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While browsing for other information, I ran across this chart showing foreclosure activity in the Triangle area. I'm guessing most of these are just in the early stages of default so not all of them will become bank owned, but it's still interesting information.
HotPads.com - Real Estate, Apartments, Homes for Sale and for Rent, Rental Houses, Sublets, Roommates (http://hotpads.com/map/index.htm#lat=35.8740845077472&lon=-78.7683334350586&zoom=18&detailsOpen=true&areaBord ers=heatMapForclosuresPerCapita&listingTypes=forec losure&pricingFrequency=once&loan=30,0.0642,0 - broken link)
It surprised me that a number of zip codes in the area fell into the highest two categories of foreclosures per household.
This chart also lines up (roughly) with this one showing areas with high numbers of homeowners with negative equity :
The combination of these charts worries me quite a bit. It looks this area might have had a decent amount of low down payment loans on houses that are now depreciating.
I'm a fairly analytical person by nature and training and I don't see too much in these charts that I find surprising. I guess the main thing I was surprised by was how little foreclosure activity there was in Cary/Morrisville v. some other parts of the Triangle (e.g., Wake Forest). As far as the negative equity goes, I've heard that 30% of homeowners who purchased since '06 have negative equity. The chart you linked to starts in '05, so it's not an apples to apples comparison, but my guess is the situation here is considerably better than most of the country. I'd still rather be a home owner here than in FL, Northern Virginia, Las Vegas, etc.
I've fooled around with this for an hour or so now.
There is an increase in actual foreclosures. Yes. Agreed.
But there should be disclaimers all over these sites. "Entertainment purposes only. Inaccurate and Outdated information readily available."
RealtyTrac stuff is often outdated.
Hotpads and Zillow are unencumbered by any need for accuracy or timeliness.
If I pulled this crap, I could kiss my license "Good Bye!"
Some of the entries are several months old, and already resolved long ago.
One, and it is not that hard to find, was purchased out of foreclosure in November, 2007, in a cash transaction. No Deed of Trust on which to foreclose. No HOA to foreclose. Too new to be a Tax Sale.
It is still in the RealtyTrac records as a preforeclosure, going on 6 months later.
Appointment of a Substitute Trustee seems to be a trigger for listing as a preforeclosure, whether or not that is the case.
A homeowner and lender may agree to modify an agreement, subordinate the mortgage to another lender, etc, and a Trustee of the lender's choice may be appointed, as a Substitute, without "preforeclosure" being applicable.
I pity homeowners who are wrongly, publicly identified as "preforeclosure" and have to barricade themselves from the siege of credit repair sharks, save your home sharks, ham-handed bird dog sharks, and other scuzzballs who have no interest in service, but just want to pick bones like buzzards.
I see the opportunity for a class-action suit...
I pity homeowners who are wrongly, publicly identified as "preforeclosure" and have to barricade themselves from the siege of credit repair sharks, save your home sharks, ham-handed bird dog sharks, and other scuzzballs who have no interest in service, but just want to pick bones like buzzards.
I feel sorry for those who are in fact 60 days behind on their mortgage as well! I did a 7-day free trial at Realty Trac last week and was amazed at the detailed information that was available on homeowners (name, address, etc.). I can't imagine how many phone calls they must get as soon as their name pops up in that database!
For what it's worth - Hotpads isn't showing the same information that RealtyTrac did, so I've no idea how there can be a 'partnership' between the two. I agree with Mike - both Zillow and Hotpad should be 'for entertainment purposes only!"
I figured I'd get that response. Yep, I know both sites are not 100% accurate, but I thought it was interesting that two independent sites which use different data sources showed similar trends. The general trend is tougher to explain away than nitpicking individual problems.
Doesn't look too bad, until you notice the scale for the colors has changed "slightly" . The lowest one is "47% or fewer homes with negative equity" and the worst color goes up to ">81% negative equity". The Raleigh one starts at "less than 5%" for the first category and goes up to ">19%" at the high end. Big difference there even though they use the same color in both maps.
I figured I'd get that response. Yep, I know both sites are not 100% accurate, but I thought it was interesting that two independent sites which use different data sources showed similar trends. The general trend is tougher to explain away than nitpicking individual problems.
Why is the trend hard to explain? Prices have fallen, some people have negative equity as a result, others have fallen behind on their mortgages (for unknown reasons) and foreclosure activity is up.
How is this any different than what's been going on for months now?
I always take anything I read on Zillow with a healthy helping of skepticism, but that color chart makes a lot of sense.
The lightest color is in the areas where most out of state professionals relocate to. They sold elsewhere, put a pile of cash down on their home, and bought into higher appreciation areas. The darkest color is where most first time buyers bought less expensive homes (East Raleigh, K'dale, Wendell, Zebulon, and into Johnston County). Many of those homes were bought with little or no down payment and more of those buyers utilized adjustable mortgages that could be considered "subprime". Those same areas are heavy with new construction inventory that further compromises appreciation.
The fact is that negative equity, while certainly being a bad situation for the homeowner, only becomes a real problem if the homeowner-
A) Can no longer afford to make payments,
OR
B) Chooses to sell the home and can't bring cash to the table to make the bank whole at closing. I am not talking about a foreclosure here-that would fall under "Can't Make Payments"-I'm talking about someone who wants to move somewhere else.
I did not disagree with the trend cited.
I said I agree that foreclosures are up.
It was clearly stated.
The sites are what they are, junk sites with junk information and negligent presentation.
Acknowledging that they have no basis in accuracy, no desire to present accurate information, and a great deal of negligent error, how can they even be referenced as supporting any trend?
Since they are held to no quality standards and sink to the level they do, they are widely renowned as junk sites.
I looked at 8 RealtyTrac/HotPads properties, pulled tax and deed records on 4, and found that two were flat-out wrong, one was questionable/unexplainable, and one may be accurate.
That is not an acceptable record, IMO, to publicly announce that someone is in preforeclosure when they are in good standing.
Simple methodology: I picked streets that I knew were short so it was easy to locate the properties at the tax site, or with photos of the property, or RE ID #, and got those results.
Acknowledged: It was a small sampling. And an extremely high failure rate.
So the trend is the trend, and junk is junk. It's that simple.
I judge the trend by the number of foreclosure auction notices in the legal section of the newspaper.
Foreclosure activity has increased.
I shall offer my 2 cents worth before it too gets foreclosed upon. The foreclosure trend is up just about everywhere around this US of A AND some placed outside this US of A. No question about that fact as non 'trendy' as we would like it to be.
My only non financial based, with little to no algoritimist data to support it one way or the other and especially 'no interest' down comments I still believe and shall proclaim that this is one of the BEST markets to be in regarding real property or should I say real-estate. Again, this is only the opinion of the typer of this message no larger populace gathering data mongers should be associated with my opinion albeit applied or mis applied!
KCfromNC thanks for posting the information so we as in us can decide what it really means.
I have used Zillow in the past. The information is completely false and misleading. They showed homes sold in my area for $100,000 less than the actual sale. There is nothing one can learn from these sites, as they contain no factual information. One should not draw any trends or conclusions from incorrect information.
Also, the real estate market in this area is still doing well. There are more homes on the market, but many reports have come out over the last couple of months that show home prices have still gone UP in many locations, even though sales have gone down. Another thing to remember is that many first time home buyers finance 100%, so this has nothing to do with the market......it has to do with personal preference on how much someone wants to or can put down on a home.
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These Sites Are Useless. They Should Not Be Used.
