Sales from lists of foreclosed homes in Sacramento are still high, based on house resale data in the area in November.

Sales of bank-owned homes accounted for 49.3 percent of total home sales in Sacramento County in November, a still high percentage despite its drop from November last year when investors and first time home buyers snapped up bargain-priced foreclosures and pushed the share of foreclosure sales to more than 69 percent.

All in all, total home resales in the Sacramento region, which includes the counties of Amador, Nevada, El Dorado, Placer, Sutter, Sacramento, Yuba and Yolo, reached 3,183 units. Homebuilders, meanwhile, sold 341 of their units, comprising nearly 11 percent of total sales in the region. Overall sales however dropped from the October sales of 3,670 units.

The median price for resale homes in November in Sacramento was $177,000, a jump of $2,000 from the median in November last year. According to real estate analysts, the jump in the median price was the first year-over-year increase Sacramento has experienced since May 2006.

The analysts said that the median increase reflected improvements towards price stability, declining sales from list of foreclosed homes and higher sales volume for costlier properties.

However, the median price for newly-built and pre-owned homes in Sacramento remained 5.4 percent less than the median price in November 2008. The other counties in the region also posted drops in median sales prices compared to November last year.

In six counties in the Bay Area, the median home sales price in November rose to $387,000, the second consecutive month that the price increased from last year. In six counties in the Los Angeles area, the median home sales price was $285,000, matching the median in November last year and marking the first time the median did not fall on a year-over-year basis.

In Sacramento County, total sales for new and pre-owned homes reached 1,900 units with the median price dropping by more than five percent to $175,000 from November last year.

In Placer County, a total of 549 units were sold, with the median falling by more than seven percent to $305,000 from last year. El Dorado County posted sales of 201 units at a median of $289,000.

The median sales prices also fell in Yolo, Yuba, El Dorado, Nevada, Sutter and Amador, which had lower sales in November than Sacramento and Placer, despite a decline in the percentage of properties sold from lists of foreclosed homes.

Foreclosed lists are growing in West Georgia because of the rising number of homeowners losing their jobs, based on records from the Carroll County Tax Assessor’s Office.

According to Sandra Ferguson, head appraiser of Carroll County, the number of foreclosure homes could reach 990 units this year if the current pace of defaults continues.

Carroll realtor Rett Harmon said that the rise in foreclosures has been pushing home prices further down. He added that he sees some distressed mortgages being modified by lenders and some short sales being completed, but there are still a lot of troubled mortgages falling into foreclosure.

Ferguson explained that many bank repossessions now are not caused by the default of toxic mortgages, but by loss of jobs. In October, the jobless rate in Georgia soared to a seasonally adjusted rate of 10.2 percent, up from the adjusted September rate of 10.1 percent.

For the first time in 2 years, the jobless rate in Georgia matched the nationwide rate of 10.2 percent in October. Most job losses occurred in the manufacturing, retail, trade, construction, business services and professional sectors.

According to Ferguson, from January to the end of September, the county processed more than 1,000 repossession deeds and handled the resale of 639 properties in foreclosed lists. In contrast, there were only 305 properties sold in non-distressed sales.

Ferguson further explained that the owners of recent foreclosure sales were responsible people. They did not buy large homes, did not use exotic loans and did not default deliberately like other borrowers. She said that these homeowners lost their jobs, wiped out their savings and could not borrow to save their mortgages.

A lot of business enterprises also closed in Carroll County, further worsening the job situation in the area. So far this year, 26 businesses already shut down, a jump from the 15 business operations that closed last year.

In 2008, final owners of closed and foreclosed businesses were a bit luckier because they were able to sell their assets near market value, but final owners of foreclosed businesses this year have been finding it hard to find buyers as commercial and residential foreclosures continue to drag down property values.

As shown in another report from a California research firm, the state of Georgia is still struggling with foreclosures, posting a total of 12,468 foreclosure filings in October, including 4,434 properties already in the foreclosed lists of banks.

The stipulation has surprised a lot of buyers, raising concerns that the banks’ stipulation violates the U.S. Anti-Tying Law, which prohibits the linking of the approval of a home loan to the purchase of a certain residential property.

However, according to Joseph Vincent of the Washington Department of Financial Institutions, banks are not violating the anti-tying law if they are just requiring prospective buyers of their distressed properties to obtain their loans from them. Vincent further explained that banks only violate the law if they make additional conditions, such as requiring buyers to use property management firms, home inspectors, home remodeling companies that they are affiliated with.

