LC Realtor Claims City Unaffected By Real Estate Crisis

LAS CRUCES, NM – A realtor in Las Cruces claims the city has not been affected by the crisis currently affecting the U.S. real estate market.

Connie Herringa, President of the Las Cruces Association of Realtors, tells ABC-7 the city is unlike the rest of the country because it is physically growing. “We do have a lot of inventory, a lot of homes on the market,” she said.

Herringa said the city is growing due to the stabilization of home prices. According to her, people are not having to drastically lower their home prices in order to sell.

The past year has seen a rise in foreclosures across the country, meaning lenders are taking over properties when owners can no longer make their mortgage payments.

Many economic experts attribute the increase in foreclosures to a rise in a default of subprime mortgages, which are offered to borrowers with weak or bad credit. The interest rates in these type or mortgages rise over time and inflates the monthly payment on a borrowers mortgage.

Problems in the national housing market began when interest rates on adjustable rate mortgages started to inch up, resulting in rising mortgage payments for many homeowners.

ABC-7 Reporter Doug Wernet checked several foreclosure websites Tuesday. The number of homes in Las Cruces listed in foreclosures on the sites ranged from about 10 to as many as 54.

The sites revealed foreclosures are not as big a problem in Las Cruces as they are in other areas of the country. However, they did reveal the city has fallen prey to some of the sameproblems plaguing the real estate market throughout the country.

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Written and reported for broadcast by Doug Wernet

Written for the web by Joe Villasana