Aug28th
Posted by justin_lee at 8:07 am. Filed under: Foreclosure Prevention
It was recently reported that foreclosures in New Mexico experienced a sharp increase this past May. What no one is willing to say however is whether the bottom is truly falling out or whether government officials have doubts about the reported data itself?
One surprising statistic is that for a state with one of the lowest population densities New Mexico leads all other states with a rate of one property foreclosure for every 554 households. With the national average of one foreclosure for every 1,853 households New Mexico is checking in at three times this average.
Needless to say there is a growing concern among lenders and officials that the worst may be yet to come with thousands of adjustable rate mortgage loans yet to hit their reset periods, which many borrowers took advantage of and leveraged themselves to the hilt when they purchased or refinanced their homes.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
This May there were a reported 1,409 properties in foreclosure. This is a blistering pace since only 146 were reported in April, and 359 in March. One surprising statistic is one of the smallest New Mexico counties in land mass,Bernalillo County, reported 1313 properties in foreclosure which accounted for 93% of the total for the entire state during that time frame.
In fact Bernalillo County led the entire country in foreclosure rate. What happens once a homeowner falls into default on their mortgage loan in New Mexico? Like all other states the laws governing foreclosures are clear and decisive.
New Mexico Foreclosure Laws Judicial foreclosures are the norm in New Mexico, with non-judicial foreclosures a seldom used process by lenders for residential mortgages. The process in New Mexico is similar to that across the country where lenders appeal to the court for a final judgment of foreclosure.
New Mexico law requires that a foreclosure sale must be advertised at least four weeks in advance of any sale and sales usually take four months after final judgment for foreclosure is granted. The law also allows for a deficiency judgment where the lender may still hold the borrower liable for deficit amount when a property in foreclosure is sold at a public sale for less than the loan amount.The period of processing of a foreclosure in New Mexico is 180 days. If the borrower does not respond within that period the court starts foreclosure proceedings and the property is auctioned. State law allows a borrower to stop foreclosure in New Mexico at any time prior to the sale of the home. The court may then decide to halt the proceedings if the borrower is able to pay back all back mortgage payments, late fees, and penalties if any.The foreclosure situation in New Mexico remains unsettled, and there is speculation that the numbers were under-reported over the past few months. There is some belief that since interest rates are likely to remain flat for the rest of the year the number of foreclosures may plateau. This is not great news, but it is some small comfort for the state setting the record for the highest foreclosure rate in 2007.
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