Springfield....635 foreclosures last 12 mo. (West Plains, California: sales, assessor, mortgages)

[8 SNAKE]

I would guess ARMs (or people over-extending themselves in general), but I haven't seen any hard stats to back that up. Unemployment rates haven't really shot up in the area, so I don't see job loss as a major contributing factor.

[Veiled Prophet]

How about high medical bills? I have read that happens to be one of the major reasons for foreclosures.

[8 SNAKE]

Originally Posted by Veiled Prophet

How about high medical bills? I have read that happens to be one of the major reasons for foreclosures.

It could be the cause for a few, but I'd argue that people have had the same potential exposure to high medical bills for the last few years. To me that wouldn't explain a short-term surge in foreclosures.

[kareybear]

Well I have to say for sure that people that bought there house in 2005 are losing money on the home because of the pricing market has drop and killing themselves on a mortgage that is negative equity. I would not make payments on such huge lose in the market. For example if you paid a 20% down payment for 220,000 home and your payments are 1700 a month and your home is only worth 150,000. Would you keep putting money in a home that is not worth what you bought for it originally and knowing the market is not going to go back up in a couple of year. Even if it did go back up in year it will still not but what they orignially paid for. I pretty sure most of it was a financially situation.

[Veiled Prophet]

So, if you would not pay anything more into that house what would you do? Just stop paying? That doesn't make any sense at all. This is ciclical and the housing prices will increase again in due time.

[redneck central]

Foreclosures are up all over the country. Credit standards were dropped too low. No downpayment needed, no income verification, adjustable rate mortgages. Anyone who wanted to buy a house, could. What a mess. The banks packaged up these high risk loans, and sold em all over the world. They call them toxic loans.
This credit mess will take a while to run its course. It reminds me of reading about the 1920's....easy credit.....excessive credit.....ending in a cliff dive.
The good thing is that your bank deposits are now insured to $100 grand, vs no insurance back then.

[Lake Junkie]

Originally Posted by Currently a cheesehead

We have been watching the MLS, but it is also depressing as the really good ones I fall in love with get snapped up and I am still on hold.

In the SW MO area, this is still the case. The "really good ones" sell quickly at 95% of asking price, assuming the asking price is fair market value. There are some deals out there, but they aren't the "dream" houses or "hot" areas.

Originally Posted by 8 SNAKE

Where was this home located?

While I can appreciate you trying to tell prospective buyers about good deals, I still feel that you are skewing a lot of information. Take this home that you're talking about. You paint a rosey picture, but I can tell you from experience that deals like this sound way too good to be true. First, you don't mention the location, which is huge. Unless this was the deal of the century, I doubt this home was located very close to Springfield. Second, we don't know if the home sold. Third, we have no idea what the house is like.

I'm not suggesting the info that you've posted is false, but there are a lot of details that are missing. My point is that you have to post all of the relevant information so that people can get a true feel for the market in this area.

Absolutely right. The idea that you can find a house on 10 acres for under 100K and still be within easy distance of good jobs is false. Those deals are out there, but location is the key. Remember that the supply/demand principle doesn't fail: If the demand for housing out in the middle of nowhere is low, so are prices.

Originally Posted by gjs

For the locals, on this subject. Why do you think that the foreclosure rate is so high in this area? ARM's or maybe loss of employment in the area?

Employment in the area is still growing. New businesses moving to the area, housing starts up, more permits than ever being issued.
The mortgage crisis is thought by most experts to be to blame for the foreclosure rate jumping nationwide. This goes back to a previous administration when the economy was booming and the idea was that everyone should have the right to own their own home...so lending laws were relaxed.

Originally Posted by kareybear

Well I have to say for sure that people that bought there house in 2005 are losing money on the home because of the pricing market has drop and killing themselves on a mortgage that is negative equity. I would not make payments on such huge lose in the market. For example if you paid a 20% down payment for 220,000 home and your payments are 1700 a month and your home is only worth 150,000. Would you keep putting money in a home that is not worth what you bought for it originally and knowing the market is not going to go back up in a couple of year. Even if it did go back up in year it will still not but what they orignially paid for. I pretty sure most of it was a financially situation.

We are NOT seeing this kind of drop in the market as a whole. An occasional property that was overpriced to start with may see a significant reduction in order to sell...and some types of properties may not gain much in value over a 12 month period, but here in SW MO, I have yet to see a loss like people are experiencing in other parts of the country.

Originally Posted by redneck central

Foreclosures are up all over the country. Credit standards were dropped too low. No downpayment needed, no income verification, adjustable rate mortgages. Anyone who wanted to buy a house, could. What a mess. The banks packaged up these high risk loans, and sold em all over the world. They call them toxic loans.
This credit mess will take a while to run its course. It reminds me of reading about the 1920's....easy credit.....excessive credit.....ending in a cliff dive.
The good thing is that your bank deposits are now insured to $100 grand, vs no insurance back then.

Exact-a-mundo, redneck. Many of those loans should never have happened in the first place. People who weren't protecting their credit were allowed to qualify for a 100% loan (or worse!) and then had no incentive to sacrifice to make those payments. Their financial history repeats itself as they walk away from this committment.

There's another factor that may help this situation. The mega-banks that have underwritten these loans DON'T want those houses back! They are getting together to figure out how to help as many people as possible hang on to their homes...after all, banks are in business to make money, not continually lose it.

It WILL take us a while to get over this. Meanwhile remember that our economy is based on consumer confidence. We can't hide under the bed. We must keep moving forward, confidence and common sense in tow.

Keep the faith, friends.
See you at the lake.

[2beamissourian]

This is one I found .. It has charm but yes it needs work not to bad of a price .. a house like this in my area would be around ... 300,000 and taxes for what is there .. more like $4000... I think it is listed for 140,000

[2beamissourian]

yet another .. very reasonable one .. in my area this house would be more around .. $200,000 and taxes would at least $3000



http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/737/2407839440807910xf0.th.jpg (broken link)

[NOLA2SGF]

My idea of great recreation is to salivate over houses in Springfield on the MLS. I am just DYING to buy one, I have the down payment sitting in the bank, my present house is paid off, and right now I would qualify for a mortgage many times larger than I could possibly need.

I could easily find what I want for $130K-$170K (or probably less), according to the MLS. This would be a 3BR 2BA house, 1000-2000 sq ft, 0.25-0.5 acres, built from 1950-2007, no homeowners' fees or association, within the city limits in South Springfield.

The problem is that I can't move and retire to Springfield for two more years, and I don't have much vacation time at all for trips up there to check on the house. So far, I haven't figured out a solution to that problem. I could hire someone to mow, but how would I know he was doing it? What if the heater gave out in the middle of winter, and I didn't know about it, and the pipes burst? There are many other unnerving thoughts that I have when thinking about these things.

So, I am waiting until I can get up there permanently in 2009-2010. Prices may go up a lot by then but that's life. Meanwhile, I feel so sorry for the homeowners who can't sell their houses! That is an awful situation.

We have that going on down here, too, though I am hoping that in a couple of years things will have improved.

Originally Posted by Lake Junkie

In the SW MO area, this is still the case. The "really good ones" sell quickly at 95% of asking price, assuming the asking price is fair market value.

For the average house (not really good or really bad), what % of asking price is common? Down here the selling prices are on the internet, so I kept track and the median in 2002 when I bought my home was 93% with peaks at 90% and 95%. Just wondering if that is in the ballpark up there, or if homes usually sell for a much lower percentage. (I can't find the selling prices on the internet or I would keep track and find out myself...)