The Housing Bubble

The Union Tribune reports from California. “San Diego County’s highflying housing boom is over, but real estate agents specializing in foreclosure sales say business hasn’t been this good since the deep recession of the mid-1990s. In the first half of 2007, the county had a record 2,896 foreclosures, compared with 445 during the first half of 2006, a 551 percent increase.”

“Today, of the nearly 24,000 listings of resale houses, condominiums and mobile homes, roughly one-fifth were identified by Sandicor, a local MLS, as distressed properties either in foreclosure or approaching the stage where owners could lose their homes.”

“During the second quarter of this year, the proportion of foreclosure sales shot up to 9.7 percent of all resales, compared with just 1.7 percent a year earlier. But that’s still off the peak of nearly 15 percent seen twice during the mid-1990s, according to DataQuick.”

“Analyst Christopher Cagan researched foreclosure sales a year ago in areas where there was a much higher proportion of distressed properties, Cagan found that they sold at significant discounts, sometimes as much as 20 percent to 30 percent.”

“‘We’re not there yet, but time will tell,’ said Cagan. ‘In general, the discounts right now are modest.’”

The Orange County Register. “Us: What have you learned about the Orange County new-home market since you began producing this report? Patrick: ‘The median asking price for all types of new homes during May of this year in Orange County was down by 3.4 percent from a year earlier, and it was even higher for single-family homes (down by 18.6 percent) and townhomes and plexes (down by 13.2 percent).’”

“‘What’s really interesting is that as sales of condominium flats in the county have tanked by nearly 19 percent from last May, median asking prices have actually risen by nearly 8 percent. I must also offer an important caveat: Many times the actual sales prices, not asking prices, are masked by various incentives that are difficult to track.’”

“Us: High home prices, coupled with an increase in interest rates, got the blame for starting the slowdown. What are other factors? Patrick: I think the psychological impact is huge because the news about the housing industry keeps getting worse, with an almost perfect storm of high home prices, tighter lending requirements and rising foreclosures. And there’s not much to do about this particular downturn other than wait for the market to correct itself.’”

“‘Builders aren’t personally invested, so they’re not as likely to be insulted at a low-ball offer. Builders have lowered their prices to the point that they’re often a better deal than a comparable resale, so until owners of resale homes face their own reality of a lower price they’re just not going to be as competitive. While many resale homeowners have simply taken their homes off the market, that doesn’t mean the value will return by simply waiting.’”

The Press Democrat. “Foreclosures have soared to a level not seen in more than 15 years in Sonoma County The fallout could extend the housing slump in Sonoma County, where home buyers are finding that loans are tougher to get and cost more than mortgages issued just a month ago.”

“‘The investors in the market really are shying away because of the reawakening from the subprime loans,’ said Greg Jahn, chief investment officer for Exchange Bank in Santa Rosa. ‘It’s starting to spill over into other types of lending. Financial institutions in general are saying, ‘We’re not going to make credit as easy as it was.’”

“In Sonoma County, the median price has dropped 12 consecutive months in year-to-year comparisons. Lenders sent default notices to 462 homeowners during the second quarter, the highest level on record, and repossessed 163 homes during the same period.”

“Many of those defaulting on their loans stretched their finances to purchase homes, primarily around the market’s peak two years ago.”

“‘We could clearly see this fallout. They were overleveraged, their home values have declined, and interest rates are higher,’ said Marty McCormick, owner of a Santa Rosa mortgage broker.”

“Someone who bought a $600,000 home 2½ years ago with an interest-only loan and a 20 percent down payment could see monthly payments jump from $2,150 to $3,100.”

“‘It’s hard to predict panics. It might last a little longer,’ said Charles Biderman, founder of Santa Rosa-based TrimTabs Investment Research. ‘People who can afford to pay the mortgage on their house, they’re doing fine. Those who gambled lost,’ Biderman said.”

“About half of all loan applications are rejected today, twice the number from two to three years ago, said Joan Picard, a Cal-Bay Mortgage senior loan officer and president of the Redwood Empire Mortgage Lenders Association.”

“‘It’s going to get a little more rough before it gets better,’ she said.”

“National City Mortgage laid off 40 loan officers at its Santa Rosa call center this week and an additional 60 employees will lose jobs by September, the latest blow from the housing market’s downturn.”

“The housing industry slowdown contributed to a loss of 450 financial services and construction jobs in Sonoma County during the second quarter of this year, according to Moody’s Economy.com.”

