DFW Relocation

Foreclosure leaders focused on 4 states in new metro list Catherine Clifford, CNNMoney.com staff writer Wednesday April 22, 2009, 9:47 am The 26 cities with the highest foreclosure rate in the nation are all located in four hard-hit states, with Las Vegas topping the list, according to a report released Wednesday. Metro areas in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona topped the foreclosure filing list for the first quarter of 2009 in a report from RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties. A foreclosure filing includes default papers, auction sale notices and repossessions. Las Vegas had the highest rate of foreclosures of any city, with one in every 22 homes subject to a foreclosure filing in the first three months of the year. The rate of foreclosure filings was 4.5%, seven times the national average. Merced, Calif., had the second highest rate, with Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., Stockton, Calif., and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., rounding out the top five. ...

Two things to consider in valuing a home are, first, how does it compare to similar homes that have sold recently? Is the asking price fair? And second, what value do you place on the advertised features and amenities? Yes, other people might value them highly, but do you? Performing a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) are among the many algorithmic (generated by a computer model) starting points in figuring out the value of a home. It shows you how the home is relative to other homes in the area, but you need to add in all the things that only someone who has seen the house knows. You can do that by contacting Robert J Russell , and then you create your own estimate and see how it stacks up against the asking price. Looking at "Comps" Knowing whether an asking price is fair will be important when you're ready to make an offer on a house. It will be even more important when your mortgage lender hires an appraiser to determine whether the house is worth the loan you're...