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Bank of America Forecloses on Home That Doesn't Exist, Fails

Thanks are due to our friends at Houston real estate blog Swamplot for bringing this flapdoodle to our attention: a guy in Seabrook, Texas, not only lost his house in 2008'sHurricane Ike but he was also foreclosed on by Bank of America. Despite the fact that the property had washed away, Brad Gana continued to make regular mortgage payments, completely unaware that the bank had issued a forced homeowner's policy on his home—which, again, just for clarity's sake here because there seems to be some confusion, didn't exist. Gana was never notified of the increased monthly payments, despite the fact that he had given BofA his email address and phone number. Then again, his mailbox had washed away, too, so snail-mail notices never got to him—he learned of the foreclosure two days before the property was set to sell, and had a lawyer stop the proceedings. While a bank rep tries to sidestep what had happened—"There were a number of factors that contributed to the issues that resulted in the actions that we took on [the] mortgage and property"—Gana lays it out clearly: "Bank of America is ruthless in their incompetency," he told the local paper.

· Bank Forecloses on Home Destroyed by Ike [Click2Houston via Swamplot]

5 More Celebrity Real Estate Blunders

LOS ANGELES (TheStreet) -- No matter how big they are, how many cars their garages fit, how many pools they have or how many of them a celebrity owns around the world, celebrity homes are subject to the same market forces as anyone else's.

Investing millions of dollars in a home doesn't mean a celebrity won't take a bath if the market wanes or their own finances whittle away. Real estate data firm RealtyTrac found that foreclosures rose to a record 1.05 million last year, eclipsing the previous record of 918,000 a year earlier. That means 26% of all homes sold in 2010 were foreclosures.

That came during a period when personal bankruptcies rose 9%, to more than 1.5 million, reaching their highest point since bankruptcy law reform was introduced in 2005, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute and National Bankruptcy Research Center. Meanwhile, the National Association of realtors notes that the median price of existing homes plunged from $198,100 in 2008 to $158,800 in January.

Those foreclosure numbers aren't expected to wane anytime soon. RealtyTrac found that 2.9 million homes got foreclosure notices in 2010, with 20% more than that total expected to be in trouble this year.

Celebrities may be better able to weather a huge loss on a home sale, but that doesn't mean they're immune from losing a bundle on their extra-large listings.

Scarlett Johansson

When you lose $2 million on your house and that's not even your biggest public loss of the year, that's a pretty good sign you're on the A-list.

Such are the woes of Scarlett Johansson, who parted with $7 million for a 1931-vintage Spanish hillside villa in Los Angeles' swanky Outpost Estates neighborhood back in 2007, the same year she started dating Ryan Reynolds.

After three years, one marriage, turns in Iron Man 2 and Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona and renovations to the mansion including windows, doors, appliances and tech upgrades, Johansson inexplicably turned around and listed her 4,300-square-foot, seven-bedroom manse in 2009 for $5.1 million.

Maybe neighbors such as Charlize Theron, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy and Orlando Bloom gave off too much star power to get a decent sleep without blackout curtains. Maybe the lap pool and spa were just too small. Either way, she likely didn't have time to look the place over before she left; she sold it for just less than $5 million. Six months later, she and Reynolds called it quits.

Beck

It's getting tougher to figure Beck out. When fans think he's a stripped-down antifolk hero, he goes and blows some serious cash just to remind them he's a millionaire Scientologist.

At least now they can safely subtract "real estate expert" from his resume. Last year alone, Beck lost about $1.5 million trying to flip two properties in a tough California housing market.

The first -- a 1,600-square-foot, three-bedroom, two bathroom ranch with a two-bedroom guest house with a massive fireplace -- sold for $1.7 million last February after Beck bought it for $2.1 million in 2007. As Beck's losses go, dropping $400,000 is like dropping a $10 bill on the subway.

Beck probably didn't count on that three-year strategy biting him twice when he bought a 5,700-square-foot, six-bedroom, nine-bathroom home with a library, recording studio and lane pool for $6.8 million back in 2007. In fact, he had such high hopes for the place that he put it back up a year later for $9 million.

