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San Diego – Local Foreclosures Inch Up

Posted on May 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

San Diego foreclosures and mortgage defaults rose in April, but those numbers remain lower than normal in light of an improving economy and rising home prices, suggests a report from real estate tracker DataQuick on Tuesday.

Notices of default, which signal the start of the foreclosure process, have risen for the past three months to 712 in April. Despite that run-up, they’re about 46 percent lower than the same time a year ago. The county has seen year-over-year drops in mortgage defaults for the past 10 months. They peaked at 3,832 in March 2009.

How do foreclosures effect the value of your home? Why is there no inventory (listings) in your neighborhood? Is there another housing bubble. Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your residential real estate questions.

Foreclosures rose 12 percent to 280, when comparing March to April tallies. They’ve been about halved from a year ago and have seen annual drops for the past 31 months. Trustee deeds, which signal a foreclosure, peaked at 2,004 in July 2008.

Rising home prices and the increased use of government mortgage programs are some of the likely reasons for falling mortgage distress countywide, said Mark Goldman, a real estate professor at San Diego State University.

When home values rise, more property owners may sell because they’re less likely to be underwater on their mortgages, Goldman said. In April, prices hit the highest level in five years, as distressed home sales continue to dwindle.

Also, government programs have been helping certain underwater homeowners refinance their mortgages to lower payments, which can help them stay in their homes, Goldman said. The refinancing market has been “very active,” Goldman said, because mortgage rates are so attractive. The 30-year fixed rate averaged 3.51 percent last week, while the 15-year fixed was 2.69 percent, according to Freddie Mac.

Foreclosures and mortgage defaults continue to fluctuate but are generally trending down. So whatever happened to the foreclosure surge some real estate experts predicted roughly two years ago?

The Eyesore next door: What You Can Do

Posted on November 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

With millions of homes in foreclosure — and millions more owners having difficulty paying their mortgages — there’s likely to be one in every neighborhood: the property that has gone to seed.

Maybe the green lawn next door that you once envied has turned an ugly brown because it hasn’t been watered, or the flower beds have been overtaken by weeds that have grown up to the windows. Or perhaps the grass hasn’t been cut in weeks and the house is surrounded by what looks like a wheat field.

Will foreclosures effect the value of your home? Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your value questions

If the neighborhood eyesore has been abandoned, the house has probably deteriorated. The windows may be broken or boarded up, the gutters could be sagging, the garage door might be hanging off its frame and the roof could be covered with debris.

Perhaps the place has been taken over by rodents. Or maybe the neighborhood kids are using it as a hangout. Or homeless squatters could be using it as shelter — or drug pushers might be using it as their place of business.

It’s not a pretty picture. Yet scenes like these are playing out everywhere. No neighborhood is immune, and the effect on local property values can be chilling, even when the distressed property is occupied and well-maintained.

Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland shows neighboring property values sag by as much as 3.9 percent when a nearby house is in the foreclosure process but is occupied. When the offending house is vacant and the taxes aren’t being paid, the negative effect on neighboring property values can be twice that much.

“Vacant homes can be more than just an eyesore. They can have substantial negative impacts on the surrounding community, impacts that are felt most acutely by the neighbors and communities that must cope with the dangers and costs of vacant buildings,” Federal Reserve Board governor Elizabeth Duke said in a recent speech in New York.

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Tag Archives: forclosure

San Diego – Local Foreclosures Inch Up

The Eyesore next door: What You Can Do

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