Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleNevada bucks nationwide downward trend in foreclosures
Filings increase nearly 5 percent from previous month in state
Bloomberg News
A foreclosed home is shown in the Silverado neighborhood of Las Vegas, which leads the nation in foreclosures.
Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009 | 10:21 a.m.
Sun Coverage
Residential mortgage foreclosure filings fell nationwide in September -- but not in Nevada.
Statistics released today by RealtyTrac of Irvine, Calif., show the numbers were up for Nevada and the state continued to lead the nation in foreclosure filings in both the third quarter and in September.
With unemployment running at 13.2 percent in the state, 18,766 foreclosure filings were reported in Nevada in September. These include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.
The number of Nevada filings increased 4.8 percent from August and was up 44 percent from September 2008, RealtyTrac said.
Foreclosure filings were reported on 343,638 properties nationwide in September, a 4 percent decrease from the previous month but a 29 percent increase from September 2008.
For the third quarter, foreclosure filings were reported on 937,840 properties nationwide, a 5 percent increase from the previous quarter and an increase of nearly 23 percent from the year-ago quarter.
In Nevada, one in 23 housing units received a foreclosure filing in the third quarter — nearly six times the national average. The state was hit hard by the subprime mortgage crisis and then by the national recession that has reduced activity in the gaming and construction industries.
Foreclosure filings were reported on 47,925 Nevada properties during the quarter, an increase of nearly 10 percent from the previous quarter and up nearly 59 percent from the third quarter of 2008, RealtyTrac said.
Breaking down the numbers, RealtyTrac said bank repossessions and scheduled auctions were each up in Nevada in the third quarter vs. the second quarter, 29 percent and 26 percent respectively.
"Bank repossessions, or REOs, jumped 21 percent (nationwide) from the second quarter to the third quarter, corresponding to jumps in defaults and scheduled auctions in the previous two quarters," James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in a statement. "REO activity increased from the previous quarter in all but two states and the District of Columbia, indicating that lenders may be starting to work through some of the pent-up foreclosure inventory caused by legislative delays, loan modification efforts and high volumes of distressed properties."
In Nevada, notices of default increased from 8,031 in August to 8,568 in September -- indicating banks still have plenty of inventory to work through locally.
Also in the top 10 for foreclosures in the third quarter were Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Colorado and Illinois.
Today's numbers compare to statistics issued by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors last week showing that despite the flood of foreclosures, the median price of homes sold locally increased from $135,500 in August to $138,000 in September. (Condominium prices fell slightly, from $66,288 to $65,720.)
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- Coolican: Henderson officials out of loop on police brutality case, raising red flags
- See mug shots of 16 arrested in stolen-property police sting
- Lumberjacks — ‘Where the Big Boys Eat’ — hiring for North Las Vegas location
- Berkley draws stark contrasts with Heller over immigration
- Howard Miller, prominent lawyer and ‘true Las Vegas native,’ dies at 68
- Short memories may serve president
- Two dead after accident in downtown Las Vegas
- Police looking for man in white Ford Explorer
- Saying ‘No mas’ to government
- Instant Analysis: Debating whether UNLV should continue series with San Diego State
Blogs
The Kats Report
Live color from the scene at Thomas & Mack Center: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped': 'I'll give it an 8' (4 Comments)
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
"In Nevada, notices of default increased from 8,031 in August to 8,568 in September..."
Look at your notice of default. Then look at the first page of your copy of the original deed of trust. Is the trustee the same? If not better head for the county recorder's office and find out if there's an unbroken chain of assignments from trustee to trustee. And that the beneficiary is the same as the lender shown on the note. And pay close attention to the dates. Was the trustee sending you the notice appointed no later than the notice date?
If not, then pay attention to a recent article here http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/oct...
Then hope the AG's Mortgage Fraud department is paying attention!
It is sad what as happened,but these people have no one to blame but themselves!They bought more than they could pay back,borrowed on those houses to keep up with the jone's,and now there upside down.I owned a house here in vegas,and watched the trend drop,but sold before it tanked!If you bit off more than you could chew,then its up to you to pay it back!And not write it off,and beable to keep it!