Years passed, the recession came, fewer people cared that Beck was the guy who sang Loser and the property lingered on the market until last year, when it caught the eye of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice producer and writer Shonda Rimes. Instead of meeting Beck where he was at, however, Rimes saw his unrealistic asking price and undercut it by about $4.4 million -- or $1.2 less than Beck initially paid. Loser, indeed

Lenny Kravitz

If you think Beck would have had an easier time in New York, just ask Kravitz how little the homebuying public is willing to spend on '90s rock stars' unwanted real estate. In Kravitz's case, though, it wasn't as much about money as it was about timing.

Back in 2001 -- when Kravitz was still three years into his streak of winning four Best Male Recording Artist Grammy awards, still had songs such as Again and Dig In getting airplay, was making cameos in films such as Zoolander and was generally cared about -- the rocker listed a 6,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, seven-bathroom duplex in New York's Soho for more than $17 million.

Though the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, took a toll on all New York real estate, the property failure at Kravitz's peak should have been the first warning sign. Three years later, Kravitz dropped the asking price to roughly $13 million. The 3,000 feet of outdoor space wasn't enough, however, and Kravitz had to take the place back off the market in prerecession 2006.

Kravitz then put $1 million worth of work into the place, brightening it with a marble fireplace, two suspended glass staircases, a terrace with a wood-burning fireplace and roof deck with a built-in barbecue. The asking price this time around? Back up to $19.5 million.

Anyone who's tried to sell property in the past four years -- high-end or otherwise -- knows what happened next. Kravitz's home languished for another three years until Kravitz's agents smacked some sense into his selling price and dropped it to $14.9 million.

That was the magic number. Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats took the place off his hands last year.

Kravitz isn't taking it too badly: He still owns properties in Paris, New Orleans and Rio, among other places, and still sold the Soho place for more than the $7 million to $8 million he paid for it in 2001. By having no clue about the real estate world around him or how bigger events could influence his seemingly small sale, Kravitz went $1 million and almost 10 years into pocket just to unload a place he clearly never wanted.

Nicholas Cage

Instead of just taking every bad sci-fi and "action" script thrown at him, Nicolas Cage should just concede his money troubles and make a documentary called How To Take A Multimillion-Dollar Bath.

Cage has a $1.7 million home in Newport Beach, Calif., listed for less than $1 million and a $15.7 million Rhode Island estate on the market for $7.8 million. It seems crazy, but so does Cage's roughly three-year adventure in the real estate market.

In 2009, the IRS filed a put a lien on some of Cage's property in Louisiana and said he owed them roughly $6 million for purchases made in 2007. Cage wasn't undergoing quick sessions of shop therapy at the local mall, mind you, but picking up that Rhode Island mansion, the more than $8 million Milford Castle in Bath, England, and some car leases: a five-year, $7,700-a-month lease on a 1964 Rolls Royce SC III; and a $3,600-a-month lease on a 2002 Rolls Royce Corniche.

As a result, his two $3.5 million homes in New Orleans were sold back to the bank for a combined $4.5 million, an $8.5 million home in Las Vegas went for $5 million, a $9.5 million Manhattan apartment for $7.5 million and -- most crushing -- a Bel-Air Tudor mansion he'd listed for $35 million hit the bargain bin at $10.5 million after it went into foreclosure.

Cage sued his business manager for $20 million over these losses in 2009, which which didn't do much good when that manager countersued and spilled the beans about other portions of his spree, including $33 million in homes, 22 cars, 47 pieces of artwork and a $276,000 skull of a Tarbosaurus dinosaur.

Toni Braxton

If ever there was a year for Toni Braxton to write another sad love song, it was 2010.

The six-time Grammy winner saw her $2.6 million home in Henderson, Nev., go into foreclosure and sell for little more than $1 million after she and her company, Liberty Entertainment, filed for bankruptcy last September. Braxton ran up debt ranging from $10 million to $50 million against only $1 million to $10 million in assets, and the worst of her troubles haven't ended.

