Foreclosure News

Foreclosures have been on the downswing across the country for years now. A combination of rising housing prices, federal and state programs designed to help those in foreclosure, and homeowner-friendly laws on the books has helped keep down the number of distressed properties that have entered the national pipeline.

That doesn’t mean foreclosures are done, however. In California, the opposite is true – foreclosures are actually rising.

California foreclosure starts, according to statistics, increased by 10 percent on a year-over-year basis from first quarter 2013 to first quarter 2014. This is the first increase in this statistic in two years. This was also the first double-digit increase in five years, since 2009.

Zombie Foreclosures Are Still Out There
According to RealtyTrac, one in five homes in foreclosure are sitting empty. That’s approximately 152,000 homes. Called Zombie Foreclosures, they generally have a negative impact on neighborhood home values. They place a burden on local tax jurisdictions, and many times the owners aren’t even aware that they’re still on the hook for the property.

Zillow.com Local Info Feature
Zillow.com has a new feature, called Local Info at http://zillow.com/local-info. Get monthly, quarterly, and annual home value movement statistics for local areas here.

Boomers Want Smaller Homes

1. Community Planning and Development
Provide grants to communities for economic development and neighborhood revitalization
Provides grants to communities for housing and rental assistance for the homeless, disabled and those with HIV/AIDS

Provides grants to state governments to implement plans to increase home ownership and affordable housing for low income residents (HOME).
Provides grants to assist properties with environmental contamination (BEDI).
And offers tax incentives to businesses to hire workers from, areas of high poverty.

The main purpose is to watch over the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which is responsible for insuring mortgages. The Office of Housing operates in three main sectors:
Single Family Housing:

I have found homes in Pre-Foreclosure in terrific neighborhoods. How do I go about finding the owners' contact information?

10. Colorado
9. South Carolina
8. Michigan
7. Ohi0
6. California
5 Illinois
4. Georgia
3. Arizona
2. Nevada
1. Florida

The worst of the housing downturn appears to be behind us, and while real estate markets around the country are improving, some states are still experiencing a struggle with taming foreclosures. According to RealtyTrac, the number of foreclosed properties stood at 1.8 million last year, down 2.7% from 2011 and 36% from 2010. But despite that, the 10 states that continue to have the highest foreclosure rates in the country still have a long way to go.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - While the nation's foreclosure woes persist, new data show they're easing amid a resurgent housing market, rising home prices and efforts by some states to buy homeowners more time to avoid losing their homes.

The number of U.S. homes repossessed by lenders last month fell 11 percent from January and declined 29 percent from February last year, tumbling to the lowest level since September 2007, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

Some states continued to see sharp increases in homes lost to foreclosure last month, including Washington, Wisconsin and Iowa. But home repossessions declined both on an annual and monthly basis in a majority of states, including past foreclosure hotbeds such as California, Georgia and Arizona.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Buying a home just got even cheaper as interest rates on both 30-year and 15-year-fixed-rate mortgages set record lows for the third week in a row.

The 30-year fixed mortgage, the most popular mortgage product, dipped by 0.04 percentage points to 3.79%, according to a weekly survey by Freddie Mac. Last year, 30-year loans averaged 4.64%. The new low can save borrowers $50 a month for every $100,000 borrowed. Over a 30-year term, that comes to $21,874.

http://www.housingwire.com/2011/12/07/las-vegas-ordinance-puts-lenders-i...

http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/01/real_estate/fannie_mae_foreclosure/index...

I think the real reason is that they have a lot of their employees off for the holidays. Who knows?

Your local "Occupy _______ (insert your town's name here)" protests against Big Banking, Big Government, and "The Man" are leaving public city parks and bank entrances, and coming to... your newest deal?? What, what, whaaaaat?!!

SEATTLE (AP) — The Occupy Wall Street protests are moving into the neighborhood.

Finding it increasingly difficult to camp in public spaces, Occupy protesters across the country are reclaiming foreclosed homes and boarded-up properties, signaling a tactical shift for the movement against wealth inequality. Groups in more than 25 cities held protests Tuesday on behalf of homeowners facing evictions.