Comstock Homebuilding Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHCI) recently announced that it and certain of its subsidiary companies have entered into a foreclosure agreement with BB&T over $32.7 million of the company’s $144.0 million of secured debt.

Under the terms of the agreement, Comstock will cooperate in the foreclosure process, and BB&T will release the company from any post-foreclosure deficiency liability.

Atlanta-area properties included in the foreclosure agreement include lots at Maristone, Wyngate, and Glen Ivy.

Sign Of The Times - Foreclosure, originally uploaded by respres.

From the Wall Street Journal:

When Post Properties Inc. put itself on the selling block earlier this year, no buyers emerged. Now the company has unveiled its Plan B: restructure itself for growth.

Post, an Atlanta-based residential landlord that owns more than 20,000 mostly upscale apartments, outlined last month a plan designed to downsize and streamline the company. The strategy includes selling an estimated $500 million of property — eight sites, marking the biggest asset sale since its founding in 1971 — and using the proceeds to buy back stock, reduce debt and, potentially, issue a special dividend to shareholders.

Post has also whittled the bloated and criticized development pipeline — previously estimated at $1 billion — and is taking a break from the condo business, which it entered at the residential peak. “It’s more of a go-forward plan, I suppose, than a turnaround plan,” said David P. Stockert, Post’s president and chief executive. “We’re moving on.”

There are a lot of what-ifs in the in the troubled Atlanta apartment developer’s plan: what if the economy continues to sour? What if the problems in the commercial real estate market mean that finding a buyer is difficult to impossible? What if Post isn’t able to sell at the price it wants? Still, the desire to raise capital in the face of stiff economic headwinds is an admirable goal - and may finally result in that purchaser for the company as a whole that Post has been desperately seeking.

Red Tulips Against Sky, originally uploaded by scott photos.

From the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Integrity Bank’s skyrocket run as the fastest-growing bank in Georgia history, fueled by housing construction, has ended in failure.

Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) late Friday acquired the deposits for the Alpharetta, Ga.-based community bank in the 10th bank U.S. bank failure this year, according to a late Friday press release from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Integrity Bank operates five branches in metro Atlanta, primarily in the city’s affluent north suburbs.

Regions Financial acquired all of Integrity’s $962 million in total deposits, including uninsured deposits, paying $9.7 million for them. The deal does not include Integrity Bank’s branches. However, Integrity Bank branches will temporarily open as Regions Financial branches early Tuesday. The FDIC said all customer deposits at the bank will be available for customer use over the weekend through checks, debit cards and ATM withdrawals.

Regions Financial is also buying $34.4 million in cash and other assets from the failed bank.

The FDIC estimates the cost to liquidate bad assets it assumes from Integrity Bank will be $250 million to $350 million.

With Georgia among the top states with the highest number of banks on the FDIC’s watch list, Integrity’s failure is surely not the last bank collapse to be seen in the metro-Atlanta area.

Fail Meter, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

From The Atlanta Investor Wire:

Home prices across the country have fallen to record lows, according to the latest report of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index – and there are few signs that the declines are slowing down.

The 10-city index fell 0.6 percent in June while the 20-city index fell 0.5 percent. The year-over-year declines in home prices were 17.0 percent for the 10-city index and 15.9 percent for the 20.

All 20 cities measured by Case-Shiller showed negative returns over the past year, though the pace of monthly declines in June slowed across the country as a whole when compared with May.

The hardest hit areas continued to be Las Vegas, Miami, and Phoenix which saw home prices fall over the past year 28.6 percent, 28.3 percent, and 27.9 percent respectively.

In contrast, Atlanta showed modest price appreciation for the second month in a row with home values increasing 0.6 percent. Still, Atlanta has now shed 8.1 percent in year-over-year value.

From Commercial Property News:

It’s only Wednesday and already it’s been a big week for upscale multi-family developer Post Properties of Atlanta. The REIT has sold its 250-unit Post Oglethorpe apartment community in Atlanta’s Brookhaven area for $38.5 million and has refinanced two apartment complexes held in joint ventures. In addition, two of the big three credit rating agencies recently had some news for the company.

In June, citing difficult market conditions, Post had announced that it was ending its five-month effort to be acquired, having received some inquiries but no definitive proposals. One of the options for enhancing the shareholder value that the company described at the time was asset sales.

The garden-style Post Oglethorpe community was built in 1994 and consists of units averaging about 1,150 square feet. Post anticipates reporting a gain of about $23 million on the sale, according to a prepared statement. The buyer was not disclosed. The refinance involves two five-year, fixed-rate, interest-only mortgage loans with Fannie Mae, for the Post Biltmore community in Atlanta and the Post Massachusetts Avenue community in Washington, D.C., each of which is held in an unconsolidated joint venture in which Post holds a 35 percent interest. The Post Biltmore mortgage loan has a principal amount of about $29.3 million and a rate of 5.83 percent, and the Post Massachusetts Avenue mortgage loan has a principal amount of about $50.5 million and a rate of 5.82 percent.

Post’s stock has recently been battered on Wall Street, and is only slightly above its 52-week low. Management at the Atlanta-based developer, owner, and manager of higher-end apartment homes has been under pressure after failing to find a suitor to buy the company. Additionally, the company is increasingly competing with the rental shadow market for tenants. With so many houses for sale on the market, more and more homeowners are looking at renting out their properties to wait out the current problems in the real estate market.