Her $1.2 million home in Duluth, Ga., just went into foreclosure proceedings, marking the latest financial aftershock from a string of dates Braxton canceled in Las Vegas in 2008 after chest pains she experienced during performances. Those pains were later diagnosed as a heart problem that insurer Lloyd's of London called a "pre-existing condition" when refusing to cover her losses.

Later that year, she was forced to pull out of the series finale of ABC's Dancing With The Stars when she had a breast tumor removed. Braxton can't be blamed for her health issues, but creditors including the Internal Revenue Service, Flamingo Las Vegas hotel and casino, the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C., Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Neiman Marcus, the Screen Actors Guild, RCA Music Group and Tiffany & Co.(TIF_) aren't very sympathetic.

If anyone knows the difference between medical hardship and outright financial irresponsibility, though, it's Braxton. This is the singer's second bankruptcy after filing in 1998. Unlike her current situation, her past troubles were brought on by a split with her record label and poor financial choices, including accumulating $500,000 in overdraft fees in 1997 alone.

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Is a Home Inspection Good Enough?

In a typical home inspection, an inspector goes through the house looking for obvious problems and checking integral parts of the home like the foundation, exterior, electrical, plumbing and roof, structure, heating, garage, etc. While the home inspector will tell you whether items like the heater or stove work and if the plumbing is draining properly, this isn’t even close to what you should be doing as a part of the home inspection process to really protect yourself and make a smart real estatepurchase.

The most important reason to have a home inspection not to see what works or doesn’t work so you can ask the seller to credit you some monies to fix items – although that is an important issue. It is not so you can see if your furniture will fit in the living room, or what color to paint the walls.

The most important reason to have a home inspection…

… is so that you can add up the costs of all the repairs, replacements, upgrades, and rehab items that you will want to do in the near future and determine if the house is selling at a fair price after deducting all those estimated costs. The inspector’s report will help you figure out what needs to be repaired, but it is your responsibility to go through the property in detail and get realistic estimates and costs to fix, or bring everything up to your standards.

Here are some items the inspector’s report won’t note: the costs if you are going to paint the interior or exterior of the house, landscape the back yard, or put in new energy efficient double-pane windows. That is at least $10,000 right there. The report might note that the A/C is 20 years old, but not that it will cost $5,000 to replace in the next few years. And what if you want to do new flooring, countertops, a new refrigerator, or redo the bathroom? Are you adding up all these costs? They won’t be in the report, but you need to know those estimates.

Adding up all the costs is your responsibility

Once you have a total, you go to a home improvement store or talk to a contractor, then you can make a decision if the property price is fair, or if you need to renegotiate the price, or if you should cancel the purchase.

When obtaining your cost estimates, don’t just select the least expensive flooring, bathroom cabinets or refrigerator. After you close escrow and you go back to actually purchase the items, it’s likely you may buy the higher quality or more expensive items.

Other things to check

There are other things the home inspector does not typically do: radon tests, mold tests, termite inspections, soil tests, and checking if the house additions are properly permitted. If you ask, an inspector can probably give you some general guidance on the course of action you should take for each item of concern. Then you need to decide how much you want to spend to do any further investigation.

Is your inspector insured or licensed?

Home inspectors are not required to have insurance in most states and are not required to be licensed or certified in most states, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make sure your home inspector is at least insured and get some references.

Some people don’t even go to the inspection and just let their real estate agent handle it. This is not a smart move. You need to be there during the inspection to look, listen and ask questions.

Buying a home is the largest and riskiest purchase you will ever make

For your own benefit, please ensure that you do the hard work to gain a full understanding of the costs involved with repairing or upgrading the property you are buying. You’ll be glad you did.

Leonard Baron, MBA, CPA, is a San Diego State University Lecturer, a Zillow Blogger, the author of several books including “Real Estate Ownership, Investment and Due Diligence 101” and loves kicking the tires of a good piece of dirt! See more at ProfessorBaron.com.

