Daily News and Information for the Professional Real Estate Agent
3 Out of 1000 Owners Have Lost Their Homes This Year
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
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SACRAMENTO, CA - The foreclosure pox continues to spread unchecked across the country despite efforts by the government and housing industry to stop it.
3 out of every 1,000 homeowners in the United States lost their homes to foreclosure in the first half of the year. That's up 41 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the latest numbers from ForeclosureS.com, a California-based real estate investment advisory firm and longtime publisher of foreclosure and property information.
These per capita numbers translate to almost a quarter-million residential properties (247,907) that ended up in the hands of banks or lenders this year because homeowners couldn't get their mortgage default problems solved, according to ForeclosureS.com, which tracks and analyzes foreclosure filing through its database of more than 3.2 million listings nationwide. Per capita reflects the number of filings as a percent of the number of households in an area.
"Hundreds of thousands of more homeowners won't be able to escape foreclosure for most of the rest of the year either unless stagnating housing prices and markets pick up, and the nation's economy rebounds, too," says Alexis McGee, president of ForeclosureS.com and author of the upcoming book, "The ForeclosureS.com Guide to Investing: Making Huge Profits Investing in Pre-Foreclosures Without Selling Your Soul" (John Wiley, September 2007).
"All the congressional, industry, and media talk about helping financially strapped homeowners work out their default woes has had little effect on the current foreclosure picture. Instead, foreclosure numbers keep rising; the effects of the sub-prime lender debacle have spilled over into other mortgage markets like Alt-A (those borrowers that aren't prime, but have better than sub-prime credit histories); and some analysts even predict the increased tightening of lending practices may actually have a detrimental affect on homeownership overall.
Just like a pendulum, lending standards swung too far out "getting everyone into a mortgage, whether they could afford it or not" to "tightened lending standards that are preventing qualified buyers from homeownership. At some point, the pendulum will need to rest in the middle, with lending standards easing from where they are now -- and the sooner the better," adds McGee.
The first six months pre-foreclosure filing numbers are also grim. These are the homeowners who have defaulted on their mortgages but haven't yet lost their homes to foreclosure. Nationally, nearly 7 out of every 1,000 households (more than 507,000) were forced to deal with the threat of foreclosures year to date.
Every region of the country saw their numbers of pre-foreclosure filings increase in the second quarter over the first quarter of the year 2007, too.
"We base our foreclosure statistics on the formal notices filed against a property in the foreclosure process," says McGee. "In some states that can mean up to three filings against one property -- notice of default, notice of foreclosure auction, and notice of REO (after a property has gone to foreclosure auction and a bank or lender takes possession of a property). In other states, it's only two filings -- auction notice and REO notice.
Sold! Realtors Raise the Gavel on Home Sales by Auctions Auctions are often associated with cars, furniture and jewelry. In recent years, however, real estate auctions have gained popularity as a way for sellers to sell their homes quickly. That was the message delivered by Realtor Valerie Gehringer, Keller Williams Realty, Winchester, Va., at a forum held today at the National Association of Realtors 2007 Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.
U.S. Foreclosures Rise a Whopping 90 Percent From One Year Earlier According to a national foreclosure tracking service, foreclosures increased 19 percent from the previous month and nearly 90 percent from one year earlier. Nevada continued to post the highest state foreclosure rate for the fifth month in a row followed by Colorado and California.
As Housing Dominoes Fall, America Faces Significant Risk of Full-blown Recession The personal pain of losing one's home through foreclosure should not be understated, but as Warren Buffet remarked recently, the subprime mortgage problem is not likely by itself to trigger a recession. Unfortunately, there are four other housing-related dominoes about to fall that will act to depress the economy over the next two years, and raise a very significant risk of recession.
Seven Simple Steps to Raising Credit Scores in Only Three Weeks In the wake of the subprime market fallout, lenders are making it tougher for consumers to get a loan. As a result, borrowers are wise to try to raise their credit scores to qualify for loans, secure better loan terms and receive lower interest rates. Here's seven easy steps that can help you or your client improve their score in as little as three weeks.
Foreclosure Activity Up Over 55 Percent in First Half of 2007 According to a national foreclosure tracking service, foreclosure activity nationwide during the first six months of the year was up more than 30 percent from the previous six-month period and up more than 55 percent from the first six months of 2006.
Top Metro Foreclosure Rates Released A national foreclosure ranking service released its 2007 Midyear Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report, which shows Stockton, Calif., Detroit and Las Vegas documenting the three highest foreclosure rates among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas during the first six months of the year. Read on to find out where your metro ranked.
93 Percent Increase in Foreclosure Filings From One Year Ago According to a national foreclosure tracking service, foreclosure activity nationwide during July was up 9 percent from the previous month and up 93 percent from July 2006. The report also shows a national foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 693 households for the month.
National Foreclosures Hit All Time High - Up 115 Percent A national foreclosure ranking service released its August 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows a 36 percent increase from the previous month and an increase of 115 percent from August 2006. This is the highest number of foreclosure filings in a single month since the inception of the monthly reporting began in January 2005.
Delinquency Rate Highest in 21 Years The total delinquency rate is the highest in the MBA survey since 1986. The rate of foreclosure starts and the percent of loans in the process of foreclosure are at the highest levels ever.
