ForeclosurePulse Blog

Michigan Goes Hollywood to Help Homeowners

joelc — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:30:00 GMT

Lights! Camera! Action! No it’s not one of the big commercial television networks spending millions of dollars on some game show with a stupid name. Rather, it’s more of a “reality” television show. ...(read more)

First-Time Buyers Get Help with CA Foreclosure Purchase

joelc — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:00:00 GMT

First-time homebuyers in California are getting help in purchasing their piece of the American Dream thanks to a public-private partnership and $200 million in bond funds allocated to the California Housing Finance Agency (CalFHA)....(read more)

May Home Prices Down 4.8 Percent

darenb — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:09:00 GMT

Home prices were down again in May, but a few regions of the country experienced a ever-slight uptick in prices from the previous month, giving officials at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) a chance to be cautiously optimistic in the press release announcing the numbers.

"It is very hard to draw conclusions from a one-month number, especially in these uncertain times; but the numbers in the Pacific, East and West North Central Divisions may be good signs," said OFHEO Director James B. Lockhart in the release.

Nationwide, the OFHEO report showed home prices in May were down 0.3 percent from April and down 4.8 percent from May 2007. The three Census Divisions mentioned by Lockhart were the only ones out a total of nine that did not report a monthly decrease.

The Pacific Division, which includes Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California, reported a 0.3 percent increase in home prices from April to May, although the region documented a 14.5 percent decline in home prices from May 2007. The East North Central Division, which includes Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, reported a 0.1 percent monthly increase, but still a 3.7 percent year-over-year decrease in home prices. The West North Central Division, which includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, reported no monthly change in home prices.

It will be interesting to see how these home price numbers correlate to the Q2 foreclosure numbers RealtyTrac will be releasing Friday. We'll be posting those numbers as soon as they are available.

Mid-Year Report: Nation Not Over the Hump Yet

joelc — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:15:00 GMT

As it has in times past, real estate has led this nation into recession, and it will lead us out as well — when the signs are there for a recovery. We’re now mid-way through 2008 and the signs aren’t there yet to say for certain that we’re over the hump and on the way out of recession....(read more)

Foreclosure Activity Deflating or Just Deferred?

darenb — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:59:00 GMT

U.S. foreclosure activity in June decreased 3 percent from the previous month but was still up 53 percent from June 2007, according to the RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report released today. The 3 percent decrease may lead some to speculate that the upward trend in foreclosure activity may be nearing an end, but as RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio pointed out in a statement, the year-over-year change is a more indicative number of the overall trend.

"The year-over-year increase of more than 50 percent indicates we have not yet reached the top of this foreclosure cycle," he said.

In fact, the RealtyTrac report has shown month-to-month decreases in previous months, even during the dramatic run-up in foreclosure activity that has occurred over the past year and a half: in February 2008, November 2007, September 2007, June 2007, April 2007, and February 2007.

What may be a better argument -- although certainly not an ironclad case -- that the foreclosure surge is starting to run out of steam is the trend over the past 18 months in YOY percentage changes, broken down by type of foreclosure filing. As can be seen in the chart below, the default and auction categories experienced double- and triple-digit YOY percentage increases for much of 2007. But the increases in those categories started to slow down in 2008. Meanwhile, REO (bank repossession) activity actually decreased on a YOY basis in January and February of 2007 but gradually started to gain momentum in the second half of 2007, and increases in REOs have far outpaced the increases in defaults and auctions in all six months of 2008.

One could argue that this chart shows that the bulk of the properties that were at risk for foreclosure have migrated through the process and are now being repossessed by the foreclosing lenders. There is not a continued massive surge in defaults and auction notices, so once the lenders have disposed of their REO inventory, the real estate market can start to return to normal. On the other hand, some might argue that many properties are still at risk for falling into foreclosure, but the default notices against those properties may have been delayed by artificial means -- for example laws in Colorado, Maryland and Massachusetts requiring lenders to give homeowners more time before initiating foreclosure. Those artificial means may just temporarily be forestalling another wave of defaults that we'll see sometime in the coming months.

We'd like to hear if you buy into either of these theories or have another theory of your own that explains the foreclosure trends.

Write an Essay, Pay Off Your Mortgage

joelc — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:00:00 GMT

At present, approximately two percent of the outstanding mortgage loans in the U.S. are in some stage of foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac. And who knows how many more may be on the verge of going over the edge anytime soon as subprime loans adjust up to higher interest rates in the next couple of years....(read more)

Immediate Relief Nowhere to Be Found

joelc — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Three top indices of economic health in the U.S. came out with negative reports this month, supporting the idea that the nation’s inventory of available properties — particularly the supply of properties in foreclosure — will remain elevated for at least the immediate future. ...(read more)

Back to Wait and See for the Fed

joelc — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:15:00 GMT

The Federal Open Market Committee took the advice Wednesday of all the financial analysts and market watchers and did absolutely nothing with the short term Federal Funds Rate (FFR)....(read more)

Housing Slump Prelude to Recession, Study Says

Octavion — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:29:00 GMT

The nation’s housing slump, crippled by falling prices and rising inventories of unsold homes, is the worst in a generation and still hasn’t run its full course, according to Harvard University’s annual housing report.

Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies painted a bleak picture of the current housing downturn, claiming that “the nation is in the throes of a housing downturn that is shaping up to be the worst in a generation.”

The study, the “State of the Nation's Housing 2008,” noted that housing starts, new home sales and existing home sales are at all-time lows since after World War II, while home price declines and foreclosure filings are the worst on record.

A recession followed six of the last seven housing downturns, said Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. The report concludes that the high levels of foreclosures will continue to exert downward pressure on housing prices, especially in low-income and minority communities, where subprime loans are heavily concentrated.

“The slump in housing markets has not yet run its full course,” Retsinas said in a news release. “With home prices falling in most metropolitan areas, homeowners are tightening their belts, remodeling less and staying on the sidelines.”

Are we headed for a recession or are we already there? Send your comment to ForeclosurePulse..

Statue Offers Homeowners a ‘Prayer’ of Hope

joelc — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:30:00 GMT

So far in 2008 nearly 240,000 households have been facing some stage of the foreclosure process on average every month. Even those homeowners who are not currently facing foreclosure may be at some point in time if they can’t sell their home. And then there’s those homeowners who just want to sell but don’t necessarily have to....(read more)