Vincent also added that a bank requiring a home loan applicant to buy a specific real estate property to be able to obtain a property loan from the bank is violating the anti-tying law. He cited a legal case involving Security Bank and Trust Co. in which the bank made it compulsory for a loan applicant to buy from its available real estate properties so he can get a real estate loan from the bank. The customer sued under the anti-tying law and won.

Mortgage broker Tom Lasswell is one broker who is surprised by the new stipulation for distressed home listings. He said that he had a highly-qualified pre-approved buyer for a certain bank-owned property, but the bank advised him that his buyer can only acquire the property if he agrees to obtain his financing from the bank. The bank further warned that it would accept the next purchase offer if it does not receive a positive response within a certain period.

As of the end of 2008, there were around 871,000 bank-owned foreclosed houses throughout the U.S., an increase from 414,000 as of the end of 2007. Over five percent of all active residential mortgages were already delinquent by two months or more.

According to information management firm TransUnion, the percentage of residential delinquencies will increase through the rest of 2009 as more pay-option adjustable rate mortgage borrowers default. The firm said that around $321 billion worth of ARMs are set to adjust to higher rates before 2012, driving the number of bank-owned houses in distressed home listings to over 2 million.

Officials explained that the continued rise in low-priced foreclosures and pre-foreclosures in Jacksonville had improved affordability levels in the historic neighborhood, facilitating home sales and increasing funds for further development.

The Springfield neighborhood, which was founded in 1869, has 1,800 historic houses which are undergoing restorations.

Realtors said that home prices in the neighborhood have dropped from $450,000 to $200,000, giving home buying opportunities in Springfield for people who previously could not afford to buy in the historic community.

In the first 6 months of this year, Jacksonville had more than 13,500 foreclosure postings, indicating that one household was hit with a foreclosure filing out of every 43 households. The foreclosure pace in the city grew by more than 25 percent compared to the last 6 months of 2008 and grew by more than 59 percent compared to the first 6 months of 2008.

In addition, about 68 percent of all housing units sold in the areas of Springfield, downtown Jacksonville, Trout River South and Paxon over the 12-month period ended August this year were either foreclosed list sales or short sales.

Local realtors even contended that the percentage may have even reached 75 percent in Springfield alone.

Nonetheless, the realtors said that despite the seemingly grave situation of the housing market in Springfield and in Jacksonville, the much improved affordability level has been enticing more people to consider living in or returning to historic Springfield.

Because of the relatively fast pace of improvement and restoration efforts in Springfield, the neighborhood will be featured in Southern Living Magazine as one of the comeback stories of the magazine for its January 2010 issue, along with North Chattanooga of Tennessee and the Patterson Park neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland.

Realtors said that the beautiful streetscapes, the beautiful park in the southern part of the community and the positive attitude of residents have been attracting prospective home buyers to Springfield.

The restoration of the neighborhood has also encouraged builders to build new homes in the area, such as SRG Homes & Neighborhoods, which has already constructed 80 homes.

According to Louise DeSpain, head of the Springfield Preservation and Revitalization Council, which was formed in 1974 to spearhead the revitalization of the neighborhood, lower foreclosed list prices have made home prices in Springfield affordable to more people.

It is expected that the board, which is made up of five members of the city council, will consider approving the proposal.

Under the proposal put forward by officials of the redevelopment agency, nearly $900,000 would be contributed for the neighborhood stabilization program which will be managed by the Riverside Housing Development Corp., a nonprofit housing corporation.

The Riverside Housing plans to spend around $2.8 million to purchase about 15 foreclosed homes in Lake Elsinore. The money contributed by the redevelopment agency will be used to finance the rehabilitation of foreclosed houses that will be purchased.

The renovated properties will then be sold at reasonable prices to potential buyers who will agree to live in the houses.

Chairman of the Lake Elsinore’s agency board Thomas Buckley is confident that the goal would be easy to accomplish given the huge number of foreclosure properties available for sale and their reduced costs. Revenues generated from the sale of renovated properties would be invested back on the process.

Buckley has expressed his hope that the program would accomplish more than the target number of 15 foreclosed properties.

The program will focus on purchasing properties that have been damaged by vandals or on the brink of deterioration because they have been abandoned and vacant for so long. Not included in the program are well-maintained houses that banks could easily sell without any rehabilitation.

