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Where Does Your State Rank in Foreclosures

CNN.Money has an article on state rankings in foreclosures. It is by Les Christie, a CNN.Money staff writer. Florida Foreclosures Lead Nation

Nationally foreclosures are declining. This could be as people are getting out from under their Christmas debt they find a little more cash. Also housing sales are picking up in many areas as spring brings buyers back out.

My state, Oregon is ranked 27th with 725 filings. This averaged 1 in 2008 household going into foreclosure. This is up .55% from January of 07 and actually down 1.63% from February of 06.

Les attributes foreclosures in part to investment speculation and over production of housing and feels that the subprime ARM's adjusting could make these numbers rise. I would agree, but am concerned that subprime and speculation are being lumped together.

While I've sold my share of sub prime loans to clients who couldn't otherwise qualify for a loan, not one was for an investment property. These just never made sense. Every one of the investment properties that I have financed were with an Alt A loan. These are better priced and more lenient in underwriting. These are also the loans that are most likely being defaulted on with the investment properties.

ADDITION: I came across another article with more depth and a slightly different take. The Forecast On Foreclosures. More doom and gloom with a 3 year window. I would agree taht within 3 years all of the 2-3 year sub prime loans will be cleared out, but that doesn't cover all of teh 5 yr. ALT A ARMS...

Posted by Larry Morris, Oregon Mortgages on 03/26/2007 06:53 AM

Comments (11)

oregon foreclosures, investment property, sub prime

Originally posted at: Oregon Mortgage News: Where Does Your State Rank in Foreclosures

This post has been included in Oregon Information

11 Comments on Where Does Your State Rank in Foreclosures

MAR

2007

So you are saying the sky isn't falling. From reading the posts here on AR I thought the subprime meltdown was the beginning of the end. I am working on a post that highlights this news. Thanks for pointing out some positive news.

Either the sky is falling or my head is in the clouds. Just looked down. My feet are on the ground. Yep. They are there. I am only 5'8. Maybe just one low cloud.

Randall: A glimmer of hope, but way to soon to be a trend. Especially if you live in Florida or one of the other high impact states. More than anything, I'm really learning that National news is nothing more than an average of many local events.

Rich: You obviously are on the "dirty" side of this. You get to see the lives that are torn apart. What is your take? Are you seeing mostly owner ocupied or investment? Good people making bad decisions or poor people being preyed upon?

While AZ is not at the top of the list, 3,116 filings in Feb, up 44% from same month last year, is not a good trend.

That I would agree with. My understanding is that AZ has seen some heavy speculation. I would also wonder how many Option ARM's have been sold there. Good loans for the right reason/borrower, but a bad loan for most.

Louisiana ranks up at the top. Katrina flooded homes, the note does not go away but the person and the job leaves. The insurance will not cover the cost to rebuild. The market will work it out over the next couple of years.

So many ARMs and creative mortgages have been coming due this last year it seems. Oregon has had it share of economic problems that has helped fuel this trend. On the plus side it might get people to rethink in the future that they can not have total security and only pay the interest on their homes while the economy is still fighting to breath.

Good post

There is optimistic news in the article that you linked. I am in Ohio and it reports similar year to year declines. I hope that this is more true than what we are hearing locally. The news locally sounds much more gloomy with the number of foreclosures.