Atlanta foreclosures rise in December, set new annual record
The foreclosure picture worsened in metro Atlanta in December, rising nearly 10 percent over November and 77 percent compared with December of last year, according to new data from Equity Depot.
What’s more, the previous annual record, set last year, was shattered as 117,107 foreclosure notices were published this year — an increase of 47 percent, Equity Depot said.
“Maybe we’ve reached the apex, but it’s still unbelievable, in my opinion,” Barry Bramlett, president of Equity Depot, wrote in an e-mail.
In December, a total of 10,341 foreclosure notices were published in a 13-county metro area — up 9.7 percent from November, according to Alpharetta-based Equity Depot (www.equitydepot.net). The notices published this month are for public auctions scheduled for January 5.
Bramlett said relatively fewer residential properties are involved, while the proportion of commercial properties is rising. That includes hotels, motels, manufacturing sites and office space.
In December, Gwinnett had the most foreclosure notices (2,074), followed closely by Fulton (2,006). DeKalb was third (1,568), followed by Cobb (1,203) and Clayton (866).
For the entire year, Fulton led the pack (24,609) and Gwinnett was second (23,193).
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65 comments Add your comment
Michael
December 14th, 2009
12:59 pm
We can only trust the politicians to take our money and give it to the banks. And then protect the banks from the people getting it back.
Rob Babylon
December 14th, 2009
1:14 pm
It’s just structural violence. Get a spoon and start eating.
John
December 14th, 2009
1:17 pm
Reasons we are in a recession:
a) People & businesses got in over their heads and had too much credit.
b) People & businesses forgot homes were “homes” and not “investments”
c) People & businesses have become to dependent on others (govt, their jobs, etc.)
d) Nobody saved for a rainy day
e) People and businesses planned more for the short term instead of the long term
If you are mad about the banks being bailed out, then you ought to be mad about people who are getting bailed out for stupid financial decisions as well. At least the banks are starting to pay the money back, which is what they were supposed to do.
GaNative
December 14th, 2009
1:59 pm
John@1:17pm… I know lots of people who were responsible and saved for a rainy day but are still losing things because they have no job. It’s not uncommon now to go a year or more without a job. Savings can quickly be eaten up. Also it’s a Catch 22 with the 401k becuase it lost a lot of it’s value and if you take some of the little bit that’s left, the Governmnet hits you with a hefty tax levy.
GaNative
December 14th, 2009
2:01 pm
Nowadays, it’s not that ‘You Didn’t Save for a Rainy Day”, now you have to “Save for some Rainy Years”.. It’s a monsoon out there.
74 Dawg
December 14th, 2009
2:17 pm
Green Acres, without taking sides(or calling anyone a liar), it was Larry Sommers(Summers?), who also stated that job growth would be slow. You can read the article on Foxnews.com and their business site. Probably on Bloomberg too, although this is a couple days old. Sigh,why can’t we just all get along?
The Pirate
December 14th, 2009
2:49 pm
“P.S. George Bush is no longer president. His term ended nearly a year ago.”
And yet the stench still lingers strongly to this very day… sheez…
RMBR343
December 14th, 2009
2:53 pm
My husband lost his job with AT&T last December and has been unable to find a job for the past year. He is either “overqualified” or “just not the right fit.” Potential employers all seem to feel the same way. Why pay him what he’s worth when they can pay someone with less experience and knowledge a heckuva lot less? Who cares if the person hired is less qualified and will have a much higher learning curve?
As is recommended by all the experts, we contacted our mortgage company, Wells Fargo, immediately after he found out about the lay-off. We told them the situation and that we definitely wanted to try to keep our house. We asked if there was any way we could lower our payment. They told us to apply to a special program they had instituted which we did.
We sent what seems like hundreds of pages of documentation, only to be asked for most of it again because of “lost” pieces. We gladly complied, appreciative of the fact they seemed to want to work with us. Then they asked for more documentation; again sent it off sealed with a kiss. My husband followed up with them at their recommended intervals and was constantly told it was still being looked at. In the meantime we struggled to send in our payments until my husband’s severance ran out.
When he started to collect unemployment, we asked if we could send in a partial payment, to which Wells Fargo replied not to send in any payments. Their reasoning was that our application to the special program was still in review and partial payments would only confuse things. Each month my husbsand called to verify that this was still how they wanted it, each time getting the same answer of “yes.”
About a month ago, after 10 months of waiting and following up and struggling to send the payments they asked us for, we got a phone call on a Friday night. We were turned down for their program. Why? Because my husband is unemployed. DOH!
