Foreclosure Listings Blog

It is the same sad story for most dairy farmers across the country as they face the possibility of foreclosure properties listings while trying to survive the economic downturn that devastated the dairy industry since last year.

Many are reaching the bottom of their savings as the economy continues to worsen, with no immediate relief in sight. The dairy industry experienced prosperity in 2007 and early months of 2008 when bulk-milk prices were at their highest.

When the economy started its downfall, consumer spending was consequently affected. The milk production across the country suddenly outpaced consumption and prices of bulk milk plummeted to levels that could be compared 18 years ago.

Compounding the dairy industry’s problem was the rise in fuel and feed prices. Now, many dairy farmers are not even earning what it costs them to produce the bulk milk that they sell.

Some dairy farmers are considering foreclosures and bankruptcy as recession continues to hit the industry.

Data from the national Consumer Price Index showed that the average retail price of a one-gallon whole milk is $3.01, representing a 20 percent drop from $3.77 the previous year. The price decline and the growing surplus of cows spelled disaster for many dairy farmers. Dairy farmers complained that the price of milk is way below the costs of producing it.

To pay their debts, some dairy farmers were forced to sell some of their cows to slaughter houses. Some took a bite of the bullet by asking banks for loans using just about everything they own for collateral.

Industry experts said that if milk prices will not improve in the coming months, many dairy farmers would be forced to file bankruptcy or go into foreclosures.

Part of the problem of dairy farmers is the after effect of last year’s high fuel and feed prices. Farmers said that high production costs and low milk prices are too much for them to handle. Jim Krahn, executive director of the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association, said that right now, all dairy farmers could do is hope that the market would recover immediately to allow them to recoup their losses.

For the meantime, to protect their farms from foreclosures, some farmers have opted to slaughter their cows. The number of dairy cow slaughter in the first six months of this year rose by 15 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

The Legacy Gold Club in Lakewood Ranch, Florida is in a financial quagmire. Because of the financial difficulties being experienced by the golf club, its lender, Textron Financial, has decided to take over ownership of the property before it will be placed in bank foreclosure listing.

Troon Golf President Hud Hinton said that the Legacy Golf Club has an outstanding debt amounting to $7 million and Textron’s decision to take over control of the property is one way to avoid a foreclosure.

The 200-acre Arnold Palmer-designed golf course is located on the north area of University Parkway. It opened in 1998 and a year after, it was acquired by Troon Golf based in Arizona.

Hinton explained that the decision to turn over ownership of the golf course to Textron Financial was reached after making a comprehensive study of the market’s condition.

The study showed that current market conditions would not be able to support the debts of Legacy Golf Club, leaving no chance for a recovery. Hinton said that the transfer of ownership to Textron Financial will happen very soon, adding that the golf club will remain open.

He pointed out that just like many hospitality-related assets, the golf club is not strong enough to support its debt.

Under the plan, Textron Financial will name a new management company to handle the operations of the golf course and club. However, Hinton expects Textron Financial to eventually sell the golf course.

General manager of the golf club, Matt Hurley and Hinton explained that Legacy Golf Club has 45 employees and all are expected to stay on with the club despite the change in management.

Meanwhile, the Legacy Golf Club was under the Schroeder-Manatee Ranch ownership when it opened in 1997. It has about 110 annual members. A membership fee at the club starts at 2,400 per year.

According to Hurley, Legacy Golf Club hosts as much as 40,000 golf events each year. However, Hinton explained that many golf courses, including Legacy Golf Club, are financially strapped due to the current economic downturn.

Industry analysts said that many golf club members saw their discretionary income reduced significantly. They said the recession and rising unemployment rate have forced people to tighten their belts and luxuries such as travel and golf are the first to go out of their priorities.

After getting clobbered by waves of residential foreclosures, the U.S. economy will again be trashed by commercial property foreclosures.

Some commercial real estate analysts like Paul Schroeder of Cohen Financial have even predicted that a staggering wave of commercial property foreclosures will occur in the coming months. Schroeder explained his prediction at a recent meeting of the Solano Economic Development Corporation in California.

Banks and developers are struggling from vacant commercial properties that include hotels, office buildings, shopping malls, retail spaces, apartment complexes and industrial buildings.

Michael Kamm, head of NAI BT Commercial, and Brooks Pedder, top executive of Colliers International, both said the commercial property sector is hemorrhaging and that recovery is hard because of lack of financing and lack of business and consumer spending.

Regional and local banks that lent a huge portion of their funds to commercial property developers have been in a slump due to the troubled commercial loans. The rising number of regional banks getting closed by FDIC since 2008 is an evidence of the deep troubles of banks due to commercial property loans.

Kamm, who manages one of Northern California’s biggest commercial property firms, said regional and local banks lent record numbers of short term loans to developers and builders who now cannot pay their loans because of their failure to sell their projects and high rates of vacancies.

Regional and local banks are struggling with about 45-percent declines in commercial property values since 2007.

Just when developers and builders need banks to help them through the recession, the banks now have become extremely rigorous in their loan requirements, seeking for more assets and collateral before they even begin to negotiate.

In Solano, according to Fairfield industrial real estate executive Pedder, only 150,000 square feet of commercial space has been sold for the whole six-month period since January. He said that the vacancy rate for office space in Solano is approaching the 30-percent level.

Across the U.S., most commercial properties are owned by real estate investment trusts and other big institutions. The rest are owned by smaller investors and regional developers.

According to estimates, the commercial property sector sustains over 9 million jobs and provides billions of dollars in tax revenues.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the office vacancy rate has reached 17.2 percent, a stunning 30-percent increase from the 12-percent rate in 2008. Kamm estimated that $2 trillion worth of commercial properties nationwide will be foreclosed in the coming months.

The demand for home loans nationwide increased last week as mortgage rates for 30-year fixed loans dropped to their lowest level in the past three weeks and as the number of loan refinancing applications increased.

More houses are expected to enter foreclosed home auction lists in Boulder, Colorado in the coming months as more foreclosures are being posted in the counties of Boulder and Bloomfield, based on trustee office records in the two counties.

Several residential and commercial beach development projects in Ventura County, California are on foreclosure property listings. These distressed properties have loans that went back three years ago.

The 2008 Consumer Complaint Survey Report showed that the top three complaints in 2008 remained unchanged since 2007. Home improvements and construction, automobile care and collection of credit and debt still receive the highest number of complaints from consumers last year and the year before.

The Wisconsin State Assembly Taskforce on Preventing Home Foreclosure held a video conference between residents in Sauk County and legislators in Madison to discuss ways to contain the growing foreclosed homes listing in the area.
Several Baraboo residents testified before the taskforce during a video conference held at the University of Wisconsin-Baraboo/Sauk County campus. The local [...]

The three-year-old nonprofit community land trust, Na Hale O Maui in Hawaii is set to receive an estimated $3 million grant from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) to be used to purchase properties on foreclosure home list, renovate them into affordable housing and sell them to eligible homeowners.
Upon receipt of the federal grant, the [...]

The number of New York homes to enter repo homes lists in the coming months is expected to increase significantly, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
GAO based its prediction on the number of subprime loans taken out in New York during the housing peak and the number of loans approved even with incomplete [...]