“One of the employees who lost her job this week said the announcement was unexpected, coming two weeks after senior executives had reassured workers no cuts were imminent.”

“‘It was a shock to every single person in the office; not even the branch manager had expected it,’ said the employee. She added the announcement was made on a long-distance phone call broadcast over a speaker phone. ‘We were huddled all around it. It was so abrupt that they didn’t even have time to prepare.’”

“‘There’s just not a lot of money out there. Investors are going to cherry-pick. They’re going to want the best borrowers and the best loans,’ said John Klein, executive VP for a Santa Rosa mortgage broker. ‘It’s all supply and demand. This is a cyclical thing.’”

“‘They just don’t have enough business, so you have to stop the bleeding. Everybody is doing the same thing, cutting back and reducing staff,’ said Joan Picard, president of the Redwood Empire Mortgage Lenders Association.”

The Modesto Bee. “Real estate stories are filled with foreclosures, loans gone sideways and homeowners on the brink of financial ruin. In a recent poll of about 1,000 adults by Bankrate.com, about 34 percent of homeowners had no idea what kind of mortgage they had, said Greg McBride, a senior analyst for the Web site.”

“‘It’s one of those out-of-sight, out-of-mind things,’ McBride said.”

“Not only did many people not understand their mortgage conditions, they believed they could refinance the loan or sell the home to get out of problems. ‘A lot of people have been burned,” said Albert Dadesho, a broker in Modesto.”

“People who were priced out of the market before the downturn, he said, should learn from the mistakes made by those who jumped in.”

The Bakersfield Californian. “Between October 2005 and the following summer, a low-level office worker at the former Crisp & Cole Real Estate company bought four homes. Three are now in default. The fourth sits empty, a for-sale sign posted out front.”

“The office worker’s estranged husband is angry. He believes his ex never really owned the units. ‘At 14 bucks an hour she can’t afford any of those homes,’ said Gabe Stockton, a local real estate agent, of his former partner, Janie ‘JJ’ Stockton.”

“Gabe Stockton believes JJ and other employees were pressured to put their names on properties in order to make the company more money through related transactions. ‘You’re talking about some very professional salesmen, men with a lot of money and power, literally using people who are sometimes naive or in a weak position,’ Stockton said.”

“JJ’s most expensive property was bought from Alan Cole, son of Crisp & Cole’s one-time managing broker Carl Cole. JJ paid $795,000 for a southwest home in April 2006, property records show. What Alan Cole previously paid isn’t indicated.”

“Gabe Stockton, meanwhile, has been trying to sell the Ordsall Street house as a favor to JJ. He first listed the home at $711,000, then dropped the price to $699,000. People just drove on by, he said.”

“Last week, it was listed at $585,000, more than 26 percent lower than the sum JJ paid Alan Cole last year.”

“As of Thursday, at least 80 homes tied to Crisp & Cole’s former employees, their families, business associates and customers have defaulted since the beginning of the year, an ongoing Californian tally has found. Some have already foreclosed.”

“Even folks who never dealt directly with Crisp & Cole feel fallout in some neighborhoods where the company did heavy business. Greg and Elaine Hull moved to the upscale Grand Island development last year, never thinking the gated neighborhood would soon be dotted by abandoned properties with brown lawns and dead trees.”

“‘I’m livid,’ Elaine Hull said. ‘I have to look at that every morning.’”

“Three of the 11 homes on Ordsall Street, a block-long segment amidst new development west of Buena Vista Road, are in Crisp & Cole-related default.”

“‘The neighborhood was clean when we moved here in April 2006,’ Greg Hull said. ‘Then the lawns started dying. Our property value has definitely gone down, I’d say by $100,000.’”

“‘When you go for a walk, there are so many houses unoccupied,’ said Ravi Nandakumar, who moved here in early 2004. His tidy home sits next to a pair of defaulted properties owned by former Crisp & Cole employees.”

“Nandakumar has watched neighbors come and go. Most houses on his block have sold twice already, he said. With property values falling, he plans to stay put.”

“‘We are not moving at this point because it’s very difficult to sell,’ he said.”

The Houston Chronicle reports from Texas. “Looking for cheap land? Good luck. ‘Land values have doubled in about a 2 1/2 -year period in better areas in Houston,’ said Jim Hurd of Houston Income Properties. While the low end of the housing market slumps, Houston’s ultrarich are shelling out more for homes than they did last year. So what’s keeping the Inner Loop so strong? ‘To people from New York and California, we look like a bargain,’ agent Cathy Blum said.”

