Foreclosure rate in Lynchburg area increases

The number of homeowners defaulting on their mortgages and losing their homes in the Lynchburg area has spiked this year.

From May through October this year, nearly 190 homes in the Lynchburg area were taken to foreclosure auctions, courthouse property records show. That was a 42 percent increase over foreclosures that happened from May through October in 2008.

While the nation as a whole continues to see foreclosures rise, the rate is faster in Lynchburg. Over the same months, the national foreclosure rate was about 25 percent above the period last year, according to RealtyTrac foreclosure reports.

The data on this year’s local foreclosures come from deeds filed in circuit court in the Lynchburg region. The News & Advance gathered data from courts in Lynchburg and the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell.

Among the findings:

• There were about 187 foreclosure auctions held from May 1 through Oct. 31 this year. In the same six months of 2008, about 131 foreclosure auctions were held.

• Nearly half of the loans borrowers defaulted on to cause the foreclosures, 93, were made in 2006, 2007, or 2008. On average, the mortgages on the homes were five years old.

• Interest rates were listed for 77 of the loans, showing an average of 7.6 percent. At least 37 of them were adjustable rate

mortgages.

• Only about 30 of the foreclosure auctions yielded a buyer, either individuals or investment companies. The other homes were taken by the organizations that owned the mortgages.

• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage firms that backed millions of mortgages nationwide, took ownership of 39 of the homes. More than 100 homes were taken back by other lenders, banks, or government organizations such as the Virginia Housing Development Authority.

The rise in foreclosures in the area could be a sign that more homeowners in the Lynchburg area are struggling to pay their mortgages. It also could show that in the slowly moving home sales market, it is hard for homeowners to have a successful short sale, when they avoid foreclosure by selling their homes.

Betty Kain, president of the Lynchburg Association of Realtors, said she knows some local homeowners have tried short sales, and many did not have luck.

“I don’t think the success rate has been very good,” she said. “It usually ends up going into foreclosure.”

She said that by the time homeowners realize their bank could foreclose on them, there might not be enough time to find a buyer.

In the third quarter this year, it took an average of 131 days to sell a home in the Lynchburg area. Banks can have a foreclosure auction in as few as about 100 days after notifying a homeowner who has defaulted.

Kain said that foreclosures are depressing the prices of other homes on the market.

“Anytime that you are doing a market analysis on a property, you always look at the street that that house is on,” Kain said. The selling price of the last home sold influences the price of other homes on the street, and foreclosures typically sell for lower prices.

Kain said foreclosures have affected home prices enough that she and other real estate agents have had to explain the impact to their customers. “The seller needs to price the property accordingly,” she said.