The Housing Bubble

Please post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here.

Sonoma News reports from California. “During the most recent real estate bubble, speculation drove home prices up as inventory tightened. But according to Sonoma Valley real estate professionals, home ownership is becoming viable again in a market that, at times, has seemed almost dormant. ‘During the past three months, we have seen a lot of activity,’ said Mike Caselli, president of the Sonoma Valley Board of Realtors. ‘If someone is thinking of making a purchase in Sonoma Valley, now is the time to buy. They don’t want to sit on the sidelines until they get caught in an escalating market again.’”

“‘Some people got into a fix because they had adjustable loans with teaser rates that eventually went up,’ said Jim Duncan, an owner/partner in Coldwell Banker de Anza. Duncan agreed that people should not be looking at real estate in the short term. ‘Short term speculation isn’t working right now,’ he said.”

“‘Very sadly there has been great pain inflicted on some people who were (whether they understood it that way or not), effectively speculators, speculating that the market would always go up a double digit percentage a year,’ said Herb Heil, a long-time Valley Realtor. ‘However, there appears to be greater realization that there are no sure things and that there is always an element of risk.’”

The Bay Area Newsgroup. “Josefa Ramirez and her husband, Juan Carlos, both 43, spent 10 years moving in and out of San Francisco apartments before buying their two-bedroom, one-bath Antioch home in 2006 for $375,000.”

“Paying $2,700 a month for their ‘fixer’ required a new roof, wiring and landscaping. Their loan adjusted in June to more than $3,200 a month.”

“Ramirez, a hair stylist, said business has been slow and Juan Carlos was laid off from his construction job with a local contractor. Recent houses in their north Antioch neighborhood are now selling for around $150,000. They stopped paying in February.”

“In Pittsburg, Jose Reyes said he had no choice. He and his partner paid $900,000 for their Highland Ranch home, more than 4,000 square feet and six bedrooms. When his partner died in early 2007, Reyes used the insurance money to keep paying the option-payment adjustable-rate mortgage while he tried for a year to sell it.”

“‘When the real estate agent did the comps around the place, it was about half of what we paid,’ Reyes, a bank executive, said. His $3,500 monthly mortgage payment wasn’t even touching interest and a principal payment was more than $6,000 a month.”

“‘When in March, I came to the full realization of the value of the house, there wasn’t a question of ‘Should I continue making a payment?’ Reyes said. Instead, he went to live in the 1800-square-foot house he and his partner had been renting out to help pay for the new home.”

“In Antioch, the Ramirez family await word that their lender is willing to modify their loan. The cable has been shut off, karate lessons canceled, belt-tightening is a way of life.”

The Guardian. “With a sun-drenched boardwalk just a short ferry ride across the bay from San Francisco, the former shipyard community of Vallejo ought to be buzzing. But it isn’t - the city has officially gone bust.”

“For years, taxes and fees rolled in as developers speckled the city’s scorched hills with immaculate estates. The sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States was a jolt. Homes in many estates lie empty because their owners could not afford loan repayments and, with lots of vacant homes, construction has halted.”

“‘There aren’t many housing starts so we aren’t getting the fees,’ says council spokeswoman JoAnn West.”

“John Quigley, a professor of economics at the University of California, says: ‘Vallejo may be extreme but other cities exhibit the same symptoms.’ In some parts of the state, he says, property prices doubled over 15 months in 2003 and 2004. The extent of the boom has made the downturn more dramatic.”

“‘I don’t see any evidence that we’ve hit the bottom in California,’ he says. ‘You’re talking several years of decline.’”

“In Hyde Park, a gated community in the hilly suburbs of Vallejo. But the estate is peppered with for sale signs, many of which bear two giveaway words - ‘bank owned.’”

“At the peak of the market two years ago, a typical Hyde Park home of four or five bedrooms went for $1m and the estate was sold out. Buyers can pick up a house now for as little as $400,000 (£205,600).”

“‘The banks are competing with themselves to drop prices,’ says Ron Lee, a broker at a north Californian estate agency. And lenders have become more circumspect. ‘At least you have to prove your income now,’ Lee says. ‘They’re not just taking your word for it.’”

The Morgan Hill Times. “Developer Dick Oliver, addressing the council at an April meeting, said his company alone has built more than 100 below market rate homes during the past 10 years and he’s been pleased to do so. ‘The problem now is that we’ve been caught in a financial crisis,’ he said, adding that he wants to bring in some fairness to the way the state-mandated affordable housing program is administered by the city.”