The Facts from Texas. “A steady stream of homebuyers is coming to Brazoria County, defying the tumbling market of new and existing home sales nationwide.”

“‘About 10 percent of the market in Texas accounted for those investors, but that chunk of the market is gone now,’ said said Jim Gaines, research economist at Texas A&M University. ‘The difference is Texas never had the big price boom, so after those investors have gone, we have just returned to the long-term norm, which is a fairly decent climb.’”

“Investors see cheap land in many growing areas, but prices have started to increase.”

“‘Those small beach lots at Surfside Beach, four years ago you could buy a lot for $3,000 to $4,000, that’s real cheap,’ said Harold Cox, manager of Coldwell Banker in Lake Jackson. ‘Now they’ve started selling by the square foot, at around $2 per square foot. I don’t know if what’s going on is good for everyone, but it sure is good for the real estate business.’”

The Express News. “Last year’s fickle real estate investors continue to leave a sour aftertaste in San Antonio’s new-home market.”

“Builders started 27 percent fewer homes in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2006. And more than 3,100 vacant new homes were on the market at the end of June. That’s 1,132 more homes than last summer.”

“Some of those investors had been trying to replicate a speculative scheme that had worked so well in cities on the East and West coasts before those markets turned south. But San Antonio home prices appreciated only moderately. So when it came time to close, and the prices hadn’t soared, many investors walked. All this happened at the tail end of 2006, and San Antonio still is feeling the effects.”

“‘You had this momentum building with local buyers, and it was artificially stimulated by speculative investors,’ said Jack Inselmann, VP of Metrostudy’s U.S. Central Division. ‘It’s still some good numbers. But a decline is not as fun and easy as a market that is growing.’”

From KXAN.com. “For the last two years, Austin has had one of the hottest housing markets in the country, but analysts say that is changing. One of the hottest parts about the Austin housing market has been the rise in condominiums, and there are 100 additional construction projects slated to take place.”

“Right now, 1,200 units are under construction, but analysts from Residential Strategies report that the Austin market can only absorb about 550 units per year. Pricing for these condos are matching those found in places like Miami and Chicago.”

“‘Am I concerned? Let me just say, that we’ll keep an eye on it. There’s no doubt in my mind, there’s just so much that could come on the market. If they all came on the market, there could be 7,500 units,’ said Mark Sprague with Residential Strategies.”

“Sprague said that it is ‘plateauing.’ ‘If we hadn’t had that surge this time last year, we wouldn’t be going ‘Oh the market, what’s happening to the market?,’ said Sprague.”

“Some call it the trickle-down effect from California. That’s where homeowners were selling and getting record profits, and in turn are buying in Texas. ‘Those buyers are not as aggressively purchasing anymore,’ said Sprague.”

“‘Is it now the time to sell your house?’ said Sprague, ‘If you can hold your house, I would sit on your house for a couple of years…Now is always time to buy, because as you know, values never get any cheaper.’”

The Dallas Morning News. “While the overall home sales market has seen a dip this year, sales at the top end are booming. The more than 500 buyers of million-dollar homes in North Texas during the first half of 2007 weren’t concerned about the current shakeout in the subprime mortgage market.”

“‘I think we are seeing a significant impact in the Dallas area from the boom in the energy business,’ said agent Dave Perry-Miller.”

“While the number of million-dollar plus home sales in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has tripled in the last five years, the inventory of these houses on the market is also higher. At the end of June, 1,332 million-dollar houses were up for sale, about 35 percent more than a year earlier, according to the North Texas Real Estate Information System. Even so, that’s only about a 16-month supply.”

From KVUE.com. “Imagine a huge neighborhood with 1,600 houses. Now imagine every one of those houses empty. That’s how many homes are posted for foreclosure in Dallas County.”

“Edward Hoffman of DeSoto knows of seven foreclosures on his block alone. There are 125 posted in DeSoto for August. ‘If you have a bunch of foreclosures… If you have a house that’s worth $400,000, and then you have a bunch of foreclosures, it can drop about 50 percent easy,’ he said.”

“Just three years ago were the good old days in Dallas County.”

“Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville, Garland, Irving, Lancaster and Mesquite had more than 560 foreclosures among them for August of 2004. While that was bad, the Foreclosure Listing Service now says the numbers are much worse. This August, there were 862 foreclosure postings in the same cities. That’s an increase of 65 percent.”

