Posted on 09/13/2006 7:31:40 AM PDT by Hydroshock
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of homes entering into some stage of foreclosure is surging, according to a survey released Wednesday.
In August, 115,292 properties entered into foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure sales. That was 24 percent above the level in July and 53 percent higher than a year earlier.
Where foreclosures are jumping Year over year gain in homes in foreclosure. Click for more stats on each state. Nevada: Up 255% California: Up 160% Florida: Up 62%
It was the second highest monthly foreclosure total of the year; in February, 117,151 properties entered foreclosure.
Some of the bellwether real estate market states are among the leading foreclosure markets. Florida, had more than 16,533 properties in foreclosure in August. That led all states and was 50 percent higher than in July and 62 percent higher than in August 2005.
California foreclosures are increasing at an even faster annual rate, up 160 percent since last year to 12,506. And the formerly red-hot Nevada market recorded a spike of 24 percent compared with July and a whopping 255 percent increase from August 2005.
Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's vice president of marketing, says the rising foreclosure numbers are in part the result of rising monthly payments on adjustable-rate mortgages, which have a low introductory interest rate that heads higher after an initial period
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
No doubt true and happened here and there. The banks would be hard pressed to do anything with the property in those times anyway. When recovery came the land would have gone to the agricultural corporations and the buildings would have had zero value.
Yep.
I live on the outskirts of Pittsburgh and on a recent trip to the grocery store, counted 19 houses up for sale in a 3-block radius. I have an ARM but fortunately can handle the increased payment. Because of a 10-month layoff, my credit suffered a bit but now I am on the right track and plan to refinance at a fixed rate next year.
bttt
We are watching this as an indicator, one of many. It is still nowhere near panic, but the trend is hinting that the possibility is greater than zero. What we think is that if the world economy goes south it can happen very fast, so we look for early signs in case there is something we can do to get out of the way in time.
Exactomondo!
For example, if mortgage loans went up 200 percent in 2004 or 2005, then it only goes to follow that foreclosures would go up 200 percent in 2006.
These CNN reporters would twist the tidd##@@$% off their own mother if they thought it would make the Bush economy look bad!
"Housing bears will tell you the world is coming to an end," said Scott Simon, mortgage portfolio manager for Newport Beach-based investment giant Pimco. "But by every historical standard, this is still insanely low," he said of the latest DataQuick numbers.
On a scale of zero to 10, Simon suggested, the current level of defaults is about 1.
At the peak of any housing boom, foreclosures and default notices are nearly nonexistent. That's because home values are rising so fast that they cover up any financial missteps by homeowners, who can draw down their equity to get out of trouble.
Since 1992, the lowest rate of foreclosure activity was during the third quarter of 2004, when 12,145 notices of default were filed in California. The highest was 59,897 in the first quarter of 1996, when the real estate market was finally shaking off the brutal price decline of the early 1990s.
BTW, Doom and Gloom postings by Chicken Littles are up 275% on this forum.
Hardly anybody here in Fairbanks is selling, but many are going door to door looking to buy, especially vacant land.
It is quite true that foreclosures are only rising off of a very low base level.
So, why have foreclosures been so low for the past few years?
The answer I believe is that lenders have simply provided new loans to troubled borrowers, as an inexpensive alternative to a loan workout. With prices now falling in the bubble markets, it is difficult now to justify such refinancings. The loan to values are simply not there anymore to allow it to happen. There is a risk that what we are seeing in these rising rates of loan foreclosure is the tip of an iceberg where a huge number of loans that are underwater have simply not become visible to us, yet.
I am very bearish on the residential real estate market, even though I do own my own home (without any mortgage) I believe that declining real estate prices are going to be the dominant economic variable in the US over the next two years.
Good idea on the fix loan.
See post 28.
Spamming posts by naysayers are up over 700% . . .
You can do better than this, Hydro!
Maybe - but what are the real numbers in terms of the total market ?
When housing prices in NY City fall 40% like you predicted over a year ago happens get back to me. How many hundreds of your predictions have been shown to be wrong?
At least... And for those that keep posting these doom and gloom threads...THIS IS NEXT YEAR...so why isn't the economy in the dumpster and millions of people living in the streets?
A small percentage of homeowners take out mortgages they can't afford...so we're ALL in terrible shape? Nice logic.
These threads are like the wreck at the side of the road...I don't want to look, but I just can't help it.
Yes, that proves my point perfectly. In the rising market, borrowers who run into trouble refinance, but now that the market is falling, they cannot do that anymore.
When the tide goes out, we learn who was swimming naked.
When the snow melts, the turds begin to show.
Don't look now but there is a team of SWAT foreclosers hovering over your house in a black helicopter.
One difference back then however (if I remember my history correctly) was that most if not all mortgages were "callable" at any time. That is, the bank holding the mortgage could say "pay it all back now" at any time, and if you didn't have the money to pay it back, they could foreclose.
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