Interested in the tony Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland? There's a photo of a five-bedroom, 3,200 square foot house on Acacia Street whose owners received a notice of default because they owe $493,000. Or there's a three-bedroom, 1,439 square foot home on Alcatraz Avenue whose owners have $665,000 in unpaid debt.



Yahoo executives said they started the site to help average house hunters find bargains in foreclosed properties.

Although Yahoo has allowed people to search for foreclosed homes for several years, it has created a page dedicated to the service and added how to articles and some statistical information.

Foreclosures offer a tremendous savings opportunity, yet for the average home buyer remain an area where access to information is limited. Yahoo's site is certainly an easier alternative to hiking over to the county recorder's office and sifting by hand through foreclosure filings. And there's no question that the number of foreclosures is rising.

Real estate experts and consumer advocacy groups estimate that anywhere from 1.1 million to more than 2.2 million Americans could lose their homes through foreclosure over the next several years.

The rise in foreclosures nationally is due to a combination of factors, such as homeowners taking on risky or exotic mortgages and then finding their house hasn't appreciated they way they'd been led to expect during the boom years.

This is a smart move by Yahoo to tap into a large market. This new market dynamic of foreclosures is big, ugly and unfortunate, but it leads to opportunities as well.

However, Yahoo's site doesn't offer all the information that buyers need, far from it. For key details like the street address of listed properties, potential buyers would need to become paid subscribers of a local foreclosure service. And buying foreclosed properties isn't necessarily a good strategy for a novice home buyer even with the tips on Yahoo's site.

The foreclosure process has several stages and begins when a property owner defaults on his or her mortgage.

Potential buyers can offer to buy the property directly from the owner in the early part of the process. Later, potential buyers can bid on the property at a public auction or buy a repossessed property from the lender.

I'd be hard pressed to see a first-time home buyer biting off a foreclosure as their first transaction.

The average home buyer shouldn't do this, period.

This is very specialized game. It is not a do it yourself game. If you are a first time home buyer go to your local Realtor and get a professional to help you. Here's their URL http://realestate.yahoo.com/Foreclosures