In The News

Median home prices drop below 1989 levels in some parts of Southland

06/10/2009 Los Angeles Times

Properties in several areas are selling for less than they did 20 years ago, and that's not including inflation. Some first-time buyers are nabbing houses for less than what their parents paid.

 

More prime, fixed-rate mortgages heading into foreclosure

05/29/2009 San Jose Mercury News

With unemployment rampant, the foreclosure crisis no longer can be blamed entirely on adjustable-rate loans, particularly the risky kind known as subprime mortgages.

 

Online help for those facing foreclosure or wanting to buy foreclosed homes

05/15/2009 San Jose Mercury News

Foreclosures in California are at near-record levels, and recent declines in both property values and employment mean that more homeowners will land in foreclosure this year.
That leaves many people in the Bay Area and beyond wondering either how to buy a foreclosed property or how to get help if they're facing foreclosure.

 

Property tax revenue likely to stay weak

05/01/2009 SF Gate

As hundreds of thousands of California properties fall into foreclosure and sell at values well off recent peaks, the amount of money funneled into government is declining dramatically, by nearly $400 million last year, according to an estimate by ForeclosureRadar.com. Those losses are likely to persist into the foreseeable future, with repossessions rising and owners forced to hold onto properties longer amid a real estate climate expected to remain chilly for years, the panelists said.

 

Banks Ramp Up Foreclosures

04/15/2009 The Wall Street Journal

Some of the nation's largest mortgage companies are stepping up foreclosures on delinquent homeowners. That will likely lead to more Americans losing their homes just as the Obama administration's housing-rescue plan gets into gear.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac all say they have increased foreclosure activity in recent weeks. Those companies say they have lifted internal moratoriums which temporarily halted foreclosures.

 

Banks aren't reselling many foreclosed homes

04/08/2009 SFGate

A vast "shadow inventory" of foreclosed homes that banks are holding off the market could wreak havoc with the already battered real estate sector, industry observers say.

 

Tad Friend, Letter from California, "Cash for Keys"

04/06/2009 The New Yorker

Letter from California about Leo Nordine, who sells foreclosed houses in Los Angeles. In 2006, Leo Nordine sold seventy-five houses for the banks; in 2008, he sold two hundred and eighty-two. This year he expects to sell a house a day. Nordine, forty-six, is one of Los Angeles’s leading R.E.O. brokers (bank-derived shorthand for "other real estate owned").

 

At foreclosure auctions, the hunt is on

03/19/2009 MSNBC

Mortgage meltdown sends newcomers and old hands in search of bargains.

 

The Risk from Underwater Homeowners

02/18/2009 Business Week

Obama's $75 billion mortgage rescue plan doesn't address the danger that more homeowners whose equity has evaporated might just walk away.

 

California's foreclosure pace slows in January

02/13/2009 Los Angeles Times

The number of repossessed homes sold at auction declines; fewer homeowners receive default notices.