Hey Rumrunner !! We are in our 50's and put 55% down on a house WE COULD AFFORD!! and are loosing it..I don't care what you buy, when you're not working - you can't make ANY payment. Let's see YOU survive that!
It's not jonly people who bought homes who could not afford the mortgage once the rates reset, but also those people who have lost their jobs. Also, people who can afford the mortgage but have seen the value of their homes cut by 50 per cent. Is it reasonable for them to continue paying into a home for which they will never see a profit, when the bigwigs on Wall Street made big bucks in bonuses, and when real estate agents made big bucks on commisions? It isn't reasonable and I wouldn't blame them if they walked away. The whole system was corrupt and honest and conscientious buyers should be made to hold the bag.
restatement: The whole system was corrupt and honest and conscientious buyers should NOT be made to hold the bag
Sergio is actually on to something here. My house is well maintained on Black Mountain in Henderson. Beautiful views of the Strip and surrounding mountains. But now, all the homes around my house are occupied by renters, who could care less about weeds and maintenance. Stupid people who either make beds or trim trees. Who have barking dogs crapping in their backyards. Landlords who could care less as long as the rent check comes in. Our quality of life is vanishing, and soon we will be Tijuana north. Sad...
To the people who have underwater loans...
It's going to take at least 5 to 10 years for house values to increase enough for homeowners to not be underwater. If you own a home in Las Vegas, are you willing to wait that long to break even at the best case scenario?
Go into foreclosure, take a hit on your credit....swallow your pride and start over again in a few years.
You're not the only one in this boat...
The foreclosure issue could be solved today at little or no cost to the government if our elected officials weren't too busy paying off their backers who supplied the campaign cash to get these senate and house 'lifers' elected and re-elected.
Next year and in 2012 we will trudge to the polls, elect the same folks with the same spiel and go home and whine about our choices as the winners unravel their real agendas.
But ... look at the bright side ... we are getting what we paid for!
All you fools who bought houses in LV crack me up.
You should have waited, now you can buy City Center condos for $39,000.
Intersting take on the current feeding frenzy going on for LV foreclosures can be found on the CNBC.com website. Look for the blog "realtycheck" and read yesterday's post about "lunacy in LV housing market"!!!
retiredyoungster, I have no sympathy for you. If you can't pay your bills for your house, that is YOUR fault. People like you make me sick. Get a job. Retirement in your 50's is a luxury, not an entitlement.
loan will reset in 2010 and 2011 and 2012 i am sure people are getting letter right statin there payment will increase next year
Sergio_ -- good to see reasonable posts based on actual experience here.
You're also the only one mentioning anything about the note holders -- "If you have a 2nd, the note holders will continue to bill you until you go BK..." -- but you're wrong. It's not the entities calling themselves "note holders" forcing you out of your homes, it's the entities calling themselves "trustees" doing it. And they often lack the legal right to do it.
Anybody here want to save their home bad enough to just read the docs attached to their homes then start the paper trail demanding the note holders and trustees prove they're bona fide?? Seems not.
Just love that phrase:
"(gang run areas)".
That's the phrase that tells the tale.
Maybe, it is possible that the Chinese are going to own the properties, yes maybe. But they and the Japanese have already been given permission by our esteemed Washington D.C. political greed-mongers to snatch up tons of US government debt also, and that's what they continue to do every time they can glom onto some. However, they, along with every other real estate "investor" (sucker), is shelling out for nothing more than a big-time Las Vegas pig-in-a-poke.
What the real meat and potatoes of this story is, however, is HOW MANY THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF PROPERTIES are BANK OWNED -or- EMPTY (and not foreclosed upon) AND NOT PUT ON THE MARKET, -and-
How many REAL ESTATE BROKERS, LOAN ORIGINATORS, BANKERS, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, etc., got "PAID" COMMISSIONS, FEES AND "CONTRIBUTIONS", ON THESE PREVIOUS HOME AND MORTGAGE SALES, -and-
WHY ARE ALL OF THEM KEEPING THEIR ILL-GOTTEN PROFITS FROM THIS TRAGIC SORROW AND NOT GIVING THE MONEY THEY *RAKED IN*, BACK !