From WFAA.com. “The slump in the housing market has been evident for a while now. Just look at Collin County, where there are too many homes and not enough buyers.”

“Many sellers say they long for the good old days, which weren’t really that long ago. It’s been just two years since buyers got their asking price and the market was red hot.”

“The Bensen family’s nicely-decorated home on Allen’s Twin Creek Drive has been on the market for 11 months. ‘This is the fourth home we have owned, and this is the third home we have owned in the last 13-14 years, so this is quite a shock to us,’ Angela Bensen said.”

“The family has reduced their asking price by $25,000 and followed all their Realtor’s suggestions to increase curb appeal.” “In July 2005, in four of Collin County’s biggest cities, 1,304 homes were sold. The total dropped to 1,130 in July of last year. Last month, the figure dropped to 858 homes sold.”

“Compounding the problem, the inventory of available homes is increasing. Last July, there were four months’ worth of homes on the market. That figure has more than doubled to 8.2 months.”

“‘I think it’s a correction,’ said Marvin Jolly, a Frisco Realtor. ‘2005 was the biggest year on record, so this is just a matter of correcting. And its not a panic at all.’”

“Sellers say Collin County’s rush to build thousands of new homes has hurt them trying to sell their established homes. ‘There’s just too much, too much inventory,’ Bensen said.”

“And now there’s another issue complicating things for sellers. There are hundreds of homes in Collin County that are either up for lease or in foreclosure. In one Collin County neighborhood, we found 16 homes for sale and 14 were empty.”

“Almost five years into a still-reverberating energy boom, the mood of the well-heeled dinner set at the Midland Petroleum Club last week was as buoyant as the price of crude.”

“The oil and gas play in the region, stretching from Big Spring in the east, west to Hobbs, N.M., and south past Fort Stockton, has been hopping in recent years after almost two decades of relative calm.”

“‘When I first came six years ago, you could have shot a cannon in here and not hit anyone,’ said club manager Brad Miller as he surveyed the packed dining room. ‘Now, on a Friday or Saturday night you can’t get in.’”

“The consensus here among the bust-scarred oil patch survivors is quietly bullish for the long term.”

“‘It’s definitely a boom again, and I think in five years the price will be about the same. We’ll see prices of $60 to $70 a barrel, but I think it will also go well above $80,’ said Will Green, the recently elected president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.”

“‘The last boom was reckless abandon. There was no end to where the price of oil would go. Now people are a little more cautious,’ he said.”

“‘We currently have 34 new residential subdivisions being built. If it all comes to fruition, that will be 2,000 homes,’ said Odessa Mayor Larry Melton.”

“Like many others out here, Henry thinks the current strong energy market is here to stay, in part because of fundamental changes in the world economy.”

“‘The boom in the ’80s was caused by the Saudi Arabians and other countries cutting back production, whereas this one is caused by supply and demand finally reaching each other,’ he said.”

“The bust that followed wrecked the Texas economy, contributed to the nation’s savings and loan collapse and drove most major oil players out of the Permian Basin.”

“This time, things feel different, Henry said.”

“‘There is a sense of permanency, a feeling this is not a boom, but that it will be a sustained thing. We don’t fear prices will drop like they did in the past,’ he said. ‘The only thing that could change this is a world recession or some kind of worldwide catastrophe.’”

The Times Herald Record reports from New York. “The Route 17 billboard in Orange County promised a new era for the region: ‘Drive 20 Minutes, Save $50,000,’ blared the sign for the new development of homes in the Sullivan County hamlet of Hurleyville. This was America’s largest home builder, D.R. Horton, betting on our region with its first project in New York state.”

“It planned to build 111 homes aimed at a new market: families ‘priced out’ of more expensive areas like Orange County. Nearly two years later, only 15 homes have been built including a few models. Two owners say they bought their model homes, furniture included, at reduced prices: $319,000 for a $355,000 home; $400,000 for one listed at $435,000.”

“They also got a couple of extras they didn’t bargain for: a huge common backyard of about 60 acres of cleared land, and a neighborhood so quiet you can hear a sprinkler spritzing new grass.”

“Why has America’s largest builder gone bust in Hurleyville? In this county where the median home price was $165,000 when the development went on sale, the answer is obvious.”

“‘The price was just too high, and the $250,000 to $450,000 range took such a beating last year,’ said Realtor James DiNapoli in Rock Hill, president-elect of the Sullivan County Board of Realtors.”

