Big Write-Downs

In lieu of today's usual featured example, we will be looking at properties that we reviewed earlier this year but have not sold - rather the prices have been slashed. The earliest of these examples was from July - so the mark downs are just for the last 5 months. The term commonly used in housing bubble terminology is chasing down the markets. Lets take a look at three to see how far down the price have come without a sale in sight -

Our first property was featured in July - Living Large in Lake Hopatcong.


Lets take a look at the previous numbers -

• The property was purchased October 2003 for $384,900.

• The original mortgage in October 2003 was for $307,920 with Citimortgage.

• A HELOC was opened on the same day in October 2003 for $38,400 with CitiBank.

• A HELOC with Fleet Bank for $98,400 the following April of 2004.

• Another HELOC with Fleet was opened the following December 2004 this time for $64,200.

• A Lis Pendens filed May 2006 for the original Citimortgage.

• A Lis Pendens was filed May 2006 for the April 2004 Fleet HELOC.

• The REO property is currently for sale through a realtor for $465,000.

The property has been reduced down to $381,300 still for sale through a realtor.

The lenders total loss for the property will be at least $150,498 if the property sells for the current full asking price and the realtor receives the standard commission. That is an additional write-off of $78,678 from when the property was originally featured.

Our next revisit is a property in - Losing Money in Dover.

Lets revisit the financials -

• The property was purchased for $412,500 in August 2006.

• The original mortgage at time of purchase was for $371,500 using an ARM with Accredited Home Lenders.

• Foreclosure started by a Lis Pendens filed August 2007.

• The property is currently an REO for sale using a realtor for $279,900.

The property price has now been reduced to $229,900.

The increases the loss to the lender at a minimum of $155,394 again if the property sells for the full asking price with the realtor receiving the standard commission. This loss has increased by another $47,000 from when we first featured the property.

Our last review is the Losing your ReFi in Wharton post. Here is is property -

• The property was purchased for $118,000 in February 1998.

• The original mortgage in 1998 is not available on the database.
  

• A HELOC was opened in August 2000 for $25,000 with Chase.
  

• In February 2003 a HELOC was opened for $73,594 with Wells Fargo.

• A second mortgage for $68,047 was taken in August 2003 with Wells Fargo.

• The condo was refinanced in October 2004 for $236,000 with an ARM from Decision One.

• In January 2006 the property was refinanced for $276,250 with Countrywide.

• The foreclosure process started in May 2007 with the filing of a Lis Pendens.

• The property is currently an REO for sale through a realtor for $257,900.

The property prices has been now reduced to $244,900 still through a realtor.

The total loss for the property to the lender will now be at least $46,044, again if the property sells for the current full asking price and the realtor receives their standard commission. This brings the total property loss up another $12,220 since the property was originally featured.


To sum up, the total losses featured today will be at least $351,936 which is increasing the write-off another $137,898 since from when the properties were first featured.