Yep, that's right. Give it back. Give it *ALL BACK* to the people who PAID IT, paid it to these onerous and swindling sign-right-here-I'm-just-a-phone-call-away-and-oh-don't-worry-if-my-political-pal-answers-the-phone-cause-we-sleep-together-anyway licensed "thugs with political connections".
Period.
GIVE THE MONEY BACK YOU MADE OFF OF US, YOU LICENSED AND POLITICAL THUGS.
GIVE IT ALL BACK.
(Can you see the tie-in to "gang run areas"?)
"Trustee, not holders, whatever, it's a servicing company that has a legal right to collect on your loan."
Sergio -- as long as the "contract" is the deed of trust and note, you're way off here. Look at the Note. Every one of them says on the first page in plain English "I understand that the Lender may transfer this Note. The Lender or anyone who takes this Note by transfer and who is entitled to receive payments under this Note is called the 'Note Holder.'"
The New York Times, Bloomberg and Forbes, as well as many other lesser media outlets, have been on "produce the note" for quite some time. That local federal judge, Riegle, took MERS apart recently for claiming what you said here. Federal judges around the country, and a few state judges, have demanded what these arrogant banks, trustee and servicers won't do -- prove they have the legal right to the property. Many can't back it up with ANY proof, especially the original notes. The notes are the obligations, period. Without them there is no obligation to pay, and the servicing companies are stripped of any grounds for collecting or foreclosing.
Dealing with them is actually quite simple if you know how to do the right paper trail.
Sergio -- more like 2 out of 5, according to Porter, a former UNLV law professor, and more like 1000 out of 1000 can't find them, according to some Florida attorneys who have been active in this issue for a few years. Some at the American Bankruptcy Institute are being conservative at about 3 out of 10 can't prove their bona fides. Nobody really knows. But the more judges like Riegle and Bufford throw down judicially, the more it looks like this entire mortgage industry is a house of cards.
Then there's the issue of conversion -- turning the notes into securities may have actually voided them, thus discharging the obligations they represented. That one's still a can of worms being carefully opened.
Yeah, it's not new -- the law behind notes is centuries old. Everyone seems to have forgotten the basics. No note, no obligation, free house.
Read about the latest state judge on this -- http://www.bostonherald.com/business/rea...
not everyone that lost their house was irresponsible. have you seen the unemployment rate lately?
ya, if you still have a job, it's easy to look down your nose at these people, but YOUR pink slip could come ANY day now and that unemployment pay isn't going to keep you caught up on your payments.
and all you guys sitting at home in your underwear with all your "theories" about real estate don't know anything or you would have applied your vast knowledge and made enough money to not be sitting at home posting on this site.
vegas is over. it's done.
oh, and anyone that thinks tariffs are good for the country that imposes them has never taken freshman college economics...again, showing how dumb you are.
and you're an even bigger moron if you think a realtor's commission is somehow "wrong" or that a realtor has control over the price of a home.
do you like the home? yes? the home is $250,000.
do you want to buy this home at that price?
yes or no?
yes = i get a commission.
no = i do not get a commission.
that's just business.
stevem
actually I have stood next to a realtor who was on the phone telling a vendor we will hike price up by 20k then it will panic the buyer into buying..
now steve you are commission based so would it be greed the realtor was telling the vendor to do this??? Or are they creating a bubble by doing this???
in fact both....
basic economics again.. what College did you go to? it clearly wasn't a good one!!
There is still way to many people living in homes they shouldn't have ever been approved in the first place that the lenders haven't foreclosed on yet.
The banks and mortgage companies are backlogged and it is taking much longer for them to foreclose and they don't want to flood the market so pricing doesn't plunge on their inventoried real estate.
