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Sunday, May. 25, 2008

Healthy economy keeping Tri-City foreclosures at bay

Ingrid Stegemoeller, Herald staff writer

A healthy economy, steady housing market and the absence of pervasive subprime lending are keeping the Tri-City area from experiencing the overwhelming wave of foreclosures hitting other areas of the country.

The Benton-Franklin Title Co. reported 77 notice of trustee sales in April, which means homeowners have 90 days to get their payments current or to sell their homes before foreclosure.

There were 81 notice of trustee sales recorded in April 2007.

That brings the 2008 yearly total to 290, a 4 percent increase compared with the 280 through April of last year.

The title company gets its information from Benton and Franklin counties and doesn't record discontinuances, or foreclosure sales that don't happen.

Jim Pogue, owner of Desert Canyon Mortgage in Kennewick, said he didn't see subprimes as a big part of the Tri-City market.

His company stayed away from them, he said, adding that he has helped several people refinance out of adjustable-rate mortgages through the FHASecure program.

"If someone did get suckered into one of these deals, there is some light at the end of the tunnel," Pogue said.

The program applies to homeowners with ARMs who are current on their payments or were until the rate adjusted upward.

Washington state on the whole continues to fare well compared with other places in the nation.

"It's not perfect, but we're still better off than a lot of places around the country," said Scott Jarvis, director of the Washington state Department of Financial Institutions.

The Washington D.C.-based Mortgage Bankers Association reported that at the end of the last quarter of 2007, about 0.7 percent of all loans in the state were in the foreclosure process, compared with just more than 2 percent nationally.

The prevalence of subprime loans in the market has a significant impact on the foreclosure situation of a given area, Jarvis said.

"It goes to subprime market penetration," he said. If there were lenders who aggressively marketed subprimes in particular areas, more people are likely to face adjusting rates they can't afford, Jarvis said.

At the end of the last quarter of 2007, about 4.1 percent of the subprime loans in Washington were in the foreclosure process, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Nationwide, that number was more than double at 8.7 percent.

A year earlier at the finish of fourth quarter 2006, about 2.1 percent of Washington's subprime loans were in foreclosure, compared with 4.5 percent across the country.

"(Subprime lending) hasn't been as substantial in the state of Washington because housing prices have stayed more stable," said Dee Taylor, director of the homeownership division for the Washington State Housing Finance Commission.

"We're not seeing a huge subprime problem in this state," she said.

Kennewick loan officer Fernando Avalos isn't concerned about the number of foreclosures happening locally.

"Overall we're in very good shape here," said Avalos, who's been in the business for 17 years. "I'm very optimistic in this market."

He said he also has helped several clients get into fixed-rate mortgages in recent months once adjustable rate loans got too expensive.

And even in a healthy market there will "always will be a small percentage of people unfortunately that will lose their homes to foreclosure," Avalos said.

When homeowners are facing foreclosure, housing counselors recommend getting help as soon as possible.

"We have to design a plan around them," said Laurie Tufford, chief executive director of Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Kennewick. "It's a lot of work. A 90-day process. They need to get to us as soon as possible."

If homeowners can show they would be able to make payments if their loans were current, counselors can help negotiate with lenders.

Otherwise, loss mitigation becomes the focus -- selling the home to avoid having foreclosure on the homeowners' credit record.

"The sad thing is that people are calling and saying, 'I'm going into foreclosure tomorrow. Can you help me?' " Taylor said. "Unfortunately we can't."

If they had asked for help several months earlier, the story likely would have been different, she said.

Jean Withers, supervising broker for ACORN Housing Affordable Loans, echoed that advice.

"People cannot wait for their loans to get worse," she said.

ACORN Housing Affordable Loans is a national nonprofit mortgage brokerage that pays its officers on salary rather than commission. It is an arm of ACORN Housing, a nonprofit housing counseling organization.

Withers said homeowners aren't the only ones to suffer as a result of foreclosure. Surrounding homes lose value and cities, counties and states lose property tax money.

ACORN Housing Affordable Loans recently was approved in Washington state to provide lending services to anyone, Withers said.

A variety of websites track homes in foreclosure throughout the country. Foreclosure.com reported 142 homes in the foreclosure process in Benton County and 65 in Franklin County as of Thursday.

Another site, www.usa-foreclosure.com, reported as of Thursday 113 homes in foreclosure in Benton County and 65 in Franklin County.

Auction dates for the homes on this site range from the end of April to mid-August.

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