The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/15/07
Foreclosure actions for metro Atlanta hit an all-time high this month, with 6,809 properties in 13 counties threatened with public auction in November.
The October statistics, released Monday by Alpharetta-based Equity Depot, represent a 38 percent increase over September and a 49 percent jump when compared with October 2006.
"This is the largest swing we have ever seen from month to month," said Barry Bramlett, an Equity Depot vice president.
The total estimated value of properties entering foreclosure in metro Atlanta was $1,076,975,783.
The statistics cover properties published in legal notices in time to go to foreclosure in November. Public foreclosure sales are held at courthouses around the state on the first Tuesday of every month.
Most property owners facing a foreclosure are at least a few months behind with payments. Many avoid a sale on the courthouse steps by filing for bankruptcy, refinancing or selling the property before the auction.
The foreclosure process moves quickly in Georgia. Unlike many other states, Georgia law does not require a judge or any other public official to sign off on foreclosure sales.
So far this year, lenders have published 41,312 foreclosure notices against properties in the 13-county area of metro Atlanta, an increase of 11 percent over the number of notices filed in 2006 through October, according to the Equity Depot statistics.
The longtime publisher of the Atlanta Foreclosure Report, Equity Depot is widely considered metro Atlanta's most authoritative source of foreclosure statistics. The company has closely tracked Atlanta foreclosure listings for investors and lenders for 20 years. No government agency collects foreclosure statistics in Georgia.
Bramlett said mortgages with high interest rates are driving foreclosures across Atlanta. Adjustable rate mortgages make up about half of 2007 foreclosure notices.
"It truly looks like a subprime mortgage problem," said Bramlett. "We're not seeing that many prime mortgages."
About one in four metro Atlanta home buyers in recent years has relied on a "subprime" mortgage. Such loans come with significantly higher interest rates than "prime" loans offered to borrowers who have better credit histories and money for a down payment.
Across the nation, subprime loans are about 10 times more likely to fail than prime loans.
Bramlett said an unusually high number of construction loans also showed up in this month's listings, representing developments that never got off the ground or that failed to sell when construction was complete.
The October totals represented an all-time high for each of the 13 metro Atlanta counties, suggesting that the national mortgage meltdown is touching virtually every corner of the metro area.
Fulton County had more properties facing foreclosure — 1,731 — than any other in metro Atlanta in October. But even Fayette and Forsyth, where foreclosures have historically been rare, saw big jumps this month.
For those behind on mortgage payments, the options for saving a home are more limited than in the past. That's because the mortgage meltdown has virtually halted new mortgage loans to borrowers with poor credit. Those who might have refinanced their way out of a problem in the past have little hope of doing that today.
Experts have anticipated a spike in foreclosures in the last quarter of the year, driven by resets in adjustable-rate mortgages that push payments beyond what many homeowners can afford.
"Now that we are at this kind of quantum level up in terms of foreclosure activity, I think we're going to start really seeing the effects on housing prices," said Dan Immergluck, a Georgia Tech professor who is an expert on foreclosures.
Housing prices in California and Florida, fueled in part by a rising number of foreclosures, already have declined. A decline is likely here, too, Immergluck said, because foreclosures will dump more homes on the market at a time that demand is down, in part because renters with marginal credit no longer qualify for mortgages.
Immergluck said he believes some government action is needed, especially to help prospective buyers get a loan.
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