For Example: In the Mountains Edge Community I know of many homes and Condominiums that the buyers are still living in the residence and they haven't paid their mortgage for 8 months or more and they haven't received a formal notice of foreclosure. The neighbors have and they have moved and the residences is on the market, no signs in the front yard or signs indicating it is bank owned, the intent is that the lenders want the community to look like a family neighborhood and not a ghost town, this keeps pricing up so they can move existing inventory.
Don't let them fool you, do your homework and you can find great deals. Ask the neighbor or the residence how they are doing, they're honest about their situation and you too can find a great deal and not be conned by the agents and lenders into paying a higher price.
It all about marketing these lenders and agents developed to maximize their returns.
This just in -- a Massachusetts state judge has thrown that state's entire foreclosure industry into complete chaos, based on the banks' failures to produce the paperwork proving their right to the properties all the way back to 1989!
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/rea...
Also at http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/ar...
A commentary on this is at http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2009/10/...
The point -- foreclosures are a house of cards just waiting to collapse. Nevada federal Judge Riegle has already fired the shot across their bow. Time to take it to the next level!
Wake up, Masto!!
I never did, and would NEVER buy these cheaply built cookie cutter developement homes. They aren't worth but 1/3 of what they are put on the market for. They are constructed of what are called grade 3 materials, and the craftsmanship is equal to that of crappy modular homes! suckers!!! I'm gonna buy a piece of property and build my own house with my own hands, and I will get my own materials, and will know every little cut and crevice that went into my home.
markp...
your posting ( like many of the "realtors are evil" people makes no sense ).
you just HAPPENED to be standing next to a realtor that was on his phone?
that alone is doubtful because unless that person said "i am a realtor" in their conversation...how would you know it was a realtor?
now, you say this "realtor" was talking to a "vendor"?
what kind of vendor? and how do YOU know who was on the other end of that phone?
a soda machine vendor? a new home builder?
let's assume it was a realtor talking to someone that was selling their home and he was the listing agent.
let's assume what you are saying is true.
if that agent raised the price from $200,000 to $220,000...and the buyer still bought it...
how is that a "bubble"? how is that wrong?
see, you guys all hate realtors, but it's a realtors JOB and DUTY to get THE highest price for their seller.
you love us when we do THAT for you, but somehow you hate us when the home YOU want to buy...you can't afford.
if that realtor raised the price of that home and the BUYER...in a free market...with hundreds of other homes within a 2 mile radius to buy...still bought that home at the higher price...
that's called "capitalism". and love it or hate it, that's how everything from homes to coffee to vegas shows to playboy magazine is sold in our country.
that realtor did nothing wrong, unethical, or immoral.
This is just amazing! The United States!
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
It's like a runaway train. Enjoy!
This just in:
The revolutionary City Center condos, now priced at $19,000.
Bonus offer, buy now and get 3 months all you can eat buffet at MGM
FREE!!
It would be nice if you drove around the County and really looked before writing such hogwash.
We're not even close; the Banks and other note holders are delaying foreclosures to keep communities occupied so their inventory sells and to help keep crime out of their neighborhoods. If they foreclosed on their properties, communities would become ghost towns and pricing would plummet more and vandalism would overwhelm them and Metro.
Lenders stopped putting signs up to deter crime and to attract investors or buyers to buy their real estate in their communities. In areas I am aware of they've gone as far as letting people move in for short period of time so the place is occupied and the appearance is more homely. It a marketing strategy to keep inflated pricing on the rise enticing a bidding wars again.
"...the Banks and other note holders are delaying foreclosures to keep communities occupied so their inventory sells and to help keep crime out of their neighborhoods."
its2hot -- I doubt their motives are that noble. The evidence so far shows they're not only sloppy, but just as clueless as everyone else. Add in typical big corp arrogance and that's a bad combination for stabilizing this economy.
Anyone with a mortgage should be applying the simpler "produce the note" strategy, don't wait for foreclosure to start. Who knows -- it's entirely possible the institutions being paid aren't the notes holders, and not entitled to receive payment.
These institutions are far from deserving the respect they demand. Take nothing at face value!!