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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Box-By-The-Riviera™ who wrote (143849)	8/31/2008 8:19:55 PM
From: nextrade!	Respond to of 306849

Get on the bus murfreesboropost.com Foreclosures attracting more and more homebuyers By: BY ERIN EDGEMON, Business Editor Posted: Sunday, August 31, 2008 8:31 am Get on the bus… That’s the slogan for Keller Williams real estate agent Tamara Ludlam’s just formed bus tour of foreclosed homes. Hauling interested homebuyers around in a mini-bus to get a look at recently foreclosed homes on a Saturday morning has become a national trend with tours now in such cities as Pismo Beach, Calif.; Fort Myers, Fla.; Tucson, Ariz. and many others. Murfreesboro is just the latest as Tennessee ranks No. 15 in the country for number of foreclosures with 27,454 new foreclosure filings this year through July, confirmed Karren Welborn, mortgage team leader, assistant vice president at MidSouth Bank. Rutherford County ranks No. 5 in the state for foreclosures behind Shelby, Davidson, Knox and Hamilton counties, she said. The county had 156 new foreclosure filings this year through July while Shelby County had 1,829. Ludlam said the numbers of foreclosed homes in the state is only expected to climb in the next 18 to 24 months; at least 1,000 homeowners are 60 to 90 days behind on their mortgage payments. “We haven’t hit the tip of the iceberg,” she said. While Rutherford County and Tennessee are doing better than much of the nation in terms of foreclosures, Welborn said, but we are not immune. “This tour is a great opportunity for the home buying public to get more house for less investment with a tremendous upside in that the market will turn around and property values will once again increase, giving more buying power to the ones able to capitalize at this time,” she said. Ludlam said most of the foreclosed properties now owned by banks or mortgage companies are selling for 70 to 90 cents on the dollar. “It is a way for us to change our local economy,” she said of the bus tour. “We are trying to protect property values.” The longer foreclosed properties say on the market the more likely property values are to decline. Home sale prices in Rutherford County are where they were in 2005, Ludlam said. But according to the Middle Tennessee Association of Realtors, the price of the average home sold in Rutherford County rose 14.5 percent from 2005 to 2007. Prices, however, are declining this year to date over 2007 and are staying on the market longer. On the other hand, Ludlam and her associates said the Middle Tennessee housing market is doing better than most of the country because of its diverse job market and housing value. “We can catch it before it is too late,” Ludlam said. Welborn said the top five states ranked in foreclosures are California, Florida, Ohio, Arizona and Michigan. In comparison, she said this year through July California had 71,296 new foreclosure filings. Tennessee had 2,099 new filings through the same time period. The first Mid TN Foreclosure Tour is slated for Sept. 6 and will include eight to 10 properties in the Murfreesboro area. Other Murfreesboro area tours are slated for Sept. 20 and Oct. 11. Foreclosed properties in Smyrna and La Vergne will be toured Oct. 4 and properties in Shelbyville on Oct. 18. Tours leave at 9 a.m. from the Keller Williams office at 450 St. Andrews Drive, but passengers must register in advance by filling out a form at www.midtnforeclosuretours.com or by calling 663-5656. The bus tours are approximately three hours long and are free to the public. Snacks and drinks are even provided. They are an easy way for homebuyers to locate foreclosure properties and help banks and mortgage companies get the houses off their books quicker, Ludlam said. Some tours will feature such guests as mortgage lenders, general contractors and home inspectors who can provide education to prospective homebuyers.