Foreclosures Blog – Foreclosure Listings Nationwide

The Fall River, Massachusetts-based building owned by chef George Karousos is scheduled to be placed on REO property listing for sale. In a legal advertisement, mortgage holder, Sovereign Bank announced that the building will be on REO property listing for sale on June 30.

The repossessed property is owned by the Karousos Hospital Group Inc. The building was used by Karousos’ school, the International Institute of Culinary Arts Inc. It used to be also the office building of Karousos.

Located near the Abbey Grill and Great Hall, which has been placed on REO property listing twice but was canceled by Millennium bcpbank, the Karousos building has a listed selling price of $285,000 on October 31, 2001.

Sovereign Bank holds the mortgage for the building. Meanwhile, Millennium bcpbank holds the $1.6 million mortgage for Abbey Grill and Great Hall.

The circa 1900-building is a one-story property made of brick veneer. It is located on .15 acres of land and its assessed value is $326,300. According to records, Gil Peixto of Century 21 has placed the building on REO property listing for sale.

Interested buyers at the REO property listing public auction are required to make a $20,000 down payment and should pay the balance of the sale price within 45 days of the auction.

When an initial public auction was sought by Millennium for Abbey Grill, which used to be the site of the culinary school, Karousos and his team requested for postponement hearing with the Superior Court.

According to a clerk at the Superior Court, the hearing sought by Karousos was deferred several times, and eventually never held. The International Culinary Institute filed a bankruptcy which puts on hold any court actions.

On the other hand, Massachusetts experienced a significant drop in foreclosure filings in the first quarter of 2009. About 8,193 properties in the state received foreclosure filings during the period, representing a 9 percent decline from the last quarter of 2008 and 50 percent drop from the first quarter 2008 level.

In March, Massachusetts reported foreclosure filings in 2,672 properties, a decrease of 9 percent from the February’s REO property listing and 52 percent behind the total figures in March 2008.

Massachusetts ranks 21st among states with the highest number of homes receiving filings of foreclosures in the first three months of 2009.

Related Posts:

• Stockton, San Bernadino Two Highest Metro Foreclosure Rates in First Quarter
• Assessing a Foreclosure Listing
• Dallas Foreclosure Listing Price Decline among the Steepest
• Massachusetts Foreclosures Rate Doubles
• Funding to Renovate Properties on Bank Foreclosure List

If you do your online foreclosed home search, you will probably encounter ads or news related to the foreclosed properties of celebrities.

In these uncertain times, celebrities and socialites are not immune to sudden reversals of income. Hollywood magnates and fans are known for their fickle tastes, granting riches on their current favorite one day and then moving on to someone else the next day.

Some celebrities are now struggling to prevent their properties from being included in foreclosed home search sites because they took out huge amounts of loans during their heydays to buy large homes they thought they could easily pay with their huge paychecks.

Former baseball star Jose Conseco was among the first sports celebrities to admit in public being affected by the foreclosure crisis. Last year, Canseco walked away from his mansion in a Los Angeles suburb, saying it was not logical to keep paying it as its value was falling steeply. Canseco owed his lender over $2.5 million when his mansion was repossessed to be added to foreclosed home search lists.

The case of Damon Dash, co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, is another celebrity foreclosure story. He was hit with a foreclosure filing last year after missing the required $78,500 monthly payments on two Manhattan condos which he purchased for more than $7 million in the boom times. In March, he was hit with another slap when his wife Rachel Roy sued for divorce.

Michael Jackson earned millions at the height of his musical career, but decades of opulent living and wild spending decimated his bank accounts and tied him to millions of debts. His $25-million Never Land Ranch could have been another foreclosure statistic if Colony Capital did not take the risk of helping him out.

New York City socialite Veronica Hearst, widow of publishing tycoon Randolph Hearst, sits at the top of luxurious foreclosure stories. Her $45 million 52-bedroom beachfront home vanished from her control when it was purchased at a foreclosed property auction for only $23 million by New Stream Secured Capital.

Former baseball star Lenny Dykstra went into investment consulting and publishing when he retired. But his lifestyle magazine The Players Club put him into debts that could put his California mansion worth more than $18 million into foreclosed home search lists.

Mafia heiress Victoria Gotti has been the subject of plenty of online foreclosure stories recently when her arrears on her loan taken out to buy her $4.2 million mansion on Long Island reached $650,000.

