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Market shifts make short sales less of a long shot
Dave Bryan has had a front row seat to the economic disaster that's unfolded in the housing sector over the last year. Long-time mortgage lenders, Bryan and his brother, Keith Bryan, began educating themselves on how to help homeowners avoid foreclosure last summer. In December, they launched Helping Hand Foundation with the idea that many struggling homeowners could work out an agreement with their mortgage holder.
“We had thought people could stay in their homes and work out affordable budgets,” Bryan said of the foundation’s initial intent. “But the realization was that you have to have a certain situation for that to work. If you're not in that situation, you have to take action and make a business decision to move on.”
Bryan said that despite proclamations by Congress and the mortgage industry to help strapped homeowners, most lenders were overwhelmed and largely unresponsive to requests for assistance. The result was that virtually all of the homeowners with whom he worked early this spring lost their homes in foreclosure, he said. Very few were able to renegotiate the terms of their loans or to work out a successful short sale, Bryan said in March.
According to statistics compiled by RealtyTrac, 56 Fauquier homes were foreclosed upon in July, the most recent month for which figures are available. That number represents one in every 449 housing units in the county. Earlier this week, realtytrac.com listed 46 homes in preforeclosure in Fauquier and another 191 as bank-owned properties.
Statewide, foreclosures in July were up 9.32 percent from June and up 193.26 percent from July 2007, RealtyTrac reports. Nationally, the jump is eight percent from last month and 55 percent from last July.
When the foundation started, Bryan said, many of his clients were people who got loans for which they never should have qualified. Or they did fine with their mortgages until a balloon payment or rate increase came due. Now, he said, many of his clients are people who are more financially responsible, but have been devastated by the worsening economy.
For more information on the foundation's efforts to help clients navigate short sales, pick up a copy of this week's Fauquier Weekend.
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