City officials said that the program will transform an abandoned, empty and vandalized foreclosed house into an owner-occupied. They added that the goal is not to help out-of-state landlords but to assist neighborhoods hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis and to put people into empty homes.

The renovated properties will not be counted as affordable houses, though they will be sold at affordable prices to low-income and moderate-income families chosen based on a federal formula. Classifying these properties as affordable house would put a limit on their market values and future potential buyers.

Houses under the program would be excluded from Lake Elsinore’s legal mandate of a balance housing. They will be geared toward the prevention of decay in neighborhoods brought about by abandoned and dilapidated foreclosed properties.

It is therefore safe to assume that whenever a property ends up in a bank foreclosure list, the entire neighbourhood suffers from the fall out in terms of home prices. Again, realtors and lenders are looking at this phenomenon in two ways. True, with the state struggling to improve its economy, the increasing number of foreclosure properties does not bode well. On the other hand, these repossessed homes are also attracting buyers looking for home bargains.

Compared to other states, New Hampshire is actually faring better. For starters, the lack of a housing boom has become a blessing in disguise considering that states which thrived from such housing boom are now in the throes of the worst housing crisis to ever hit the nation in a very long time. In fact, you can still drive through many New Hampshire streets and not observe neighborhoods with majority of the homes in bank forclosure list.

Of course, state officials are not assured by such picture especially since the number of homes in foreclosure has increased sharply in the last three years. This particular trend can be attributed to a host of factors including rising ARM rates, unemployment and expensive mortgages that were not regulated previously.

In addition, troubled homeowners are no longer those individuals who took out adjustable rate mortgages. In recent years, homeowners, who are at risk of losing their homes to a bank forclosure list, are those who took out fixed-rate mortgages. This only shows that the current foreclosure problem in the state is driven by bigger economic forces including wage cuts and job losses.

The emergency ordinance covering this rule was approved by the city council of Canyon Lake as part of its efforts to boost property values in the area, improved communities affected by abandoned and vacant foreclosure properties and educate distressed homeowners about how to avoid losing their properties from foreclosure.

Under the emergency ordinance, all owners of foreclosure homes in the city must notify the local government and pay an annual registration fee amounting to $130. For owners of new repossessed homes, they have 15 days to comply with the city’s ordinance or pay the fine of as much as $1,000 per day.

Canyon Lake finance subcommittee chairman Barry Talbot said that the city has been affected by the foreclosure crisis and had its share of foreclosed properties. He said that the large number of distressed homes in the city and the lack of action and response on the part of lending institution, trustees and beneficiaries have resulted to many of these foreclosed properties to deteriorate beyond repair.

He also noted that these foreclosed properties have become magnets for vandals and squatters seeking shelter.

City manager Loris Moss added that abandoned and vacant houses affect property values in the city and has caused a great deal of concern for code and law enforcement staff.

Owners of repossessed homes will be given the same responsibilities as existing homeowners. The city municipal code’s public nuisance provisions stated that if houses were neglected and abandoned, it is the responsibility of their owners to keep it under current requirements.

Canyon Lake’s registration requirement is part of its Homeownership Education Learning Program (HELP) which aims to provide support, resources and education to help troubled homeowners who are facing foreclosures to keep their distressed properties or to help potential homebuyers purchase a house.

The city of Canyon Lake believed that the HELP program will improve and enhance the communication between the real estate industry and distressed owners to ensure that the latter will continue to stay in their properties and not add them on California’s foreclosure listings.

The FTC claimed that Golden Empire Mortgage imposed higher mortgage rates and higher processing fees on mortgage loans taken out by Latino borrowers, compared to mortgage rates and fees imposed on loans taken out by non-Latino white Americans.

FTC investigators alleged that the applicants’ underwriting risks and credit histories cannot explain the discrepancies in the mortgage rates and fees.

Miami-based lawyer Paul Hancock, who works for Golden Empire, argued that the methodology used by the FTC is not exactly correct and that the firm will respond to the alleged discriminatory activities in court.

FTC officials have been investigating the practices of mortgage lenders as more delinquent properties are added to bank foreclosure listings and as more fraudulent activities related to mortgages and foreclosure property listings are being reported in the media.

According to FTC, Golden Empire’s top executives paid their loan officers percentages of overages as their commissions, and failed to track whether the officers were imposing higher rates and fees on the mortgage loans of non-whites.

The FTC particularly pointed to Golden Empire’s policy of giving its branch managers and employees the right to earn money by imposing higher charges on loans. The national origin of Hispanic Americans in the loan applications led to higher mortgage rates and processing fees.