There are other sad celebrity foreclosure stories. But as former baseball player Jose Canseco said, he and other distressed celebrities are more fortunate because they have other places to stay when their homes are foreclosed. Canseco expressed concern for many families who become homeless when their houses are added to foreclosed home search lists.

Related Posts:

• Ex-Baseball Star Jose Canseco Loses Home to Foreclosure
• Small Business Owners´ Homes in Foreclosed Home Search
• Foreclosure List Prices in Santa Cruz, California Still Down
• Mini Mortgages for Properties on Lists of Bank Foreclosures
• Bidders Flock to Texas Foreclosures Listings Auctions

Southern California continues to experience the impact of foreclosures with more and more abandoned and vacant properties being added on the region’s repo homes listings.

One area in the region that could really represent the real impact of growing repo homes listings is the Lake Elsinore wherein three out of four homeowners have properties that are less than the total mortgage they owed.

According to data gathered from the Riverside County assessor’s office, repossessed homes accounted for every five properties in the area since January 2007.

Meanwhile, at the North San Diego County, the foreclosure capital is Escondido with 1 homeowner out of 22 facing the threat of foreclosures since January 2007. Furthermore, banks were able to foreclose 1 per 5 houses during the same period.

A report by the First American Corelogic predicted more foreclosures in the region as many troubled borrowers owe more mortgages that the total market value of their properties.

The increase in the number of foreclosed homes in Lake Elsinore is attributed to the rise in new home construction and their subsequent sale to borrowers who did not have the means to pay their monthly mortgages and keep their account current.

According to county and census data, delinquent homeowners tripled their numbers to 4,648 from 1,420 from 2000 to 2008. Meanwhile, construction of planned communities along the Cottonwood Canyon area has stopped as developers struggle to maintain competition with banks in selling foreclosure properties for almost 50 percent less from the peak price established in 2005.

Meanwhile, industry experts concluded that the housing crisis in the Lake Elsinore area would continue to intensify if things would not change to help troubled borrowers remain on their houses and avoid distressed properties.

Industry analysts pointed out that subprime loans’ rate adjustments which featured low introductory payments that eventually went up was the main cause of the first wave of foreclosure crisis which started in 2007.

The unabated foreclosures have earned the city an unwelcome nationwide attention. “GQ,” a men’s fashion magazine, described Lake Elsinore as the loneliest city on the world. The city also came into the attention of the media when two wild bobcats took over a repossessed property in Tuscany Hills.

In April, about 188 houses were sold in Lake Elsinore, while an estimated 387 homes were placed on repo homes listings.

Related Posts:

• Unpaid Dues May Lead to Repo List
• N.Y. Finding Use of Condominiums on Repo List
• Foreclosed Properties Cut Santa Clara Value Growth
• Record High Repo Homes Listings in Dallas-Fort Worth
• Minneapolis Area Sees Surge in Foreclosures in First Month of 2008

Arizonians say Southern Arizona is among the best places for retirees and other people looking for a place to live, but many of them do not relish the statement that many like to retire in their state because of large numbers of affordable listings of foreclosure homes.

The surge in unemployment nationwide has increased foreclosed property inventories. Although there are increases in home sales in many areas, these positive developments are being crushed by falling home prices, rising numbers of jobless Americans and expectations of another wave of foreclosed property inventories.

An estimated 65 to 75 percent of homeowners whose mortgage loans were modified to save them from foreclosed home listings are expected to redefault within a year, according to studies by New York City-based ratings firm Fitch Ratings.

The nation’s economy will start to recover from the effects of foreclosed home list inventories in the next several months of 2009, according to a survey of 45 economists who are members of the National Association for Business Economics.

Pulte Homes Chief Executive Officer Richard Dugas believed that the bank foreclosure list is nearing its end and he could steer his home building company towards recovery after suffering over $500 million in losses due to the housing market crisis.

The continued rise in foreclosed home inventories in many areas across the country has hindered recovery efforts by homebuilders, real estate businesses, investment banks and other companies involved in the housing industry.

The foreclosed homes list reduction program launched in 2008 by New York Governor David Paterson has been criticized by New York Senator Jeffrey Klein and State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and by the community organization New York Acorn.