From the monthly archives:

March 2009

Bidders Flock to Texas Foreclosures Listings Auctions

by Elizabeth Rush on March 31, 2009

Bidders Flock to Texas Foreclosures Listings Auctions

A family of three who have been to several foreclosure listings auctions in the country hoping to find a property that they could finally call their home after more than a year of living in an apartment, found their luck in Dallas, Texas.

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Buyers Tour Florida Foreclosed Homes on a Boat

by Jason MacDowell on March 24, 2009

Buyers Tour Florida Foreclosed Homes on a Boat

In Florida’s Cape Coral area, real estate broker Marc Joseph has been holding boat tours to show foreclosed homes to potential homebuyers and investors. The city, located in Lee County, has more than 400 miles of passable waterways and has longer canals than any other city in the world.

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Mortgage Fraud Soars Amid Foreclosure Listings

by Paul McCain on March 23, 2009

Mortgage Fraud Soars Amid Foreclosure Listings

As mortgage lenders accumulate losses from foreclosure listings and as they implement stricter processes and more requirements for loan applicants, incidents of loan fraud have started to increase.

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Low-Priced Houses in Foreclosure Listings

by Jason MacDowell on March 19, 2009

Low-Priced Houses in Foreclosure Listings

The crash of the housing market resulted to a flood of foreclosures which in turn sent home prices spiraling downward to their lowest level.

According to RealtyTrac data, a total of 290,631 houses received auction notice or default or were repossessed by lenders in February 2009.

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Swindlers in Foreclosure Listings Not Punished

by Elizabeth Rush on March 18, 2009

Swindlers in Foreclosure Listings Not Punished

Despite the rising number of cons and scammers victimizing homeowners distressed by foreclosure listings, most prosecutors are still filing only civil actions against them. Civil actions only aim to recover victims’ losses; they do not put fraud perpetrators in jail.

North Carolina‘s attorney general Roy Cooper said it is difficult for his office to launch investigations on misdemeanors. Only a few states have attorney general offices that are able to launch efforts to file criminal charges and seek jail time for swindlers focusing on foreclosure listings.

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Saint Petersburg Pushes Up Florida’s Foreclosures by State

Foreclosed homes in neighborhoods in Saint Petersburg have put Florida among the top three in rankings of foreclosures by state. In 2008, Florida was second in foreclosures by state with 385,309 residential properties with foreclosure filings, according to foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac. It also had the second highest foreclosure rate, with 4.5 percent of residential properties in default.

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Swindlers Exploit Foreclosure Listings

by Elizabeth Rush on March 9, 2009

Swindlers Exploit Foreclosure Listings

Swindlers have been capitalizing on endless foreclosure listings to earn money from renters looking for cheaper rentals. These swindlers have studied the foreclosure system and have looked for ways to exploit the system. In Ellis County in Texas, law enforcer Mike Jones discovered one illegal renter when he passed by a large house with overgrown weeds, but with curtains and a Ford car parked in the driveway.

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Relief Plan to Stem Foreclosed, Cheap Houses for Sale

by William Dover on March 6, 2009

Relief Plan to Stem Foreclosed, Cheap Houses for Sale

Hopes are pinned on the foreclosure prevention plan of President Barack Obama to help reduce the number of foreclosed, cheap houses for sale which is being blamed for the abysmal performance of the housing market for the past two years now.

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Study: Foreclosures, Cheap Houses for Sale in Four States

William Lucy, a professor, and Jeff Herlitz, a graduate student of the University of Virginia have both analyzed the foreclosure market in 35 metropolitan areas, 236 counties and 50 states.

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California: High Jobless Rate and Foreclosures by State

by Jason MacDowell on March 4, 2009

California: High Jobless Rate and Foreclosures by State

As California continues to be among the top three in foreclosures by state, its unemployment rate soared to a record 10.1 percent in January. The jobless rate last December was 8.7 percent while the rate in January 2008 was 6.1 percent. The state’s rate is also above the January national unemployment rate of 7.6 percent.

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Great Depression Solution to Foreclosure Listings

by Jason MacDowell on March 3, 2009

Great Depression Solution to Foreclosure Listings

President Franklin Roosevelt’s solution to the mortgage crisis in the 1930s is a good model for a scheme to solve the current problem of endless foreclosure listings. Although there are marked differences between the Great Depression and the current crisis, there are also similarities that support the study of what Roosevelt did to contain mortgage defaults during his time.

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Attractive Home Prices and Tax Foreclosures

by Elizabeth Rush on March 2, 2009

Attractive Home Prices and Tax Foreclosures

If you are planning to buy a home that you will occupy for a long time, now is the time to buy, according to Moody’s Economy researcher Celia Chen. Individuals who lost properties to tax foreclosures could begin recovering by looking for bargains among thousands of low-priced homes across the country.

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