Published: October 17, 2008 12:44 am            

Foreclosures up in U.S., but not in Garfield County

Among the worst fears of any family is losing their home.

That fear is being realized all across the United States as the bottom fell out of the national housing market. It is worse in some states than others. California is hard hit, parts of Michigan also are reeling, and in Las Vegas, one in four homes is in foreclosure.

Garfield County seems to be escaping that bubble, and foreclosures through September show no more than average for the year.

Foreclosures filed in Garfield County in 2008 totaled 124 through Sept. 29, according to the Garfield County Court Clerk’s office. The company filing the most foreclosures is U.S. Bank National Association, which has 17 filed through September this year.

Other companies reporting a large number of foreclosures filed include Wells Fargo Bank, 12; Bank of Oklahoma, 12; and Citimortgage 11.

Enid-area banks have not filed a large number of foreclosures. Alva State Bank filed one and Liberty Federal filed three.

Overall, the Enid area and Oklahoma have not faced the inflated price problems that some other areas of the nation have seen. Garfield County Assessor Wade Patterson said he has seen some appraisals with sales that seem out of line, but they are few.

“We see appraisals come across with sales that at times far exceed what we value them at. It sends up a red flag for us. We check it out and verify the sales information,” Patterson said.

He has seen that in the past. Market values seem to always increase so it is hard to pinpoint when it happened. When sales come in that seem higher than actual value, Patterson said all the sales in that market are put into a study and his office determines what the typical price for property is.

“If it’s way out of line and we can’t determine how, we still don’t put them at that price for taxes, but at the median price. There are always highs and lows and we use the median,” Patterson said.

Sales that are too high are considered unqualified sales and are not considered in the tax analysis. He uses the same process if a sale comes in lower than others, such as a sale between relatives.

“If there are 10 sales in the area we take the real high or the real low out of consideration. If we had a slow, systematic manipulation of the market over an extended period of time, you could see higher taxes,” he said.

However, that would have to be a carefully calculated and extended operation. If there are market fluctuations for a year, his office will go back two years to determine trends, he said.

Many people go online to find loans, according to Bob Emery of Security National Bank. There have been some local lenders, who are not insured by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, who bundle loans in some form.

“Some places do loans and sell them to Wells Fargo or Chase, who then put them together in packages that fit the requirements of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Others are doing the same thing, they bundle and originate for companies that are loan brokers, not banks,” he said.

Emery said brokers often have a high penalty for pre-payment for three, five or seven years. The owners could not pay off the note or sell the property for that time period without a severe penalty. That is not true of loans made by any Enid banks, he said.

“The market for jumbo loans has pretty well dried up. Those are loans above $417,000. Anybody selling to a secondary lender is not doing it. However, Security National is making those loans to people in our market and holding them ourselves and not selling them,” he said.

Emery said the best place for loans is local lenders.

Sharon Helterbrand, branch manager for mortgage loans for Bank of Oklahoma, said they do a lot of mortgage business, but do not make loans to everyone who comes in. Sometimes the customer’s credit does not meet criteria for a loan.

“Even before credit became as important as it has recently, we couldn’t loan for everyone who walks in the door,” she said.

The bank sells a few of their loans; however, Helterbrand estimated no more than 10 percent. Those loans are made with bond money and sources outside the bank. Helterbrand said they keep most of their loans. Some are sold to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae because they are the largest mortgage investors.

BOK still makes some jumbo loans, but those do not have 30-year fixed-rate loans. Their jumbo loans are 15 years or shorter term with a balloon payment. She also said BOK does not do subprime loans.

Neither does Central Na-tional Bank in Enid, according to Linda Brezina, vice president of the retail division, mortgage lending. Brezina said this has been a typical year in terms of loans made and the area has not been affected by subprime problems that have caused an economic crisis in the housing industry in other parts of the nation.

“We’ve been affected by some of the loan programs that aren’t out there anymore. You can’t get 100 percent conventional loans anymore, they’ve gone back to 95 percent loan to value,” she said.

That change has come about nationally because many loans were made across the country that should not have been made. Underwriting was too flexible, she said.

Central National does sometimes sell loans. There are secondary market loans they originate, process and close with the intention to sell to the investor. Then, there are in-house loans they underwrite based on their own guidelines. They originate those loans with the intention of keeping them and they go into the banks portfolio.

“When we sell ours we do it loan by loan.We don’t typically sell them by pool,” she said. “Secondary market loans are sold to investors, but processed to fit with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae,” she said.

Brezina said there are fewer defaults in the northwest Oklahoma area than in some other parts of the country and she believes there is a general level of responsibility people in this area feel.