Here's An Insider’s Guide To Scoring With Short Sales

Many real estate agents steer their clients away from a short sale because they think they take too long, that their commissions will be lowered, or simply because they don’t know a lot about the process and what it takes to get a short sale completed successfully.

There are multiple steps involved in a short sale. If you’re a buyer or seller today, it’s helpful to understand the entire process from the inside out. Here are 10 things you should know about short sales.

What exactly is a short sale?

A short sale isn’t a foreclosure, and the property may not be anywhere near the process of being foreclosed upon. In a short sale, the seller needs to sell their home for a variety of reasons — job transfer, divorce, lost job, inability to make payments, and so on. The current market value of their property is less than what they owe the bank because its value has declined; the seller took out additional loans against the property; or both.

To complete the sale, the seller needs to go to their mortgage lender and ask permission for the bank to take less than they are owed — to get “shorted,” in other words.

In my experience, most banks actually want to work with the seller and approve the sale, as opposed to having to foreclose on the property. If the seller falls behind on their payments and the property heads for foreclosure, the bank ends up owning the property. This forces the bank to be in the business of owning real estate, which isn’t what it’s set up to do, and that costs them time and money.

The bank’s perspective

Imagine if you were owed money by someone and they came to you and asked to pay you back less. You wouldn’t be too happy about it and would only go along with it kicking and screaming, right? Well, the same is true with lenders when a customer needs to sell their property in a short sale. They don’t want to lose money, and they’re going to make sure that a short sale is the best of the worst-case scenarios they’re facing. In doing so, the banks have processes and procedures in place, some more bureaucratic than others. They’ll want a review of the seller’s finances, to be certain they truly can’t afford the payments and that their reason for selling is legitimate.

What does the bank want to see?

In order to decide whether you want to take this financial hit, the bank will require the seller to complete a short sale package, much like a loan pre-approval package when you purchase a home. The package includes (but isn’t limited to): a financial worksheet completed by the seller; the past few months bank statements; last two years tax returns; the last few pay stubs; copies of equity/brokerage accounts; and a hardship letter laying out the seller’s case for the short sale.

Additionally, the bank will want to see a purchase agreement, proof of buyer financing, authorization to speak to a third party (namely the listing agent) as well as a HUD-1 — a closing/settlement statement that lays out the finances of the sale. Finally, the bank wants to have the property appraised to confirm that they are receiving the most money for the home.

Short sale review process

Nearly every bank has a team of “negotiators” who are assigned to review each short sale application and make a decision.

It’s rare that they will accept the short sale package as is. More likely, they’ll ask for a number of things including a counter offer to the purchase price and a reduction in fees/closing costs. If they lower the listing agent’s commission, it’s almost always reduced below 6 percent (but rarely below 5 percent).

Often, the bank will ask the seller to make a financial contribution in order for them to approve the sale. This is generally OK with the seller, and often the seller can agree to a payment plan. Everything is a negotiation here, and the listing agent is generally the one negotiating with the bank on behalf of the seller.

The seller is often required to miss a payment

Many banks will require the seller to miss a payment in order to process the short sale. In essence, the bank is rejecting the short sale and telling the seller to come back and reapply after they’ve gotten behind in their payments.

This happens all the time. If you’re a seller with perfect credit but circumstances require you to sell the property as a short sale, the bank wants you to pay for it by negatively affecting your credit with a 30-, 60-, or 90-day late payment.

This is the most troubling, misunderstood, and backwards part of a short sale and part of the reason why they take so long. This will likely set the seller and the potential buyer back by at least 30 days, and the buyer often walks away, sometimes after waiting 60 days.

If you want to avoid this roadblock, start missing your payments as soon as you know a short sale is inevitable. Yes, you heard me right: I’ve literally advised sellers to stop making their mortgage payments.

Facing up against a foreclosure

This is where things get messy and timing is everything.

