No bidders surfaced at Wednesday's foreclosure auction of the Wiederhorn mansion, meaning the 25,000-square-foot home reverts to CitiMortgage, the lender owed $4.3 million on the house.
The minimum bid had been set at $3.36 million, but there were no takers
Wiederhorn poured millions of dollars into the house, vastly expanding its square footage and adding, among other things, a full-size indoor hardwood basketball court, which doubled as a ballroom.
Under the rules of judicial foreclosures, Wiederhorn now has a 180-day recission period in which he can regain ownership of the house if he can come up with more than the $3.36 million minimum bid.
Wiederhorn has since relocated to Beverly Hills. The house is vacant.
The Wiederhorn house went up for bid Wednesday morning along with 18 other homes at the Multnomah County Sheriff's Department office at 122440 N.E. Glisan St. in Portland. It offers a reminder the foreclosure wave that swept through the state after the housing industry crash and recession is still not over. The number of foreclosure auctions conducted by the Sheriff's Office has actually skyrocketed in the last year.
The annual number of foreclosure auctions handled by Multnomah County deputies has gone from one to four a month in normal times to 87 a month so far this year.
The civil division of the Sheriff's office is working overtime to deal with the load. Deputies who normally spend their time serving summons, restraining orders and overseeing mental health hearings are now auctioning off homes.
"Now we're suddenly in the real estate business, " said Francis Cop, a records coordinator for the department. "It's sad. A lot of people are losing their homes."
The financial industry put many foreclosures on hold for a couple years while it figured out how to proceed after certain court decisions and the advent of state and federal programs aimed at helping prevent foreclosures.The uncertainty has since eased, which has led to the present surge of auctions.
Cop said a majority of the homes he auctions are still woefully underwater -- meaning the homeowner owes more on the mortgage than the house is worth. That seems to also have been the case with Wiederhorn. He owed more than $4.3 million on his house.
CitiMortgage, the lender on the property, put a starting bid on the property a million dollars less than what it was owed, apparently in recognition that it would never get the full $4.3 million.
Wiederhorn tried to sell the place in 2011 for $5.7 million. At the time, he said it was less than half what he had put into the house. There were no takers then either.
The big house he and wife dubbed "The Ivy," continued to cause Wiederhorn financial pain through the winter. Between December 4 and Wednesday's auction, interest of $1,071.08 per day continued to accrue on Wiederhorn's debt.
-- Jeff Manning