Foreclosures in the Portland area and central Oregon top 2002’s dot-com drop
Real Estate News From The We Buy Houses Team
Mortgage defaults in the Portland area and central Oregon rose 97 percent in the first half of 2008, compared with a year ago.
That’s not too surprising considering homeowners in 2007 still enjoyed the tail end of the housing boom, and the housing market is now in full swoon.
What’s more surprising is the number of defaults — typically the first step of a foreclosure — through June 30 rose far higher than at the peak of the last downturn in 2002, according to records in Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas and Deschutes counties. Those cover the Portland area and the peak-growth Bend region. four counties reported a combined 4,435 defaults in the first six months of 2008, up 50 percent for the same period in 2002.
The year 2002 was a recent watershed year in Oregon housing.
The Mortgage Bankers Association, the most-watched source nationally for mortgage data, said Oregon foreclosures peaked at 1.3 percent of all loans during the dot-com crush in the first quarter of 2002. Before that, foreclosures hadn’t been that high since the timber recession of the 1980s.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s most recent data through the first quarter of 2008 shows Oregon’s foreclosures at 0.9 percent. If the county’s figures through June are any indication, the rate will rise in the second quarter.
The rising defaults again show that while Oregon homeowners are generally faring better than most places, the state has not been able to dodge the housing slump that’s infected the nation.
Foreclosures are expected to rise. People who got risky loans during the housing boom will continue to have trouble selling their homes to get out of trouble. There are too many homes for sale and too few buyers.
“We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg,” said Roger Erickson, a principal broker at Americana Properties Inc. “It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”
Lenders hire Erickson to sell properties they’ve taken back from borrowers in foreclosures.
Erickson said he had five foreclosures to sell in early 2008.