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Distressed properties and lists of foreclosures houses remain elevated in Charlotte, North Carolina, causing residential property prices to continue to decline in the region. According to a recent report by Standard & Poor's, the region was ranked ninth among the 20 biggest housing markets of the U.S. in terms of price decreases for the 12-month period ending January 31, 2011.

As foreclosure property listings in Charlotte continue to grow, prices also continue to fall. Among the 20 markets tracked by the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index, 11 metro areas, including Charlotte, posted their lowest index levels during the 12-month period that ended in January of this year. The report revealed that residential property prices in the region dropped by 4.8% when compared with 12 months ago.

Although foreclosure property listings in North Carolina have remained manageable when compared with hard-hit areas like Florida, Nevada and Arizona, the region was still unable to avoid the impact of the housing market crisis. In Charlotte, prices of homes also recorded a drop month-over-month, with January 2011 selling prices declining by 1.1% compared with December of last year. The metro area though, was not the only one suffering from considerable housing price declines.

With lists of foreclosures houses and distressed properties remaining high in most of the 20 biggest area markets, it is not surprising that the S&P data showed price declines in 18 of these regions. Only Washington D.C. and San Diego, California posted an increase in housing prices during the period covered by the report, with the former recording a 3.6% gain, while the latter recorded an almost statistically inconsequential price increase of 0.1%.

Home foreclosures by state figures mostly reflected the trend in housing prices as the S&P data showed that metro areas with the biggest foreclosure totals also recorded some of the biggest declines in prices over the 12-month period. Phoenix, Arizona had the worst home price performance during the period, with prices dipping by 9.1% in the region. Detroit, Michigan was ranked second with an 8.1% price decline, while Portland, Oregon came in third with a 7.8% fall in housing prices.

According to housing industry analysts, the continuous rise in lists of foreclosures houses and the consecutive months of declining prices showed that the U.S. housing industry has yet to get out of the crisis. They stated that things could get even worse in the coming months as more foreclosures are expected to enter the market.

A total of $110.45 million loss was posted by Raleigh, North Carolina-based lender RBC Bank for its second quarter results largely because of its bank foreclosure list, based on data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

In the second quarter last year, RBC Bank posted a profit of over $13 million. This year, the bank provided $202.5 million in reserves for bad loans, an almost 200-percent increase from the bank’s bad loan reserves of only $53.5 million in the second quarter last year.

Aside from the increased reserves for bad loans, the bank also increased its net bad loan charge-offs from only $26 million in the second quarter last year to $113 million this year, representing a staggering 330 percent increase.

Out of the $113 million charge-offs, nearly $55 million represented residential loans used to purchase single family distressed houses while $36.3 million represented loans provided to home builders and developers for their land development and construction projects. The rate of net charge-offs compared to total loans increased from 0.49 percent in the second quarter last year to 2.l2 percent this year.

Non-current loans, which refer to loans delinquent by over three months, increased from $237.6 million in the second quarter last year to $1.1 billion in the same quarter this year.

For the first 6 months of this year, net charge-offs posted by RBC Bank reached $255 million, representing a substantial rise from the $75.2 million net charge-offs in the first 6 months of 2008.

According to RBC Bank chief executive Scott Custer and his top officers, the current loan and asset quality problems of the bank are largely caused by the operations of its Houston-based lending company RBC Builder Finance. This unit made huge land development and construction loans in nearly 20 states, including Georgia, Florida, California and other states battered by residential and commercial delinquencies and foreclosures.

Florida and California accounted for nearly 46 percent of all default and foreclosure filings in the U.S. in July. Georgia, meanwhile, was seventh in a ranking of state foreclosure rates in July.

Nonetheless, RBC Bank may received much needed help from its parent firm, the Royal Bank of Canada, which has released its income statements this week and showed that it increased its net income by 24 percent, surpassing predictions by financial analysts. With the Royal Bank’s strong performance, Canadian bank analysts have called on the parent company to take corrective actions at RBC Bank.

In an effort to stave off the rising number of foreclosure homes, the Davidson County Community Action has decided to host a foreclosure prevention seminar by the end of this month.

The said event is a response to the overwhelming 552 percent increase in foreclosure filings in the last ten years. With the soaring interest rate and increasing unemployment rate, the weak local economy has become one of the factors that is currently resulting to more and more homeowners in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure.

According to the data gathered by the Community Action group, many homeowners are delayed on their mortgage payment by as long as 40 days. Such delay is considered to be manageable enough and these homeowners will only need some form of intervention in order for them to avoid foreclosure.

If the delay in mortgage payment lasts longer than three months, it will become very difficult for the homeowner to catch up with their mortgage payments. Foreclosure experts advise that, before legal people got involved, homeowners should try to turn around and solve their mortgage problems.

This is perhaps the reasons why many local officials believe that the foreclosure prevention seminar will provide much needed assistance. Among the many attendees is a lawyer from Legal Aid of North Carolina, who will be discussing the many options that homeowners can explore in order to avoid losing their homes to foreclosure.

Local banks are also contacted so that they could encourage their clients to attend the said seminar.

Pre-registration is required but no fees will be charged to the attendees.

Distressed homeowners should take advantage of opportunities such as these so that they could gather sufficient facts and information about the foreclosure process. In any event, it will certainly help them make informed decisions regarding their mortgage obligations.