Greenville Halts The Pace Of Foreclosures

The national picture of foreclosures is grim with 179,599 foreclosures including default, auction and sales notices. In July it was up by 9% in comparison to June this year. From 2006 it was an all time high jump of 93% in 2007 according to a pioneering online tracking group.

The numbers varied from one locality to another. In North Carolina during July there were 1,899 listings. It meant that in one month the number had gone down by 2.26% but since July 2006 it was up by 12.1%.

In Greenville the numbers told another tale. 154 houses had been built under the auspices of the city’s affordable housing programme. Of these 7 had been claimed by foreclosures. The programme had been initiated in 1996 in partnership with local developers. The idea was to financially assist qualified borrowers to set up their own houses. Countryside Estates were the worst hit. Among six foreclosures only one had received help from the city. The five others had all been part of the sub-prime lending category.

Greenville’s foreclosure rate is 4.5%. This is low in comparison to other regions covered by the sub-prime programme. No hard facts and figures have rolled in but the City Council gets this idea from random reporting coming in from neighbouring states. Sub-prime interest rates are higher than the prime ones. But those with questionable credit history can easily avail of these loans. Hence a price that has to be paid for favours received. Greenville has been able to contain the menace mainly because there has been a concerted effort in the city to see that people do not fall into a trap from which it is difficult for them to extricate themselves.

Greenville acts in conjunction with N.C. Housing Finance Agency to first find out and then scrutinizes buyers to see if they qualify to be a lender. The person applying must match the requirement. The points noted carefully are levels and sources of income and then its ratio to the debt being incurred. It is imperative to know if the buyer can balance his income with his expenditure and repayment of debt. The city also makes it compulsory for the buyers to be educated in this particular field of house financing. There is a well laid out course from which even the most seasoned investor cum buyer will benefit and learn something new.

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