U.S. foreclosure actions shattered all records in 2009 and will do so again this year, with unemployment and wage cuts overcoming programs to remedy failing home loans, RealtyTrac, the Irvine, California real estate data company reported, according to a Reuters article today by Lynn Adler.
A record 2.8 million properties with a mortgage got a foreclosure notice last year, jumping 21 percent from 2008 and 120 percent from 2007, the article said, adding that "in many cases loan fixes don't stick" and "state, federal and private efforts to modify loans terms for at-risk borrowers either don't go far enough or are expanding too late to help many struggling homeowners on a permanent basis."
The article quoted Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac, as stating that "Until the lenders start to get into principal balance reduction you're going to continue to see high redefault rates," adding that "We haven't seen any appetite for that on the part of the lenders yet."
The article did note that "on a quarterly basis, foreclosure activity did slow in the fourth quarter, declining 7 percent from the third, but rose 18 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008."
"One in every 45 households got at least one filing last year, a rate almost four times that of 2006," according to the article.
"Despite some recent improvement, prices have toppled nearly 30 percent from their peak in 2006 through October, according to Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller indexes," the article continued, adding that Yale University economist Robert Shiller, a creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller home prices index, told Reuters on Tuesday he expects renewed price erosion in coming months
Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate for the third straight year, with more than 10 percent of households with loans getting at least one notice, the report found, adding that "Arizona and Florida were in second and third places" and that "California, Florida, Arizona and Illinois accounted for more than half of all foreclosure actions in 2009 as more than 1.4 million properties got a notice."
"Banks have half a million houses on their books yet to be put on the market, RealtyTrac said. There's another million properties in foreclosure and 5.5 million delinquent loans. 'The doomsday prognostications say that gives you 7 million properties that are all going to go back to the banks, that are all going to hit the market at the same time and we're going to have a smoking crater where there used to be a real estate market,' Sharga said. 'We just don't see that as being realistic....Because of gradual foreclosure bank sales we're looking at a long, slow, flat housing market recovery that probably won't feel much better until about 2013,' he said. 'But if it means we avoid a double dip in housing then that's probably a good thing.'"
A record 2.8 million properties with a mortgage got a foreclosure notice last year, jumping 21 percent from 2008 and 120 percent from 2007, the article said, adding that "in many cases loan fixes don't stick" and "state, federal and private efforts to modify loans terms for at-risk borrowers either don't go far enough or are expanding too late to help many struggling homeowners on a permanent basis."
The article quoted Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac, as stating that "Until the lenders start to get into principal balance reduction you're going to continue to see high redefault rates," adding that "We haven't seen any appetite for that on the part of the lenders yet."
The article did note that "on a quarterly basis, foreclosure activity did slow in the fourth quarter, declining 7 percent from the third, but rose 18 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008."
"One in every 45 households got at least one filing last year, a rate almost four times that of 2006," according to the article.
"Despite some recent improvement, prices have toppled nearly 30 percent from their peak in 2006 through October, according to Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller indexes," the article continued, adding that Yale University economist Robert Shiller, a creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller home prices index, told Reuters on Tuesday he expects renewed price erosion in coming months
Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate for the third straight year, with more than 10 percent of households with loans getting at least one notice, the report found, adding that "Arizona and Florida were in second and third places" and that "California, Florida, Arizona and Illinois accounted for more than half of all foreclosure actions in 2009 as more than 1.4 million properties got a notice."
"Banks have half a million houses on their books yet to be put on the market, RealtyTrac said. There's another million properties in foreclosure and 5.5 million delinquent loans. 'The doomsday prognostications say that gives you 7 million properties that are all going to go back to the banks, that are all going to hit the market at the same time and we're going to have a smoking crater where there used to be a real estate market,' Sharga said. 'We just don't see that as being realistic....Because of gradual foreclosure bank sales we're looking at a long, slow, flat housing market recovery that probably won't feel much better until about 2013,' he said. 'But if it means we avoid a double dip in housing then that's probably a good thing.'"
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
6sqft delivers the latest on real estate, architecture, and design, straight from New York City.
