Posted on 04/15/2010 2:16:18 AM PDT by jerry557
LOS ANGELES – A record number of U.S. homes were lost to foreclosure in the first three months of this year, a sign banks are starting to wade through the backlog of troubled home loans at a faster pace, according to a new report.
RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. homes taken over by banks jumped 35 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. In addition, households facing foreclosure grew 16 percent in the same period and 7 percent from the last three months of 2009.
More homes were taken over by banks and scheduled for a foreclosure sale than in any quarter going back to at least January 2005, when RealtyTrac began reporting the data, the firm said.
"We're right now on pace to see more than 1 million bank repossessions this year," said Rick Sharga, a RealtyTrac senior vice president.
Foreclosures began to ease last year as banks came under pressure from the Obama administration to modify home loans for troubled borrowers. In addition, some states enacted foreclosure moratoriums in hopes of giving homeowners behind in payments time to catch up. And in many cases, banks have had trouble coping with how to handle the glut of problem loans.
These factors have helped slow the pace of foreclosures, but now that trend appears to be reversing.
"We're finally seeing the banks start to process the inventory that has been in foreclosure, but delayed in processing," Sharga said. "We expect the pace to accelerate as the year goes on."
In all, more than 900,000 households, or one in every 138 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice, RealtyTrac said. The firm based in Irvine, Calif., tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Just another sign of the times under President Obama.
And many, many irresponsible people on both sides of the equation (lender and lendee), both pre-Obama and Obama period.
Good thing that housing, Greece, debt, spending, etc.. thing is contained. /s
Foreclosures are good.
1. They are the legal mechanism for getting a family out of a contract that requires paying a mortgage that they cannot afford. It is cruel and counter productive to let them stay in a home that is beyond their means if they are trying to pay more than they can afford and falling behind. It is immoral to keep the bank from taking the property that was pledged to a loan if the family is strategically defaulting as a choice in the hope that the bank will have no recourse.
2. Foreclosures clear out the non-performing loans and allow us to put the housing bubble and the resulting crisis behind us so that financial and real estate markets can return to normal.
3. Government interference with contract law reduces business trust in the legal mechanism for enforcing contracts, increasing uncertainty and increasing costs. Business passes these costs on to all mortgage holders rather than just to those who create those costs by buying beyond their means.
As you know, their line of reasoning is that ANYONE is entitled to what a landlord owns.
I've talked with far too many Obama supporters, and you're right. They don't like the way I talk.
from article;
“Foreclosures began to ease last year as banks came under pressure from the Obama administration to modify home loans for troubled borrowers.”
REPORTING ON Foreclosures began to ease last year as banks came under pressure from the Obama administration to modify home loans for troubled borrowers.
......... there, I fixed it
TYBO
Government interferance is coming in this area because the vast majority of foreclosures are by banks that were never actually the lenders ,, they were simply a conduit/straw man for the true lenders on Wall Street. The banks foreclosing are in fact getting a “free house” that they never had an interest in. This is also why only a very small number of loan modifications are becoming permanent ,, the banks aren’t the true lender in the transaction and cannot legally modify the terms. This is one big reason why people are allowing themselves to “strategically default” ,, they know the truth and quite simply their loan docs are invalid as the true lender is not on them,, a MASSIVE TILA breach where the only remedy is recission... the worst that will happen to the informed defaulters is a few legal bills before they get the house free and clear when the bank fraud is broomed away.
O’s solutions made the housing situation so much worse.
‘And many, many irresponsible people on both sides of the equation (lender and lendee), both pre-Obama and Obama period.”
And many many people who have lost their jobs. The strip malls around here are about 50% empty, office space is sitting at about 30% empty.
There are no jobs because nobody is spending.
This jump in foreclosures coming at this particular time makes perfect sense for 3 reasons:
1) Banks knew it was better to let people squat in their houses without paying the mortgage over the winter because it saved them (the banks) from having to deal with winterizing vacant houses, dealing with winter freeze damage, or trying to offload them during the slow sales season
2) With the Fed ending purchases of Freddie and Fanny trash MBS paper, the market for mortgage paper is going down, not up. Better to try to unload them now rather than continue to sit on them.
3) They know interest rates will soon be going up: better to try to unload these properties now because increasing rates will drive down market values even more.
So, in short, this wave of foreclosures simply proves what I’ve been trying to tell people for months: the real estate market has NOT recovered; it was only being temporarily propped up by government games. There will now be a mad rush of banks trying to beat each other to get their bad mortgages off their books.
I sure feel bad for anyone still in a house with a mortgage and less than 50% equity at this point, because they’ll soon be upside down.
All those suckers that took the bait of taxpayers paying 8 grand for their down payment, are going to find their houses value down 20%.
Housing as a utility, a shelter, a tool is still massively overbuilt, both in units and square footage per person.
We’re spending $75 billion for HAMP just so deadbeats can re-default.
The Japanese take out mortgages for two, three generations. We are on our way to 100 year mortgages, that is we just share crop the land and shack we are on.
We are already tax slaves half the year, forever.
With the WWF honesty, Congress with the tag teams Democrat vs tag team Republican show that will go on for children that believe that the great men in the tit shaped white building spewing mothers milk will save you. I of course think, believe, and feel they are all worse than crooks and bad liars, with the exception of if, in some accident, a member is proved not.
Since the dawn of time, men have desired to live as kings and princes and dukes off the backs, work, sweat and labor of others. King=Commissar=Congressman=Alderman=bureaucrat.
More green shoots!
“... children that believe that the great men in the tit shaped white building spewing mothers milk will save you.”
Now that is a funny piece of imagery.
And many, many unaffected off in foreign lands remain aloof. Free to make blanket statements portraying responsible, hardworking Americans in a lousy light because they lost their jobs or investments or both.
Too me all the capital buildings look like a big single mammary. I think they should have a big, Vegas style water pump, spewing white milky water, maybe dribbling out at say ten dribbles a minute, and then down the sides. The tip of the dome should be pink. Maybe even real free milk and anybody can come with a pail and fill up. That which isn’t collected can spoil on the muddy ground which would stink of rotted milk and the air would be filled with black clouds of flies.
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