Foreclosures entice with sweet deals

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Updated: October 26, 2011 12:45AM

My 26-year-old daughter, who bought a condo foreclosure about a year ago, just had an appraisal done on her property. She has made about $100,000 in equity, thanks to the cheap price she paid initially.

What she did was nothing that you or I couldn’t do too, providing you find a foreclosure at the right price, which most of them are. Most of them also require some work, but if you have a vision, you can make some money. Or, as my daughter did, you can find yourself a sweet place to live for not a whole lot of bucks.

According to the online real estate Web site Trulia, there are currently 303 homes in Oak Park in the pre-foreclosure, auction or bank-owned stages of the foreclosure process. That number is less in River Forest, a total of 50.

I receive a lot of blanket e-mails from Trulia and RealtyTrac, notifying me about homes for sale and being foreclosed on in my area. They entice me to look at some promising properties.

The two companies recently released the latest results of an ongoing survey that has tracked American attitudes toward foreclosed homes since 2008.

This latest portion of the online survey was conducted in April among 2,018 U.S. adults aged 18 and over.

It said that 45 percent of American adults say the government is not doing enough to prevent foreclosures. Seventeen percent said they thought too much is being done, while 16 percent said the government is doing the right amount. Twenty-two percent of the people said they’re not even sure.

I’m probably with that last group, because it’s puzzling about what could realistically be done about all the foreclosures across the nation. Whether we’re talking big-city Chicago or small-town America, the foreclosure numbers continue to be distressing.

According to the Center for Responsible Lending’s Web site, statewide, lost home equity wealth due to nearby foreclosures between 2009 and 2012 will be $126.3 billion. The site also said there are 4,283,681 homes in the state experiencing “foreclosure-related decline,” with the average loss per home being $29,492. That is bad news for many, but not for bargain hunters.

The survey also said that almost one-third (30 percent) of homeowners said either they or someone they know has applied for or received a loan modification, stopped paying their mortgage, foreclosed, walked away or short-sold their house.

It’s a sad time, obviously, for a whole lot of people. But for others, opportunity is knocking at the door of an affordably-priced home.

Got news? … If so, I’d love to hear from you. E-mail me at write12@comcast.net.