Archive for the 'South Carolina Articles' Category

The foreclosure crisis brings devastation to everything that crosses its path. This is especially true in South Carolina’s new home market which is suffering from the impact of the increasing number of repossessed house.

And greatly affected by the national foreclosure problem and real estate market collapse are contractors who struggle to survive the drastic drop in housing prices.

SNR Builders and Renovators co-owner Robin Winter said that the repossessed house crisis has damaged the new home market and caused property prices to plummet beyond control. She explained that most homebuyers are looking for deeply discounted foreclosure properties instead of buying houses at market value.

She said that the trend has severely affected her company which has shifted to doing additions and remodeling work in order to survive the current crisis. She added that her company used to employ 12 people but since the start of the repossessed house crisis, it trimmed down to only 2 employees.

Winter pointed out that the real estate market is trying to cope with the current condition by shifting its focus on affordable housing for first-time homebuyers. She claimed that she had a great deal of difficulty marketing and selling custom houses her company built with high market values.

Meanwhile, Premier Construction and Restoration owner Jim Markley said that he stopped building new houses this year because the current real estate market is not conducive for newly-built homes. He said that his company used to build seven houses per year.

He explained that during the heyday, his company sub-contracted with other industries, such as lumber stores, flooring stores, brick masons and paint supply stores. These industries are all suffering right now due to the repossessed house crisis.

In order to survive, Markley said that his company has diversified and now handles home renovations, adding that the repairs his company performs are all insurance-related.

Statewide, the average monthly rate of repossessed house in South Carolina is more than 2,000. Currently, the state has a total of 5,271 foreclosure homes for sale at a median listed price of about $60,000.

The current median home price in South Carolina is $81,300, 10 percent lower from the national average of $89,600.

South Carolina’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Total has lifted the temporary injunction on foreclosed homes for sale in the state and replaced it with procedures to ensure that foreclosures will be handled equally and uniformly while eligible distressed homeowners seek federal assistance to save their properties from repossession.

Toal ordered judges in South Carolina to stop finalizing repossession sales on foreclosed homes owned or guaranteed by mortgage companies, including the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. and Federal National Mortgage Association.

The court order covers foreclosure properties owned by homeowners who have applied for federal assistance programs. The court order will allow troubled homeowners to take advantage of federal assistance programs.

Last March, President Barack Obama announced a $75 billion housing recovery plan that would provide incentives to the real estate industry to modify mortgage loans to help troubled borrowers save their homes from foreclosure.

Toal issued an order requiring plaintiffs in foreclosure proceedings to inform other parties if mortgage loans are subject to modifications under the federal assistance programs. If loans are eligible for modification, the foreclosure proceeding will be put on hold. However, if troubled loans are not eligible for modifications, the foreclosure sale will proceed.

He ruled that any foreclosure filing made after May 4 should indicate if the mortgage loan is guaranteed or owned by Federal National Mortgage Association, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. or other lending institutions that is a part of the federal assistance program.

If a judge determined that a repo homes for sale meets the federal assistance program standards, Toal said that the foreclosure proceedings should remain until the completion of the federal assistance review process. Meanwhile, foreclosure can continue on loans that are not subject to modifications under the federal assistance program.

South Carolina posted a 27 percent increase in foreclosure filings made on 7,016 in the first quarter of this year. The figures were up compared to the numbers reported in the first quarter the previous year.

Last March, South Carolina’s 2,366 foreclosure filings represented a 4 percent decline from February and 154 percent increase from the March 2008 total. RealtyTrac data showed that South Carolina’s high unemployment rate is a contributor to the worsening foreclosure rate in the state.

Last year, almost 100,000 individuals lost their jobs, making the state the third highest in terms of unemployment rate and 23rd in terms of the number of repo homes for sale in the country.