Foreclosure Auctions In Washington

March 11th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosure

From 8^th March about 600 foreclosed houses in the Washington region will be up for auction at the Washington Convention Center. Many of these houses are located in Prince William County – a county that has been one of the worst targets of this foreclosure epidemic.

Bridget Barnes is a resident of Prince William County and she watches with trepidation three houses on her street slip into foreclosures. The problem according to her is that buyers can snap up better deals on foreclosed houses than on the non-foreclosed ones. One such foreclosed unit bought for $745,000 in 2006 will start with an opening bid of only $199,000! Barnes is nervous because being a part of the military ranks she is expected to move within few years. Then the question of price of the house will play a prominent role.

Another resident of Prince William County for the last decade is Amber Dise. Previously the equity on the house was comfortable – it kept rising. But now there are genuine fears as they look at the foreclosed houses around them.

Foreclosures have been raging across the country but it had not been uniform. Some regions were more affected than others – like California, Nevada and Florida. Even within these states the distribution was unequal. Washington was one of the lesser affected areas but lately the trend is that even these safe zones are being affected by foreclosures. The menace is spreading on to the suburbs and touching even the agricultural towns. Elite areas like Washington and Prince William County are not spared.

Foreclosures have been following closely on the heels of the housing boom when there was hectic activity and development. Practically anybody with a pulse could take a loan. Money went around and so did construction work. But when the interest began to rise the people found they cannot carry on with the loan. They began to default, then fall into delinquency until finally foreclosure notices had to be issued. Foreclosure led to auctions. The lenders, mostly the banks now found themselves weighed down with too many houses – houses that did not bring in money but rather drained out money by way of pursuance of the legal process of foreclosure. With more houses sitting on the shop shelves the market became a buyer’s one and prices began to tumble. The banks began to reduce prices triggering a crisis.