We are seeing more and more foreclosures come onto the market at this time here in South Carolina. There is an immense amount of short sale activity going on. We are in an area — known as the Grand Strand — that is a tourist town, popular with second home buyers and investors.

Due to the mortgage and lender problems, there are a large number of people walking away from their investments. I personally blame this on the fact that the lenders are so overwhelmed right now that they are allowing this and not punishing those that got into the market on speculation. I am referring to the investors who over-extended themselves with speculation, the second home buyers who bought more than they could afford, and the buyers who were talked into adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) loans so they could buy more home than they could afford. 

A lot of foreclosures here in South Carolina are also manufactured houses. I see a lot of them on the market as foreclosures now. There seem to be more high-end homes being foreclosed on too. 

Of course the condo market is what is really making our area look bad. We have a 22-month inventory (it is going down slightly) of active listings on the market right now, but we are hoping that will be dropping since summer is here now. All in all, the people that are being foreclosed on are the ones who never should have purchased in the first place unless they could afford to take the hit if the market dropped. But they are not being “punished” for their bad investment choices; instead they are being forgiven for the defaults, not given 1099s on the losses when they walk away. And so many people are just saying, “It’s the banks problem, they never should have given us the loan in the first place!” 

Hello?

Not sure where that mentality comes from, but don’t get me started!

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