Orange County in the Mid Hudson Valley of New York is leading the state in Foreclosures.

“Orange County has the highest foreclosure rate in the state—that’s a sign of how hard the recession has hit this county in particular, and the Hudson Valley in general,”

Read the whole thing here…

People who default strategically and lose their houses appear to understand the consequences of what they’re doing. Piyush Tantia, an Oliver Wyman partner and a principal researcher on the study, said strategic defaulters “are clearly sophisticated,” based on the patterns of selective payments observable in their credit files. For example, they tend not to default on home equity lines of credit until after they bail out on their main mortgages, sometimes to draw down more cash on the equity line.

Strategic defaulters may know that their credit scores will be severely depressed by their mortgage abandonment, Tantia said, but they appear to look at it as a business decision: “Well, I’m $200,000 in the hole on my house, and yes, I’ll damage my credit,” he said of defaulters. But they see it as the most practical solution under the circumstances.

Read the entire article by clicking on the link below.

http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-fi-harney20-2009sep20,0,2560658.story

Our second home communities on the east end / hamptons of Long Island are more at risk for a strategic default than other locations- those finding a second home more difficult to afford are faced with difficult decisions.

As always, just a market gauge to keep in mind as you navigate these confusing times.

“There’s going to be a flood [of bank-owned homes] listed for sale at some point,” says John Burns, a real-estate consultant based in Irvine, Calif. When that happens, Mr. Burns believes, home prices will fall further, particularly in markets with large numbers of foreclosures. Overall, he expects home prices to decline 6% next year.…Read it…

As always, offering the latest in updates. The following article by Aaron Elstein found at Crain’s New York Business has us shuddering.

Prepare for more foreclosures … many more

Sellers: awareness is key.
Buyers: awareness is key.

Click here for an interesting article.

Whether you’re thinking of selling, or considering a purchase, awareness of things to come from all sources is key.

Carib1500 - 2006 S/V Archangel

Makes you just want to stay home.

In the midst of the longest, and probably deepest, postwar recession last year, the U.S. investment position with the rest of the world sharply deteriorated…Read on Here.

This piece came from an article in the New York Post last week, on June 8th., mentioned that approx. 1,400 came to a public home-foreclosure auction in Manhattan looking for deals on bank owned real estate.

The Negrons, a family of four, had been living in a small, two-bedroom apartment in the Bronx, but came away from the same auction with a three-bedroom house in Poughkeepsie. The house had been assessed at $265,000, but their bid of $125,000 was accepted. As George Negron told the Post, “I’m sad that somebody lost their home, but it’s our opportunity. Their misfortune is our fortune.”
Dugg on Forbes.com

It turns out that in the latest survey done by the National Association of Realtors, first-time buyers represented half of all purchases. So while the sad face of foreclosure can be a disturbing one, it also means many people will get to achieve the American dream of home ownership on the cheap. That neighborhoods will likely improve thanks to the arrival of owners more able to afford their mortgages will be an added bonus.

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Reported in The Poughkeepsie Journal last week.

Mortgage messes provide chances

May 23, 2009

Mistakes, misjudgments and malfeasance all played a role in creating a mortgage crisis that has caused millions of Americans to either lose their homes or be on the brink of disaster.

Dutchess County, particularly the City of Poughkeepsie, has not been immune. It is therefore welcome news that Hudson River Housing will use $2.5 million in government grants to help stabilize housing in the city, particularly on the northside, which has been hit hard by mortgage foreclosures. …

Vacant homes harmful

…There are few things worse for a city neighborhood than vacant homes.

“We don’t want to have properties sitting vacant, which can then become sources of blight,” Hudson River Housing Executive Director Gail Webster said. According to Hudson River Housing, about 15 percent of households in the city have been affected by foreclosure. Its efforts will target the neighborhood that makes up the approximate area from Columbus Drive to Pershing Avenue between Montgomery Street and Cottage Street, which the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development believes has the highest foreclosure risk.

Let’s hope Hudson River Housing’s plan keeps the area from declining further. It should also provide needed help for new families, who might not otherwise have the opportunity to become homeowners, allowing them to obtain affordable housing and use their pride in ownership to become part of a revitalized neighborhood.

Foreclosures Rise, With No End in Sight
New York Times

Long Island’s foreclosure rate during a 44-month period has been higher than the region’s. By DERRICK HENRY and JANET ROBERTS

Here are 3 paragraphs from the aforementioned article. Read the whole piece by clicking HERE.

Suffolk County had more homes in foreclosure between January 2005 and August 2008 — more than 19,000 — than any other county in the region. Suffolk also saw the steepest increase in foreclosure filings over that time. With 4.3 percent of residential properties in foreclosure at some point over the 44 months, Suffolk had the sixth-highest foreclosure rate, behind New Jersey’s Essex and Union Counties and the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn.

The Hamptons have not been immune to foreclosure, with about 490 properties in foreclosure there from January 2005 through August 2008. But the rate — 1.3 percent of all residential properties — was among the lowest in the region. Since September 2008, lenders have filed more than 260 foreclosure actions on the East End, about 20 percent fewer than in the first eight months of 2008, according to The Long Island Real Estate Report.

While significantly lower than some of the nation’s worst spots for foreclosure…Long Island’s delinquency rate is among the highest in New York, the data show. Suffolk’s March rate was tied for second highest with the Bronx, only slightly lower than the rate in Sullivan County.

In March, the month in which most lenders lifted the moratorium, foreclosure filings were the highest on record – 341,180 foreclosures nationwide, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosure filings.

“Since much of this activity was in new foreclosure actions, it suggests that many lenders were holding off on executing foreclosures due to industry moratoria and legislative delays,” James Saccacio, chief executive of Realty Trac, said in a statement.

On Long Island, foreclosures in the first quarter spiked 77 percent over the same period last year, with 943 foreclosures in Nassau and Suffolk counties, according to PropertyShark.com. Foreclosures on the Island had dropped at the end of last year, when several banks put the moratoriums in place.