forclosures notices

[mom-from-missouri]

Our county has a weekly paper (the only paper actually). I sit in the middle of a circle of about 5 small towns, ranging from 264, 408, 2878 (county seat), no sign but probably 800, and the biggie, 12,000 (this one sits on a county line, so part is in another county) according to the latest signs up and city limits.

Tonights paper had 17 forclosures for the county for this week that are listed to go to auction next week on the courthouse stairs.

This is farm land, not heavily populated.

4 of those forclosures were inside the city limits of the town with 264 people. None were the same owner.

Yet, most of the forclosures were by the same law firm on behalf of citi mortgage. They were sold to citi mortgage by the local chain of farmers bank here several years ago.

I find that a high amount of forclosures in a county of under 30,000 people, esp if you consider the average family size is 4 people per household.

Its like that every week in the paper. Sad.

Many are unemployeed as there are no big stores, chains or factories here. There used to be, but when the railroad left in the mid 60's, the stockmarket left and others followed, a few businesses each year. So, now its mainly farmers and just a few young families.

[Nightfly]

Sorry to read that, MFM. However, your geographic area is simply experiencing what so many other communities, large and small, have been experiencing across the country for a few years now. I have lived in two different states in two completely different parts of the country since '08 and have seen the foreclosure crisis from two different perspectives from a front row seat.

It may be painful, but I'm in the camp of folks that believes that letting the market take care of business is a necessary "cleansing" (for lack of a better word) within the real estate industry. When prices of homes, farms, and vacant land are allowed to "float" down to the actual values that these real estate entities should be bought and sold at, only then will we have a healthy real estate market. It's not healthy yet, however: we have too many properties that are simply too overvalued, even now. It doesn't help that our government continues to try to prop up overvalued properties by either delaying foreclosures or allowing folks who don't pay the mortgages to continue to live in houses when they should become renters. Oh, and before anyone criticizes me for being heartless: I'm one of those former homeowners who is now a renter, and I'm happier for it.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Has the population been declining for decades? I'm thinking of all the towns in Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas that are dead or nearly so. There just is no one to buy the houses and stores no matter how cheap. It's been going that way since long before the housing bubble and I guess has more to do with how few agricultural workers are needed, how retail is so homogenized and centralized, how much industry no longer exists. No job, no self employment--no way to pay a mortgage.

What do you think is happening, Mom-from-MO?

[mom-from-missouri]

Has the population been declining for decades? I'm thinking of all the towns in Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas that are dead or nearly so. There just is no one to buy the houses and stores no matter how cheap. It's been going that way since long before the housing bubble and I guess has more to do with how few agricultural workers are needed, how retail is so homogenized and centralized, how much industry no longer exists. No job, no self employment--no way to pay a mortgage.

What do you think is happening, Mom-from-MO?

One trend we see is that in the past years, farmers could make a living at just farming. Now, they cant. And, if it was tough for them, they got a part time job in town. But, they can't anymore because those small businesses are gone.

We have many many vacant buildings in our historic downtown. Nice pretty 2 story brick ones, from where business used to be--such as a studebaker dealer, furniture store, several small factories, dry cleaner, bakery, dry goods store.....

A neighbor down the road had 2 houses on this farm. He and the wife lived in one, and the parents in the other. He lost it and it took the bank almost 4 years to sell them--they sat vacant.

Another part of the problem is the zoning laws. You can't build on less than 20 acres. You can't farm on less than 15 acres. Farmland often is a large plot, with no roads to get to the back section--so some of it is landlocked, impossable to sell. People can't afford to buy a 30 acre lot, but the homeowner or banker can't split it because of the zoning laws.