“South County Realty Broker Chris, a third-generation Morgan Hill native, agreed. ‘It doesn’t pencil anymore,’ he said. ‘The requirements are so stringent, the number is so tough - it just doesn’t work.’”

“Borello said city services, which are straining for cash in the weak economy as well, are missing out on property tax prices thanks to below market rate homes. After crunching numbers on his desk calculator, Borello said almost $700,000 in city revenue is lost when a property is sold at an ‘affordable’ price, rather than the market-rate price.”

“Borello said regular home buyers are paying the price since the developer is forced to pass on the building cost for low-income homes to the market-rate home prices.”

“‘Buying a home isn’t necessarily a right, it’s a privilege,’ he said. ‘You have to budget yourself to make it work. You just reevaluate things, reprioritize things. People shouldn’t feel entitled.’”

The Lodi News Sentinel. “Roughly 50,000 homeowners throughout San Joaquin County - one third of the total - will receive notices next month showing what they likely already know: That their home values are in a free fall.”

“Ken Blakemore, the county’s assistant assessor, said the notices should arrive July 10. They’re the largest number to show declining values in a generation, if not ever, the longtime county official said. Blakemore noted values, on average, have declined 30 percent across the county for homes sold since January 2004.”

“Paul Mertz, a Lodi real estate agent, said there’s no doubt many of the notices will be sent to Lodi. But because the city had fewer new homes built during the housing bubble, fewer are subject to the ‘price slaughtering’ that neighboring cities are seeing, Mertz said.”

“The county sent out 20,000 notices showing a decline in home values last year, Blakemore said. Tens of thousands of reassessments were made during a mid-1990s recession as well as during the early 1980s, he added. This year’s levels are the largest Blakemore has ever seen.”

“As for next year’s assessments, Blakemore said it’s hard to say at this point whether the housing market will stabilize. ‘We’ve got our fingers crossed that values will be flat,’ Blakemore said.”

The Fresno Bee. “The housing market is so sluggish that some developers are offering to rent their houses to prospective buyers. Leonel Alvarado, president of Century Builders in Fresno, said he will rent houses at two developments with the goal of selling them a few months later to the tenants.”

“‘We’re trying different things other than reducing prices,’ he said. ‘We’re trying to get a little action going.’”

“The price of a single-family home is usually too high for the practice to work well for a developer, said Alan Nevin, economist for the California Building Industry Association.”

“‘The numbers don’t make a lot of sense except on modestly priced single-family homes,’ Nevin said. ‘You’re supposed to get rent equal to 1% of the value of the house. That’s difficult to do with detached homes, even in Fresno.’”

“Such rental programs are more likely to be with a local builder than a nationwide or public company. The big builders with stockholders are more likely to slash prices to get the properties off their books.”

“‘They don’t want to do some complicated rent-to-own program and still own the houses. It doesn’t help,’ said Jonathan Dienhart, an analyst with Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.”

The Lompoc Record. “Nearly 800 homes have been foreclosed and 15,000 have been reassessed at significantly lower values since January in Santa Barbara County, but officials are concerned the data doesn’t indicate that the area’s real estate crisis has hit bottom yet.”

“From the first of the year to Thursday, 780 homes have been foreclosed in the county and nearly nine homes are foreclosed a day, according to Clerk-Recorder-Assessor Joe Holland.”

“A lower assessed value means lower property taxes, because they are 1 percent of the assessed value, according to Prop. 13, but many people owe much more than their house is worth because of the drop in market and assessed values.”

The LA Downtown News. “For the developer of a just-opened $30 million housing complex, Mark Farzan has an unlikely emotion: disappointment.”

“From the beginning, they expected to bring the 168-unit development at Broadway and Eighth Street online as condominiums. They outfitted the residences with high-end appliances and distinct hardware, hoping the effort would pay off with buyers who value attention to detail and top-notch accessories.”

“They also planned units smaller than the norm, which in 2006 was a strategic decision to attract buyers priced out of the quickly escalating for-sale market.”

“But like many other developers across the nation, Farzan and Afari were hit hard by the credit-squeezed real estate market. Last month, they announced that the building would still open, but that it would arrive as apartments instead of for-sale residences.”

“Ironically, it was not the developers who were having trouble with money. When banks began to tighten lending standards and home prices were slipping, it was the buyers at the Chapman - some of whom had reserved units as much as a year ago - who slowly started to peel away, unable to secure loans, said Farzan.”

