foreclosed

Typically foreclosures are not considered when appraising home values, but that is going to change in some areas stricken by foreclosures in Hampton Roads, according to the Daily Press.

Assessors will be considering short sales and bank sales in a neighborhood's reassessment if those sales dominate the market, so the magnitude of foreclosures on property values will be neighborhood by neighborhood.

Many cities and counties in the Hampton Roads area have assessments coming up in the next few months and will be faced with addressing this issue. Homeowners should be prepared for how foreclosures in their neighborhood might affect their home values.

"Neighborhoods stricken by foreclosures might see that reflected in home values in some Hampton Roads cities.

Foreclosures historically have been ruled out in determining home value. But times have changed in areas plagued by foreclosures.

'Never in the history of appraising have I heard this before, but people are starting to take foreclosures into consideration,' Newport News Assessor Chuck Young said. 'This is something we're going to have to consider. We don't have a choice.'

Assessor's offices in Hampton and Newport News will consider bank sales and short sales in a neighborhood's reassessment if those sales dominated the market, both Young and Hampton Assessor Brian E. Gordineer said.

Newport News is just beginning its assessment process.

'It's a little too early to discuss which neighborhoods will be affected,' Young said. 'We aren't far enough along to make those decisions because we haven't dealt with it before.'

Hampton is in the midst of conducting a sales analysis that will wrap up Dec. 31.

'At this point we have not seen individual assessment neighborhoods where foreclosure sales dominate any individual markets,' Gordineer said.

In nearby Williamsburg and Poquoson and Isle of Wight, York and James City counties, though, foreclosures aren't being used to determine value. Those counties and smaller cities have seen foreclosures, but not in clusters or in numbers big enough to affect the market, assessing officers said.

Gloucester County is finalizing a reassessment effective Jan. 1. County Assessor Reese Milligan said the county hasn't used foreclosure-related transactions as direct comparisons, but is trying to gauge the overall influence of foreclosures on the market.

In Mathews County, the next reassessment will be effective in 2011, and Middlesex County's next reassessment will be effective in 2012.

Assessing officers around the country are grappling with how to handle a spike in foreclosures in parts of the U.S."

Read the full story.

As forclosures around the country have become a serious reality for many neighborhoods, new homeowners are finding some great deals. And, the Roanoke area is not an exception to this, according to the Roanoke Times.

"Angela Batey's sales were sluggish until she began helping people buy homes lost to foreclosures this year.

Now, the Roanoke real estate agent's business is hopping with all kinds of buyers hunting for deals.

'I'm busier than I have ever been,' said Batey, who represents buyers in many kinds of home transactions for Gracious Living Realty in Roanoke. She estimated that at least 80 percent of her sales are from bank-owned properties that have been through foreclosure.

The hardships of homeowners in the Roanoke and New River valleys are erupting into a flood of foreclosure filings, an indication that the region's housing woes are far from over.

The abundance of lender-owned homes on the market is forcing real estate prices down across the country and paving the way for some buyers to snatch tremendous deals.

Foreclosure filings in the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area rose 590 percent from January through August of this year, compared with 2008, according to RealtyTrac, a California-based online service that tracks foreclosures. The Roanoke MSA includes the cities of Roanoke and Salem and the counties of Botetourt, Craig, Franklin and Roanoke."

Read the full story.

Part of $94 million in grant money coming to Virginia to improve foreclosed homes will make its way to Lynchburg, according to the Lynchburg News & Advance.

This is a great investment in to the future of home values in Lynchburg. As the foreclosed and abandoned homes are fixed up and new families move in, the entire area will see increases in values and quality of living.

"A coalition of local nonprofits has been awarded $1 million to rehabilitate foreclosed homes in Lynchburg, the governor’s office announced Monday.

The funding will be focused on the Middle Rivermont neighborhood around Early Street and the Diamond Hill neighborhood around Grace Street, two areas deemed to be suffering from a high rate of foreclosed or abandoned properties.

Four nonprofits will share in the work: the Lynchburg Neighborhood Development Foundation, the Lynchburg Community Action Group, the Greater Lynchburg Habitat for Humanity chapter and Rush Homes. Region 2000 will act as grants administrator.

'This is a considerable amount of money that we can invest in a concentrated way in two vulnerable neighborhoods,' said Laura Dupuy, executive director of LNDF, which served as the lead organization on the funding application.

The money has been awarded through the Virginia Neighborhood Stabilization Program, a new initiative focused on combating the state’s rising foreclosure rate.

According to the governor’s office, Virginia has seen an eightfold increase in foreclosures in the past three years. Currently, there are more than 28,000 homes in the foreclosure process and more than 16,000 foreclosed homes sitting empty.

Lynchburg itself has not reported such a sharp rise in foreclosures, but it is dealing with multiple risk factors, according to a report from the state Department of Housing and Community Development."

Read full story.

