Thursday, October 13, 2011

Sharp rise in foreclosures as banks move in - Business - Real estate - msnbc.com

Sharp rise in foreclosures as banks move in - Business - Real estate - msnbc.com
More U.S. homes are entering the foreclosure process, but they're taking ever longer to get sold or repossessed by lenders.
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This will make things even worse for the condo associations and HOAs, because (as I heard from yet another condo resident yesterday) banks frequently stiff the association if they buy up their own foreclosed properties at the sale. Like any owner, the banks are supposed to pay the assessments from the point of sale forward, but they often just refuse to do it. I have even heard of condo associations that foreclosed on the bank!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's probably because the banks view condos as glorified apartments and not true real property.

And I imagine the county assessor doesn't get stiffed for any property taxes due.

Evan McKenzie said...

It is just a business decision. They are holding 872,000 units of housing that they need to sell. Most of them were underwater, so they can't even recover the amount of the loan. And they do have to pay taxes and insurance. So...who can they stiff to save some money? The condo association or HOA, which is less likely to come after them in court than the county. Counties have legal staff who go after delinquent taxpayers all day long.