“‘We have all our financing in place,’ he said. ‘It was the buyers who couldn’t get the loans.’”

“After originally listing the units for $300,000-$600,000, as apartments, the Chapman Flats are leasing for $1,500-$2,200 per month. Most units have one bedroom and one bathroom.”

“Tyler Wilson, one of the first residents in the Chapman, searched extensively for a Downtown apartment with his fiance before settling on a one-bedroom unit, which he said is about 900 square feet and costs $1,850 per month.”

“‘I looked everywhere and thought this place was relatively well priced for what you’re getting,’ he said. ‘I wanted to buy here, but I couldn’t. I didn’t have the money.’”

The North County Times. “A report showed home prices and sales figures picking up slightly last month in North County, but it isn’t totally clear whether the market will stand up to a continuing wave of foreclosures, an economist said Thursday.”

“Robert Brown, the Cal State San Marcos economics professor who prepares the monthly HomeDex report for the North San Diego County Association of Realtors, said he’d hesitate to predict when a seller’s market might return because foreclosures continue to pop up.”

“Including condominiums and townhouses, 1,001 homes were sold last month, up from 875 in April, according to the Realtor group. Last month, a total of 673 houses and condominiums were auctioned or seized from homeowners who had fallen behind on their mortgage payments, up from 580 in April, according to Foreclosureradar.”

“The median sale price was 21 percent below year-ago levels in May; April prices were about 20 percent under year-earlier levels and March prices were 23 percent lower, according to the report.”

“Lenders have been aggressively cutting prices on the homes they seize from delinquent borrowers, and owner-occupants aren’t usually eager to compete, said real estate agent Gloria Gelet.”

“A couple Gelet is representing moved to Austin, Texas, last year after the husband was offered a job he couldn’t refuse. They’ve cut the price on their 1,700-square-foot house near Guajome County Park in Oceanside to $505,000 and again to $455,000, but it still hasn’t sold. Bank-owned houses in the neighborhood are going for closer to $400,000, she said.”

“‘The foreclosures and bank sales right around there are just killing them,’ Gelet said. ‘They got caught right in the middle of the madness.’”

“Those foreclosures bring the area’s total number of lender-owned homes to more than 2,000, according to the service, and an additional 5,000 are in earlier stages of the foreclosure process. As of May 31, a total of 7,700 North County homes were listed for sale on the service that most local real estate agents use, up from 7,300 at the end of April.”

“‘The real question to me is the presence of these foreclosures, these short sales, that are still on the market,’ Brown said.”

Readers suggested a topic on energy costs and house prices. “Can we discuss the impact of rising energy costs and general inflation expectations on the decision to rent or buy a home? What are the risks of waiting to buy? My heating costs have almost doubled since I went from owner to renter 2.5 years ago. I believe that even though home prices may drift downward, if I owned the home I’d have control over investing to make it very energy efficient and potentially save more in a few years than what is at risk in the house price.”

“I am in a cold climate, and in a non-bubbly area (though lots of foreclosures).”

A reply, “I think a more important variation on this question should be, when will the energy costs associated with a living space (purchase or rental) start being truly reflected in the price?”

“Perhaps the reason why we don’t see much discussion of this sort is that IMO the energy performance truly sucks in about 98% of the existing homes. In other words, there’s no meaningful differentiaion to be had.”

One added, “I’ve wondered this too. All the newer homes, condos, and townhomes I’ve looked at in the past few years, one of the first things I ask the realtor/salesperson what the energy efficiency of the homes are. In many new home developments most of the sales people don’t even know the answer to that question. Coincidentally, I’ve found many brand new homes by the big name builders often have insulation equal to that of a poorly constructed apartment building.”

“And if I look at any homes older than say, 15-20 years, I estimate in my mind how much it would cost to rip out and reinsulate the house, among other things to make it energy efficient, and add that onto the purchase price.”

One asks about gasoline, “When and where in America do you predict the first violent protests over rising fuel costs like have been seen in other parts of the globe? What will be the spark to ignite them?”

One from California. “False entitlement fuses have been laid all over Los Angeles, the city of the automobile… Add in a public transport system that might be the worst of any 1st world city of size, and there’s your spark.”

A reply, “Public transportation in Los Angeles has improved tremendously in the past 20 years. There’s now an extensive commuter rail system that extends into Orange County, the Inland Empire, the Antelope Valley, and Ventura County. Los Angeles also has a subway and light rail system. The options are far better than in the 70’s, though there’s still much room for improvement.”

