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Foreclosures up in countyBy Douglas
Sams
Gwinnett’s new foreclosures reached 176 last month versus 108 in December 2003, the Boca Raton, Fla.-based firm said. Georgia had 2,120 newly foreclosed residential properties for sale compared to 34,446 in the United States. Overall, it was a busy year outside the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center, where foreclosed properties are publicly auctioned each month. Gwinnett had 5,130 properties in foreclosure in 2004, the most in the past four years and the third highest total in metro Atlanta, behind only Fulton and DeKalb, according to Marietta-based real estate tracking firm Equisystems. Meanwhile, mortgage rates across the United States continued to fall, opening new doors for home buyers. Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of mortgage rates released Thursday showed that rates on 30-year, fixed rate mortgages averaged 5.77 percent for the week ending Jan. 6. That was down from last week’s 5.81 percent. For all of 2004, rates on benchmark 30-year mortgages averaged 5.84 percent, second only to last year’s 5.83 percent, the lowest annual rate in Freddie Mac’s record keeping. Low mortgage rates have powered home sales. Analysts believe sales hit a record high for all of 2004. The housing market is expected to post another good year in 2005, analysts said. Long-term mortgage rates have remained well-behaved even as the Federal Reserve has boosted short-term interest rates five times in 2004. That’s because inflation, while creeping higher, is not currently viewed as an immediate danger to the economy, analysts said. ‘‘Economic news seems to reflect steady growth and low inflation, placing little upward pressure on interest rates,’’ said Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac’s deputy chief economist. |
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