a level-up version of the efforts of the Jamaica Plain Group City Life.