Foreclosure Fix: Activity up 18%, but homeowners now have more options
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | June 11, 2009
RealtyTrac’s May foreclosure report is out, and as usual, the news is grim. Foreclosure activity is up 18 percent from a year ago. Even worse, most real estate experts are warning us about “shadow foreclosure inventory” which is set to hit the market later this summer. Oh yeah and the unemployment rate is at 9.4 percent. So if you think we’ve hit the so-called “bottom,” think again.
The good news is that President Obama’s stimulus plan seems to be working. Lenders are now more willing to work with struggling homebuyers to refinance or modify their loans or negotiate short sales, in which a house is sold for less than what the borrower owes and a portion of the loan balance is forgiven by the lender. Why would they do this? Because the federal government is giving them money to do this, and besides, better to sell and write off the loss now than deal with the foreclosure process and try to sell a property in crappy condition. I spoke to a short sale expert for Coldwell Banker in San Diego, Troy Huerta, who has some great insight and advice on the subject. Stay tuned for my blog post on that.
Meanwhile, FrontDoor Insider and Freak Out Prevention Specialist Tara-Nicholle Nelson is spreading the word about her Drama-Free Real Estate Guide, which provides concrete solutions to some of the most common issues consumers are facing today. Just in time! Situations like losing your job and trying to make your mortgage payment. Or you got preapproved and suddenly your lender says “no money for you.” Yours truly will post a vlog later taking you behind the scenes of our media tour.
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Foreclosure Fix: Activity up 18%, but homeowners now have more options » Post » netv news
June 11th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
[...] See original here: Foreclosure Fix: Activity up 18%, but homeowners now have more options [...]
RealEstateJoe
June 16th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I’ve heard that news on the wires, and it’s not entirely accurate. in SOME communities around the country, the low end of the market has seen 5-20 offers and overbidding coming in on the same property as first time home buyers and real estate investors compete for the foreclosures, short sale, and entry-level market.
This activity has put a bottom on price free fall in those areas,and as a result, median home values are starting to increase, inventories are stable or declining, and numbers of home sales are up.
Now that first time home buyers can apply their $8000 tax credit to their downpayment , it will spur more first time buyers to take the plunge.
Areas of this kind of activity have been in Atlanta, Texas, Riverside County in California, and outlying areas
of the San Francisco Bay Area, to name a few. Most have been areas that have low end priced homes, and were hit hardest by the price declines at the end of 2008.