The Housing Bubble

The Cape Cod Times reports from Massachusetts. “The entire auction process took less than 15 minutes. An attorney read a legal notice and the auctioneer opened the bidding. Moments later the property sold for $493,000, the defaulted-upon mortgage had been for $580,000. In June alone, according to Barnstable County Registry of Deeds records, 30 foreclosure deeds were filed.”

“These transactions bring the year’s total number of foreclosures to 66, nearly four times the level reached in the first half of 2006 and the highest six-month count in more than a decade.”

“Pam Parker, the mortgage foreclosure prevention counselor in Hyannis, estimated that she is working with between 75 and 100 homeowners who are at risk of losing their property because of an inability to keep up with their mortgage payments. ‘It has just mushroomed,’ Parker said.”

“Loans…which were very popular and easily available during the housing boom of the early 2000s, often include interest rates that increase over time, eventually leaving many buyers with monthly payments they can’t afford. ‘The adjustable-rate loans hit people the hardest,’ Parker said.”

The Daily News from Massachusetts. “The housing market is in a slump across the state, but according to statistics released by the Warren Group, the effects of the softening market are particularly strong in some local communities.”

“In Salisbury, the median sales price for a one-family home in the first five months of this year dropped by 22 percent from the same period last year to $251,000. In West Newbury, the drop was 32 percent, to $448,500.”

“Home sale prices have dropped off in Newburyport but only by 12.8 percent, significantly less than in some surrounding towns.”

“‘Newburyport tends to be more sheltered from this sort of variation…just because it’s so attractive,’ said Jerry Lischke, a broker in Newburyport. ‘There’s also the fact that the city is built out to a point where supply is basically fixed. You have the opposite situation in Salisbury, where they build and build and build. Salisbury real estate is like Florida now, with so much supply the market is whipsawing.’”

“‘One reason some of the towns in northern Essex County are getting hit harder is that they’re higher-end communities,’ said Terry Egan, the editor in chief at the Warren Group. ‘Where the run-up in prices has been steepest is where we’re now seeing steam being let out of the kettle.’”

The Enterprise from Massachusetts. “The bulk of foreclosed properties on the market are in the cities, but suburbia may be catching up. Take East Bridgewater, a middle-class town where the median house price is $335,000.”

“This suburb of Brockton had the biggest increase of foreclosure filings, a whopping 233 percent hike, between May 2006 and May of this year among communities in Massachusetts that had 50 or more filings in that period.”

“Walpole, a suburban town with some upscale neighborhoods, saw its foreclosure filings rise by 152 percent during the same period.”

“May statistics indicate that foreclosure activity will continue to rise in Massachusetts, according to Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of the Boston-based Warren Group. ‘There are fewer options available to people,’ Warren said. ‘In the past, maybe they had enough equity in their house to refinance.’”

“‘There’s more bank-owned property for sale,’ said (realtor) Sherry Palmer in West Bridgewater. ‘The percentage is becoming greater and greater.’”

The Citizen from New Hampshire. “The number of mortgage foreclosures in Belknap County during the past six months has almost quadrupled over the same period of time a year ago.”

“Not surprisingly, Laconia runs far ahead of Belknap County’s 11 other communities, about a third of the total. The rise in numbers for the first half of this year has seen Laconia with 19 foreclosures, and the only community in double digits.”

“Belknap County is hardly unique among the counties of New Hampshire in the rise of foreclosures. State Banking Commissioner Peter Hildreth is reported as saying 132 foreclosures were recorded in New Hampshire in April and another 139 in May. Contrast the two-month total of 271 with 130 for the same period a year ago.”

“Buyers are attracted by what seem to be the low initial rates of interest in adjustable rate mortgages. What they don’t consider or prepare themselves for is a sharp increase later. Hildreth says, from the numbers he’s seen, the crisis hasn’t peaked yet.”

The Record from New Jersey. “Mortgage lender First Financial Equities of Teaneck made three refinance loans totaling $613,800 in 1999 to a customer who put up three housing units in Spring Valley, N.Y., as collateral.”

“Englewood lawyer William Dimin, an attorney for First Financial, said the loans went bad and the borrower, Hershy Walter, turned out to be ‘a fictitious person or the alter ego’ of another individual living in one of the units.”

“‘Clearly, mortgage fraud was involved here,’ said Dimin.”

“Incidents of mortgage fraud in New Jersey more than doubled in the first quarter of 2006 compared with the same period of the previous year, according to the most recent statewide comparisons in the report.”

“‘Suspicious Activity Reports’ related to mortgage fraud that were filed by federally regulated lenders rose to more than 28,000 in fiscal year 2006 from 3,515 in 2000. That’s only ‘the tip of the iceberg,’ Mortgage Bankers Association President Jonathan L. Kempner said in a recent note to the trade group’s members.”

“New Jersey was not among the 10 worst states for mortgage fraud in 2006, but the state’s 250 percent increase in the first quarter last year was highlighted as being ‘rather large,’ along with Arizona’s 213 percent increase. The states with the highest level of fraud in the early part of 2006 were Florida, California and Michigan.”

“The report said the most common types of fraud involved lying about employment history and about income, and the lying was done mostly on loan applications.”

The Pocono Record from Pennsylvania. “Monroe County is on pace this year to shatter the previous record for home mortgage foreclosure filings, according to the county Prothonotary’s Office. There have been 635 foreclosure cases in 2007, through Thursday, more than for all of 2005 or 2004. If the present pace continues, it will result in 1,246 filings for the year.”

“The local rate of default on home loans is a longtime problem many have linked to abusive sales practices. Allegations include inflating price appraisals to value and sell homes for more than they are worth on the local market, falsification of sales documents, undisclosed second mortgages hidden from both buyers and the primary lenders, and abusive loan terms.”

“The Pennsylvania Banking Department (commissioned) a study of local foreclosures. That 2004 report documented a pattern of high foreclosure filings among newcomers from New York and New Jersey who bought homes in private gated communities.”

“The Reinvestment Fund determined the rate of home foreclosures in Monroe County was higher than for seven other Pennsylvania regions it examined, including the state’s two largest urban areas. The study said Monroe County foreclosures grew at an even faster rate than that for new home construction, despite thousands of new homes spawned by the fastest population growth of any region in the state.”

“The study said Monroe County foreclosures tended to be on homes concentrated in a few gated communities, that the homes frequently had inflated sales prices, that most were financed by lenders that make sub-prime loans, and the homes typically went into foreclosure in less than three years.”

The Providence Business News from Rhode Island. “Through June, single-family home sales ‘have moderated as expected,’ Cecile Cohen, president of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, said today in an RIAR report that discounts ’seemingly inconsistent trends’ in the local housing market.”

“‘There are more homes on the market, but those that are priced right are still selling in a matter of months,’ Cohen said. ‘We feel that as long as the economy remains stable and interest rates remain low, the market will continue to correct itself.’”

“The state’s inventory of unsold single-family homes increased sharply, rising 38 percent to 6,735 in the last week of June from 4,865 at the same time last year. And projected closings fell 9.1 percent, to 1,174 in May 2007 from 1,291 in May 2006.”

“Meanwhile, the average time on the market increased 12.3 percent for houses sold in March through May, as their median price fell only 1.4 percent to $275,000.”

“In analyzing trends in median prices, the Realtors said, it is important to understand that median sales price reflects the mix of properties on the market at the time and does not indicate value fluctuations in comparable properties year to year.”

“‘It’s important that people realize that real estate is extremely local,’ Cohen added.”