Foreclosure filings hold steady

Alabama Foreclosure & Real Estate News

Everybody wants a deal when it comes to foreclosure properties.

Randy Brooks was offered $75,000 for a foreclosed two-bedroom condominium unit in Gulf Shores that had been listed for $129,900. Two units in the complex had recently sold for $132,000 and $135,000. "I said, 'If they'd accept $75,000, my children would be spending every weekend there,'" said the broker at REMAX Advantage in Spanish Fort. "People feel like I should give it away."

Foreclosure filings remain steady in Baldwin and Mobile counties with no end in sight, especially in Baldwin, according to local Realtors and foreclosure tracking surveys.

There are an estimated 220 active foreclosures in Baldwin County and another 159 in Mobile, according to www.Foreclosure.com, which reports foreclosure properties in the United States.

State among lowest

Still, Alabama's ranking among the 50 states dropped from 31st to 43rd in the first quarter of 2008, according to RealtyTrac's foreclosure market report. The states with the highest number of foreclosure postings were Nevada, California, Arizona and Flori da.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 649,917 properties in the first quarter of 2008, a 23 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 112 percent increase from the first quarter of 2007, according to RealtyTrac. The filings include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. One in every 194 U.S. households saw a foreclosure filing during the first quarter, the report showed.

About 75 percent of the foreclosures Carl Billings handles involve adjust able rate mortgages, he said.

"The loans adjusted and people could not make the payments," said the agent at REMAX. He is handling properties ranging in value from $50,000 to $200,000, and most are purchased by investors, he said.

Lax lending standards