The Foreclosure Report

Details Of Recent Foreclosures In Lowell, Mass.

A report on foreclosures in Lowell, Massachusetts. "We’ve already written about the huge increase in foreclosures during the past few months, particularly during May. Now we’ve analyzed the 33 foreclosures that were commenced on property in the city of Lowell in May. One-third of them involved mortgages that were used to purchase the property. Ten of these eleven purchases also had second mortgages recorded at the same time."

"Only one of the eleven mortgages had any equity in the property. With nine of them, the first and second mortgages equaled exactly the purchase price meaning that the buyer put no money down on the purchase. All but one of the lenders involved were from outside the area with Option One leading the way with six of the 33, followed by Ameriquest with 3 and WMC Mortgage with 3. Two of these purchases occurred in 2003, four in 2004 and five in 2005."

"The other 22 foreclosures (two-thirds of the total) were refinances on properties that were owned for an average of 4. These homeowners had an average of four mortgages since they purchased the property, meaning that they had refinanced more than once. One had eight different mortgages, another had six, and five homeowners had five different mortgages."

"Sixteen of the 22 original purchases seemed to be 'arms length' transactions in which the homeowner purchased for something close to fair market value. Of these sixteen, the amount owed on the mortgage being foreclosed was on average $92,000 more than was paid for the property in the first place."

posted by Ben Jones @ 3:50 PM