California Defaults Increase Across the West

ForeclosureS.com, a northern California based real estate investment advisory firm and publisher of foreclosure property information, reported today that home prices in several major California markets had started to fall as a long awaited price correction in overheated coastal markets began.

“We’re not going to see a price crash like we did in the early 90′s,” said ForeclosureS.com president Alexis McGee. “Back then, overbuilding by developers led to excess inventory and what we call competitive liquidation of unsold new homes. This time, the inventory just isn’t there.”

Ms. McGee said that rising foreclosure activity was a function of cooling housing markets. She said “too many people have been using their homes as ATM machines to manage consumer debt. Now that interest rates are coming back up to normal levels, the refinance window is closed to these people and they are being squeezed by rising home payments.”

Defaults in several western markets, said Ms. McGee, are on the rise as markets cool down and interest rates move up. “In Colorado, about 4,200 properties went into foreclosure in May. As of mid-July about 10,500 properties have entered foreclosure,” said Ms. McGee. She added that Colorado was a bit behind the rest of the nation in economic recovery, but was strengthening.

In Arizona, Ms. McGee reported, a little over 8,000 properties were in foreclosure, with almost 6,000 in the Phoenix metro area. “You have to understand that 65% of Arizona’s population lives in Maricopa county. What we’re seeing across the west is that most foreclosures are occurring in major urban centers.”

ForeclosureS.com has been analyzing markets, providing foreclosure lists and learning program and assisting investors since 1992. The company recently developed a new investor oriented foreclosure property listing system and extended their services nationwide in late 2005, covering more than 946 counties across the U.S. with over 1,300,000 listings.

“Our objective at ForeclosureS.com,” said Ms. McGee “has always been to provide much more than just foreclosure lists and data. We offer both free and fee-based foreclosure buying information for both new and experienced real estate investors.”

“Our free information includes a monthly e-zine ‘The Foreclosure Forecast’ with 10 years worth of articles available online. Our fee based information includes nationwide conference calls to introduce new investors to foreclosure investing; a complete foreclosure investing home study program; and intensive hands on workshops at our offices that put our students out in the field with me and my coaches to do the actual work of a foreclosure property investor.”

She added that her firm has also built a cadre of successful investor clients in order to provide personal coaching to give one-on-one guidance to program graduates.

Ms. McGee has spent her whole professional life in real estate — beginning with her studies from Arizona State University in 1983 in Real Estate Finance, then as a successful commercial real estate agent, on to personal investing in 1986, and finally as a national investment trainer since 1992.

“Our mission at ForeclosureS.com has always been to teach investors how to create win-win scenarios that benefit both the distressed homeowner and the investor,” said Ms. McGee. She continued, “That way, the homeowner conserves some equity for a new start, and the investor realizes a reasonable profit on resale of the property. That’s a much better solution than just standing back and seeing the owner lose everything in an auction on the courthouse steps.”