From the Atlanta Journal and Constitution:

In another twist in their ongoing effort to save their “Extreme Makeover” home from foreclosure, a Lake City family has reached a preliminary agreement with their bank to take their house off the auction block.

However, it’s unclear whether Milton and Patricia Harper will decide to sell it.

In February 2005, construction workers and volunteers rushed to build what would become one of the most elaborate homes ever featured on the ABC-TV show. Complete with five bedrooms and eight bathrooms, the 5,300-square-foot building resembles a fairy tale castle.

The Harpers were selected among thousands of applicants for the show because of their hard-luck story. When their septic tank flooded the basement, the family was often forced to sleep in their van outside.

The home at 5489 Ahyoka Drive had been slated for auction Tuesday at the Clayton County Courthouse.

The Harpers, who did not return calls for comment, used it as collateral for a $450,000 loan to fund a construction business.

Christine Holevas, spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase, said a 30-day hold was put on the foreclosure to allow the family to work out a deal so they could stay current with their payments.

Negotiations began last week, and Holevas said she expects an agreement to be signed in the next few days.

The house had been on the market for almost a million dollars; not surprisingly the listing expired with no takers.

Foreclosure delayed, but probably not avoided.

From the Atlanta Investor Wire:

Home prices continue to fall throughout the country, according to the May report of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

In the 22nd straight month of declining home values, the 20-city index slipped 0.9 percent to a new record year-over-year low of 15.8 percent.

The 10-city index dropped 1.0 percent in May to a level 16.9 percent below last year. It also hit a new record low.

There has not been a month of price appreciation since August 2006.

Each of the 20 metro areas surveyed by the index posted annual declines. Nine hit record lows, and ten recorded double-digit drops in home prices.

Las Vegas and Miami continued to show the largest price drops in the nation, with prices falling 28.4 percent and 28.3 percent respectively. Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco also posted year-over-year declines in excess of twenty percent.

Atlanta was one of seven cities measured by Case-Shiller that showed some improvement from April, posting month-to-month appreciation of 0.6 percent. It is the first time Atlanta has seen a monthly price increase since last year.

Still, home prices in Atlanta slipped to 7.9 percent below last year’s values.

While the picture painted by the Case-Shiller index remains bleak, there are some positive signs that at least a bottom may be forming for housing prices. For the second month in a row, a number of cities showed very modest price appreciation. Additionally, the overall price declines appear to be slowing.

Certainly, this does not indicate rebound and recovery for the battered housing market, and it is most likely that prices will remain at low levels for some time before there is any significant appreciation. But we may have hit the point where things may not get much worse – which for today’s real estate investors is certainly an improvement.

Down nearly eight percent from last year ain’t too good, and it’s surely going to get worse before better,

From the Macon Telegraph:

Foreclosure action has begun against Macon Mall because of nonpayment on a $141.2 million loan, and a new management company has been approved by the court to take control of the 1.4 million-square-foot facility.

However, mall officials say the mall remains open and ready for customers.

“We don’t expect any operational interruptions to the mall,” said Brooke Houghton, spokeswoman for Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle Americas Inc., the court-appointed retail management company now managing Macon Mall. “We don’t think there will be any impact on the stores or the customers we serve. We are open and ready for business as usual.”

According to court documents, in June 2005 when New Jersey-based The Lightstone Group borrowed $141.2 million, Macon Mall LLC and Burlington Mall LLC in North Carolina were used as collateral for the loan, as well as rents and other income from the properties. The company purchased the two malls about the same time in 2005 for $166 million. A division of the company, The Prime Retail Group, took over management of Macon Mall.

Officials from The Lightstone Group did not return phone calls to confirm the loan was made for the purchase of the malls.

The loan currently is held by LaSalle Bank National Association as trustee for a trust that holds and owns a pool of loans including the one for Macon Mall. The trust filed the complaint.

Last month, the amount paid toward the loan was “$457,870.05 less than the amount necessary to fund all sums required to be paid,” for monthly operating expenses.

With the number of half-empty shopping centers and strip malls around the Atlanta area, many more commercial foreclosures can be expected. The real question is what affect that will have on the banks holding all of those commercial loans.

From WSB:

An Extreme Home Makeover may be going bust. The first metro family who got a new home is facing foreclosure.

Channel 2 followed the progress as an army of volunteers swarmed a Clayton County neighborhood to build a new home for a deserving family on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” in 2005. When the show came to town, no one could have predicted what would happen less than four years later — foreclosure.

A foreclosure notice appeared last Friday, a $450,000 second mortgage they took out less than 15 months ago was in default.

Patricia Harper, the homeowner, told Channel 2 she and her husband had struck a deal with Chase Home Finance to rescue their “extreme” home. Chase said they couldn’t confirm that claim.

“I didn’t really know what the circumstances were, I was kind of surprised. I was really surprised to read that,” said neighbor Doris Rhodenizer.

Lake City mayor Willie Oswalt was among the 1,800 volunteers helping “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build the Harper’s new home 3 ½ years ago. Beazer Homes of Atlanta was the main sponsor. The mayor said he is baffled.

“Beazer gave them $100,000 cash, paid their mortgage off and they still can’t make it,” said Oswalt.

Harper told Channel 2 they invested the loan proceeds in a construction business and the business hasn’t been good. She didn’t say how much of the money is left.

After a hundred thousand dollars in cash, and a free and claer house, the homeowners still manage to find their way into foreclosure.