The current foreclosure situation in Kansas is at the moment, moderate. It has been reported that the foreclosure rate in Kansas is about half that of the rest of the country. However, in some counties in Kansas several foreclosures are filed each week. In Sedgwick County alone, the numbers are trending up and are expected to continue to rise. The foreclosure rates in Kansas have been going up over the last couple of years and it is likely to continue through the next couple of years.
The root cause for the foreclosure problem in Sedgwick County, Kansas is that most homeowners are falling behind on their mortgage payments due to the adjusting mortgage rates. The real estate market is also seeing a decline as current for sale listings days on market is on the increase.
Other events could cause foreclosures to rise in Sedgwick County, Kansas. For example, Wichita is located in Sedgwick County and as its economy is heavily dependent upon the aircraft manufacturing industry, foreclosures could increase dramatically overnight if one or more of the aircraft manufactures were to announce layoffs. Clearly, the economy here, and elsewhere around the nation, is at a point where layoffs like these could heavily influence the foreclosure rate.
As is typical elsewhere in the country, more working class residences are being foreclosed on than any others. There a lot of overleveraged homeowners in Sedgwick County with zero, or worse yet, no equity in their property. This is due to the recent booming real estate era where a lot of homeowners were experiencing double digit returns each year on the equity in their home.
As well, the recent era of unbelievably easy credit has allowed new homeowners to purchase a home by borrowing the money needed up to the full value of the property. Then, once a homeowner purchased their home they were then able use their homes as ATM machines, draining all the equity out that they had accumulated over what could have been several years. Today there are very few houses in foreclosure with any equity remaining.
Unfortunately the majority of homeowners in the Sedgwick county and surrounding areas are choosing to ignore their foreclosure situation until it is too late to take care of the problem quickly or cheaply. A lot of homeowners are the having to file for bankruptcy or are being foreclosed on.
Fortunately homeowners do have several options when facing foreclosure. Different options are available depending on the specific situation that each homeowner is in. If circumstances allow, a workout plan with the homeowners lender can be negotiated. Or homeowners can re-finance or reinstate their loans. Some homeowners may have to sell their home or procure a short sale which is when the bank agrees to take less than what the homeowner owes on his or her home. |
