Nevada Foreclosures for Sale

The federal government announced a $72 million Neighborhood Stabilization Package for Nevada earlier this year as part of its $4 billion rescue deal for states across the country. To date, little of that money has been seen by those who need it the most. The State of Nevada is desperately trying to leverage some of that funding in an effort to reduce the number of foreclosures for sale in Nevada.

A simple plan is being attempted by the Housing Division’s Chief Financial Officer, Lon DeWeese. Wherever a neighborhood has between 15 and 20 homes in foreclosure with the banks, the division is trying to convince the banks to lower the prices of the properties to that which is reflected by the current market. It is hoped that this will place first-time buyers who are able to meet mortgage repayments into bank-owned properties, probably on receipt of loans from the First Time Homebuyer Program.

It is hoped that by injecting some of this government funding into the initial seeding of the market, some of the homes currently for sale as foreclosures can be bought up by first time buyers. This will hopefully breathe fresh life into neighborhoods that have suffered terribly from the associated effects of repossession. These neighborhoods have seen whole streets of vandalized and desolate homes tarnishing what were once lively residential areas.

The effects of the repossessions and foreclosures were so deep that residents even had to question whether or not they would be able to vote in the Presidential Election as they had lost their home. The answer was that it would not affect their voting rights, even if registration information had not been updated.

Nevada’s story is worse than most, currently leading the nation with 77.8 pre-foreclosures for every 1,000 households which is a staggering increase of 11% on last year. Arizona is close on Nevada’s heels, followed by Florida and then California. These figures are dramatic and in practical terms it means that 9% of households in the Las Vegas area are currently in the process of foreclosure. There does not appear to be a clear trend that can be analyzed with any ease as the figures certainly for Las Vegas are up and down; up in July, down in August and then up again in September.

Some of the drops in figures are good news as a result of new legislation that means banks must give residents more time to try and work things out before repossession as everyone feels the pinch of the global economic credit crunch. Las Vegas is also introducing new government bail out programs which should keep people in their homes for a little longer at least, to see if they can ride out the storm sweeping the financial markets.