Foreclosures Expected to Continue Stifling Effect on Homeowners

[hvactec]

(TheNicheReport.com) –4/5/2012 — Mortgage lenders in the United States are stepping up the pace of foreclosures that were halted for about a year due to the investigation and lawsuit related to “robo-signing.” The brief respite enjoyed by the American housing market in the last few months is set to finish, even as the proverbial green shoots of home sales and price stabilization take place.

Some foreclosures were halted even before the robo-signing investigation started a year ago. The inquiry was ordered by several attorney generals across many states, and it focused on the practices of five major lenders that signed legal foreclosure filings at a virtually automated pace. This questionable practice of signing documents and foregoing proper review by bank officers or corporate attorneys managed to put a stop to the hectic foreclosure machine that started back in 2008.

Real estate analysts and housing activists now fear that 2012 will bring a lot of pain to homeowners who were able to hold on to their homes for a little longer.

read more Foreclosures Expected to Continue Stifling Effect U.S. Housing Recovery | The Niche Report

 

[HenryBHough]

In Obama's perfect world nobody will own houses.

They'll be assigned houses to use so long as they vote the right way.

 

[waltky]

Foreclosures starting to rise again...

Foreclosures Up 7% in August: Is the Housing Crisis Really Over?
Sep 11, 2014 — Six years later, the effects of the housing bust are still being felt. RealtyTrac reports foreclosure filings in August were up 7% from the previous month. While down 9% from a year ago, it is the smallest monthly year-over-year decline in the last 47 consecutive months. Filings include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

Auctions alone were up slightly – just 1% -- but that uptick marks the first annual increase in 44 months. Nearly half of the states in the nation saw an increase in auctions, led by Colorado (up 160%), Oregon (up 117%), Connecticut (up 81%), New York (up 81%), Oklahoma (up 72%), New Jersey (up 71%), Illinois (up 25%), South Carolina (up 21%) and Maryland (up 17%).

Analysts say it’s not a matter of another housing bust, but the mopping up of The Big One.

“The August foreclosure numbers demonstrate that although the foreclosure crisis is well behind us, the messy business of cleaning up the distress lingering from the housing bust continues in many markets,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “The annual increase in foreclosure auctions — the first since the robo-signing controversy rocked the foreclosure industry back in late 2010 — indicates mortgage servicers are finally adjusting to the new paradigms for proper foreclosure that have been implemented in many states, whether by legislation or litigation or both.”

Foreclosures Up 7 in August Is the Housing Crisis Really Over - MainStreet

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17% of Homeowners Are Underwater: The Housing Crisis Lingers On
Sep 11, 2014 — Too many homeowners are still underwater, despite a dramatic recovery in real estate prices since the lows of the recession.

Homes slip underwater, also known as reaching negative equity, when the mortgage exceeds the home’s value. According to a Zillow report, 17% of homeowners with a mortgage, which amounts to a staggering 8.7 million homes, were underwater during second quarter. The years leading up to the 2008 recession created the perfect storm for negative equity situations to flood the market. Interest only loans were all the rage, as consumers barely made down payments. But as long as home prices continued to inch higher, no one seemed to blink an eye after taking out such risky loans. That is, until the recession kicked in and home prices dropped precipitously.

Negative equity has become less of an issue as of late. The report says the number of homes underwater is down 23.8% year-over-year and 18.8% since first quarter. Over the past year, Zillow says the negative equity rate, defined as the percentage of homeowners whose home equity levels are lower than 20%, stood at 34.8%, compared to 41.9% last year and 36.9% during first quarter. Zillow forecasts say the rate should drop to 14.9% during the end of the second quarter of next year. “Many properties recovered in value and homeowners have had time to work out mortgage modifications with banks,” said Dani Babb, Broker/President of The Babb Group Real Estate, Inc. “Plus, the temporary rebound in prices allowed some homeowners to refinance to lower rates.”

On Wednesday, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Refinance Index dropped 11% for the week ending September 5 and remains at its lowest level since November 2008. Refinancing may not make the most sense for some, which is one of the reasons negative equity is still relatively prevalent throughout the housing market.

The cities with the highest negative equity rate include: