Orange County’s seeing another mortgage-related line of business pick up steam, thanks to the country’s foreclosure crisis.
Loan modification, foreclosure relief and related financial workout companies are by most accounts some of the fastest growing businesses in the county of late.
Dozens of locally based load modification companies, large and small, now count OC as their home, according to state records.
Many use gimmicky Web site names such as “WeSaveHomes.com” or “FedMod.com,” as well as TV and radio advertising to grab business.
These companies, whose services target under-fire homeowners facing foreclosure, also have been bringing business to the area’s office landlords during the past few months.
A rough estimate puts close to a quarter-million square feet of office space that has been leased by a bevy of small- and mid-sized loan modification and related businesses since late 2008.
Many of those businesses didn’t exist until last year.
It’s a bright spot for OC’s battered office market, which saw negative absorption of about 400,000 square feet last quarter, on top of negative 1.6 million square feet for all of 2008.
For more on this story, read the April 20 issue of the Business Journal.
