A foreclosure report from RealtyTrac.com indicates that foreclosures in the US swelled to over 800,000 in Q1 of 2009, a 24% increase from the same quarter a year prior.

To put it in perspective, one out of every 159 houses received a foreclosure notice, just in the first quarter of this year.

It’s no surprise that the hardest hit areas are Arizona, California and up the West coast, along with Florida, the entire East coast and inland to nearly the Mississippi River.  The Midwest has held up fairly well in the foreclosure department, although the highly populated areas of Texas and strangely most of Arkansas are suffering.

In my area, there are some foreclosure opportunities to be had for investment purposes, but they’re not moving.  Investors aren’t gobbling them up like I thought they would, which makes me wonder about the overall perception of the real estate market.  There’s just no appetite for risk right now.

A prospective future rental?

As for me, there’s a 3 bedroom, 1 bath single family home near my previous rental that is currently in foreclosure.  Asking price is $18,000 which would represent a third of what it would appraise for, give or take.

Unfortunately it’s located to the South of the Campus, so it violates requirement #1 of my criteria for future rental properties.

I’ll keep an eye on it, and if it doesn’t move in the next couple weeks, I’ll have to get a tour and find out why.

Real Estate foreclosures, investment property, Rental Property

My mortgage refinance, three months in the making, is finally a done deal.  Nearly 35 autographs, 18 pages initialed by both my wife and I, 3 lbs of paper, and a half hour out of our work day later and the 4.625% rate is a reality.

This cuts our monthly principle and interest by $250 per month, or about $3,000 annually.

Banking, Real Estate mortgage, mortgage rates, refinance

The latest in the long saga of the refinance effort for our primary residence; the 4th loan handler called today to notify us that we’ve been approved for closing.  There is one very slight hitch in the works though, although I’m not real worried.  The message stated that the rate of 4.625% was approved for a loan amount of $152,400 bringing monthly payments to $1,080.

That sounds great, except for the monthly payment part.

By my calculation, the monthly payment should equate to just shy of $800 per month for principle and interest. A far cry from $1,080.

The representative did say, however, that those numbers were just preliminary .  I don’t know why she couldn’t give me the real, no kiddin’ numbers, they’ve only been working on this for 3 months!.

The final numbers should come via a phone call in 7 business days along with a request to schedule closing…

Finance, Real Estate mortgage, refinance