Members of the Moratorium Now! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions. The group marched through Detroit's financial district protesting the proposed trillion dollar Congressional bailout of Wall Street on Sept. 25, 2008.
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Foreclosures likely to hit 1 million in 2010
1 in 78 U.S. households has been warned
BY ALEX VEIGA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES -- More than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans.
Nearly 528,000 homes were taken over by lenders in the first six
months of the year, a rate that is on track to eclipse the more than
900,000 homes repossessed in 2009, according to data released Thursday by RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing service.
"That would be unprecedented," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice
president at RealtyTrac. By comparison, lenders have historically
taken over about 100,000 homes a year, Sharga said.
The surge in home repossessions reflects the dynamic of a foreclosure crisis that has shown signs of leveling off in recent months, but remains a crippling drag on the market.
The pace at which new homes falling behind in payments and entering the foreclosure process has slowed as banks continue to let delinquent borrowers stay longer in their homes rather than adding to the glut of foreclosed properties on the market. At the same time, lenders have stepped up repossessions in an effort to clear out the backlog of distressed inventory on their books.
The number of households facing foreclosure in the first half of the
year climbed 8% versus the same period last year, but dropped 5% from the last six months of 2009, according to RealtyTrac, which tracks notices for defaults, scheduled auctions and repossessions.
In all, about 1.7 million homeowners received a foreclosure-related
warning between January and June. That translates to one in 78 U.S.
homes. Foreclosure notices posted monthly declines in April, May and June, but Sharga said one shouldn't read too much into that.
On average, it takes about 15 months for a home loan to go from being 30 days late to the property being foreclosed and sold, according to Lender Processing Services, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based firm which tracks mortgages.
Among states, Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate in the first
half of the year. One in every 17 households there received a
foreclosure notice.
Arizona, Florida, California and Utah were next among states with the
highest foreclosure rates. Rounding out the top 10 were Georgia,
Michigan, Idaho, Illinois and Colorado.
July 15, 2010
http://detnews.com/article/20100715/BIZ/7150339
Metro area hits foreclosure record
Pace slowed in June, but numbers for first half of year top '09
LOUIS AGUILAR
The Detroit News
Metro Detroit set a new record in foreclosure activity in the first
six months of this year, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac.
The 47,563 foreclosures from January to June were a 35 percent jump from the first half of 2009, which originally had set the regional
record for foreclosure activity since the housing meltdown began in
2007.
The one silver lining is that June foreclosures dropped 15 percent
compared with May. The online foreclosure database tracks all phases of foreclosure.
Metro Detroit's experience mirrored national trends, said James
Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.
"The second quarter was a tale of two trends," Saccacio said. "The
pace of properties entering foreclosure slowed as lenders pre-empted or delayed foreclosure proceedings on delinquent properties with more aggressive short sale and loan modification initiatives."
In southeastern Michigan, lenders have nearly tripled the sale of
homes for less than what is owed on the mortgage. The practice, known as a short sale, is on a record pace in the 10-county area, according to Realcomp II Ltd. a Farmington Hills-based real estate data agency.
Between January and April, 2,284 home sales were short sales, up 171 percent from 842 recorded during the same period last year.
Homeowners usually seek a short sale because of an unexpected event such as a work transfer or financial distress, a divorce or missed mortgage payments that trigger the beginning of the foreclosure process. They ask their lender to let them try to sell the home for less than what they owe on the total mortgage.
The foreclosure news comes at a time when other parts of Metro
Detroit's housing market show some signs of improvement. In June, the median sales price in the four-county region improved 50 percent from the same time a year ago to $75,000 for homes and condominiums, according to Realcomp's monthly report.
Sales in Metro Detroit -- Livingston, Macomb, Oakland and Wayne
counties -- improved 0.3 percent for the first six months of the year
compared with the same time last year, but other indicators
experienced larger gains.
The backlog of inventory fell 23.6 percent, nonforeclosure sales rose
59.4 percent and foreclosure sales declined 35.4 percent last month.
laguilar@detnews.com (313) 222-2760
1 comment:
I always find it interesting that while the banks are paying themselves with big bonuses and begging the Governments for bailouts, which they get through taxpayers money, they are wicked enough to take people's homes nad put families onto the streets.
You know that the Governments are also encouraging corruption from these banks because majority of the time, these poor homeowners were set up to fail from the very beginning and I am sure that the banks were aware of this fact.
This corruption and greed has got to stop.
Look for alternatives to banks is one solution.
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