March 25, 2008

A Silver Lining to the Foreclosure Epidemic?

There may be an upside to the nasty wave of foreclosures inundating markets across the United States, according to a Wall Street Journal article. Basically, the wounded real estate market may partially heal itself if the flood of forcs results in hefty price drops—a trend that already seems to be taking hold. Last month the National Association of Realtors recorded a 2.9 percent increase in sales of previously occupied homes over January, the first rise since July, and the median home sales price dropped 8.2 percent. The big question right now is whether prices will drop low enough to keep up with unsold inventory. According to some, the price drops could be good news for middle-class buyers, many of whom couldn't afford to buy properties during the boom years. There's also the possibility that investors will start to swoop in and buy foreclosures in bulk, banking on eventual appreciation. On a side note, the chart above, included in the article, doesn't present a pretty picture of the New York-New Jersey foreclosure scene, though a lot of these are presumably in the 'burbs and exurbs.
Wave of Foreclosures Drives Prices Lower, Lures Buyers [WSJ]
Graphic From First American CoreLogic, c/o The Journal.

March 11, 2008

Foreclosure of the Week: 866 DeKalb Avenue

This loft building at 866 DeKalb Avenue in Bed Stuy is scheduled to hit the foreclosure auction block tomorrow at 12:30. Since 2003, the ground floor has been occupied by a non-profit and the upper floors have been used as apartments. We've got no idea whether the 13 apartments are free-market or not. The current owner pulled $2,430,000 out of the 14,295-square-foot building in 2006 but has evidently fallen behind on his monthly payments. There's no information on the lien amount but you gotta figure it's north of $2 million.
866 DeKalb Avenue [PropertyShark] GMAP

March 5, 2008

PropShark: Brooklyn Forcs Up 20% Last Month

More bad news on the foreclosure front, this time from Property Shark's February foreclosure report. The report, which tracks properties scheduled for foreclosure for the first time, found that NYC foreclosures increased 13 percent from January and were up 113 percent from February '07. Any good news? Brooklyn's not hurting as much as Queens, where the number of foreclosures more than doubled compared to February '07. Nevertheless, Property Shark found a 20 percent increase in Brooklyn foreclosures last month over January (there were 53), and East New York and environs had the seventh-highest number of foreclosures in the city by neighborhood. The numbers we're looking at here don't exactly signal an epidemic—Property Shark records 582 foreclosures in Brooklyn from Feb. '07 through last month—but they sure don't seem insignificant, either.
Property Shark
Report: Subprime Foreclosures Rampant in Brooklyn [Brownstoner]
Bill Would Temporarily Halt Foreclosures [Brownstoner]