Monthly Archives: November 2011

Real Estate Shadow Inventory Beginning to Shrink – 45 Months to Clear Current Levels

That ominous shadow inventory of repossessed and soon-to-be repossessed homes is getting smaller. Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has released its third-quarter shadow inventory update, which shows both the volume of distressed assets and the amount of time it’d take to liquidate these properties is contracting. S&P says the volume of distressed residential mortgages included in its shadow…
Read more

Housing Prices Are 28.3% Below Peak in Mid-2006

National home prices have been on the decline since June 2006 with a few bursts of increases, which Lender Processing Services (LPS) attributes to seasonal trends. Overall, prices have declined 28.3% since their peak in June 2006, according to LPS’ new home price index. From July 2007 to December 2009, prices declined an average of 13.8% annually.…
Read more

Foreclosure Activity Increases for Third Straight Month

Foreclosure filings in October rose 7%  from the previous month, RealtyTrac reported Thursday. Including default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions – which all increased month-over-month – filings were reported on 230,678 U.S. properties in October. That grand total is down nearly 31% from a year earlier, when servicers began putting the brakes on foreclosure actions due to…
Read more

REO Opportunities to Increase in 2012 as Foreclosure Starts Rise as Servicers Process Backlog of Delinquent Loans

Foreclosure starts among private-label residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) have been rising toward historic averages over the past six months, which will lead to an influx of distressed properties bringing downward pressure to the housing market, according to recent RMBS Performance Metrics from Fitch Ratings. According to Fitch, foreclosure start rates for severely delinquent RMBS loans have stayed…
Read more

Home Price Growth Has Dissipated With the Summer Heat: West Coast Weak

Temperatures are falling, and so are home prices in most local markets. Clear Capital says it’s expecting another long winter as the housing industry tries to cope with the downward forces of weak demand, record-low consumer confidence, and distressed inventory. Quarterly home price gains through October retreated to near-flat levels with only 0.6% growth at the national…
Read more

Foreclosure Timeline Increases to 624 Days in 2011: a 28% Increase

Mortgages backing homes that were foreclosed on in September had been delinquent for an average of 624 days, according to Lender Processing Services (LPS). That’s up from 484 days in September of last year, just before the processing issues surfaced. That 624-day foreclosure timeline is the national average. LPS says timelines in judicial states continue to extend at…
Read more