“One could look at Houston, for example, as a large city that has far fewer transit options. If there is civil unrest due to gas, I’d guess it’s more likely due to supply disruptions than prices and more likely somewhere east of the Rockies. It should be noted that some of the greatest outrage from higher prices following Katrina was in these areas, though those higher prices were no higher than those on the West Coast.”

Another posted, “I live in LA and I am hoping for gas to go to $6. I realize this will affect the prices of virtually everything I buy but LA needs a good cleansing. $6 / gallon will be a good start. Traffic is already easing up. The last time we had a good cleansing here was the Northridge earthquake in 94. I think the gas and real estate collapse will cause much less ‘pain.’”

The Orlando Sentinel. “According to an Orlando Sentinel analysis of sales data from the Orlando Regional Realtor Association, from March to April, Orlando’s urban-market sales grew 37 percent compared with 9.9 percent for the market overall, and 15 percent from April to May compared with 3.7 percent overall. Earlier in the year, sales within the two-mile radius of downtown Orlando were lagging the sales growth trends overall.”

“‘People have noticed the prices have been reduced,’ said Darryl Hunt, who recently brokered the $850,000 sale of a penthouse in the Solaire condominium downtown. He said a few years ago it would have fetched more than $1 million.”

“Steven Moreira, broker in Longwood, is trying to sell several of his rental homes in Sumter, Marion and Volusia counties, in part because the commuting costs to maintain the properties have soared. His gasoline bill for one maintenance truck has gone up from $500 to $900 a month, Moreira said.”

“‘We need ways to get to work and not have to start the car until the weekend — the way a lot of people do in Europe,’ said Moreira, president of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. ‘People are just not going to commute 50 miles with $10 [a gallon] gas.’”

The Journal Gazette. “Builders last month obtained nearly 49 percent fewer home construction permits than they did in May 2007, according to the Home Builders Association of Fort Wayne. Construction hasn’t been at that level since 1983, when high interest rates stifled building.”

“Gas prices above $4 a gallon are causing consumers who are considering whether to buy an existing home or build a new one to avoid a move, said Ric Zehr, VP of subdivision developer North Eastern Group. ‘Gas prices are a huge, huge factor,’ he said. ‘It’s changing the way we live.’”

The Mail Tribune. “Property foreclosures jumped dramatically in Jackson County this spring. Default figures compiled by LandAmerica Lawyers Title soared 142 percent year-over-year in April and 83 percent year-over-year in May.”

“‘It’s a national question and a serious one,’ said Bob Forrest of Bob Forrest Loan & Investments in Medford. ‘So many people want to go in and flip the property. They get it and can’t flip it and they’re living in it and you can only live in one of them. I know of two cases like that.’”

“While risky behavior on the part of lenders and borrowers led to the foreclosure cycle, lost jobs and rising fuel costs have exacerbated the problem. ‘So many things are going wrong with the economy,’ said Forrest. ‘Gas prices and the phenomenal cost of everything has made it so people are being robbed of their ability to spend and make payments.’”

The Sacramento Bee. “With a force not seen in decades, the high cost of energy is hammering the economy in Sacramento and beyond. It’s keeping shoppers away from Arden Fair mall and thinning out the crowds at Sacramento International Airport. It’s hurting restaurants and crippling SUV sales.”

“Thanks to $4.50-a-gallon gas and $130-a-barrel oil, energy is consuming nearly 7 cents of every dollar of economic output in the United States. That’s about twice as big a bite as last year and nearly as much as in the late 1970s, when oil shortages sent the country into a nasty recession, said James Hamilton, an energy economist at the University of California, San Diego.”

“Chronic $130-plus oil could bring changes in land-use patterns. It could hurt those far-flung commuter suburbs, like those in Yuba and Sutter counties, which were conceived when gas was cheaper but are now suffering some of the worst of the foreclosure crisis.”

“‘Developers will certainly think twice about looking at land in far-out locations,’ said Dean Wehrli, VP with Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors in Elk Grove.”

From Vail Daily. “In the past, there would be almost 30 potential buyers in line for a Miller Ranch home, and first person in line would get the house, said Kim Williams, Eagle County deed-restriction manager.”

“This year, a tighter, more ‘conservative’ lending market has resulted in less buyers who are able to finance one of the 282 deed-restricted homes in Edwards, she said. ‘Now we have to go several people down the list,’ she said.”

“Foreclosures have affected the market all over the country, and now it is hitting the Vail valley and its deed-restricted, affordable homes. Lenders are now looking more carefully at credit histories and debt-to-income ratios.”

