A news article over MSN reads: 'foreclosures of property in US rising?, caught my attention making me anxious on what was going on in the US real estate market. Though there have been several news articles of similar or related issues written about it everyday, it felt as restless as I go through the article more intensely. What has happened? What do the country's expert economic planners do to contain this rising concerns? Everybody looks up to U.S. as a formidable example of economic growth and stability in all aspects including real estate.
Yet figures affirm that the applications for foreclosures of property has increase to an all time high of 47% in the state of Colorado last March of this year. Normally, foreclosure activity is expected to slump down considerably during this period as borrowers utilize their tax refund to pay for their shortfalls. Nonetheless, this year the percentage and numbers are observed to bubble up some more in an unprecedented quantity. The up-surge takes off despite efforts of loan managers to provide remedial measures to keep their mortgages at a manageable stage.
This, according to Mortgage Bankers Association, has something to do with the high risks loans called 'subprime lending?, which require no income statement and financial document on consumers thus providing them easy access to loans. Consequently, the number of delinquent accounts shoots up rapidly over the recent years. In year 2000, around 2.4% only of all outstanding loans are subprime, however by the end of 2006, it has ascended to 13.7% enough to launch a sound warning, which cause panic relentlessly in the lending sector.
Nevada, for example, has one of the highest foreclosure rates in March this year wherein the number of filings increased 29% in the last 3 months. Experts say this is more than triple the amount recorded the same time last year and four times the national average. Las Vegas is second to Detroit, among the cities, which have the highest foreclosure rates since March 2007.
According to authorities who conducted the study, the relation between subprime lending and increases in foreclosure activity is even more discernible in California as more and more declining mortgage payments are reported. Subprime lending, they say, consists the 22% in all kind of loans by the end of 2006. It is said to be the highest compared to any state in the United States. Based on the data provided by the First American Corp., foreclosures in California surged 36% from the previous month, which represented the greatest number of any state accounted for 21% of the nation's total. In the state of California, cities with high foreclosure activity rates includes Vallejo-Fairfield, Modesto, Sacramento, Riverside-San Bernardino and Bakersfield, all in the top ten.
This high-risk lending scheme has awfully affected the lending business sector. It has resulted a credit crunch as more property owners reportedly fail to come up with options to pay their loans. This credit setback certainly obliged lenders to initiate procedures to contain the crisis and to safeguard borrowers from falling into undue lending practices unnecessarily and to avoid losing their homes unjustly. Small lending firms now seek the help of large lending institutions such as Citigroup and Bank of America in collaboration with the National Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. Accordingly, they are to set aside $1 billion of mortgage money for assistance and to pressure authorities to propose new policies allowing homeowners to refinance their loans by way of restructuring it with a lower rate and a more flexible term.
Massachusetts and Ohio local governments and other states such as Maryland, Virginia, and Rhode Island, where suburbs are being affected by the saturations of unoccupied and deteriorating bungalows because of foreclosures are now taking initiatives in trying to bail out of this credit mess. Part of the plan is to adopt a more effective programs to revive both the local real estate and lending markets.
Although there have been concerted actions on the part of the finance sector and government to address this rising problem, what anxiously affected me, is the forecasts of David Shulman of the UCLA Anderson. His assessment on the current situation is that this scenario could possibly last into 2009 or 2010 as many adjustable rate mortgages from 3 years ago now resetting and the pace of foreclosure activities constantly file-up inflicting damages into other areas in the mortgage market. As a result, many new applications have been disapproved because of the implementation of tighter lending policies or standards, which has just started.
If this trend remains in few more years as predicted, more and more home owners might be force to move out to other states or perhaps go to countries like Mexico and other places in Central America. Primarily, it is because the cost of living in these countries is 70% cheaper than major states in the U.S. where events of property foreclosures are high. Since everything is still affordable in these countries, the apprehension of losing, not just a valuable property but as well as hard earn lifetime savings and dignity to mortgagors is among the least of their concerns.
The saturation of empty homes in the suburbs of these cities directly upsets the local economy as these properties consequentially turn into 'non-performing assets?. That means zero income for the lending company apart from the added high maintenance costs to, at least keep these units in superior condition. The worse thing is that as these empty premises deteriorate they become unpleasant sight in the community.
Home owners can only hope that authorities would enact a policy that regulates unfair credit practices, unreasonable interest rates, hidden charges as well as overwhelming penalty in case of default or delay in payment. These major factors cause mortgages to swell uncontrollably forcing consumers to give up sadly their properties to lenders.
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