The Foreclosure Situation is Grim – but not as Bad as the Eighties

Posted on March 26, 2009
Filed Under Foreclosure Homes | 1 Comment

The foreclosure situation is grim today but it is not as bad as it was in the eighties. In 1987 bankers had repossessed over 1,690 residential houses. This is however small consolation to hundred of families in Mat-Su who are battling foreclosures. Real Estate experts opine that this is nothing compared to the crisis that had mauled the Valley during the latter half of the 80’s.

Today there are 275 foreclosures in the Palmer district that stretches from Willow to Sheep Mountain. In 1987 there was a staggering number of 1,693 foreclosure listings. It must be noted that during that time there were far less homes and residents. Today foreclosures are taken as exceptions but then it was the part of the norm in markets. During those agonizing years the prices of property fell by nearly 50%. Those houses that could have fetched $200,000 were sold for a meagre $80,000.

Jerry Moses a broker of Wasilla working with Prudential Jack White and Vista Real Estate commented, “It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that if you were to look at the market (in the late 1980s), that 80 percent of the homes on the market were probably foreclosures.”

Another senior realtor Uli Johnson recalls the eerie vacant subdivisions, dozens of collapsed banks and interest rates spiking from 8% to about 16%. Uli and her husband Robert owned a construction firm. They suffered heavy losses on two houses in Wasilla. During the late 80’s Uli had to deal with 50 foreclosures. There were over dozen other realtors doing similar jobs on foreclosures. Today she is just one of few brokers in Mat-Su who specialize in foreclosures and right now she has in her portfolio 14 foreclosure cases. Uli grieves that the stress of the 80’s told on her husband’s health that ultimately led to his early death. She said, “You feel like you’re a failure. There is nothing that he did or any of us did. It’s just the way the market bounced.”

In 2008 Alaska ranked third lowest in the nation in foreclosure numbers according to the statistics of the Labor Department. In the state there were 1,131 foreclosure listings last year – the highest in 15 years. In 1988 there were 6,821 foreclosure postings.

The Matanuska-Susitna borough has noted an increase in foreclosure but as yet it has not affected assessment said Dave Dunivan, the borough assessor.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Related Tags

Nobody landed on this page from a search engine, yet!

Comments