Spending time at the Snohomish Co. excise tax and recording office today afforded me the opportunity to pull some records on current Notice of Trustee Sales recorded from Sept. 1, 2008 to today. There were more than the 36 in my sample before I became restless and bored with basically the same theme that I knew would play out.
All were purchased within the last 4 yrs, most of the sample from 2006, one in 2008. One was for $3 million in arrears, another for $1.28 million in arrears and even one at $56,000.00 So, foreclosures are affecting all property types and income strata.
Here’s the tally of when the homes were purchased in my quick sample:
2004: 2
2005: 4
2006: 18
2007: 11
2008: 1
Lenders represented (again no surprise):
WaMu, Countrywide (several), Flagstar, First Franklin, AEGIS, Homecomings, GMAC, Indymac, Everhome Mtg, HSBC, EMC, Wells Fargo, First Horizon (now Metlife), Greenpoint and US. Bank.
Side note: Short sales are taking 60-90 days from the sampling we are closing in our office. It is UNREALISTIC for agents to expect anything sooner. If it happens sooner then great, but do not expect quick responses. On Monday, we received approval/clearance on a short sale from a Purchase & Sale agreement signed around from this past JUNE.
It is not terribly efficient to have borrowers lock in interest rates two months prior to receiving short sale approval. We are seeing this happen. The downside for the borrowers in this volatile mortgage market speaks for itself.
I was seeing patterns like that 2 years ago, although I’m sure the volumes are higher now. Only about maybe 20% of the foreclosures had any equity in their homes.
Particularly amazing is how quickly some defaulted, on over median priced homes in King County. It made me wonder if there was bank fraud involved, when seemingly they never even made the first payment.