If you miss your payments for 90 days, a notice of default is filed and the foreclosure process begins. The foreclosure department is likely a completely different arm of the bank and does not always have any knowledge of the short sale offer.

Sometimes, they’ll work hand-in-hand to delay the foreclosure if a short sale application is in. But, many times, especially if they are so disconnected, the foreclosure department simply forges ahead. I have heard horror stories about a full price short sale offer on the table, yet the bank forecloses.

Have your ducks in a row before going on the market

Prior to listing the property in a short sale, request a copy of the short sale package from the lender. Start with the customer service telephone number; they can usually get you in touch with the loss mitigation department. Find out what’s required to complete a short sale and get everything that the bank needs up front.

A good real estate agent will have every single piece of information available and ready to send to the bank before they list the property. Once an offer is received, they can add the purchase agreement and the closing statement to the package. Short sales take a long time when the seller or real estate agent have an offer but don’t have any of the paperwork ready to send to the bank.

If you’re a potential short sale buyer, ask the listing agent if they’ve made contact with the bank. Have they received the short sale package? If so, are the seller’s documents ready to be submitted? If the answers to these questions are no, or are received with a blank stare, chances are you’re going down a long and rocky road.

Additional places the short sale gets hung up

The banks require a lot of paperwork in order to present the short sale to the negotiator. If they don’t have an absolutely complete package, they won’t send it on. This means that if you’re missing one document or one bank statement has the wrong date, there will be a hold up.

Also, even though it’s 2011, many banks require the packages to be faxed into their system. This means lost pages or missing documents. And the bank, as busy as it is, isn’t likely to call you and tell you what you’re missing. So the listing agent or the seller needs to stay on top of the bank.

Once the package (sometimes 185 pages) is faxed in, a call should be made confirming the fax was received. Within a few days, another call should be made to ensure the package has been assigned to a processor. The processor’s job is to provide the negotiator with everything needed for review. Check with the processor, to see if they’re missing anything and if not, how long it will take to be assigned to a negotiator. Most banks will tell you five, 10, or 21 days. Staying on top of the bank will help speed up the process. As the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Final step is getting the approval

The waiting game begins once the file is complete and is on the desk of the negotiator. At this point, there is nothing you can do but wait for their decision/negotiation. Once the approval and all the negotiating has been completed, the regular sale/escrow process begins. Be aware that the bank prefers these to be “as-is,” so there won’t be room to add fees, request credits or adjustments. Having said that, I once went back to a short sale lender and requested (and received) a $20K reduction in purchase price due to some serious termite issues that were uncovered during the property inspection.

Advice to buyers, sellers and agents

Whatever role you’re playing in the short sale drama, be patient but persistent. I’ve seen short sales approved in less than 30 days, others in nine months. It all depends on the bank, the seller and the listing agent.

And if you’re the potential buyer, try not to get too attached to a short-sale property. If you don’t get a sense that the listing agent is familiar with the process, or if you realize the agent and seller don’t have their ducks in a row, you may need to walk away — no matter how good of a deal the short sale is

The 10 Cities With The Most Underwater Mortgages

Image: roger4336 via Flickr 24/7 Wall St. URL 24/7 Wall St. provides insightful analysis and commentary for U.S. and global equity investors. Recent Posts Here Are The 25 Most Valuable Blogs In America These Are The NFL Teams Americans Bet On The Most Here's Why The Economy Will Soar By 2020 Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AWK, BAC, BIP, CAT, C, CPO, DE, DMND, ECA, GPS, GOV, JOYG, JPM, OPEN, SSW, TXRH, USM, VLO) Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/2/2011) Sinopec M&A, MF Global First Round Of October Jobs Numbers Is Strong

Last week, President Obama announced he would extend the mortgage refinancing program in an effort to provide relief to homeowners whose mortgages are worth more than the value of their homes.

Nationwide, one in four homeowners with a mortgage — 11 million households — has an underwater mortgage. The problem is even worse in some areas of the country.

