Foreclosure: Orlando Braces For Another Foreclosure Onslaught

January 3rd, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosure

It is good news for Shannan Bunter whose business is to deliver bad legal news in Umatilla. She had to take on three extra helpers to handle the rush. 2007 had been a gloomy year for Lake County.

Bank foreclosures began to rise from the end of 2006 until it snowballed into an avalanche in 2007. It brought doom to many families. During the third quarter the surge reached unprecedented heights. Mortgage Bankers Association apprehends that the trend will continue without respite.

Many of the foreclosed house owners had borrowed from the sub-prime category of loans that tempted with low teaser rates. These have just started to rise upwards. For some the rise has trebled making it impossible for them to cope with it.

One of the four judges in the circuit court of Lake County Johnson puts the blame on both parties – the lenders and borrowers. Many took the loans and walked into houses with their eyes open. They knew they could ill afford it. The mortgage companies who gambled on it loaned the money. Another judge Mark Hill quipped, “all you needed to qualify for a loan was a pulse”. Some could not come up with the down payment – for this too they had to borrow. Those who had not contributed a dime to the so-called ownership could just move away without a backward glance.

There has been a record number of foreclosures in Lake county. The pressure of work has been telling on the court staff who are having to cope with increased volume of work. It is a taxing work to organize all this within the existing framework. Many foreclosures have been delayed, as it was Christmas time – not quite the right time to evict families. But already many have vacated anticipating the hammer. There were however many houses that had been bought by speculators who are now turning their backs on a bad investment.

The New Year will see a rush of foreclosure filings.

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