We were floored. This was the program they told us to apply for BECAUSE my husband had lost his job. At one point during the process we were told to send in three monthly payments in the dollar amount they felt we were going to have our payments reduced to. They wanted us to prove that we could make them for three months in a row. Gladly we sent each monthly payment, relieved that this was a payment we could make. Now, here we were several months later, being told we didn’t have a high enough income.
Naturally my husband asked for an explanation. He was told that although we qualified for the initial program, new programs are activated every day. It all depends on when your application is processed. So because they didn’t process our application on the “correct day” we are no longer eligible for the program we originally applied for AND qualified for. HUH????
Then, to top it all off the person we’re dealing with, when asked by my husband if all this made sense to her, answered “No, it doesn’t.” Once again our file has been referred to her supervisor for another review.
The ironic thing is that the collection calls from Wells Fargo continue. We average at least three per week. It’s a good thing my husband talks to them because I would probably have a caniption. Each and every time one calls my husband calmly tells them our story. He can tell as he’s talking the collector is reading our file on their computer screen. My husband was once a collector and has NO idea why on earth they call without having reviewed our file first. What a waste of time and resources!
We saw the President of Wells Fargo testifying before some political committee somewhere, bragging about how his company has reduced their foreclosures and how they’re helping so many people. Helping them do what? Get so worked up over the stupid process that they end up in the hospital with heart attacks? Give me a break!
Tito
December 14th, 2009
3:05 pm
“Amazing how people who are quick to call economic experts liars don’t know the difference between leading and lagging indicators, and what a recession really is. Is the economy growing, i.e. is the gross domestion product increasing? Then the recession is over, by definition.”
I see you’re one of those fooled by those so called Green Shoots.
This is economy is being propped up by Fed fiscal stimulus. Take away the Fed fiscal spending and down the toilet we go. Unemployment numbers published by the Labor Dept are massaged and rigged. The real unemployment rate U6 is approx 17.5%. We now have 43.5 million people on Food Stamps. It’s really simple, unemployed people don’t spend money, don’t buy houses, cars, appliances etc. Consumers make up 70% of U.S spending.
U.S. Consumers, Small businesses have hit a debt wall, falling incomes are unable to debt service payment. It’s only a matter of time before the Federal Government is unable to make debt service payments due to falling tax receipts. The only way we get out of this financial crisis is to pay down debt or default. I never heard of anyone getting out of debt by taking on more debt. Obama and his cronies have bailed out the banks, the banks instead of using their so called profits on productive investments, such as loans to small businesses, are paying out huge bonuses to themselves and making other speculative investments. This all ends when foreign investors demand much higher interest rates in order to buy our debt.
Foreclosures are not theoretical losses for banks or for people. « Left on Lanier
December 14th, 2009
3:59 pm
[...] But consider Gwinnett. It’s still labeled a declining market. That hurts. The county had 23,193 foreclosure notices mailed in the past 11 months. Only Fulton County had more, 24,609. Link [...]
Dave
December 14th, 2009
6:54 pm
I’m sure things are looking better for Gwinnett now that the weapons-grade stupid known as the county commission has raised property taxes another 20% on top of us losing the homestead exemption.
Good move! hope that works to sell some of those empty houses in the half-finished McMansion subdivisions.
GaNative
December 14th, 2009
10:01 pm
You tell em Tito!!!!!
Purple
December 15th, 2009
3:24 am
I agree Woodie. I lost my home because I lost my JOB!!!! I’m so sick of people trying to make homeowners look as if the are so irresponsible. I would’nt have been able to get a loan in the first place if I, like millions of other people were so “Irresponsible”…..DUH!
Drackrabbit
December 15th, 2009
6:56 am
Purple your a a fool. You never even looked at the paperwork to see how much you had to pay back. Anyone with any financial acumen would have looked at the amortization schedule. First off they would have realized amort means to die. Then they might have run out of the attorneys office screaming in horror when the attorney handed them the amortization schedule.
Even the most half witted homebuyer would have realized they just might loose their job over thirty years not being able to pay it all back. So it is your bad planning and your fault. Not to mention the insipid lenders that know that this debt based system is nothing but cyclical. They have gone through this nonsense time and again. Lesson? Don’t do anything stupid like that again. Otherwise if you do not. I really don’t feel sorry for you when you don’t look before you leap and hit the valley floor. Actually your way better off where you are now. At peace. Not owing anyone. Enjoy it.
Tony Cartman
December 15th, 2009
9:01 am
This is a year to forgot. Our real estate market suffered a lot.
Regards,
Tony
http://www.georgiaforeclosuresforsale.com/