More foreclosures coming
Diana Olick has climbed on board with an increasing number of people who thinks foreclosures are still going to hit us like a ton of bricks, driving home prices even further down. She quotes Lender Processing Services: "The November Mortgage Monitor report, released by Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE: LPS), reveals a nationwide loan deterioration ratio higher than 3:1 - indicating that for every one loan improved, three more loans are deteriorating... The number of foreclosures on the market continues to stall as foreclosure timelines extend. Nearly 30 percent of properties that have been in foreclosure for 12 months have not yet been put on the market for sale - twice the level of the prior year. Foreclosure inventories continued to climb to record levels. October's foreclosure rate stood at 3.14 percent, a month-over-month increase of 0.7 percent and a year-over-year increase of 85.1 percent." And she quotes Mark Zandi, who we quoted yesterday: "This lull in forec losure sales has resulted in the price gains in the past few months," he told Reuters. "Foreclosure sales will increase, and home prices will resume their decline by early 2010 as mortgage servicers figure out who will not qualify for a modification."
Great post. Hopefully short sales will help soften the blow. Also, The banks can control the inventory and prices to keep it under control.
We've been hearing of a big package of homes that will soon hit the market through REO sales, something my brokerage has based itself on before it was even a 'hot topic.' There are a lot of differing and interesting views on this - so I'm anxiously awaiting the first quarter of 2010 to see what develops.