Foreclosure rates expected to rise again this year
By David Myers
The number of homes repossessed by lenders is expected to climb even higher this year after a record level of foreclosures in 2010.
Q. I know that a lot of people lost their homes to foreclosure last year. What was the final number? Will things get any better in 2011?
A. A record 2,871,891 homes entered some stage of the foreclosure process last year, according to RealtyTrac, one of the nation’s largest real estate research firms. Some of those properties already have been sold by banks, while others are still winding their way through the long and painful system.
The final 2010 figures represented a 2.2-percent increase from the previous year and a 23-percent jump from 2008, the recent report by RealtyTrac said. And they would have been even higher if many banks hadn’t slapped a temporary moratorium on foreclosures in the final few months of the year so they could get all of their paperwork in proper order.
In all, one out of every 45 U.S. homeowners received at least one foreclosure notice last year. The hardest-hit states were Nevada, where one in 11 owners was hit with a filing; Arizona, one in 17; Florida, one in 18; and California, one in 25.
Sadly, foreclosure activity is widely expected to move even higher in 2011. Projections vary, but most economists agree that foreclosure rates will continue rising as banks resume the foreclosures they briefly halted last year, the economy remains sluggish, and many homeowners no longer have the jobs or high credit ratings needed to refinance to lower their payments in today’s tougher lending environment.
Q. I live in a large condominium development, and one of the homeowners here often lets his golden retriever swim in our development’s community pool. I know it’s disgusting, but is it also illegal?
A. State and local laws give condo homeowners associations wide latitude to set their own rules. Your best bet would be to check the building’s governing bylaws or covenants, conditions and restrictions — typically called “CC&Rs” — to see if they address this issue. If they don’t, they could be amended to ban pets from paddling in the pool if a majority of owners approve the proposed change.
Also call your local city or county health department to ask if there are any health risks involved in sharing a community pool with animals. If there’s a regulation against it, get copies of the ordinance and submit them to both the dog owner and the association’s board of directors along with a written complaint.
Q. Is the county tax assessor the same as the county tax collector?
A. No. The assessor’s job is to determine the value of each property in the area and then levy, or “assess,” the appropriate amount of taxes. It’s the collector’s job to ensure that those taxes are paid.
Q. We hired an agent to sell our home, and she scheduled an “open house” for next weekend. We were planning to stay for the event and help show visitors around, but our agent says it would be better if we spent the afternoon somewhere else, because our presence might hurt our chances of making a quick sale. What do you think?
A. I get this question often, and my response is always the same: I think owners should follow their agent’s advice and stay away from their property while their open house is held.
A key to holding a successful open house is to make visitors feel comfortable enough to slowly ramble through the property and to ask the agent lots of questions. But if the sellers are present, many home-buying prospects will cut their visit short because they feel like they’re intruding or that their questions will make them seem “nosy.”
The shorter the time a prospect tours a home, the less chance that he or she will make an offer to buy it.
Another reason why sellers should not attend their own open house is that, as numerous agents will attest, they usually don’t exercise much discretion when they talk about why they want to move. Even a simple comment like “I love this place, but it’s time to move on,” or “We need to move because our son wants to go to a different school” might be misconstrued by potential buyers as a sign that they could do better by looking elsewhere.
I’m sure you wouldn’t have hired the agent if you didn’t trust her judgment, so you should follow her advice and be somewhere else when she holds your open house.
Ÿ For the booklet “Straight Talk About Living Trusts,” send $4 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to David Myers/Trust, P.O. Box 2960, Culver City, CA 90231-2960.
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