“Five of the seven largest builders in the country are building in the mid-Hudson. They arrived here at the height of the housing boom and Orange County’s population explosion. Today, the housing market has gone from brisk to just plain cold.”

“‘It’s like the entire country got the same e-mail — don’t buy now, prices will come down in six months,’ said John Caulfield, senior editor of Builder Magazine.”

“Lennar plans to build 143 estate-style homes in developments in Newburgh and Monroe, with prices starting in the $700,000s. That translates to roughly a two-year supply of high-end homes for all of Orange County.”

“Big builders do whatever they have to do to move homes. They have no choice. ‘You’ve got divisions and regions that you have to report to, and at the end of the quarter, they’re going to look at your numbers,’ said Jean Rowe, executive director of the Builders Association of the Hudson Valley.”

“The big builders’ only reason for existence is to construct new homes. ‘The paradox is that they can’t stop building entirely,’ said Caulfield. ‘You have an overabundance of inventory you can’t sell, but you are also building more product.’”

The Patriot News from Pennsylvania. “The entry of national players into the midstate market has ‘absolutely’ driven up the price of land here for all builders, said Mark DeSouza, senior VP of a Bala Cynwyd firm that has developed property in the midstate since 1969.”

“‘The nationals have larger resources and deeper pockets, and that enables them to pay more for a parcel of ground,’ DeSouza said.”

“The onrush of national builders ‘did inflate the price and made local developers pay more than what they thought they could support,’ said Neil Barr, a real estate agent in Hampden Twp. ‘Now, sellers have this perception that their land is worth that amount, even though it didn’t close. It’s hard for them to adjust back to a more reasonable level.’”

“National home builders such as K. Hovnanian and Toll Brothers entered the midstate market in 2005 at the peak of the housing boom.”

“Now that the national housing market has cooled, these builders are trying to reduce the glut of homes everywhere. In the midstate, multiple examples can be found of national builders looking to renegotiate existing land deals or abandoning development proposals.”

“While the cost-cutting moves of the national builders appear to have slowed the pace of midstate development, new houses are still being built. In several cases, long-established local and regional builders are stepping in to handle projects abandoned by the big players.”

“In Silver Spring Twp., K. Hovnanian is renegotiating its agreement with midstate developer Triple Crown Corp. to purchase more of the 55 planned lots in the Bella Vista subdivision. K. Hovnanian hopes to acquire an undetermined number of the remaining 27 lots at a reduced price, said Doug Fenichel, spokesman for the builder.”

“K. Hovnanian had acquired the first 28 lots at Bella Vista, and 15 houses have sold, Fenichel said. In recent weeks, the company has advertised price reductions of up to $60,000 on new houses in the development.”

“‘It’s an extremely competitive market. The market has caused everybody to lower prices,’ Fenichel said.”

“‘We walked away from deals over the last two years with landowners for prices that we thought were exorbitant,’ said John DiSanto, president of Triple Crown. He said midstate landowners who haven’t been able to sell their properties now want to make deals.”

The Washington Post. “Home buyers again need their own money to close a deal. Lenders faced with growing piles of bad loans, even to borrowers once considered good credit risks, have clamped down on the no-money-down mortgage. The abrupt shift threatens to dash the hopes of millions of potential buyers.”

“‘No-down-payment loans are just about near impossible to get right now,’ said Jennifer Bridges, a real estate agent in Woodbridge. ‘We’ll have someone all lined up and then without warning, the lender will say: ‘It’s gone.’ It’s terribly depressing.’”

“National City Home Equity, one of the nation’s big home lenders, stopped funding some types of zero-down loans this month, said Ken Carter, the division’s executive VP. ‘When home prices were appreciating and interest rates were declining, that product made sense,’ Carter said. ‘Today, we’re on the opposite side of that coin, and it’s not prudent to be stretching.’”

“‘It used to be that we would finance a loan up to $1 million with no down payment for a first-time home buyer,’ said Daniel H. Aminoff, a senior loan consultant in Alexandria. ‘But as of March, we will only finance a loan of $417,000 with no down payment.’”

“Many years ago, a 20 percent down payment for a home was the norm. But as prices escalated, fewer people could afford that. After all, 20 percent of $500,000, the cost of a middle-class suburban house in the Washington area, is $100,000.”

“No-down-payment mortgages came into play about a decade ago, at first for wealthy borrowers with stellar credit. The idea was to give those borrowers loans that allowed them to buy houses without having to liquidate other investments, said Sean O’Boyle, a VP at SunTrust Mortgage in Chevy Chase.”

