Mobile county foreclosure homes for sale are excellent starter homes for many reasons. These reasons include the price, the project, and the investment.

Many people purchase extremely expensive houses as their first home. They then later find that they have made a bad decision because they cannot afford the monthly payment and then the lose their first home. It is very exciting to buy your first house but it is even better when you find one that is affordable with a small payment. Mobile county foreclosure homes for sale are extremely cheap which means that you can find a house that won’t cost you must at all. This means your monthly payment will be low and you won’t be in a situation where you can barely make the mortgage payment. You might even find your car payment is more than the mortgage. Foreclosures are excellent first homes because you have so much money left over each month and can live a better quality of life.

Another reason to consider the foreclosure for sale is because of the project. Many people love their very first home to be one that they have to fix up and make their own. It becomes a project that they can do together creating memories and good times. People love this because they get a low cost home that they fix up to make it their own in many ways by building on a back porch, installing a pool and patio area, building on a new room, and much more. Houses that you buy cheap and fix up as your own become to mean a lot to people and they may even stay in them for a lifetime. The low cost is the biggest reason people love them because they have the money to make the projects happen.

The investment of Mobile county homes for sale is an amazing investment. If you have lost thousands of dollars in stock or other investments through a company or something else then it is a good idea to look at low cost houses. The market will pick up again and when you are ready to sell the house then you can not only get your money back but you will make a big profit. You might consider holding on to the houses for a long period of time so you can put your kids through college or something else.

Figures for the number of foreclosures in Alabama were up 15% in October, whereas much of the rest of the country seemed to have a respite due to the introduction of new legislation to assist those about to undergo foreclosure.

RealtyTrac, a California based company who have been tracking the foreclosure crisis since the summer of 2007, report that a total of 836 homes were in some stage of foreclosure in the month of October across the State of Alabama, which amounts to one household in every 2,524. This may be a 15% increase on the previous month but to put it in perspective, Las Vegas has 12,155 properties undergoing the same procedure in October which is the highest in the US and seven times the national average.

New legislation has been introduced in an attempt to delay the process of foreclosures. Lenders must now contact homeowners directly 45 and then 30 days prior to issuing a Notice to Default. This is aimed at homeowners who are too ashamed to face up to the realities of the economic crisis that may be facing them. Many lenders, particularly those that have fallen foul of the sub-prime mortgage trap, simply think that the problem will go away if the payments are not made.

The legislation is also designed to place more responsibility on the banks as when properties are foreclosed; the lender becomes the rightful owner of the property. Homeowners that are evicted often cause a great deal of damage in the process of leaving the house, including stripping fixtures and fittings and even tearing up copper piping for re-sale. Properties are then left in a terrible condition as the responsibility for maintenance lies with the bank, who has either no interest or no time for maintenance and repairs.

The fact that banks have become de facto owners of properties is an explanation of why the Alabama neighbourhoods suffering from high numbers of foreclosures look so desolate with overgrown lawns and wild weeds pushing through broken fences. It is not long before opportunist thieves make off with parts of the houses, or worse still, squatters move in. It is therefore in the interest of all, banks and homeowners that this legislation works to avoid more foreclosures.

So as long as the economy does not take a more significant turn for the worse over the coming months, it may be said through being slightly more cautious than other states, Alabama has escaped the worst of the foreclosure crisis; that said, it is of little consolation to those whose homes have been repossessed or to those residents living next door to abandoned and decaying houses.

As the nation’s crippling housing crisis seems to drag on indefinitely, for at least two years in some cases now, Alabama is again fortunate that in comparison to many other States, there are less homeowners who are living with negative equity; that is a situation where they owe more on their mortgage than the property is worth. In the world of Real Estate, this situation is referred to as being ‘underwater’, and is closely tied to the foreclosure crisis.

In Alabama there are around 17, 713 ‘underwater’ properties, which amounts to about 7%, a lot less than the 48% that is quote in Nevada, but still significant. The Birmingham city metropolitan area has not truly reflected the national trends, and this is thought to be as a result of the more cautious and conservative history of the people living in the area. Cities like Las Vegas are the complete opposite.

Many of the problem properties are on coastal or water front locations where the price surges and drops are more serious. The inland stability has shone through in this turbulent period. It is hoped that if unemployment continues to rise, this trend will be reversed at least lending some hope to overstretched residents.

Unemployment figures are lower than the national average with Alabama rating at 5.,4% compared to the nation 6.5%. Companies in the Birmingham area are still reported large scale downturns in profits though. Recently three of the States largest auto manufacturers, Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes announced huge drops in profits, and it is only a matter of time before this translates into job losses. Job losses means more people defaulting on mortgage payments and more foreclosures.

The future is not too bright either, with experts predicting that unemployment will continue to rise and may hit 5.9% by the end of March 2009, and despite several expensive government initiatives the number of homes being repossessed and entering the lengthy foreclosure process continues to rise. As the festive season approaches many Alabama residents will not be too focussed on what Santa is bringing, more on whether Santa will have a home to come to.