Foreclosures are a mixed bag across the region

Benton County ranked first in Arkansas foreclosure filings for April with 48 homes slated for auction and another 70 going back to lenders to put the homes up for sale in the coming days.

The county processed 118 new filings, up 22.92% from the same month last year.

But foreclosures continue to be a mixed bag across the two-county area on a month-to-month basis. Over the longer term, the number of filings are trending higher from last year’s anomaly as the pipeline was virtually shut off in parts of 2011 and 2012 because of state and federal litigation.

In Washington County last month there were 32 homes set for auction and another 12 in the final stage of the pipeline. The total 44 was down sharply from 74 filings reported in the year-ago period.

South of the Bobby Hopper tunnel foreclosure activity rose last month. Crawford County reported 14 new filings, up 40% from 10 recorded a year ago. Sebastian County had 21 new filings last month, up from 15 reported in April 2012.

Statewide there were more than 621 new foreclosure filings, up about 5% from a year ago.

Darin Blomquist, vice president with RealtyTrac, said it’s more of an ebb and flow than a steady stream of activity as lenders are opting to do more short sales in lieu of foreclosure. He said lenders are also exhibiting restraint in how quickly they push these properties back into the market place.

That restraint has been seen in the local foreclosure listings, according to Jim Long, agent with Crye-Leike Realty in Bentonville.

He said there are 249 bank owned listings in the four counties mentioned in the report, up from 222 listings at the end of March. In January there were 260 listings.

The foreclosure impact is still being felt in neighborhoods across the entire country as one in every 905 U.S. housing units were seriously delinquent and facing possible foreclosure last month.

Long agreed there is no neighborhood immune, with the top foreclosure listings in Fayetteville priced at $1.2 million and $1.1 million. He said the low end of the list is a $16,900 property with everything in between.

“There is a home in my Bentonville neighborhood that has been vacant for nearly two years and a 'For Sale' just went up,” Long said. “We took turns mowing the yard to keep the place presentable while it languished in limbo.”

Residents in the Raleigh Hills neighborhood of Bella Vista are anxious to see what happens to a home they have been watching since it was vacated by the owners in July 2010. In many ways this scene is being depicted across the state and country as the log jam of foreclosures finally begins to move forward.

“The April numbers indicate that the pig is moving through the python when it comes to deferred foreclosures in some states,” Blomquist said.

He notes that foreclosures have been increasing in Arkansas on an annual basis since late 2012.

The Bella Vista home has been vacant since July 2010, when the homeowners walked away. It has languished in the foreclosure pipeline since that time. In February the home went from lender Chase Bank back to investor Freddie Mac and has recently been assigned to Coldwell Banker agent Connie Turner. 

At this stage, crews have been assessing the home and planning for a few repairs to ready it for market. Turner hopes to list the home within the next two months.

Zillow.com records indicate the home was last sold for $180,000 in December 2004, near the peak of the local market.

The pre-foreclosure estimate Zillow.com gives this 1,860 square foot property today is $121,000. A slightly larger home next door sold for $125,000 late last summer. The local residents said they are ready to see the foreclosed property sold as it has been unkempt for far too long.

The impact these foreclosures bring on neighborhood values are likely to be felt for sometime.

Real Estate veteran George Faucette, CEO of the local Coldwell Banker franchise, has said until these vacant or foreclosed homes are resold, the values in the immediate neighborhoods will not fully recover.

He expects home values across Northwest Arkansas to grow modestly this year, held back somewhat by the slight uptick in foreclosure sales.

Existing home prices are expected to rise between 3 to 5% on average his year according to several local expert opinions.

As of the May 1, RealtyTrac reports a total of 11.3 million mortgages nationwide were seriously underwater, meaning combined amount of mortgages secured by the home was at least 25% more than the estimated value of the home.

That represented 26% of all outstanding mortgages, but was down nearly 1.5 million from the 12.8 million seriously underwater mortgages in May 2012.

Roughly 144,790 households across the U.S. were in one of the three phases of foreclosure last month. Total filings were down 23% from April 2012.