According to industry experts, this year will be “The Year of Foreclosures”. The gloomy state of home and commercial property foreclosures in the U.S. is overwhelming. According to the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, which consists of attorneys general and state banking regulators, efforts are being made by homeowners, servicers, and the government to find a solution to the problem; however, the foreclosure crisis keeps on worsening.
This means that there will most likely be more foreclosures this year than there were last year. According to media reports and industry experts, all across the country between three and seven million home and commercial property foreclosures will be on the market this year.
In Atlanta, one of the nation’s worst-hit foreclosure cities, the percentage of mortgage-holders who are delinquent in their payments keeps on rising. According to a recent report by credit bureau TransUnion, in the fourth quarter of 2009 the delinquency rate in Georgia reached eight percent — the fifth highest in the country. The state’s late-payment rate has gone up for twelve quarters in a row. In 2008 that rate was 5.3 percent and in 2007 it was 3.75 percent. The figures are even more depressing for metropolitan Atlanta, which has experienced one of the nation’s toughest housing high to low cycles. Upwards of nine percent of mortgage holders in Atlanta were sixty days or more late on payments for the last quarter of 2009, compared with six percent the previous year.
Nevertheless, as with every crisis, there is opportunity for some. For those hopeful first-time home buyers and seasoned real estate investors who were not economically affected by the recent real estate recession, the market is red hot. In this last year, there has been a record increase in the number of houses and commercial properties that can be found on Atlanta foreclosure listings.
Some people have argued that these investors are like vultures taking advantage of other people’s distress, but local governments tend to think otherwise. Every vacant house that is sold means more money into the local government by means of property taxes, gas, electric and water bills, etc. It also helps create jobs by hiring local painters, landscapers and electricians. In other words, it truly is a boost to the economy.
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