The record $71-million foreclosed auction results posted by a real estate auction firm over the weekend showed the still grim situation of the U.S. housing market.

The results showed that the number of foreclosure properties is still surging and that the prices of foreclosures continue to be at low levels.

The $71 million total sales by the auction firm represented combined sales proceeds from live auctions in Phoenix and in Atlanta and from an online auction that offered 1,098 foreclosure homes to online bidders.

Online sales amounted to $43.2 million while live sales in Phoenix and in Atlanta amounted to $18.5 million and $9.4 million, respectively.

According to the auction firm, most of the homes were sold to first time homebuyers who were obviously taking advantage of the federal tax credits and other incentives provided by their states.

So far this year, in only a little over two months, the auction firm has already held 125 private foreclosure auctions and has already sold 7,488 real estate properties for a total of $403 million.

These staggering foreclosed auction results continue to indicate that there are still a lot of properties to be auctioned off. The bargain prices showed that the national foreclosure inventory is still at a high level.

According to attorneys general and state banking regulators who make up the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, foreclosures continue to happen despite state and federal efforts to contain the problem. They even contended that total foreclosures this year will be higher than in 2009.

The low price levels of the winning bids during the auctions conducted by this real estate auction firm also showed the still falling values of properties nationwide.

In Phoenix, among properties sold off far below their previous appraisals were a home previously appraised at $149,000 and purchased for $22,500; a house previously assessed at $170,000 and purchased for $33,500; and a home previously priced at $209,900 and purchased for $57,142. The price discounts for these properties ranged from 77 percent to 85 percent.

In Atlanta, a $155,000 house was sold off for $11,000, which is 93-percent less than the original value. A residential unit previously appraised at $280,000 was sold off for only $17,000. Another home, previously valued at $206,000, was sold off for only $5,000, which was a staggering 98-percent plunge from the original price. Indeed, the foreclosed auction results showed that the housing market will still struggle over the next several years.

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Foreclosed auctions are increasingly reflecting financial difficulties in the multifamily sector. Across the country, condo complexes, apartment buildings and affordable housing properties are being foreclosed upon by lenders.

According to Stuart Saft, chairman of global real estate operations at Dewey & LeBoeuf, a record number of multihousing properties will go into foreclosure this year if the employment situation does not improve and if lenders do not write down problem loans.

The other factors affecting the viability of multihousing properties are the sharp declines in rents and the sharp rise in vacancy rates. According to RentJungle, apartment rent has fallen by 4 percent on the average across the country over the past six months. For the average monthly apartment rent of $961, the average reduction was about $40.

Major markets like Los Angeles, Denver, New York, Phoenix and Portland posted rent declines of seven to nine percent.

Among the condo projects entering public auctions in March is the Waipio business condo building in Hawaii. The development firm, able to sell only 27 of the 99 units of the building, failed to pay its $35 million loan owed to G.E. Business Financial Services when it became due in June last year. The 72 unsold units will be sold off at the public foreclosed auctions in March.

Four multihousing properties involved in foreclosure lawsuits in Miami-Dade are the 20-unit Soleil apartment building and the 36-unit building in North Miami. The owners failed to pay a $3.6 million loan obtained in 2007 from Washington Mutual, which was later purchased by JPMorgan Chase. The properties were acquired in 2005 for $4.2 million.

A 40-unit apartment building in Miami was also foreclosed upon by JPMorgan after a $2.6 million loan obtained in 2006 from Washington Mutual remained unpaid. The building was purchased in 2006 for $3.5 million.

A 37-acre trailer park in Homestead, Florida which was purchased by Yale-Steam Associates for an apartment complex project is another foreclosed property scheduled for public auction in June on the website of Miami-Dade County. Yale-Steam purchased the park in 2006 for $13.5 million and borrowed $9.8 million from Wachovia Bank. It applied for an additional loan with an option to increase up to $50 million to build 204 units and got initial approval. However, the loan proceeds were not provided and construction never started.

In March last year, the mobile park was foreclosed upon by Wachovia through the court and will be sold through the Miami-Dade online foreclosed auctions in June.

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The number of properties entering foreclosure homes auction in Stanislaus County in California is still rising, bucking the statewide decline in foreclosure activity.

In January, 472 residential units in Stanislaus were sold off at the public auction, according to a foreclosure research firm. Lenders took back 404 of the properties and the rest were bought by investors. Despite intensified loan modification efforts in California, completed foreclosures still increased in Stanislaus.

According to the Treasury Department, California had the highest number of mortgage loans modified under the Home Affordable Modification Program since it was launched last year. Over 191,000 trial and permanent modifications have been carried out in California as of January this year. Florida followed with 116,000 modifications and Illinois with 49,000.

In January, the median home sales price in Stanislaus also decreased to $131,750, almost the same as the median in the spring of 2000.

Because of the drop in the median price, home affordability across the county increased. According to the housing opportunity index compiled by Wells Fargo and the National Association of Home Builders, all median-income households in Stanislaus could afford to purchase 84 percent of all houses sold in January, a big improvement from only about 52 percent in 1990.

Home affordability in Stanislaus was at its lowest level during the housing boom in 2005 when the median home sales price shot up to $396,000 and only three percent of houses were affordable to median-income families.

Today, when many properties can be bought at a bargain at foreclosure homes auction, almost any person with a stable job and a good credit score can afford to purchase a home. According to broker Larry Matos, the demand for homes in Stanislaus has exceeded the supply.

According to Matos, while owner occupant buyers do not buy fixer uppers because they do not qualify for Federal Housing Administration loans, a lot of property investors compete to buy them at about 20 to 30 percent of the original price. They pay in cash so they can take over the properties immediately, fix them and then resell them at a profit.

In January, more than 23 percent of house sales in Stanislaus went to investors and nearly 32 percent of all sales were in cash.

Nonetheless, foreclosures still dominated the housing market in Stanislaus in January. Nearly 64 percent of all houses sold in January went through the public foreclosure homes auction before they are snapped up by bidders or taken back by lenders and then resold to buyers.

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Home foreclosure auctions in Summit County, Ohio bucked the statewide trend in 2009 when the number of homes sold through public auctions in the county plunged to its lowest level in seven years.

Public foreclosure auctions scheduled for the coming months in metro Atlanta are expected to sell off more homes, as shown in the sharp increase in number of properties listed for the February auction.

Las Vegas repo houses for sale finally got attention from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, based on a statement released this week by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Challenges faced by bidders at every foreclosure properties auction in Albany, New York show the reality that it is not easy for newbies and most investors to win a property at public auctions.

The public foreclosures auction scheduled for February in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area involves less properties than the auction held in January, based on figures from an Addison-based foreclosure tracking firm.

Properties scheduled for foreclosed homes auction are still rising in number in Pima County, Arizona, based on reports from the Southwest Fair Housing Council and the Pima County Recorder’s Office.

The houses repossession prevention program of the Obama administration is now being seen by some housing and community advocates as worsening the housing crisis instead of solving it.