“Those tighter restrictions hit first-time homeowners the hardest, said Cris Nolan, lending officer with WR Starkey Mortgage in Edwards.”

“‘Previously, nearly everyone could get a loan, and that’s not the case now,’ she said. ‘Usually everyone has to come with $3,000 down, and that’s the problem with locals. They don’t have that cash.’”

The Gazette reports from Maryland. “During the first quarter of this year, Montgomery County ranked second-highest in the number of foreclosures in Maryland, up nearly 54 percent since the previous quarter, according to the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development’s research office in April. Prince George’s County ranked highest, according to the data.”

“Arelis A. Perez, a real estate agent for 16 years, said her business is down about 50 percent, but the housing market should pick up since ‘it came crashing down’ in 2007. However, the bad luck for many who have lost their homes due to the subprime lending crisis translates to an opportunity to buy for those who can afford it.”

“‘I had a property that was purchased in January 2007 at $706,000 in Silver Spring. Now it’s being sold at $363,080. That is just phenomenal,’ Perez said.”

“Marilyn Emery, a real estate agent at the North Bethesda Long & Foster office, said while dealing with bank-owned properties was not particularly personal for agents, it can be for potential homebuyers who are hesitant ‘to look at a foreclosed house because they think they’re taking advantage of someone else’s foreclosure.’”

“‘What people need to remember is that once a house is foreclosed, it’s done, it’s now owned by the bank,’ said Emery, who lives in Kensington. ‘Also, people feel that the houses are always in bad neighborhoods, or in bad shape. … But they’re out there in every area of the county, and every price range.’”

The Baltimore Sun from Maryland. “Local home sales continued their plunge in May, dropping 30 percent. It was the ninth straight month that sales fell at least 30 percent in the Baltimore metropolitan area. About 2,100 homes changed hands - half as many as in May 2005, near the peak of the housing boom, according to Rockville-based Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.”

“‘The only inducement to purchasing a house at this point is very low price,’ said Celia Chen, director of housing economics at Moody’s Economy.com. ‘In areas where you do see a price decline, a more substantial price decline, you can probably see a bit better sales activity.’”

“The exception to the trend of better sales results with lower prices was Carroll County, where sales fell 33 percent even as the average price plummeted 11 percent. That’s driven at least in part by a continued lack of sales at the higher end.”

“None of the nearly 80 homes listed for $800,000 or more in Carroll last month changed hands. Sales of homes priced at $500,000-plus dropped by half from a year earlier.”

“Daniel V. Iampieri, a Realtor in Ellicott City, said he’s starting to see buyers who had been on the sidelines get more serious, thanks to price decreases. ‘There’s good deals out there,’ he said. ‘There’s an endless stream of choices, and there’s more coming on the market every day.’”

“Risk-taking helped perpetuate the housing boom. Buyers stretched financially to get their foot in the door as prices skyrocketed. Homeowners pulled out equity, counting on continued increases. Investors bought homes at a fever pitch with visions of big profits from rehabbing.”

“Canton in Baltimore was a popular rehabbing spot. Now a lot of investors are ‘”way upside down’ on their mortgages, said Dominic Cantalupo, associate broker in Pasadena, who works across the region. Average prices in May fell 15 percent in that ZIP code, 21224.”

From WBAL TV in Maryland. “Bail was set on Wednesday for a Maryland man accused of burning down his home to avoid mortgage foreclosure, and experts say that arson as a way out of financial woes is becoming a national trend.”

“An Owings Mills man accused of hiring someone to torch his home in January went before a federal magistrate Wednesday to make a plea for bail. Federal investigators alleged that Keith McMahon paid someone $10,000 to burn his house down to collect insurance money because the bank was about to foreclose on his mortgage.”

“Federal agents said that McMahon allegedly arranged the arson because he was as much as $30,000 in debt and behind on his mortgage payments. The federal complaint says that he planned to collect $800,000 from insurance proceeds.”

“Prosecutors said that as a result of the arson at McMahon’s home, a firefighter battling the blaze was seriously injured after falling 12 feet and landing in a basement.”

“‘Once you unleash that fire, you have no clue where this is going to end up. You’ve got firefighters responding. Depending on the type of structure, you may have other persons involved. There’s just so many things that can happen once a fire gets going,’ Barnard said.”

“Federal prosecutors said that McMahon also threatened to kill the person who cooperated with investigators.”

The Free Lance Star from Virginia. “The Fredericksburg-area housing market continued to struggle last month. The average home sold for 90.3 percent of its list price in May, the best figure this year.”

