Is our long national foreclosure nightmare ending?
The number of foreclosure notices filed in February dropped 14% compared with a month earlier and 27% compared with a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac.
That was the biggest year-over-year decline the company has ever recorded. But the improvement may be exaggerated, according to RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio, who traced some of the decline to the fallout over robo-signing issues.
“Allegations of improper foreclosure processing continued to dog the mortgage servicing industry and disrupt court dockets,” he said. “The industry is in the midst of a major overhaul that has severely restricted its capacity to process foreclosures.”
Another contributing factor was the harsh winter weather that covered much of the country during the month. That delayed some of the paperwork processing and the serving of notices of default, notices of auction sales and other filings.
There were still more than 225,000 filings during the month, or one for every 577 homes. The banks repossessed 64,643 homes from delinquent borrowers, down significantly from the peak of about 102,000 last September.
The foreclosure fall flew in the face of other housing market reports that made it clear that housing is far from being out of the woods. S&P/Case-Shiller reported that prices are going down, and Zillow, the real estate website, said nearly 30% of borrowers with mortgages owe more than their homes are worth.
Looking to the future, the 50 state attorney generals seem to be making progress in their pursuit of a financial settlement with the banks over the robo-signing mess.
(Source: CNN Money)
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3 Responses
There is a big Supreme Court case in New Jersey against six banks about requiring the banks to be more diligent in the processing of the foreclosures, having the notes, having them properly signed, etc. They are supposed to rule March 25, 2011. That is probably why the numbers are down, as most of the foreclosures have been delayed to await this decision. See Order to Show Cause Issued by Judge Mary Jacobson – Residential Mortgage Foreclosures – Robosigning Page 1 of 9
Document # 45717416
It slowed down because lawyers for people in the houses realized that the banks were messing up the paperwork. That is a temporary problem since they can do the paperwork property. The permanent problem is people’s inability (due to falling income) or unwillingness (due to declining property values) to pay the the mortgage, and that problem isn’t going away.
First of all, the rates are down. But that is only measured against lat year’s record highs! What are the rates in realtion to 2009 or even 2008?
In addition, it is also partly true that as those who are underwater are cleared through the process, the rest of America seems to be able to hold on little better.