If you're having trouble keeping up with your mortgage payments, you're not alone. In 2009, Virginia's foreclosure rate hit an all-time high, and experts predict the rate will remain high for years to come. Fortunately, there are many organizations that want to help you keep your home. 

Here's a list of organizations you should know about if you've fallen behind on your mortgage payments or if you're in some stage of the foreclosure process:

1. Your loan servicer: The company where you make your mortgage payments is where you should first seek help. Ask to speak to someone directly in the loss mitigation department. Many times mortgage servicers will negotiate with you to restructure the loan to keep it from going into foreclosure. If you're about to fall behind on your payment, contact your mortgage servicer immediately and explain your circumstances, requesting possible solutions to your situation.
2. HOPE NOW: HOPE NOW is an alliance between counselors, mortgage companies, investors, and other mortgage market participants. The alliance maximizes outreach efforts to homeowners in distress to help them stay in their homes and has created a unified, coordinated plan to reach and help as many homeowners as possible. You can reach Homeowners HOPE Hotline at 888-995-HOPE (4673) or visit their website at www.hopenow.com.
3. Homeowner's HOPE: This is a counseling service provided by the Homeownership Preservation Foundation that can work with you to find a solution to your mortgage problem. If you feel like you may be in danger of facing foreclosure and need immediate help, call 1-888-995-HOPE or www.visit995hope.org.
4. The National Association of REALTORS. NAR maintains a website offering numerous resources on saving a borrower’s home from foreclosure. These include HUD’s “Help for Homeowners Facing the Loss of their Home” and a list of counseling agencies by state.
5. Making Home Affordable. This Obama Administration affordable housing program enables lenders to offer assistance to homeowners making a good-faith effort to make their mortgage payments, while attempting to prevent the destructive impact of the housing crisis on families and communities. Not all borrowers will qualify for this program.
6. Certified Housing Counselors. These individuals have been trained and certified to assist homeowners in preventing foreclosure. They can meet with you one-on-one in their office or by telephone if the you are unable to travel to the counselor’s office. Counselors can assist in developing a spending plan, developing a plan that may prevent foreclosure, and negotiating with the mortgage servicer on your behalf. You can find the location and telephone number of housing agencies at HUD.gov or VirginiaForeclosurePrevention.com.
7. Virginia Foreclosure Prevention Task Force. The Virginia Foreclosure Prevention Task Force, established by Governor Kaine and Chaired by Secretary of Commerce and Trade Patrick Gottschalk, was created to assist Virginians experiencing or at risk of foreclosure. Information and resources regarding foreclosure prevention are available from the Task
   Force’s official website: VirginiaForeclosurePrevention.com. This Web site also has data related to foreclosure trends in Virginia.
8. Virginia Housing Development Authority. VHDA issues bonds to finance single family loans. If you a VHDA loan and are experiencing difficulty paying your mortgage, VHDA staff can explore options for providing assistance. VHDA does not have resources available to help with loans held by other lenders and is not eligible to participate in the Obama Administration’s Affordable Housing Program, which is limited to mortgage loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
9. Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. DHCD’s website provides information on homelessness prevention programs and resources, and the new federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which provides grant assistance to local governments and nonprofit organizations to purchase and rehabilitate distressed, foreclosed properties in order to help stabilize communities hard hit by foreclosure activities. Properties acquired through the NSP initiative are either resold to new homebuyers or used to provide affordable rental housing.
10. The Bureau of Financial Institutions. BFI protects Virginia consumers through administration of state laws and regulations pertaining to state chartered depository institutions and state licensed or registered non-depository institutions. Avoid mortgage loan and foreclosure rescue scams by reviewing information on BFI’s Web site.

Part of $9.4 million of grant money will be going to Prince William county to repair foreclosed homes, according to InsideNova.com

Efforts to improve abandoned, foreclosed and blighted properties will help increase property values of all surrounding homes.

"Thanks to a recently awarded $1.5 million state grant, a local consortium of non-profit organizations will better be able to fight the foreclosure crisis that hit Prince William County last year.

The grant, which is part of a $9.4 million pot of money, will assist Manassas-based Catholics for Housing Inc. purchase, rehab and sell foreclosed properties in Dale City, Manassas and along the U.S. 1 corridor in Woodbridge and Dumfries.

Catholics for Housing is part of a larger group that includes Securing Emergency Resources through Volunteer Service, Fuller Center for Housing, Project Mend-a-House and the Dale City Volunteer Fire Department.

Catholics for Housing executive director Karen DeVito said her group has received approximately 40 applications for these properties. There are income requirements and potential owners must be able to secure a first mortgage.

Homes will be sold at the purchase price plus the cost of rehabilitation, said DeVito. The $1.5 million should be enough to buy six to eight homes and needs to be spent by September 2010, said DeVito.

A total of 85 foreclosed homes in 24 neighborhoods statewide will be upgraded and resold with the funds, which are from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, a national initiative through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development."

Read full story.