Click here to see the most underwater cities >

24/7 Wall St. has identified the ten cities with the most underwater mortgages.

Most of the cities on our list are in regions worst hit by the housing crash. These areas are all in California, Florida or the Southwest — all of which were booming housing markets before the recession hit.

In the U.S., just fewer than 15% of homes were built in the last ten years. But in some of the cities on our list of highest underwater mortgages, that number is 25% and higher.

The high supply may have contributed to the sinking home values in those cities. In the case of Las Vegas, house prices have dropped by roughly 60% from peak prerecession values, and they continue to drop to this day.

In the cities with the most underwater mortgages, home prices have dropped by an average of 8.42%, and as much as 14% in the past 12 months.

To make matters worse, the employment situation in these metropolitan areas is in worse shape than in most of the country. This is partially the result of a once-booming construction industry that has since collapsed. Of the ten regions on this list, nine have an unemployment rate that is higher than the national average of 9.1%. Many of the regions have unemployment rates that are some of the worst in the country, such as Modesto and Stockton, California.

Using data obtained from housing data and analytics firm CoreLogic, 24/7 Wall identified the ten regions built around an urban center — core-based statistical areas — with housing markets that had the highest percent of homes with underwater mortgages.

This data was compared to the number of sales of homes that had been repossessed, known as REO sales, and distressed sales (sales by homeowners who could not continue to make mortgage payments) for the same regions. Unemployment data was obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data on homes built since 2000 was obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau.

These are the American cites sunk by underwater mortgages →

This post originally appeared at 24/7 Wall St.

10. Bakersfield-Delano, California

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Pct. homes underwater: 48.75%
12-month home price change: -9.58%
Homes built 2000 or later: 21.1%
Unemployment: 14.4% (tied for 11th highest)

Nearly 50% of the homes in the Bakersfield-Delano metropolitan area are currently underwater. In the past 12 months, homes have lost nearly 10% of their value, much more since the housing market first collapsed.

Distressed sales have accounted for more than half of total sales in the past year, likely because of the difficult economic conditions in the region. To make matters that much more difficult, the area has an unemployment rate of 14.4%, the 11th highest in the country.

Source: 24/7 Wall St.

9. Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida

Pct. homes underwater: 50.33%
12-month home price change: -4.59%
Homes built 2000 or later: 25.2%
Unemployment: 12.1% (30th highest)

The metropolitan area of Lakeland-Winter Haven is located in central Florida. Due in part to the development of retirement communities across the state, more than one in four standing homes have been built since 2000, compared to a national average of just 14.9%.

Like most of the rest of the state, the region has been hit hard by the recession. To date, more than half the area’s mortgages are underwater, over 21% of housing units are vacant, and a total of 35.06% of home sales in the past year have been distressed.

Source: 24/7 Wall St.

8. Port St. Lucie, Florida

Image: flickr

Pct. homes underwater: 50.89%
12-month home price change: -4.68%
Homes built 2000 or later: 25.2%
Unemployment: 12.8% (22nd highest)

Nearly 18% of the homes sold in the Port St. Lucie region in the past 12 months have been properties that were originally foreclosed upon.

Just about 35% of home sales in the past year have been distressed sales. The region has an unemployment rate of 12.8%, the 22nd highest in the country, and a median household income of $41,346, nearly $9,000 lower than the national average.

Source: 24/7 Wall St.

7. Vallejo-Fairfield, California

Image: flickr

Pct. homes underwater: 53.29%
12-month home price change: -10.5%
Homes built 2000 or later: 14.1%
Unemployment: 11.6% (40th highest)

Despite the area’s exceptionally high median household income, the Vallejo-Fairfield metropolitan area’s housing market is suffering on all fronts. Home prices have dropped 10.5% in just 12 months. Just over 14% of homes in the area were built in 2000 or later.

Additionally, 60.57% of total sales in the past 12 months have been distressed sales, the second greatest rate among metro areas on this list.

Source: 24/7 Wall St.

