Coastal Real Estate and Lifestyles

The housing crisis solution is, at least, two-pronged:
1) decrease the number of Notice of Defaults (NOD) by doing loan modifications for responsible homeowners.
2) reduce the number of homes that are foreclosed upon already.

Both lay primarily on the shoulders of the banks.  This idea addresses the second issue.

The Ford Foundation, through a consortium of non-profits, is planning to assist in stemming the number of foreclosures that banks are still holding (i.e. not yet listed, sold, or otherwise absorbed).  It’s called the National Community Stabilization Trust.  The Wall Street Journal reports,  “The trust aims to serve two main functions. It is courting major financial institutions — including J.P. Morgan, Bank of America Corp. and GMAC Financial Services — and negotiating discounted prices on foreclosed homes before they are listed.”

If the Trust successfully negotiates to remove the “toxic” assets from the banks’ books at a discount without the associated costs of putting them on the market, then the non-profits may be in a better position to buy and then refurbish the properties associated with those loans to improve their communities’ affordable housing needs.

It seems like the same Foundation also funded loan modification efforts beginning last summer - is it helping?

If you think this doesn’t affect our little community because we have very few foreclosures, think again.  As long as there are large numbers of foreclosures on lenders’ books, from whom our local buyers are hoping to fund their dream coastside property, lending guidelines will continue to be very tight, and property values will continue to be suppressed.

As of today, ForeclosureRadar.com shows 11 bank-owned properties between Pescadero, Half Moon Bay, El Granada, Moss Beach, and Montara.  23 in Pacifica.  331 in all of San Mateo County.  For pre-foreclosures, there are 52 between Pescadero, Half Moon Bay, El Granada, Moss Beach and Montara.  106 in Pacifica.  1,875 in San Mateo County.  Below are bank-owned properties in the San Mateo County coastal communities that are currently listed in the MLS:

 Map-based search of current San Mateo County County Coastside bank-owned listings.