“But when taking a longer view, the market appears weaker. In addition, some of the improvements this year could be due to seasonal factors, as sales and prices have tended to trend upward as summer approaches. Fewer homes sold in the area last month than in any other May since 1998.”

“The area’s median sales price in May was 16 percent lower than the same month a year before. Seventeen percent fewer homes sold, and total sales volume dropped 30 percent to $92.9 million.”

“The trend was the same on a locality-specific basis. Other than Fredericksburg and King George County, median prices dropped in every area locality between May 2007 and last month.”

“Prices continued to dip in Stafford County, where last month’s median sales price of $281,100 was the lowest since April 2004. Median prices have dipped 30 percent in Stafford since May 2006.”

“The county has more foreclosed properties listed on RealtyTrac.com than any other in the Fredericksburg area, although its total, 1,068, pales in comparison to Prince William’s 6,936.”

The Cascade Connection in Virginia. “A plan to get people who work in Loudoun into foreclosed Loudoun homes has even longtime political adversaries Chairman Scott York and Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio working together.”

“Both live in Sterling, where the foreclosure rate is highest, and York had planned the initiative to apply only to the Sterling and Sugarland Run areas, but a close vote on an amendment by Supervisor Lori Waters opened the proposed program up to the entire county.”

“If adopted, the initiative, similar to one recently adopted in Prince William County, would direct money from the county’s $6 million housing trust funds toward grants of up to $25,000 or low-interest loans for people who work in the county but live elsewhere to buy houses that are currently in foreclosure.”

“Originally, the plan was to apply only to county employees and teachers, but York accepted an amendment from Delgaudio to open it up to anyone who works in the county. Currently, almost 45 percent of county employees live outside the county, often as a result of Loudoun’s cost of living.”

“About 42 percent of the county’s 2,000 foreclosures between October 2007 and last March were in the 20164, 20165 and 20166 ZIP codes, which include the Sterling and Sugarland Run areas.”

“In Sterling Park, York said, ‘we had a lot of purchasing of housing for investment by folks who don’t live there.’ This resulted in a neighborhood where most residents were temporary renters, he said, adding, ‘Many of these landlords haven’t taken care of [their houses].’”

“Anyone buying a home through the program would be required to live there for a certain time or repay the county. ‘They would definitely have to live in the house, too. They can’t rent it out,’ York said.”

“If grants of $25,000 were given out and $1 million were spent on the program, that would mean 40 houses filled, he said. ‘It’s not much, but it’s something.’”

“‘I think it’s a great idea. When does an opportunity come along like this?’ said Kevin Chroninger, chairman of the Sterling Foundation, noting the already low housing prices. ‘It seems like the time is right to take advantage of that.’”

“Chroninger lives in Dominion Station, just west of Sterling Park, and owns a condominium off Sterling Boulevard in Rolling Ridge, which he rents out. He said widespread foreclosures had not only dragged down home values but had also changed the atmosphere of Sterling Park, with unkempt lawns, vandalism and empty streets.”

“‘I’ve seen a huge downturn in the number of people you see out and about in the community,’ he said.”

From WAVY TV in Virginia. “According to Realtytrac, Virginia has the 15th highest foreclosure rate in the country — for the first quarter of the year. That’s up 526% from last year. WAVY.com took a trip to the Newport News Courthouse Thursday, where a foreclosure sale was underway.”

“‘I’m here to offer a number of properties,’ says Trustee Holly Fisher, who conducts the auction and sees the stark reality of home foreclosure. ‘Banks have stopped lending as much money people can’t borrow. It’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul.’”

“Banks and mortgage companies are in trouble too. During the auction, no one paid the minimum for 2500 Roanoke Ave, or 950 Ivy Avenue. ‘The banks are stuck with them. They will fix them up, and sell them on the open market,’ Fisher says.”

“Housing Opportunities Made Equal is a free, private, non-profit organiztion in Portsmouth. Their Mission is to save people’s homes from foreclosure. Home Director Denise Goode says, ‘As soon as you know you’re in trouble call your lender.’”

“You’ve got to call and communicate with the mortgage company. And you’ve got to act quickly, don’t bury your head in the sand. ‘In Virginia, you don’t have time on your side. We have one of the fastest foreclosure processes in the nation,’ Goode.”

Please post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here. And send in your HBB OTR photos to:

AnnMoorman@att.hairnet.net

We are especially looking for SF pics, so please send those in!