6. Modesto, California

Image: Zillow

Pct. homes underwater: 53.30%
12-month home price change: -9.22%
Homes built 2000 or later: 18.3%
Unemployment: 16% (6th highest)

In the past 12 months, home prices in Modesto have dropped more than 9%, one of the contributing causes of the 53.3% of the region’s mortgages to be underwater. As proof of the high level of foreclosures that has occurred in recent years, more than 40% of last year’s home sales were properties that had been foreclosed upon by a lender and resold.

Of the 372 areas considered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Modesto has the 6th highest unemployment rate in the country. At 16%, it is nearly double the national average.

Source: 24/7 Wall St.

5. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida

Pct. homes underwater: 53.42%
12-month home price change: -3.14%
Homes built 2000 or later: 27.7%
Unemployment: 10.3% (83rd highest)

More than one in four houses in the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford metropolitan area in Florida was built in 2000 or later. Now, 20.7% of all housing units are vacant. Nearly three-quarters of occupied homes have a mortgage on them, far above the national average of 67%.

At 10.3%, Orlando’s unemployment rate is significantly higher than the national average, and its median household income is about $3,500 less than the national average. These figures will make recovery even more difficult for the region.

Source: 24/7 Wall St.

4. Reno-Sparks, Nevada

Image: Flickr / Matt Honan

Pct. homes underwater: 53.74%
12-month home price change: -14.19%
Homes built 2000 or later: 21.8%
Unemployment: 13% (20th highest)

Home prices in the Reno-Sparks area have declined 14.19% in the past 12 months alone, one of the highest rates of decline in the country.

To date, more than 53% of mortgages in the region are underwater, and nearly one out of every five homes sold in the past year have been a short sale, meaning homeowners still owe money to lenders even after selling their property. The unemployment rate in the region is 13%, the 20th highest rate among all metropolitan areas in the country.

Source: 24/7 Wall St.

3. Stockton, California

Image: Zillow

Pct. homes underwater: 53.89%
12-month home price change: -6.46%
Homes built 2000 or later: 19.9%
Unemployment: 16.1% (5th highest)

The Stockton area is located in central California. Many of the jobs in this area are on farms. These positions are rarely permanent and employment in the region has dropped dramatically since the recession began.

Currently, the metro area has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country — 16.1%. The percentage of home sales in the past 12 months that have been distressed sales is one of the higher rates in the country — 53.45% — and the rate of short sales is nearly 20%. Nearly one in every five homes in the metropolitan area was built in 2000 or later.

Source: 24/7 Wall St.

2. Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Arizona

Image: Flickr Kevin

Pct. homes underwater: 53.96%
12-month home price change: -9.81%
Homes built 2000 or later: 28%
Unemployment: 8.4% (202nd highest)

Compared to most of the other regions on our list, residents of the Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale metro area are actually doing relatively well. The unemployment rate of 8.4% is historically high for the region but well below the national average. The region also has a higher median income than the U.S. median. Nevertheless, nearly 54% of all mortgages are underwater, owing in part to a nearly 10% decline in home values in the past 12 months. Half of all home sales have been distressed sales, and more than 30% of sales have been of homes that were recently repossessed.

Source: 24/7 Wall St.

1. Las Vegas-Paradise, Nevada

Image: las.mlxchange.com

Pct. homes underwater: 63.96%
12-month home price change: -12.07%
Homes built 2000 or later: 35%
Unemployment: 14.2% (tied for 11th highest)

Almost two out of every three homes with a mortgage in the Las Vegas-Paradise metropolitan area is underwater. This is, by far, the highest rate in the country, and it is ten percentage points greater than the metro area with the second highest rate.

The past decade brought an exceptional amount of growth to the region’s housing market, with 35% of homes being built in 2000 or later. Currently, 16.9% of housing units are vacant, while 79% of occupied homes have a mortgage. In the past 12 months alone, home prices have dropped over 12% in Las Vegas-Paradise.

Source: 24/7 Wall St