Archive for the 'Pennsylvania Repo Homes' Category

The Pennsylvania county of York is not as battered by foreclosures as other counties in Florida and California, but the number of houses entering repo homes lists in the county has been increasing.

According to data gathered by nonprofit Housing Alliance as it conducts counseling for distressed homeowners, the most common reasons cited by borrowers for their defaults and impending foreclosures were loss of income, reduction of income, major medical expenses and increase in the home loan amount.

The reasons cited by the others were death in the family, business failure, divorce and poor financial management.

York housing counselors said that job loss is the strongest factor for foreclosures in the county, and not adjustable-rate mortgage loans or other exotic mortgage loans or poor financial decision making.

Foreclosures in York are also not concentrated in certain areas, unlike in other counties, where there are foreclosure hotbeds, according to The York Dispatch.

Nevertheless, there are areas where there are more foreclosures, according to data from the Sheriff’s Department. Zip code 899, which covers West York, North York and parts of York, currently has 899 foreclosure filings while zip code 17403, which covers York City and certain surrounding areas, has 667 filings. Zip code 17331, which covers Hanover, has 345 filings.

Across the county, the number of houses ready for sheriff sale rose to 1,273 units in 2008, an increase of 80.3 percent from 706 units in 2005. Using the 2005 to 2008 pace would bring a total of 1,412 foreclosed units in 2009.

Over the last 4 years, the number of houses sold at sheriff sales rose to 542 units in 2008, an increase of 55.3 percent from 349 units in 2005. Using the 2005 to 2008 pace would bring total sheriff sales to 696 units in 2009.

Another concern of York officials and residents is the proposal by Harley-Davidson, one of the York’s biggest employers, to relocate work from its Springettsbury factory to another plant in another state. If this happens, according to York real estate executive Patricia Carey, around 2,000 residents would lose their jobs and many of them would lose their homes too.

Last year, large numbers of York County residents applied for state emergency loans to keep up with their monthly loan payments. York is seventh in a ranking of 67 Pennsylvania counties based on the number of applications filed for emergency loans under the Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

The city of Philadelphia is being looked upon by other cities as a model for its foreclosure prevention program, but despite the city’s esteemed efforts, it has not prevented the rise in evictions that resulted from recent foreclosed home auctions.

According to the Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Wanda Davis, the number of evictions already carried out increased from 47 units in the first month of the year to 107 units in April.

Davis also added that she is concerned about the foreclosure sales and the evictions because the Sheriff’s Office has already carried out 49 evictions during the first weeks of June alone.

Davis said she has no data on renters evicted from properties sold at foreclosed home auctions, but she has observed that a rising number of tenants are being evicted. She added that evictions of renters are being carried out by the Municipal Landlord Tenant Court, and not the Sheriff’s Office.

According to Ian Phillips, a top executive of the national grassroots organization Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now which is helping Philadelphia in its foreclosure prevention program, the increase in evictions could have resulted from foreclosure actions filed before the implementation of the ACORN-backed program.

Also, some foreclosure filings moved on to foreclosed home auctions after the expiration of foreclosure moratoriums that were launched as the Obama administration was working out the details of its Making Home Affordable program.

The Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office put in place its own moratorium on foreclosure auctions from April to October in 2008 while the city was working out and putting in place its foreclosure prevention program together with ACORN.

The ACORN-backed program focuses on court-supervised mandatory mediation between the mortgage lender and the borrower and makes use of the services of HUD-certified housing counselors and volunteers who go around the community to reach out to distressed homeowners.

The Sheriff’s Office usually conducts its foreclosed home auctions 5 to 6 months following the Courtroom of Common Pleas’ approval of the foreclosure suit filed against the defaulting borrower.

ACORN executive Phillips explained that evictions are typically carried out 2 to 3 months after properties are sold at the sheriff’s foreclosed home auctions.

Notwithstanding the evictions, Phillips argued that the number of evictions is small compared to the 200 to 300 mediation conferences being conducted every week at the city’s Court of Common Pleas, resulting in hundreds of homes saved from foreclosed home auctions.

In Pennsylvania, 37,000 homeowners got their foreclosure notices last year making a 127 percent increase from ‘07 and 50 percent more than the national average. Of these, 10,800 went into repossession, almost twice of 2007’s 5,500.

Though this sounds tough already, Pennsylvania is actually still doing better than the other states. Pennsylvania is slightly dodged the full blow of job losses and real estate downfall.

With a 0.68 percent foreclosure rate, Pennsylvania ranked 33 among the 50 states only a third of the national average.

The highest foreclosure rates at above 1 percent were seen in Philadelphia and the Allegheny counties. While York counties, Washington, Delaware and Berks’ foreclosure rates were playing just below 1 percent.

If that is not enough already, home sales are very slow that mortgages cost more than the value of the actual home. January-November records show that home sales fell by 24 percent and median prices are down by 1.5 percent from 2007.

Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency is now doing extra efforts to aid the foreclosure troubled saving their homes. But impending job losses may just worsen repossession scenario. Last year, a $10 million federal aid wished to bring down payments of refinanced mortgages, provide some counseling and other services. Among the 150 foreclosure troubled whose mortgages were undertaken by the agency, only 2 are 30 days delayed.

We are all hoping for the best this 2009. But with the increasing cases of unemployment, continuing economic depression and 14,000 adjustable-rate loans for Pennsylvanian homes next year, chances of recovery is very slim.

Since October, 30,000 homeowners are recorded to be foreclosure-risked because adjustable- rate mortgages are about to increase their interest rates this year.

Looks like 2009 will have more homes repossessed, increasing house supply on the market, thereby repeating the downward spiral.