Hancock explained that the lawsuit stemmed from mortgage loan investigations by FTC officials and their examination of loans made during the housing boom. Mortgage loans easily taken out during the housing boom led to hundreds of thousands of properties added to forclosure property listings.

Additionally, Hancock explained that the Latino borrowers were not given different loan rates and fees. He said that FTC should factor in the prevailing loan costs in different areas, including the kinds of loans taken out and the credit records of the borrowers. He claimed that Golden Empire passed the traditional method used to compare loans – by annual percentage rates.

The FTC lawsuit alleged that Golden Empire violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. It also asked the court to require Golden Empire to refund the charges and pay all costs spent by FTC in investigating the case, which is just one among FTC’s efforts to help mitigate the effects of overloaded foreclosure property listings.

ACORN said that over 78 percent of homeowners who have participated in the city’s program last June 2008 were able to keep themselves away from foreclosure homes listings. Because of the relatively high success rate of the program, ACORN has been promoting Philadelphia’s program nationwide.

Deserie Jones-Wright, a 47-year-old Navy veteran and former police officer in Philadelphia, was able to keep the home she has owned for 11 years from foreclosure listings because she sought help from the city’s program. When her loan rate suddenly increased from 5.5 percent to 7.7 percent, her monthly payment of $975 took 50 percent from her monthly disability check.

With the help of the city and ACORN, her mortgage bank Everhome Mortgage Co. negotiated with her and later agreed to lower her monthly payment to $572 by reducing her loan rate to 5 percent.

Jones-Wright said she has just sent her first new payment and she is thankful and relieved she is not going to lose her house to foreclosure listings.

ACORN said the innovative Philadelphia program is effective because it is mandatory, it uses a community outreach scheme which is spread door-to-door and it leverages the knowledge and skills of HUD-certified housing counselors.

Jones-Wright was able to keep her home from foreclosure listings because somebody reached her through the program’s door-to-door scheme.

The program also provides free legal counseling to troubled homeowners who have become delinquent but are not yet in foreclosure. These homeowners later attend a court session where they reach payment agreements with their mortgage lenders.

Farah Jimenez, head of the Philadelphia-based community development enterprise Mount Airy USA, said that under the city program, homeowners and their counselors talk and find ways to arrange loan payments that prevent them from losing their houses to foreclosure listings and at the same time reduce the losses of mortgage banks and their investors.

President Obama’s foreclosure prevention program, dubbed Making Homes Affordable, is aimed at helping up to 9 million homeowners save their houses from foreclosure listings. While the program provides cash incentives to both borrowers and mortgage lenders to modify loans, the program is not mandatory.

Rick Sharga, senior economist of foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac, said Philadelphia’s mandatory strategy is worth trying.

The 30-second ad, created by National CineMedia, features still pictures of families and individuals, texts, voiceovers and the Fed logo. It first asks if the viewers are at risk of foreclosure, warns them about the proliferation of scammers and swindlers related to foreclosure listings and then advises them to read more tips on the Fed’s official web site.

Sandra Braunstein, head of the Federal Reserve’s Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, said the first ads will be aired in seven states starting April 9. The seven states, namely California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan and Georgia, are among the states with the highest number of foreclosure listings in 2008 and in the first quarter of 2009. The ads, costing $9,000, will be aired around the spring break when usually more people go the movies.

The ads were intended to combat the proliferation of radio, TV and billboard ads, flyers and people going from door-to-door convincing homeowners to hire them for loan modifications and other schemes protecting their houses from foreclosure listings. What they offer and then charge for thousands of dollars are often available free of charge on official government sites or offered by nonprofits and community centers.

Patricia Garcia Duarte, head of the Phoenix nonprofit group Neighborhood Housing Services, said the ads are very crafty and aired in English and in Spanish. Scammers, she said, know how to persuade distressed borrowers who are very vulnerable to offers of any kind of help.

Community organizations and housing advocates have also reported to the Fed and to attorney-general offices the proliferation of web sites that duplicate official government web sites, adding more confusion to foreclosure-troubled borrowers looking for advice on the Internet.

In the past, other federal agencies have used movie theaters to inform the public about important advisories. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the central bank, has appeared on television ads aimed at providing financial education. This is the first time that the Fed will air its advertisements in movie theaters. The warnings against scams related to foreclosure listings will not feature any Fed official.