Archive for the 'Florida Repo Homes' Category

Five foreclosed homes auctions to be held in August in 5 cities across Florida will sell almost 200 bank owned foreclosed houses.

In Orlando, 57 houses will be auctioned off and another 57 homes will be sold in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area. In the Tampa and Saint Petersburg area, 19 homes will be sold and 6 homes will be sold in Melbourne.

A total of 14 houses will be auctioned off in Jacksonville and 13 homes in Fort Myers. Seven homes will be sold in Fort Walton Beach. All these auctions will be held by Texas-based real estate firm Hudson & Marshall.

Foreclosure auctions are being held by real estate investment firms every now and then in Florida because of the record numbers of foreclosed homes across the state.

Since the collapse of the housing market, Florida has been topping foreclosure charts. In a nationwide study of foreclosures in the first half of 2009, Florida posted more than 268,000 default and foreclosure notices. With more than 3 percent of all housing units in Florida hit with default notices or foreclosure cases, the state was third among the states with the biggest foreclosure rates in the first 6 months of 2009.

In June, nearly 53,000 housing units in Florida received default or foreclosure notices.

In the first 6 months of this year, 35 cities in Florida, Nevada, California and Arizona were among the 50 largest metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates.

Auction participants need to register before the start of the foreclosure auction and winners of bids need to post a deposit of $3,000 in cash or in certified check for every property won during the bidding. A five-percent buyer’s premium would be added to the sales price.

Dave Webb, executive of Hudson & Marshall, said home sales have been increasing in many areas of the country because of low home prices, low mortgage rates and the federal tax credit. Sales of bank-owned repossessed homes have been contributing to homes sales increases nationwide, especially in foreclosure-battered states like Florida.

Prospective buyers of foreclosed homes in the auctions are advised that all units are sold on an as is basis and they should inspect the homes they want to buy before the auctions. Buyers can inspect the homes days before the auctions or they can call the listing agents to set inspection appointments. Buyers are also given the opportunity to buy the units before the auctions.

More properties are getting added to foreclosed home auctions in the Orlando metro area because of growing job losses in the city, based on real estate data in Florida.

In May, sales of existing single-family houses and units from foreclosed home auctions in Orlando increased to 1,949 units, a jump of about 31 percent from the total of 1,489 pre-owned home sales in May last year.

Orlando mirrored statewide sales of existing homes, as 12,044 previously owned units were sold statewide in May, a nearly 16 percent increase from April sales.

Inventories of foreclosed home auctions are set to increase further as manufacturing companies have announced more layoffs. Based on studies by the University of Central Florida, the metro area will lose around 3,600 jobs next year.

The manufacturing sector has already lost almost 10,000 jobs since 1999, when the sector employed nearly 52,000 workers.

In the counties of Seminole, Orange, Osceola and Lake, manufacturing companies are expected to cut down their nearly 40,000 total of jobs to around 36,300 by June next year.

The university researchers also predicted that the business and professional services sector will lose a total of 6,000 jobs by December 2009, lowering the total number of jobs in this sector to 182,800 by December 31 this year.

With these job losses, many households whose breadwinners are in the business services and manufacturing sectors are expected to see their houses get added to foreclosed home auctions. Mortgage lenders refuse to modify the home loans of borrowers who are currently unemployed or who have spotty employment history.

As unemployment rose and foreclosed home auctions grew, home values in the Orlando metro area dropped. In May, the median sales price for existing single-family houses dropped by 34 percent to $142,400, compared to the $215,500 median in May last year.

The drop in the median sales prices for previously owned condo units was even bigger – 60 percent. In May, the median sales price for condos was extremely low at $49,600, compared to the $124,800 median in May last year.

The record low condo price must have been the major purchase factor for a lot of condo buyers because sales of previously owned condos in May increased to 472 units, compared to only 154 in May last year.

Statewide, the median price for previously owned homes in May, including units from foreclosed home auctions, was $144,400, a drop of 29 percent from the $203,800 median in May 2008.

In May, home sales in the Florida counties of Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee comprised largely of repossessed houses for sale and other homes priced below $300,000, according to real estate records in Florida.

In Sarasota, 78 percent of total houses sold in May, including repossessed houses for sale, were priced below $300,000. Around 12 percent of total sales were made in the price level of $300,000 up to $500,000 and about 10 percent of houses sold were priced above $500,000.

The share of houses priced below $300,000 in total sales was even more staggering in Charlotte and in Manatee.

In Charlotte, 89 percent of all homes sold were priced below $300,000 while barely one percent accounted for sales of homes priced above $500,000.

In Manatee, 83 percent of total home sales were under the $300,000 price range and around six percent of sales were for houses priced above the $500,000 level.

Real estate analysts explained the significant percentage of lower-priced homes in the total sales of May as a result of a change in the attitude of home buyers. Many buyers no longer put so much importance on the size of the homes they buy. They now are very conscious about the affordability of the homes and their ability to sustain payments.

In many markets across the U.S., according to a lifestyle report, homebuyers are getting conscious about the time, cost and effort to maintain larger homes.

Besides the lifestyle and attitude factors, the under-$300,000 home price level also fit the requirements of affordable housing initiatives such as the federal tax credit program and the FHA loan program. The income limits of these federal government programs push buyers to the lower end of the housing market.

Another factor is the increase in number of first-time home buyers. Their number has increased following the launching of programs that entice them to participate in the housing market and help contain repossessed houses for sale. Aside from the low prices of repossessed houses for sale, they can take advantage of lower mortgage rates and the federal tax credit which is set to expire at the end of November this year.

As starters in the housing market, first-time home buyers gravitate towards the more affordable portion of the housing market.

In the three Florida counties, inventories of pre-owned homes and repossessed houses for sale are still in the double-digit levels despite increased sales.

First American CoreLogic released its market data showing an 8.1 percent increase in house repossession rates in Orlando-Kissimmee area in Florida in March of this year. Last March’s foreclosure rates were more than twice compared to the same month figures the previous year.

Spokespersons for Governor Charlie Crist announced that the governor is planning to get relief for Florida homeowners in trouble due to foreclosures. The plan is intended for desperate residents sacrificing everything they can to avoid foreclosures and not exorbitant Floridians who bought excessive homes during the housing boom years.
The plan would be based on California [...]