The Lake Martin real estate market has not really felt a direct effect of the mortgage meltdown yet. Sure, the subprime fiasco has caused conventional and jumbo rates to rise, but I consider that indirect. By direct effect I mean huge waves of foreclosures from high risk loans, and we haven't really seen that on Lake Martin up to this point. I don't think we will see as much of that here as was seen in other markets, because I don't think that many of the 2004 and 2005 sales were fueled by speculators. A quick trip to the Tallapoosa County Courthouse last week confirmed the low foreclosure rate.
This is not true of other markets around the nation. Headlines like this abound: "Fraud Seen As Major Driver In Wave Of Foreclosures." In a subject this big, there is a lot of blame to go around: borrowers who falsify their income to buy a home they know they cannot afford, unscrupulous realtors selling for commissions instead of trying to educate clients on wise home buying, dial-a-dollar appraisers who will sell their integrity for $400 a pop, and downright dirty mortgage brokers who churn up new paper and burn families in their wake.
Basically, in many of the cases I think much of this could have been avoided if buyers had stuck with local lenders.
Comments (0)Subscribe to CommentsComment