“‘But the model deteriorated, and it became available to just about anybody in recent years,’ he said.”

“In part, that was because lenders assumed that as long as home prices kept climbing, borrowers who could not afford future mortgage payments could sell or refinance. But once home prices dropped in many parts of the country, that option evaporated. Delinquencies and foreclosures surged. With urging from federal regulators, lenders tightened their policies.”

The Daily Press from Virginia. “Mortgage banker Michael Mapes has approved loans for about 17 clients who have a new home they want to get into, but they can’t sell their own homes.”

“Inventory has built up substantially over the past few years and it is taking much longer to sell a house. Sales are still strong at lower sales prices and in select markets, such as the city of Williamsburg, but the high inventory and prices can’t co-exist much longer.”

“‘The inventory’s been built up because sellers are so doggone stubborn,’ said Mapes. ‘A lot of sellers are stuck in 2005.’”

“Brian Mullins, president of the Peninsula Housing and Builders Association, said he doesn’t expect a sellers market for about another year. A slower market in 2007 hasn’t kept people from listing their homes or builders from feeding the market on the Peninsula, where new listings of existing homes were still up 14 percent from the year before. The number of newly constructed homes for sale was 29 percent higher.”

“‘That hurts us,’ said Mullins. ‘We just need to hold on and build smart.’”

“The builders need the mid- to higher-priced existing home sales to pick up, so those owners can move into expensive new construction. ‘We need to get that market moving first before we can get momentum at the upper end again,’ said Mullins.”

“During the hot market of recent years, sellers didn’t accept as many contingent offers, but it also didn’t matter much if they did. ‘They didn’t worry about it because they knew they would sell their house,’ said Natalie Miller-Moore, marketing director for Wayne Harbin Builder.”

“With more competition to attract buyers, contingencies are more problematic. A deal killed when someone can’t sell their own home can also trigger a loss of multiple sales. ‘That creates a domino effect,’ said Mapes. ‘If one falls, they all fall.’”

“Sellers are sweetening the sale by offering concessions such as home warranties, closing costs and mortgage payments. Wayne Harbin was offering a furniture allowance, but buyers preferred to take cash to offset closing costs. ‘People are very price driven now,’ said Miller-Moore.”

What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Inventory? “The billboard along I-85 says it all: more than 110,000 homes for sale in metro Atlanta. Newly released figures indicate sales of new homes in Atlanta are down significantly. In north Atlanta, new housing sales have slumped more than 22 percent. That means there is plenty of inventory as well as competition. It’s a buyer’s market. But what do you do if you are a seller?”

“‘I had a great couple that came to look at it (our house), but they have two places to sell,’ said potential home seller Kevin McKelvy in north Buckhead. ‘They can’t move into a new place until they sell the old one, so they are kind of stuck.’”

Industry worries? “The slumping housing market is going to hamper Chicago’s economy over the next several months. ‘I’ve been in housing for over 30 years. I’ve never seen it go this long and this steep at any point in my career,’ says Tracy Cross, president of Schaumburg-based real estate consultancy Tracy Cross & Associates Inc.”

Lending clampdowns? “State banking regulators ordered American Home Mortgage Corp. Friday to cease all new lending in Connecticut and threatened it with a $1 million fine, after the Long Island-based company abruptly laid off about 6,250 people nationwide, roughly 90 percent of its workforce.”

“Between mid-February and the end of July, American and affiliates made commitments to fund hundreds of other mortgages in Connecticut that had not reached closing, Connecticut Banking Commissioner Howard F. Pitkin said. Massachusetts’ Division of Banks ordered the company to cease business there on Thursday.”

“New York and New Jersey have taken similar action. ‘We don’t want them making loans,’ Pitkin said.”

More foreclosures? “In the first six months this year, foreclosure filings throughout Vermont increased 24 percent compared to the same period last year, according to data collected by the state.”

“‘There is no question that they have popped up,’ said Tom Candon, the Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities & Health Care Administration’s deputy commissioner of banking.”

“Joshua Lobe, who represents lenders in foreclosure proceedings throughout state, said the filings have accelerated throughout Vermont much more quickly than in Chittenden County. Through July, the law firm filed 34 percent more foreclosures than last year, he said. ‘Our census is a reasonable snapshot at what I think goes on statewide,’ Lobe said. ‘The increase is dramatic.’”

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